One thing that Detroit does have going for it in this sense is a nearly blank slate of land available for residential and other redevelopment in areas very close and convenient to downtown. I see this as an excellent opportunity to do things right in getting it all wired together.Originally posted by Veloise
Now, will the new administration in Michigan's state government be able to make things in the state attractive enough to keep this going and to nurture it along in the long term?
Mike
Looks doubtful, with approval ratings already dropping, and various factions lining up for the July 1 recall petition circulations.
I thought the future of Detroit has already been laid out in Robocop.
"I am very good at reading women, but I get into trouble for using the Braille method."
~ Otterpop ~
Article in the NYTimes today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/us...t.html?_r=1&hp
It discusses the shrinking population and trying to 'consolidate' nieghborhoods. I'm sure DP knows all about it...
"Whatever beer I'm drinking, is better than the one I'm not." DMLW
I wonder if Urban19 is aware that Whole Foods is reportedly scouting locations in Detroit's Midtown? SLO this is not, although Midtown does have nearly double the college students in it than SLO does with Cal Poly. I cannot wait for them to announce the new Gap and J. Crew stores on Cass Avenue!
(I'm not holding my breath for a Detroit Whole Foods anytime soon)
"Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost." - 1980 Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan
I heard Forever 21 is looking to put a store in the Rivera Court of the DIA and that Trader Joes is going into the Main Library and turning all of that wasted green space into a parking lot. (I have to laugh, I fixed my typo and called the grocer Trader Hoes).I wonder if Urban19 is aware that Whole Foods is reportedly scouting locations in Detroit's Midtown? SLO this is not, although Midtown does have nearly double the college students in it than SLO does with Cal Poly. I cannot wait for them to announce the new Gap and J. Crew stores on Cass Avenue!
(I'm not holding my breath for a Detroit Whole Foods anytime soon)
We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes - Fr Gabriel Richard 1805
Inadvertently hilarious.
http://www.freep.com/article/2011041...ve-Fieger-says
^^
The only advantage is that doing that would eliminate the crime associated with those businesses.
Mike
I would have thought so at one time too. Since the liberalizing of the Mary Jane, my neighborhood has become a total ghostown. In the last month I have been broken into several times and drug dealing has become rampant.
It is forcing me to abandoned a nieghborhood and home I cherished and seek refuge elsewhere as I am no longer safe. Being a Detroit resident for 44 years, I have set the low bar pretty low compared to most.
We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes - Fr Gabriel Richard 1805
The problem is that it is still 'illegal' - they did NOT allow licensing of legal retail sales outlets (like with tobacco and beverage alcohol). Thus, the retail sales are still completely unregulated and on the streets.
Mike
Portraits of abandoned homes in Detroit.
link
The future of Detroit is suburban-style residential development. That's the only efficient way to utilize all of the vacant and/or underutilized land.
Sure, you can have some urban agriculture mixed in, but it's not the answer.
"I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany"
I can't get a posting date but know many of those pictures are old. Some of those homes have been restored and others are gone.
We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes - Fr Gabriel Richard 1805
Couches of Detroit project:
http://www.mnn.com/your-home/at-home...tment?hpt=Sbin
I guess there's art in everything.
"Whatever beer I'm drinking, is better than the one I'm not." DMLW
I had a vision when I was more optimistic about this kind of thing that Detroit could be turned into a sort of Special Economic Zone like Shenzhen was in China, where they got to play by different rules politically and economically. Any thoughts? It would never happen but got me thinking.
Informative and cool website, link below. Back in the 1960s we drove up to Detroit (from Toledo) to wander thru the pianos and organs at the Grinnell Brothers Building. If memory serves me correct, we also walked over to the Wurlitzer Building (because this Bear played a Wurlitzer).
Bear
http://www.buildingsofdetroit.com/
Occupy Cyburbia!
That was not too far of a walk between the two stores. Those were the days when Detroit was a hotbed of music activity. My grandfather used to teach music at Wurlitzer during the old days. The Wurlitzer has been in the news lately as a building that is falling in on itself and is ruining the businesses located nearby. A big chunck of the building recently fell off and into the business next door. You would not expect such a horribly maintained building to be located across from a brand-new YMCA, the Opera House, and near several trendy restarunts.
We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes - Fr Gabriel Richard 1805
Six and Gratiot treated me well for the first 17 years of my life (1971-1988). My dad and brother went to Cass Tech. I was fortunate enough to get a scholarship to attend a Catholic School in the burbs (otherwise, I was heading to Renaissance High) and got an incredible education out of the deal. One of my high school classmates (Paul Clemens) wrote the book, Made in Detroit. I love the book; probably because it hits so close to home for me. I would recommend it to anyone that is either from Detroit or has an interest in the city.
I agree with others that Coleman Young was beyond dismal as the city's top elected official (and then, of course, there was my brother's classmate Kwame Kilpatrick - yeesh). I put myself through college by valeting cars at nice (and not so nice) places like the Rattlesnake Club and Trumpps on 8 Mile and crossed paths with Coleman's entourage on a number of occasions. Rude, aloof, conceited and self-absorbed (not to mention terrible tippers!).
I loved going to Tiger games with my grandfather and his pals. And, when you couldn't get to the game, there was always Ernie Harwell to keep you company. Later on, Wings games with buddies were unbelievable. What great memories -- I feel so fortunate to have been born and raised in Detroit.
I hold out hope that someday, Detroit will stand tall again. Most of my friends and family have moved away (me to Oregon; many others to Chicago, Madison, AA, SF, LA, New England, FL) but I still have a few friends kicking around the 313 (Grosse Pointe, mainly).
I checked my old neighborhood on Google Earth a while back and it really looked like a bomb went off. Our cute little bungalow went away about 20 years ago and there are so few homes remaining, it's startling.
If you have not done so already, check out Johnny Knoxville's insightful (and dare I say uplifting) video on You Tube called Detroit Lives.
To this day, I have never experienced anything like Eastern Market. Second to none!
It would be an interesting experiment to hive off a sizeable chunk of one of the worst areas and say: it's now a new district, udner new management, the federal gummint will pay and supervise decent (though not gold-plated) law enforcement, education, services, etc. The vacant plots will be given, for FREE, to osome corporation taht gets tod evelop then and keep ALL the money (but they must put up a hefty non-performanec bond).
Life and death of great pattern languages
Over the past week or so there was an interesting discussion in another forvm that I follow about those truly massive tract developments all over the coastal areas of the southern half or so of the State of Florida, especially the southern Gulf of Mexico coast area, where the streets and utilities were installed but the houses and other development that they were for never followed, or followed in such minuscule numbers that their cities are not able to justify and pay for maintaining those streets and that many of those structures (mainly recent-construction sf houses) are essentially abandoned. They remind me a lot of the urban prairie situation in Detroit, but without the abandoned factory buildings.
Example, in North Port, FL:
http://maps.google.com/?ll=27.051864...43945&t=k&z=15
(the highway is I-75)
Any thoughts?
Mike
Not even the worst parts of Detroit are that bad. Unfortunately there are just enough people living in sparsely populated areas to make it near impossible to cordon off areas.
We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes - Fr Gabriel Richard 1805
This looks like a pre-platted 60s subdivision, which there are a number of in FL (Port Charlotte, Lehigh Acres, Port St. Lucie). I don't think the road construction is recent, but I could be wrong. In most instances these tracts were laid out with just well and septic so you can imagine how that works on 1/4 acre lots (at least when you start getting neighbors
Positive press from The New York Times:
Detroit Pushes Back With Young Muscles: An influx of young creative types is turning Detroit into a Midwestern TriBeCa.
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