The Free Press has hired one of Detroit's most popular journalists: John Carlisle, a.k.a. Detroitblogger John, according to a Facebook posting by a Free Press staffer.
By day, John Carlisle is an editor for C&G Newspapers, the suburban chain. In his spare time, he has been Detroitblogger John, a contributor to Metro Times and creator of the detroitblog.org, who has written a number of memorable profiles of hardscrabble Detroiters, like one from 2010 on the minister of a storefront church on Chene Street that is home to a congregation of down-and-outers.
"He used to be an addict, so desperate he once puked up his methadone at a clinic and then got down on the ground to lap up the drug-soaked vomit. He's been a dealer. He's been jailed. He even got caught up in a bank robbery once."
Carisle also has written about the man who sells raccoon meat, a Detroiter who runs a strip bar in his house, and a guy on the West Side who provides a unique service to drivers: he cleans headlights. That's all. His name is Mr. Bow Tie. (Click here for an archive of Carlisle's stories.)
"Mr. Bow Tie stands by the curb along West Seven Mile at Greenfield, wearing bright red pants, a red vest and a crisp white shirt. And, of course, a bow tie. You can't miss him because he shouts at passing traffic through a megaphone. Or he dances on the grass, whirling a sign in his hands, volunteering his skills. Sometimes he blurs by on his bicycle, pulling a wagon festooned with two banners advertising his work."
Last year, The History Press published a collection of Detroitblogger John's stories, "313: Life in the Motor City," and Carlisle was named journalist of the year by the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Speaking about himself and his work in a Metro Times article when his book was published, Carlisle said: "Mostly I just drive around the neighborhoods or walk down a street and talk to anyone I see. Most of them have a story. Some of those stories are interesting. And a handful of people actually are willing to share them."
He said detroitblog, which despite the name isn't even really a blog, but rather a collection of feature stories about the city, was born when he was "getting into abandoned skyscrapers without permission and documenting the condition of those historic structures, so keeping myself anonymous seemed a good way to avoid unfriendly attention from the cops. It turns out, though, that the police were as indifferent to my trespassing as they are about other minor things, like responding to 911 calls."
Carlisle's departure is a second recent blow to Metro Times; longtime editor W. Kim Heron recently resigned. Deadline Detroit is carrying Heron's sayonara note to MT readers.
The Metro Times gave Detroitblogger John a lot of space, and the paper's editors didn't blanch when he wrote vividly about the grittier side of Detroit. It will be interesting to see how the Free Press handles his stories, and how the braintrust reacts when they read something like the minisiter who once lapped up his own drug-laced vomit.
