August 7, 200816 yr I went to Detroit for the first time recently and walked around for a few hours. Observations: * No retail. None of any sort was observed aside from a few carryouts and not many of those. My girlfriend says she saw one store. You must've missed Woodward Ave. between the river and Campus Martius. Yes, there is a profound lack of retail once you get off the main thoroughfare, however, there are plenty of corner markets in the neighborhoods, and DDOT offers plenty of service to inner-ring suburban malls. * emptiness. once you get away from the river and the 'renaissance' center it really thins out. Aye. Detroit has a downtown perfect for those who wish to get away from it all. That's changing, though. Slowly. * what is the vacancy rate on these buildings? High to very high. There are some glimmers of hope. The Book hotel, for one. * once you get outside of the downtown there are huge empty tracks of land, what happened? Decades of racial tensions, riots, and white flight. * Greektown is nice It used to be nicer/more organic, but yeah, lots of fun to be had. * The people mover is a textbook example of what not to do with a small scale urban transportation system. So very true. * pro sports teams aren't enough to maintain a downtown, even if you have all four But if the Pistons would come back... * Downtown didn't even feel slightly dangerous And there are plenty of stats to back this up. Thank you for noticing! * they have a cool fountain statue in the middle of the city. Like that? Get your hide to Belle Isle. * the city feels french in its layout with diagonal, esplanaded boulevards Mais oui, motherfu©ker! * If you are a diner and your employees wear paper hats, how can you not sell milkshakes? Oh lord please tell me you didn't try to order a milkshake at a coney island...
August 7, 200816 yr Decades of racial tensions, riots, and white flight. Wasn't a lot of it due to arson with intention to commit insurance fraud?
August 7, 200816 yr yeah, but that was mostly after what koow said. there was plenty of plain old arson with the intention to commit arson too.
August 7, 200816 yr Certainly that was a part of it, and perhaps, over time, opportunistic arson took the lion's share of structures. Sustained systemic neglect can lead to desperate measures. Then, of course, there was all that Devil's Night hijinx. Happily, concerted community efforts effectively ended that tradition. Some more inspirational viewing:
August 7, 200816 yr What's up with these youtube videos? WHenever I try to watch them it says "Video no longer available". It still plays, but the screen is really dark.
August 9, 200816 yr Nice shots! The GM complex is freakin huge...and ugly. It dwarfs the Detroit skyline in my opinion.
August 11, 200816 yr That shirt is a spin-off of another one that says "Welcome to Detroit - Sorry we missed you last time" with bullet holes in the t-shirt. This one looks better but they stole the idea. I actually like the RenCen for its shear massiveness. Although it was much worse when it was the hq for Ford Motor Co. Thank God GM moved in and overhauled the place and made it less of a fortress. Here's GM's original complex, all of it. Since GM moved downtown in the 90's, a bunch of very large tenants moved in, including the state of michigan. You can find those in any city with high violence. My friend gave this to me since I was from "Sagnasty"
September 2, 200816 yr That's due to the spread of their congregation where at one time people of a particular ethnicity + religion would move into a certain neighborhood, build a church and for half a century walk to that church. Then neighborhoods diversified, peopled move elsewhere, but still remained loyal to the congregation, unfortunately they drove. The best concealed parking lot for a church I ever saw was right behind my rental house last year. We lived on a large block surrounded entire by houses with the church occupying the entire block across the street. There was an alley that went behind one row of homes that fed a massive parking lot. But due to the density, hilly geography, and unusual shape of the block, it was impossible to realize the lot even existed unless you actually walked down the alley. It was interesting when I told someone about it as a good place to park who lived just across the street. For over 6 months, he never knew of its existence and struggled to find parking in the neighborhood.
November 11, 200816 yr This building, I discovered, lacks stairways or any form of vertical circulation. Regardless, it's still a solid building and hopefully will be renovated soon one day. (and they will include stairways)
November 12, 200816 yr These pictures are so sad. However, its not all bad in the D. Here are some video's from the Book-Cadillac! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5t4kOgbpHQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHJnRa3aXKM
November 13, 200816 yr This building, I discovered, lacks stairways or any form of vertical circulation. Regardless, it's still a solid building and hopefully will be renovated soon one day. (and they will include stairways) Are they just inoperable/collapsed/removed? Anyway, these most recent pics are just another reminder of what an incredible building stock Detroit has. With some (a lot) of work, it could be one of America's premier downtowns again.
January 11, 200916 yr Zacharia you da man! Nice pics. Detroit has some of the best architecture in the U.S. imo.
January 11, 200916 yr Hey everyone...if you want to read a great article on Detroit...read this. Its by Mitch Albom, and I think the whole region can relate to this. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/the_bonus/01/07/detroit/index.html
September 30, 200915 yr These next 2 are Harmonie Park, I'm wondering exactly what they are doing. Before this guy was built, I saw the fence go up around the old building on the corner and was wondering if it was going to be demolished. I'm glad it wasn't. I'm assuming they are going to fix it up and use it now. Not sure what is being built here...
October 1, 200915 yr Wow, the Woodward development came out really nice. I'm pretty happy with it. Last time I saw it, there was just steel and the parking deck had just begun construction. The construction you see at the RenCen is the new port authority terminal
October 1, 200915 yr Thanks for a glimpse of the Detroit I like to think about (the vibrant, constantly evolving one).
November 25, 200915 yr The tree in Campus Martius park This is actually a parking structure, but is made to look like a police station for the filming of Red Dawn Random...
November 26, 200915 yr Wow, Detroit is one beautiful city. Hopefully the city isn't too far gone and can have some kind of a comeback.
November 26, 200915 yr The first time I visited Detroit, my friends and I stumbled into a bar in Corktown. We asked the bartender, "Is there any area around here where there is like a strip of bars or restaurants or shops that we could walk around. We're from out of town." He replied, "What do you think this is, Chicago?" He continued, "Where are you all from?" We answered, "Cleveland." "Well, Detroit's no Cleveland."
Create an account or sign in to comment