~~< Suz Place~ Waiting to be Found >~~

Super Bowl is Over

 Paris Hilton ate sushi here. Red-hot actor Vince Vaughn dropped by a liquor store. John Travolta and Ben Affleck were seen downtown, too.

Ben Affleck supposedly rented  all of Cheetah for Sunday .John Travolta was seen at the local Star Bucks, and Elton John ate lunch at Plunkets.Yet no pictures have popped up.

Celebrity spotting and rumor-mongering have been international pastimes during Super Bowl week, and Windsorites were buzzing about all the stars checking out this often-overshadowed working-class city. Club owners boast there were more celebrities in Windsor than in Detroit during much of the week.

I did venture out on the Friday night to have a peek, maybe hoping to see someone.I couldn't just stay home now could I.So I braved the cold wet miserable rain with camera in hand to see ...NOBODY.I got Not a thing...sorry I thought maybe I could be the next paparazzi in Windsor for my space viewers.Lets just say I won't be doing that again.All I got me was some sniffles.                           

The local chamber of commerce would love to hear celebs say they were lured across the border by Windsor's clean streets, friendly people and favorable currency-exchange rate.

But the real reason they and thousands of other less-famous Americans have been so eager to pay the $3.50 toll for the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel is the city's fast-spreading reputation as an entertainment hub known as "Sin City North." During one of the biggest party weeks of the year, Windsor was the hot place to be and be seen.OK I didn't see anything to grand.Even our ice festival party was shut down early.I got there at 11pm and the tent was locked up like Fort Knots.

Windsor officials expected to get around 30,000 visitors in the week leading up to the Super Bowl and admit that things you can't find legally in Michigan -- all-nude strip clubs, Cuban cigars, adult massage parlors and escort services, are a large part of the attraction. The city's streets were filled with cars bearing Pennsylvania license plates and some from as far away as Texas and Alabama.

Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis doesn't like his city of about 200,000 people being renowned for such businesses, but he welcomes the attention. He expected the Super Bowl, and related events such as an ice festival downtown, to pump between $60 million and $80 million into the local economy and hopes it will help the city land a Canadian Football League expansion team.

While known locally as "Sin City" for years, some Canadian media have credited The Detroit News for the city's windfall. Dozens of newspapers throughout Canada and the United States have written about Windsor's entertainment scene since The News ran a front page story Jan. 1 telling readers about the city's strip clubs, cigar shops and 100 licensed escort services.

"One of the first things Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis should have done when the Super Bowl wrapped up was deliver a box of Godiva chocolates and a magnum of Hiram Walker's finest to the newsroom of The Detroit News," Windsor Star columnist Gord Henderson wrote last week, " given that The News almost single-handedly put Windsor on the map and made it the Super Bowl's must-see destination by branding us 'Super Sin City."

Many of the 3,000 journalists in Detroit for the Super Bowl had checked out Windsor. Some have written more glowingly about Windsor than Detroit. Victor Balta, a columnist from the Daily Herald in Everett, Wash., said: "If the Super Bowl is ever in Detroit again, I'm totally staying in Windsor."

The media frenzy about Windsor as a peccadillo paradise has gone far beyond what its businesses and residents were expecting, and some say far from reality.

"That's way overblown, but hey, whatever it takes to get people in here," I say,  "We're a far cry from Las Vegas, but we do offer some things that you can't get in the U.S."

The scene a few blocks away, along the Detroit River, was even further from anything you'd find on the Las Vegas Strip. At the Reebok Fan Zone, thousands of kids tried kicking field goals, throwing passes and running with a bungee cord attached to their back.

Parents said they hope such family-oriented events help Windsor shed its image as an anything-goes playground for men.

Others said Windsor could use the attention, as long as it encourages people to visit. The number of Michiganians crossing the border has declined since 2001 because of concerns about increased security.

Whether they like the reputation our city has gotten or not, Windsor business owners were thrilled to see packed houses and lines up out the door.

 Workers at his sushi bar, Oishii, say they served Paris Hilton on Wednesday."umm and no one got pics"

"This 'Sin City' label has been giving us an opportunity to reintroduce our city as an entertainment district," and again I say "If 'Sin City' lures people to Detroit so they come see Windsor, that's great for both of us."

Once people arrive, I think they can decide how sinful we really are.

"I think the food at our restaurants are absolutely decadent and our desserts are very sinful"

But you come on down and decide for yourselves.

Have a great Week!!

Suz