The city installed the “Hollywood-”style sign last week ahead of the NFL Draft in Detroit planned for April 25-27.
At first, the sign was mocked for falling short of expectations, especially considering its hefty price tag.
But that criticism — and there was a lot of it — gave way to admiration when the chunky, eight-foot-tall letters lit up along I-94 eastbound between Central Street and Cecil Avenue.
“See it’s cute yall,” one woman exclaimed on Instagram after a video of the illuminated sign was posted.
“That looks way better,” another user posted with a fire emoji.
One person added, “I know they was like wait until they see this bitch light up.”
“Perfect example for Detroit — people talk about you and don’t fuck with you until you shining,” one post read.
Another wrote, “It’s actually nice, yall horrible people.”
The city is adding landscaping to the sign this week.
“Once the landscaping is done its gonna be dope,” one person wrote.
The city spent an additional $135,900 on five smaller “Welcome to Detroit” signs that will be erected on M-39 at Eight Mile Road, M-39 at Ford Road, I-75 at Eight Mile Road, I-96 at Telegraph Road, and I-94 at Moross Road.
The signs were built by the Fairmont Sign Company, which for 50 years has been a Detroit-based, family-owned business.
Even Mayor Mike Duggan admitted he was confused over what to expect, answering a question about the sign during a Thursday press conference about the NFL Draft.
“I gotta go over and take a look at it myself and experience it driving on 94,” Duggan said with a chuckle.
Duggan said the project was dreamed up by Brad Dick, the city’s “tremendously ambitious general services director.”
“He said, ‘I want to do something besides the boring Welcome to Detroit signs. I want to do this,’” Duggan recalled. “I said, ‘Sure, Brad. I’m more interested in you getting the trash up off the freeway.’”
The mayor said he didn’t really pay attention to the project until about a month ago when he saw what appeared to be a rendering of the sign on social media.
“I saw a post on Instagram of a spectacular Hollywood sign and I called Brad and I said, ‘That’s terrific! I had no idea you were thinking that big,’” Duggan said. “He says, ‘That’s a fake post. Some guy on Instagram just made it up. That’s not our plan.’ I said, ‘Brad, you got a problem. People are gonna think the fake post is the real Detroit sign.’ He says, ‘No, no, you don’t really understand social media. People don’t confuse fake posts with real life.’”
Of course, people confuse fake posts on social media with reality all the time — a problem that is likely to only get worse with the rise of AI-generated images and “deepfake” technology.
Duggan said other officials were also fooled, adding that on Wednesday, he got an email from a procurement director in New Jersey who “[demanded] I fire the procurement staff because they didn’t get delivered the sign that we ordered.”
“They’re circulating the fake post under what we got and claiming that the city of Detroit didn’t deliver what we promised,” Duggan said.
“I guess Brad will learn something about being ambitious and trying to do something special, but I applaud the ambition of doing something a cut above the boring side,” Duggan added. “And I think if he hadn’t been judged against that extraordinary artist on Instagram, he’d have done fine.”
A number of unofficial renderings of a “Hollywood”-style sign began circulating on social media shortly after the project was reported in February, with one image showing big, blocky white letters towering over I-94. It’s unclear who is behind it, but it appears to have been created using generative artificial intelligence, which can create realistic images based on text prompts. Such images have flooded social media in recent months as the technology has developed and become more widely available.
While amusing, this whole ordeal is a warning that people will need to be ever vigilant in safeguarding against “fake news” and misinformation in the social media age. Stay woke!
PORTAGE, Ind. (CBS) — Two men out looking for fishing holes in Northwest Indiana came across a driver whose truck had crashed off Interstate 94 – and who said he had been stuck for nearly a week.
As CBS 2’s Marybel González reported, everything about the rescue Tuesday afternoon was almost unbelievable. But officials credited a man and his son-in-law, who had just happened to be out looking for a place to go fishing, with saving the truck driver’s life.
Indiana State Police Sgt. Glen Fifield said that at 3:45 p.m., the Porter County Dispatch Center received a report of a crash on I-94 at mile marker 19 – one mile east of the Portage exit.
Two local fishermen had been scouting out Salt Creek for potential fishing holes when they came across a mangled truck that was under the I-94 bridge and partially in the creek.
Out of curiosity, the fishermen looked into the truck and saw a man inside. One of the fishermen touched the man, thinking he was dead, Fifield said.
But he was alive – and he turned and started talking, Fifield said. He told the fishermen he had crashed days earlier, and could not reach his cellphone to call for help.
