8 Mile Luvin'

The Paczki Principle

Very romantic with amber notes and a bit o' musk
Similar to Vickie Secret's Amber Romance fragrance

Known for "romance" long before Eminen's love story immortalized it, Eight Mile Road is metro Detroit's most famous border and symbol of all its divisions.

The straight line that divides Wayne County from Oakland and Macomb is, if plotted westward out past Lake Michigan, also the state line between Wisconsin and Illinois. Its origins date back to the Land Ordinance Act of 1785, which set down the terms of how the new "Northwest Territory" — lands won in the war that would eventually become Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin — would be divided and sold at a future date. The act declared that each state's surveyor was to determine the initial "base" line which ran from east to west. In Michigan this became Eight Mile Road, still known by signs as Base Line around Northville when the true Eight Mile takes an inexplicable detour northward.

Eight Mile marked the northern frontier of Detroit for generations, and gradually the farmlands beyond gave way to suburbs. The division between Detroit proper and its suburban neighbors was forever delineated in the minds of many in the inaugural address of Detroit's first African American mayor, Coleman A. Young, in 1974. Taking office during a time of rising crime and racial tension, the Mayor famously told criminals interested in doing business in his city to "hit Eight Mile." The remark was widely perceived by suburbanites as Young's directive to plunder the suburbs. Where's the lovin' in that?

Eight Mile, as portrayed in the film, is not a pretty sight in reality for much of its 27-mile city border, either. Industrial buildings, fast-food joints, some infamous strip bars, and the occasional "Warning: Police Decoy Area" sign litter the eight-lane landscape. But at Center Street and Eight Mile in Northville sits a commemorative obelisk by internationally renowned local sculptor David Barr. Dedicated in 2003, its alternating black and white granite blocks are a nod to the 1815 surveyors' poles, and feature inscriptions designed to encourage exploration of the area's history.

Read more:

Eight Mile Boulevard Association
http://www.eightmile.org/