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Uber Mid-Tier — Detroit — 2023-11-06
City · USA
Detroit, Michigan
USA
126 published facts
Getting there & around
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Uber Mid-Tier — Detroit — 2024-01-15
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Uber UberX — Detroit — 2023-11-06
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Uber UberX — Detroit — 2023-10-07
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Uber UberXL — Detroit — 2023-11-06
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Uber Black — Detroit — 2024-09-08
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Uber UberX — Detroit — 2023-11-07
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Uber UberX — Detroit — 2021-09-17
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Uber UberX — Detroit — 2024-01-15
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Uber Black — Detroit — 2022-08-04
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Uber UberX — Detroit — 2022-04-14
Verified facts
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Barry Sanders had broken 2,000 rushing yards in 1997 — only the third player in NFL history — and had signed a $34.56 million extension two years before retiring.
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Detroit-style pizza's sauce is applied on top of the cheese in three stripes — a visual reference to automotive racing stripes — with cheese spread to the pan edge to form a lacey fried crust and toppings layered underneath.
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Detroit became 'Motor City' as home to Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler — the Big Three.
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The nation's first intercity 'superhighway' was Woodward Avenue from Detroit to Pontiac — 18 miles, 8 lanes, built 1923-1927.
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The world's first three-color, four-way traffic signal was installed October 20, 1920, at Woodward Avenue and Fort Street in Detroit by police officer William Potts.
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Insane Clown Posse formed in Detroit's Delray neighborhood in 1989 (originally as Inner City Posse); the 'Faygo shower' became the defining ritual of Juggalo concerts.
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What lies directly south of Detroit is Windsor, Ontario, Canada — which is why Journey's 'South Detroit' has never existed on a map.
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Journey's 'Don't Stop Believin'' cites 'South Detroit' — a place that doesn't exist; Steve Perry chose it for the rhyme.
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Detroit-style pizza's pans were steel drip trays borrowed from the city's automotive plants — used to hold small nuts, bolts, and parts.
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Big Sean is from Detroit.
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The Marshall Mathers Foundation has made charitable contributions to Detroit.
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Francis Ford Coppola was born in Detroit.
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Legend holds James Vernor left a vanilla-spice concoction aging in an oak barrel when he left for the Civil War in 1862 and returned four years later to find Vernors — a story Vernors' own history repeats but marks as legend.
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Berry Gordy turned 96 in November 2025.
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Between 1961 and 1971 Motown produced over 110 Top Ten hits.
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Faygo was founded in Detroit in November 1907 by Russian immigrant brothers Perry and Ben Feigenson, with first flavors based on cake frosting recipes — strawberry 'Red Pop,' grape, and fruit punch; the factory still operates on Gratiot Avenue.
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Detroit-style pizza was invented in 1946 at Buddy's Rendezvous, Six Mile and Conant, by Gus Guerra and his wife Anna — the first known square pizza in the United States.
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Detroit-style pizza stayed locally beloved but nationally obscure until the 2010s, when it broke into the national conversation and spread to menus coast to coast.
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Steve Perry told the Library of Congress the 'South Detroit' lyric came from a directional road sign he misread during a Journey tour stop in Detroit — he used it for its lyrical quality.
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Charles Lindbergh maintained a famous friendship with Henry Ford.
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Ford Field opened in August 2002 as the Detroit Lions' home stadium in downtown Detroit.
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Sufjan Stevens was born in Detroit.
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After Sanders' fax retirement, the Lions demanded return of $7.37 million of his signing bonus; his agents refused. It remains one of the most abrupt retirements in professional sports.
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A $75 million Motown Museum expansion, 'Hitsville NEXT,' unveiled Phase 1 in April 2025; the full campus — performance theater, recording studios, immersive exhibits — is expected to open in late 2026 or spring 2027, with tours paused from January 20, 2026, for final construction.
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RoboCop (1987) is set in Detroit but was actually filmed in Dallas and Pittsburgh — Detroit was dismissed as too expensive and lacking the 'near-future' look; only brief aerial stock footage of the city appears.
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Motown's key artists included The Supremes, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, The Jackson 5, and Diana Ross.
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Detroit-set TV includes Martin (1992-97), Sister, Sister (1994-99, suburbs), Hung (HBO, filmed and set in Detroit), Detroit 1-8-7 (ABC), Good Girls (NBC, suburban Detroit), Bob Hearts Abishola (CBS), and BMF (Starz, 2021-present).
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Detroit is considered the 'capital of pop-dom' on the pop-vs-soda linguistic map.