Medics from the Portage and Burns Harbor fire departments spent a great deal of time getting the driver out of the vehicle, during which the westbound lanes of I-94 were closed, Fifield said.
The driver had suffered severe and potentially life-threatening injuries, Fifield said. He was taken to Memorial Hospital in South Bend.
Indiana State Police said later that he was identified as Matthew Reum, 27, of Mishawaka, Indiana, and a family member had been notified.
State police said that, “During their extrication efforts, it was determined that the crash had more than likely occurred sometime around December 20th,” adding that the truck was a 2016 Dodge Ram that “left the roadway for unknown reasons.”
The man had been driving the truck west on I-94 and missed the guardrail that runs just to the east, Fifield said. The truck went down the grass shoulder, went airborne, ended up in the creek, and rolled several times, Fifield said.
It ended up going across the creek – which measures 30 feet wide – and rolled under the I-94 bridge, Fifield said.
“Had it not been for the two individuals that were walking the creek this afternoon,” state police said, “this incident more than likely would have had a different outcome. There had not been any prior reports of a crash in this area prior to the fishermen finding the vehicle.”
Indiana State Police
“Quite frankly, it’s a miracle that he’s alive in this weather. We’ve been lucky enough during this Christmas season – our temperatures, as you know, are above normal,” said Fifield. “So that was working in this individual’s favor.”
State police said, “The will to survive this crash was nothing short of extraordinary as it was also determined that Mr. Reum was able to drink rain water for hydration in order to survive for such a long period of time while being exposed to the elements.”
The two fishermen who found the truck driver joined Fifield at a news conference Tuesday evening. They said they were finding their way to the fishing hole when they found the mangled vehicle that was barely recognizable as a truck.
One of the fishermen, Mario Garcia, said he moved the white airbag in the cab of the truck and went to touch what he thought was the driver’s dead body. But the driver turned around, and began speaking.
“It almost killed me there, because it was kind of shocking,” said Garcia, “but he was alive, and he was very happy to see us. Like he was really like, I’ve never seen a relief like that.”
The truck driver said he had been trapped in the truck since Wednesday of last week – and had survived six days without food.
“He said he tried yelling and screaming, but nobody would hear him,” Garcia said. “It was just the quiet sound of the water.”
Indiana State Police
The truck driver did not say anything about how he survived – but Garcia noted that there was no way the driver could move.
“He had to survive to survive on his youth… and God’s help there,” Garcia said.
Garcia and Delatorre called for help. It got there quickly, but the rescue took a while.
“They had a very difficult time getting down into the creek area with their equipment to basically cut him out and remove him from the vehicle,” said Fifield.
Garcia also noted that the terrain along the creek is all riprap and boulders – and he was worried one of the first responders might get hurt trying to rescue the truck driver.
Garcia noted that the site where he and his son-in-law, Nivardo Delatorre, found the truck was the last site they were considering choosing to look for a fishing hole. They had decided on something of a whim to go fishing that day, as their wives were both busy.
“Nobody normally fishes around this time, but we decided to go anyway,” said Garcia.
“It wasn’t planned,” said Delatorre. “You know, were just out there scouting, and we came upon this situation.”
Fifield also noted that they found the truck at 3:45 p.m. – and had the fishermen arrived half an hour later, it would have been dark out and they would not have been able to see the wrecked truck.
Garcia and Delatorre almost missed the vehicle too.
“I don’t know of any way that anybody could’ve seen him,” said Garcia. “It was just very fortunate that we saw the cracks in the woods the shiny of the wreck – and curiosity that took us over there.”
The fishermen said they were very glad they came across the man when they did.
“It’s cold tonight and I don’t believe he would’ve made it through the night tonight,” said Fifield. “That’s my personal opinion.”
“He said to me that he’s been there for a long time; that he had almost lost all hope – because nobody was there,” said Garcia, “and one more day, and something would have been different here.
CBS 2 Chief Meteorologist Albert Ramon reported if conditions had been colder or snowier, this story might not have had the ending it did.
Other than last Wednesday morning, when we had a temperature of 30 degrees, temperatures have been consistently above freezing in Portage, Indiana throughout the past week. On Christmas Day Wednesday, the low in Portage was 50, the high a most unseasonable 59.
Had the rain been heavier in the area on Friday and Monday, there also could have been a flash flood, Ramon reported. The rain in the area totaled 0.94 inch.
Investigators late Tuesday were still trying to figure out what led to the crash – and have not released the driver’s identity.
They have no reports of the accident or a missing person.
As far as the two Good Samaritans, they prefer not to be called heroes. They say they were just there at the right place and the right time.
