The riverfront on foot

Walk the Detroit River before you try to see a neighborhood. The river is the clear public piece. A neighborhood takes longer and asks you to know whose block you are on.

The RiverWalk runs along the downtown edge of the water, past Hart Plaza and on toward the east. Windsor is across the river, close enough to read as a city and not a horizon. Early October is a plain day for this walk. The summer programming is over. The path is still there, and the light on the water is lower.

Keep the walk on the Michigan bank. Crossing to Canada is a separate decision, with its own line at the tunnel or the bridge. It is not a scenic extension of the RiverWalk. Stay with the path until you have actually been along the river, not just at a single overlook.

Then stop. A neighborhood visit is a second trip, on a different street, with a different clock. Adding one after the river, late, turns both into a drive-by. The riverfront is enough for the hour you have. It tells you where Detroit sits, which is the thing a first walk ought to do.

Detroit