Highland Park Development Mistake

[wolverine]

Well, we've hit some rocky soil lately in terms of new development. While I'm sure a lot of it will pull through, I saw this interesting thread on Dyes that shows some failed development in Highland Park. I've saw these houses when they were brand new, and felt it was a bit too good to be true. You can't just build brand new houses in the middle of the ghetto can you?

Well with a few exceptions, really you can't. It's difficult to find successful examples.

First off, the point is to get up out the hood, not move back in. And you'd be lucky if they even get built, since not everyone wants property values to increase, and of course plumbing can be valuable when its readily exposed. Some didn't, in fact a couple burned down while under construction. This isn't a phenomena exclusive to Detroit. Check out Chicago and Cincinnati. Build development near desirable areas.

http://hpfolks.com/articles_2008/northpointe/

[MJLO]

will Highland Park ever recover? Can it? It feels like the epic center of all that went wrong inside Detroit. If you were to suggest a suburb of Detroit should be annexed by the core city, you'd start world war 3. Highland Park may be the only city the residents of Detroit would fight not to have any part of.

[tracer1138]

Well, completely ignoring the architecture of these houses for a moment...

I saw this discussion at Dyes as well. It seems to me, that rather than plop new houses haphazardly around a large site, it would behoove developers to concentrate new homes in a single area, especially near existing concentrations of homes and infill where there are only small gaps in the urban fabric. The potential for the immediate effects of density are completely lost by placing homes hodgepodge in larger empty areas (i'm counting burned out buildings as empty areas). Unless there's evidence to suggest otherwise... planners?

[ZachariahDaMan]

I saw these houses when I was in Highland Park last week driving around. I thought it was an odd place for them.

[tapezord]

Driving around Highland Park is one of the most eye opening experiances I have ever had in the Detroit Area. MJLO is right, Highland Park is the really the extreme of everything that can go wrong in an urban area. The ammount of garbage and the extent of the abandoned structures is apalling. I usually chastize my friends who always propose to "Bulldoze the whole city" when commenting on Detroit's problems, but for Highland Park, some areas are so bad that it wouldn't be an awful solution for certain areas. The sad part is that there are some tremendous areas surrounding Highland Park that are feeling the pinch being so close to this quagmire of a city.

[hood]

I just think its sad that areas like that can even be allowed to exist in this country. Its virtually a third-world city, that is just unnacceptable.

[Michi]

Highland Park is one of the most capable of a renaissance. How so? 3 things in my opinion that will lead the initiative.

1. Mass transit of some sort on Woodward that connects the riverfront with points north.

2. The integration of Palmer Park on the city's northwestern border, south into the community. So much of that area is damaged, gentrification would be easier than in...

3. The stable neighborhoods of the east side of the city...

Woodward has a lot of potential, but the city's other major retail corridor, Hamilton Avenue is a whole other beast.

Highland Park will come back someday. There is no reason for it not to. It is a manageable size.

[wolverine]

And I sure hope we can renovate some buildings instead of plopping in a few houses going for absurd prices. $130,000 for a two story trailer, I don't think so.

[ScheuerJD]

And I sure hope we can renovate some buildings instead of plopping in a few houses going for absurd prices. $130,000 for a two story trailer, I don't think so.

[Jasoncw]

I agree. I think in order for infill (can it even be called that?) like that to work, it needs to either be true infill in a stable neighborhood, or the developer needs to create its own stable neighborhood by developing more continuous properties. I also think that it needs to embrace some kind of positive urban living (I don't think Detroit can beat the suburbs at their own game, and stable urban living is a market that isn't as overdone as suburbia so it might have a better chance in this market), which includes having the neighborhood be a place and have a name. And everything else that normally applies also counts, like the location and services and value and all of that. I don't think there's anything desirable about those houses.

But I think that development on the North East side of Detroit would be very successful if it gets built. Hopefully they somehow manage to do it.