THE END OF A MONUMENT. The Michigan Central station in Detroit has no redevelopment potential. The Detroit city council has now voted to demolish it. A feature at the Detroit News (motto: you can read about it on Wednesday) finds a discarded switchlist near the tower and tracks down the author. (The reporter is more successful than moviemaker Michael Moore was in tracking down Roger Smith. On the other hand, the economic analysis leaves a lot to be desired: "The American middle class was born, it thrived and now it totters. Consider that today a newly hired autoworker will make $14 an hour or $112 for an eight-hour day. Adjusted for inflation, that is $5.19 in 1914 money. A 19-cent raise in 94 years." Could that Ford worker buy a mobile telephone or a desktop computer with that 1914 money?)

There was a lot of railroad ephemera left in the tower when Conrail moved out. I went on a tour of the building when there were hopes of converting the public spaces into a restaurant or nightclub. We were asked to take only pictures and leave only footprints, so any Official Guides or employee timetables or tariffs that were there before I visited were still there after I left.