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The NHL formally banned octopus-throwing, but Red Wings fans revived it and it continues as a playoff tradition.
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Vernors Ginger Ale, invented in 1866 by Detroit pharmacist James Vernor, is the oldest surviving soft drink in continuous production in America — predating Coca-Cola (1886) and Dr Pepper (1885).
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The J.W. Westcott II on the Detroit River is the only floating post office in the United States — it delivers mail to passing ships.
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Stevie Wonder signed with Motown's Tamla label at age 11.
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After Detroiters, Tim Robinson created I Think You Should Leave (Netflix) and Sam Richardson appeared in Veep and Ted Lasso.
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Multiple Transformers installments filmed in Metro Detroit, and Batman v Superman (2016) filmed extensively in Detroit, spending $199 million in-state.
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'Don't Stop Believin'' got national revivals from the Sopranos finale (2007), Kanye West's Glow in the Dark tour cover (2008), and the Glee pilot (2009).
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Detroiters was executive produced by Lorne Michaels and Jason Sudeikis and ran two seasons (20 episodes) before cancellation in December 2018.
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Ben Wallace of the 2004 Pistons was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021 — after the championship's no-Hall-of-Famer anomaly was set.
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Glenn Frey, co-founder of The Eagles, grew up in the Detroit area.
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Lizzo was raised in Detroit.
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Berry Gordy moved Motown's operations to Los Angeles in 1972 and sold his stake for $61 million in 1988 to MCA; the label is now part of Universal Music Group.
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Better Made Potato Chips, founded 1930 in Detroit by Sicilian immigrants Cross Moceri and Peter Cipriano, remains family-owned on Gratiot Avenue and uses 60 million pounds of chip potatoes annually — staying independent while national brands absorbed its Detroit rivals.
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Motown was the first major Black-owned label to achieve massive crossover success with white audiences, breaking racial barriers in American popular music.
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The 2004 Pistons beat the Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers for the NBA title without a single Hall of Fame-caliber player — at the time, the only champion in 73 years of NBA history without a Hall of Famer.
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Detroit-style pizza's signature moves: cheese pushed to the pan edges for a caramelized crust, and sauce applied on top of the toppings.
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William Potts borrowed the amber 'caution' light from railroad signaling; Detroit had 15 signalized intersections by 1921, and the three-color standard went national and global by the mid-1930s.
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Faygo was founded in Detroit in 1907 by Russian immigrant brothers Ben and Perry Feigenson, who based their first four flavors on cake frosting recipes.
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8 Mile (2002), Eminem's semi-autobiographical film, was shot extensively in Detroit — the Chin Tiki Club, the Michigan Theater parking garage, the Penobscot Building, and the real Shelter music venue.
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Calvin Johnson got the 'Megatron' nickname in his 2007 rookie season from teammate Roy Williams — the first Transformers movie had just come out that summer.
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Ford's moving assembly line (~1913) and $5-per-day wage (1914) revolutionized manufacturing and labor economics globally.
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Gran Torino (2008) was both set and filmed in Detroit and Highland Park — one of the first major productions to use Michigan's 2008 film incentive, spending over $10 million locally.
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It Follows (2014) and Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive (2013, with Tilda Swinton) were both set and filmed in Detroit.
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The Detroit Lions' most recent NFL league championship remains the 1957 title, before the Super Bowl era.
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Faygo has no formal corporate association with ICP — the Juggalo connection is organic cultural adoption, absent from Faygo's official history.
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Between 1908 and 1927, 15 million Model Ts were produced; within a decade nearly half the cars in America were Model Ts.
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Superman ice cream is believed to have been created during Prohibition by Stroh's Brewery in Detroit, which pivoted to ice cream when alcohol was banned.
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The 2004 Pistons held an NBA-record 11 teams under 70 points in a single regular season.
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The Model T was introduced October 1, 1908, at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit — priced at $825 initially, dropping to $290 by 1924.
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Detroit pharmacist James Vernor first sold his ginger ale from his Woodward Avenue soda fountain in 1866, making Vernors one of the oldest soft-drink brands in the US; the famous oak-cask-during-the-Civil-War origin story is likely apocryphal per his own son.
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8 Mile grossed over $242 million worldwide and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 'Lose Yourself.'
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RoboCop's filmmakers set the story in Detroit for its cultural association with industrial decline and auto-industry upheaval — a stand-in for Reagan-era capitalism's worst-case scenario.
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Motown's uncredited house band, The Funk Brothers, played on more #1 records than the Beatles, Elvis, the Beach Boys, and the Rolling Stones combined.
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West Grand Boulevard near the Motown Museum was renamed Berry Gordy, Jr. Boulevard.
