My opinion of Wilmington, DE

03.01.2005

Downtown Wilmington reminds me of downtown Saginaw (not Kalamazoo), if downtown Saginaw were bigger. Very "low end" retail storefronts, run down restaurants, and boarded up or abandoned fronts. In a word? Ghetto. And why does everything close at 4:30? I can't wait to leave quaint East Coast smallville & head back to the comparatively cosmopolitan, midwest.

Mom called; we talked about weather (so Michigan of us). Saginaw reluctantly called a snow half-day, because of 5 inches. They debated because it was so little snow, but it was swirling, making a near white-out. Compare to the near-panic in Wilmington over 1-2 inches, yesterday. The TV news today here had a story about how the winter storm was so bad, a local car wash had little business. Perspective, people, perspective.

Went out for Dominican food for lunch, then off for a brief tour of corporate life. Andy's office is nice. In one of the 30-some buildings DuPont owns in downtown Wilmington. Why so many? The city has height restrictions on building construction.

Spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through downtown before popping into Brew Ha Ha, where I got to overhear a chatterbox barista brag about how she was a "trained barista" and prove it by shouting out random questions about espresso shots to a new employee, only to constantly correct said trainee. I'm a barista; it's not that big a deal.

Graded a few papers, including the first legitimately good one. Put a blue "A" on it w/ pleasure. Then was run out of the café since, you know, everything closes here at 4:30pm. How do people live like that? In two days I'll be back in the land of 24-hour coffee shops.

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ADDENDUM: I don't mean to be so down on Wilimington. I'm sure it's a fine New England town. It's just no Stars Hollow.

Posted by Miguel at 05:36 PM

Comments

Everything in downtown De'troit closes around 4:30-5:00, too. But the reasons are probably very different from Wilmington.

(S c u m b a g s, r o b b e r s, h o m e l e s s)

Posted by: tom at March 1, 2005 08:09 PM

Man... a little rough on Andy's town are we? I thought it was a fun little area, and the Dominican food was awesome!

Posted by: sam at March 1, 2005 10:26 PM

Just a little clarification.

Wilmington, Delaware certainly does not qualify for "New England" status. I believe the southern border of New England is the eastern NY state line, which includes ME, VT, NH, MA, RI, and CT. Otherwise known as the line separating Red Sox fans from Yankees fans.

I wouldn't be so picky except that I've driven thru Delaware and the Eastern Shore Region of Virginia on my way to Virginia Beach and the best part of the drive was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel!

Posted by: Patrick [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 2, 2005 02:25 PM

What are you talking about, Virginia is beautiful country. :-) Ouch!

Posted by: MB at March 3, 2005 12:44 PM

Miguel, I'm glad you got a chance to come out. It was fun, to bad I had to work everyday.

Now, to defend Wilmington. Wilmington, is not as bad as Miguel thinks. Delaware is actually a really beautiful state. Mansions, old Estates, Valleys and rivers.

I'm also not sure how many states can be judged by the view off the highway ... in fact I-95 isn't even all that bad. :)

I do agree that downtown Wilmington is lacking ... in all areas.

Posted by: Andres at March 4, 2005 07:41 AM