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Poll: What is the most urban/dense area in metro


resourcefulidiot

Most Urban hood in town  

51 members have voted

  1. 1. What metro hood is the best example of urban, walkable living? (not needing a car, walk to work/entertainment, etc)

    • Lo-Wo (Lower Woodward)
      11
    • Midtown
      9
    • New Center
      2
    • Royal Oak
      6
    • Birmingham
      3
    • Ann Arbor
      16
    • rest of Detroit (guessing its not a popular choice)
      1
    • Ferndale
      0
    • Corktown
      2
    • Other
      1


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I voted for lower woodward. It's the whole big building thing, even if some of them are abandoned.

I'm not sure what the actual statistics say though. Yeah, there are probably a lot of people in one of those buildings downtown, but then it gets averaged out with the parking spaces and the abandoned buildings, so I don't really know. Ann arbor might technically be more dense downtown.

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It depends on what we're talking about: population density vs. structural density. Even then, there are many single-family home neighborhoods that are denser in population than any downtown area in Southeast Michigan. Actually, this is true in most parts of the country, as the "downtown area" usually corresponds with the Central Business District, that's usually reserved for mostly office space. Structural density, though, is not confusing at all. Downtown D-town takes that one, even with all of the underutilized surface lots.

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Wyandotte is another suitable option.

In fact what's so urban about Ferndale? I know that it has 9 Mile, but could you really get everything you need on that strip? Are there actual stores there? And by that I mean grocery stores, hardware stores, etc. The retail strip on 9 Mile isn't any different than the retail strips along Kercheval in the Grosse Pointes or along Michigan Ave in Dearborn.

At least with cities like Royal Oak, Birmingham, and Wyandotte the downtowns are "true" downtowns.

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Ann Arbor is the easiest place to live, study, and work without a car. Hamtramck is also an easy place to live but you probably can't walk to your white collar job. In Detroit you could walk to your white collar job and eat great food and drink lots - but there's less of the other kinds of retail, like grocery stores, than the other two.

Ann Arbor, during the school year, has the most people on the street, whether walking somewhere or just for fun, or sitting outside at the many outdoor dining options. Hamtramck doesn't have that, but it does have lots of people sleeping in the dense housing between the business districts at night. Detroit has tons of office workers hiding inside skyscrapers during the day.

I don't know how many people work in offices in downtown R.O. or Birmingham and walk to work but I don't think it's that many. Both are smaller than Ann Arbor. Midtown does have a lot of jobs and a lot of students but the students are mostly commuters and Midtown is relatively spread out, decreasing overall density.

Hudkina, there's a real grocery store (Krogers, I think) on 9 Mile in Ferndale just at the edge of the downtown area on the west. Likewise, there is also a real grocery store (also a Krogers, I think) right behind Michigan Ave in downtown Eastborn. None in the tiny strip of Kercheval though. I see more people walking around 9 Mile in Ferndale than on Michigan Ave in Dearborn and there's also the people sitting at the coffee shops or BW3s in Ferndale.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If there were an option for the Cass Corridor, that would be my vote- Heck from third to Woodward and Cass Park up to the New Center. I don't like the term "Midtown" as it, to me anyway, was just a creation to make that area of town sound like it has importance business wise. The entire downtown(up to the New Center) should be considered important as should downtown. No need for fancy names. It sounds to me like the politicians and business folk are trying to make Detroit a carbon copy of every other city. Midtown...How about we focus on the city's actual history and call the neighborhoods what they once were? Any shame in that? I understand we wouldn't want to call anything Racist names like some elders did in the past, don't get me wrong. It's just not going to be a real selling point to name an area "Midtown" or create false "districts" if it didn't work before and we don't work to make the entire city a place to be. It takes some real thinking to make our city attract business and residents without the glossed up fake names. Cass Corridor for life ;)

What do you think? I know at least a hundred people(conservatively estimated) that are actually mad they decided to call the area around Wayne and Cass "Midtown"- Just some thoughts to throw out there. It tends to isolate people into zones. We don't believe in zones, we believe in Detroit as a whole!

Peace to you and Peace to Detroit

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Seems like a whole other can of worms, but the Cass Corridor is but one neighborhood within Midtown Detroit, which is more of a geographical labeling more than anything else. I'd never label the entire neighborhood as the Cass Corridor, as we all know that Brush Park, Detroit Medical Center, WSU...are not part of the Cass Corridor, and Cass is centered west of Woodward, the dividing line. It only makes since as the freeways have defined the city on pretty geographical boundaries. Detroit's downtown, midtown, and uptown (New Center) makes a lot of sense to me in whole cities all across the country have defined their CBD's and adjoining districts in the inner-city. Regardless of whether or not the labeling of Midtown was to give the area a fresh face, it's technically a Midtown district as it orientation to downtown makes it such, as is its function.

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  • 3 months later...

I think the WSU/Arts District down Woodward has the most density and walking area stretching into downtown. I really like how Campus Martius up to Grand Circus has really come on, esp with the lofts, the CVS and other retailers coming in -- its kind of reminding me of Chicago's South Loop development -- cool, hip with vibrancy but not the hoity-toity trendiness of the Mag Mile/Gold Coast area.

Also, where is the rapid rail proposal (hopefully subway) up Woodward right now? I think such a rail transit line could be a HUGE boost to building on the walking/density already shaping up... I'm even noticing that a few more people are riding Woodward buses in this corridor...

From a Clevelander who's a frequent Motown visitor and fan: keep up the good work!

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Also, where is the rapid rail proposal (hopefully subway) up Woodward right now? I think such a rail transit line could be a HUGE boost to building on the walking/density already shaping up... I'm even noticing that a few more people are riding Woodward buses in this corridor...

I have always thought that just extending the people mover north along Woodward into New Center would be worlds better than its current state. You could get people coming from the DIA, Detroit Historical Museum, Wayne State, and many more things in New Center, and help them get downtown to the Casino's, Stadiums, Restaurants, clubs, etc...downtown. People could park their cars in either place, yet have easy access to both areas.

It would transform the people mover from practicallly usesless to a viable option for getting from one attraction to another.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Springwells is actually denser than Hamtramck overall, though Hamtramck has a larger population living on blocks with a density greater than 20,000 ppsm. The reality is that both neighborhoods are two of only a few truly viable urban neighborhoods left in the Detroit area. (density, diversity in population, retail options, etc.)

If you take out the lower industrial 1/3 of Hamtramck there is a population of 21,729 in 1.55 sq. mi. for a density of 14,003.5 ppsm.

hamtramck0.jpg

If you take out Woodmere Cemetary, Springwells has a population of 22,341 in an area of 1.58 sq. mi. for a density of 14,158.2 ppsm.

springwells.jpg

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  • 3 months later...

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