Looks like the article was called or "A Complicated Legacy: I-496 Slashed through Key Black Neighborhood in the '60s" or "Looking back: I-496 construction complicated legacy". Wikipedia has a link to an archived version of the first page of the article. I can't find the rest of the article.
Detroit is a long ways from actually expanding Woodward over the Fisher Freeway. It looks like another attempt by the Illitches to promise the moon so they can get more tax credits. There's still acres of surface parking (thanks to the Illitches) so the demand for building on top of the Fisher isnt there yet.
What is happening in Detroit is really amazing when you think about what it looked like in recent history. The Detroit District and arena look great on TV. I look at the Curbed Detroit page often. I wish the wealth was spreading out into the vast neighborhoods and city provided services like police and fire protection would be restored because of the new developments. There is still a great deal of poverty in Detroit.
Detroit's big problem is that it has way too many neighborhoods that don't generate much tax revenue. Big commercial roads like Gratiot and Grand River are mostly inactive and in need of serious redevelopment, not to mention other commercial streets like Fenkell or Mack. The neighborhood industrial districts are usually abandoned, and half of the nearby houses are often gone or in a ruined state.
Some wealth will radiate outward from the core, but there's just so much work to be done. You have to basically remake what was a top five American city. I feel like we won't see Detroit as a whole function like a normal American city until I'm a very old man.
In REOtown the river level is pretty close to our parking lot's level and is higher than I have seen it in the time I have been back here. I parked on higher ground. From the two Elm Street bridges you can see the water is very high. The north bank of the river trail near GM is under water. As is the road on the GM property there. All the streets near the Red Cedar are closed.
btw Townsend William and Walnut streets have re-opened after the BWL finished its project there.
I wrote with some of my ideas for tree trimming and road paving to the BWL, and they wrote back! It seems that they will put utilities underground if each customer along a line wants to pay for it. I was speaking about an overall plan of putting all lines underground, not just one street. All my ideas cost a lot of money, I had not really thought they would say "if our customers want to pay for it". They have these multi-million dollar projects going, why is something like burying the lines such an impossible dream? I wonder how much just one of those 65 [or higher] foot tall steal line poles that now fill the sky on the west side cost? Opposed to digging a trench and building a utility pipe/tunnel under the street and rebuilding the street? He again said that anything like permeable pavements or pollarding style tree trims would have to be requested and paid for by the customer. It's all paid for by customers already it seems to me, I thought we owned the BWL. The letter was polite and sort of a "we know best" but he said they would include my ideas in future discussions.
The park on W Mt Hope pre-dates almost all of the buildings there now.I knew some kids in college that lived there. It was not so bad back then but I would not say it was nice either. Way back it was kind of the edge of town in the middle of an area that had not yet been developed. The nicer subdivisions ended around Lewton Elementry School on the south side of Mt. Hope, and at the country club on the other side. There was also another old fashion trailer park off of S. Logan/MLK between Loa Street and what is now Southland Ave. They seem to be located in areas that were once "the edge of town" then the town kept growing around them.
I read where Lansing is the number one affordable {mid sized} city to live, in the whole country! That is pretty cool, that is one reason I live here. Maybe having the worst streets to drive on helps to keep home values "affordable".
Comments
Looks like the article was called or "A Complicated Legacy: I-496 Slashed through Key Black Neighborhood in the '60s" or "Looking back: I-496 construction complicated legacy". Wikipedia has a link to an archived version of the first page of the article. I can't find the rest of the article.
Detroit is a long ways from actually expanding Woodward over the Fisher Freeway. It looks like another attempt by the Illitches to promise the moon so they can get more tax credits. There's still acres of surface parking (thanks to the Illitches) so the demand for building on top of the Fisher isnt there yet.
What is happening in Detroit is really amazing when you think about what it looked like in recent history. The Detroit District and arena look great on TV. I look at the Curbed Detroit page often. I wish the wealth was spreading out into the vast neighborhoods and city provided services like police and fire protection would be restored because of the new developments. There is still a great deal of poverty in Detroit.
Detroit's big problem is that it has way too many neighborhoods that don't generate much tax revenue. Big commercial roads like Gratiot and Grand River are mostly inactive and in need of serious redevelopment, not to mention other commercial streets like Fenkell or Mack. The neighborhood industrial districts are usually abandoned, and half of the nearby houses are often gone or in a ruined state.
Some wealth will radiate outward from the core, but there's just so much work to be done. You have to basically remake what was a top five American city. I feel like we won't see Detroit as a whole function like a normal American city until I'm a very old man.
In REOtown the river level is pretty close to our parking lot's level and is higher than I have seen it in the time I have been back here. I parked on higher ground. From the two Elm Street bridges you can see the water is very high. The north bank of the river trail near GM is under water. As is the road on the GM property there. All the streets near the Red Cedar are closed.
btw Townsend William and Walnut streets have re-opened after the BWL finished its project there.
I wrote with some of my ideas for tree trimming and road paving to the BWL, and they wrote back! It seems that they will put utilities underground if each customer along a line wants to pay for it. I was speaking about an overall plan of putting all lines underground, not just one street. All my ideas cost a lot of money, I had not really thought they would say "if our customers want to pay for it". They have these multi-million dollar projects going, why is something like burying the lines such an impossible dream? I wonder how much just one of those 65 [or higher] foot tall steal line poles that now fill the sky on the west side cost? Opposed to digging a trench and building a utility pipe/tunnel under the street and rebuilding the street? He again said that anything like permeable pavements or pollarding style tree trims would have to be requested and paid for by the customer. It's all paid for by customers already it seems to me, I thought we owned the BWL. The letter was polite and sort of a "we know best" but he said they would include my ideas in future discussions.
The park on W Mt Hope pre-dates almost all of the buildings there now.I knew some kids in college that lived there. It was not so bad back then but I would not say it was nice either. Way back it was kind of the edge of town in the middle of an area that had not yet been developed. The nicer subdivisions ended around Lewton Elementry School on the south side of Mt. Hope, and at the country club on the other side. There was also another old fashion trailer park off of S. Logan/MLK between Loa Street and what is now Southland Ave. They seem to be located in areas that were once "the edge of town" then the town kept growing around them.
It is good to hear they are at least considering these things.
I read where Lansing is the number one affordable {mid sized} city to live, in the whole country! That is pretty cool, that is one reason I live here. Maybe having the worst streets to drive on helps to keep home values "affordable".
Lol, it seems many cities in Michigan are fighting for the distinction of worst roads