Detroit Photo of the Day

[Allan]

Yep, that's the one.

[tapezord]

this thread is getting a little stale... here is a shot from today's St. Patrick's Day parade... the crowd out today was much bigger than usual!

[Zissou]

How fun was it? I was supposed to go but got bailed on.

[tapezord]

It was a blast, we marched in the parade and went to a few bars, nothing quite like walking down the centerline of Michigan Avenue while drinking a beer (gotta love detroit). Plus, the weather was awesome!

[Ramcharger]

I know this is way off topic, but I was in Dublin two years ago for St. Patrick

[Michi]

Corktown: Sunday, March 12, 2006

[hudkina]

^ CHEATER!!!

[Michi]

What, that I posted 2?

[Michi]

[Allan]

Pfft...2 photos or 100...it doesn't matter anymore. This thread needed a revitalization. I could do that myself, except that I am waiting for my new camera to arrive. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow or Monday.

[wolverine]

Great photos Michi!

[Wordsmith]

Wonderful photos. I'm sorry to have missed the parade, it looks like it was amazing. Happy St. Patrick's day all.

WS

[Michi]

Railroad viaduct and obsolete utility.

[hudkina]

I love the shot of the crown of the Fisher building.

[Michi]

Thank you.

Here's another:

Lawton/McGraw Area

[wolverine]

It's buildings like these that I really want to see restored. They make up the character of the neighborhoods.

[theSuburbs]

It's buildings like these that I really want to see restored. They make up the character of the neighborhoods.

exactly. During Super Bowl week I took a bus downtown. I couldn't stand looking at all of the abandoned shops along the way. It just makes the neighborhoods seem so empty and forgotten.

[wolverine]

A lot of the residents feel exactly the same way. I know a lot of Detroit residents who have grown up there that complain how desolate and deserted their retail strips are. The say there is no good reason to live nearby them. Downtown is where it's at, but they don't necessarily want to live downtown. So they move to another city.

[RustTown]

The thing is, those with the means in Detroit need to start taking these projects over instead of just moving away. One of the biggest things facing the city is that there is a huge disconnect between the poor and the middle and upper classes. Besides living within the city boundaries, Detroit's middle and upper classes seem to have little to do with the city. They send their kids to private or charter schools, they shop in the suburbs...

I don't mean to place all or even most of the blame on them, but this is a problem facing society in general in terms of city revitalization. Everyone wants to wait for "someone else" to come in from the outside and restart these abandoned retail areas, and when they don't they move leaving the poor, who have not the time or the means to fix these places up. Civic pride in most of Detroit (and most large cities in general) is shot.

[Michi]

^But especially in Detroit. All of what you just said can be put together under one umbrella called "the failed market of Detroit". If there was true, natural market response in Detroit, you would have more retail strips other than just "The Avenue of Fashion" which isn't even that extensive in the first place.

It makes me wonder...Will the new Staples near the East Riverfront create a market response that will extend from it? On the other hand, I guess by "failed market" I should be focusing more on areas that AREN'T experiencing gentrification, but are still nonetheless stable, middle class areas of Detroit.

There's this hidden presence in Detroit keeps people away. Look at that new Family Dollar that was broken into last month in the Rosedale Park area. That's one of Detroit's most affluent areas with lots of renovations and investments going on yet the urban underclass refuses to give up in their quest to destroy it. If I lived in that area and was raising a family, would I want to send my kids down to the strip mall for some milk? Probably not so much.

Oops, I just ranted in the wrong thread.

[RustTown]

I started getting off topic, so you can blame me.

You make a good point. The perception of the city, along with the actual crime that helps strengthen the negative perception really needs to be attacked on both fronts. There is, indeed, a culture of lawlessness large enough in the city where I can definitely see why people point to Detroit as being different.

I think the problem is that many want to simply put more cops on the streets, and only attacking the actual crime is nothing more than putting on band-aid after band-aid. The law-abidding citizens of Detroit, which are the vast majority despite popular believe among upper class Detroit and suburbia alike, have to be willing to go the distance in taking bake their city. Lawlessness is only created when you allow it to exist. Detroit has been a tough and city with a significantly lawless element since the early 1900's. It's going to take a lot to eat away at that negative element, but it can be done. What the law-abidding citizenry can do is stop indirectly feeding the negative element by their non-chalant attitude. This "crap happens" attitude among the law-abidding citizenry has to change first and foremost, before the already biased outside perception is ever going to change.

[tapezord]

Here's another shot from the St. Patrick's Day parade....

Streetcar rails in Michigan Avenue... and my shoe.

[wolverine]

Kind of off topic for the photo of the day, but the U of M Architecture School had a party at a warehouse in Detroit.

This is the building (photo not mine)

Excuse the poor picture quality because I took the ghettocam with me which has been dropped more times than I can remember (sober).

Ignore the bunny ears over our heads.

Near the end a group of us tried to urbex the place. But the building was a maze of locked doors. We all then tried to pile on the freight elevator which I think we ended up messing up. All and all, it was a good time. Way to use warehouse space differently in Detroit.

[Michi]

^That's the Russell Industrial Complex, off The Boulevard and Russell, right?

Here's what a little bit of facade improvements can do:

[Ramcharger]

The Talon Center (part of the old Parke/Davis complex).

The skyline minus the cement silos.

The skyline looks kind of naked without them. It's going to take some getting used to.

You can see the Riverwalk under construction in front of the Talon Center.