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8 Mile established the 8 Mile Road corridor as a nationally recognized cultural geography marker.
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Detroit's Second Baptist Church sheltered approximately 5,000 freedom seekers over 30 years.
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The first mile of rural concrete pavement in the U.S. was laid in 1909 on Woodward Avenue between 6 Mile and 7 Mile Roads.
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Keegan-Michael Key is from Detroit.
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Jack White's Third Man Records opened its Detroit vinyl pressing plant in 2017.
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The 'Boston Cooler' — Vernors ginger ale blended with vanilla ice cream — is a Detroit-specific dessert format with no connection to Boston.
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Jack White was born in southwest Detroit's Mexicantown neighborhood and co-founded The White Stripes.
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Ford Motor Company was founded June 16, 1903, with $28,000 from 12 investors.
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Berry Gordy modeled Motown's operations on Ford's assembly-line principles; the studio ran nearly 22 hours a day.
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Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but raised in Detroit from around age 10.
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Lily Tomlin was born in Detroit and attended Cass Technical High School.
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8 Mile — directed by Curtis Hanson with Eminem as 'B-Rabbit' — is set in 1995 Detroit.
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Eminem performed at the reopening of Michigan Central Station in Detroit and has been a vocal supporter of the Detroit Lions.
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Berry Gordy Jr. established Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, with an $800 loan from his family's savings fund; Motown Record Corporation was incorporated April 14, 1960.
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Calvin Johnson initially thought Megatron was the good guy; on learning he was the villain, he reportedly said 'I'll be the bad guy to the defense.' Announcers took the nickname mainstream in 2008.
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The Red Wings octopus tradition began April 15, 1952, when fish-market co-owner Pete Cusimano threw the first octopus onto the Olympia Stadium ice during Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
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Charles Lindbergh was born February 4, 1902, in Detroit — his mother returned to her parents' home for the birth — though he grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota.
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On July 27, 1999, Barry Sanders retired by faxing a statement to his hometown paper, The Wichita Eagle, as the Lions opened training camp.
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Batman v Superman received $35 million in Michigan incentives against an expected $131 million of in-state spending; Michael Bay repeatedly returned to Detroit for the Transformers films.
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Beverly Hills Cop (1984) stars Eddie Murphy as a Detroit cop; the opening was filmed in Detroit, the rest in California.
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Jeffrey Eugenides' Pulitzer-winning Middlesex is set in Detroit, and the video game Detroit: Become Human (2018) imagines a futuristic Detroit.
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The Detroit Coney dog was created by Greek immigrant Gust Keros in 1917; American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island, side by side on Lafayette Street, remain the canonical rivals, both founded by Greeks who arrived via Coney Island, New York.
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Detroiters (Comedy Central, 2017-2018) was created by and starred native Detroiters Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson as two friends running a low-budget Detroit ad agency, filmed on location.
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The octopus logic: in the Original Six era a team needed 8 playoff wins for the Cup — and an octopus has 8 tentacles. Detroit swept to the 1952 Cup after the first throw.
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Diana Ross was born and raised in Detroit and attended Cass Technical High School before becoming lead singer of The Supremes.
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Detroit-style pizza was created in 1946 when Gus Guerra converted his speakeasy at Six Mile and Conant into a family restaurant and baked square pizzas in blue steel pans borrowed from automotive plants — the same industrial pans that held nuts and bolts at Ford.
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Superman ice cream predates the Superman comic character (debuted 1938); the original Stroh's recipe combined Blue Moon (blue), Faygo Red Pop/strawberry (red), and lemon (yellow).
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Motown was headquartered at 2648 West Grand Boulevard, the building known as Hitsville U.S.A.
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RoboCop's producers tested Detroit but deemed the skyline 'not futuristic enough' — the film shot at 22 locations in Dallas, with final battle scenes in Pittsburgh.
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Gilda Radner, an original Saturday Night Live cast member, was born in Detroit.
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In September 2024, Governor Gretchen Whitmer officially proclaimed September 30 'Megatron Day' in Michigan.
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On the Underground Railroad, Detroit was codenamed 'Midnight' — the last stop before crossing to freedom in Canada.
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'Don't Stop Believin'' entered the National Recording Registry in 2022.
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Wikipedia maintains a documented list of 100+ songs referencing Detroit — from Eminem and The White Stripes to Kid Rock and Martha and the Vandellas.
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The Motown Museum at Hitsville U.S.A. was founded in 1985 by Gordy's sister Esther Gordy Edwards and attracts roughly 100,000 visitors a year.