Detroit Off Topic

[wolverine]

I don't think it's anything unusual unless the crack was absolutely massive. The warehouse portion has some cracking issues as well. There's a very large one near a column in the visitor's lockeroom too. Ford Field is a very large structure, so I don't find it unusual that there would be some cracks from settling.

[tapezord]

reinforced concrete is designed to have cracking in sections where tension occurs (usually microscopic ones though, typically on the underside of beams under loading).

[RustTown]

Thought I'd share this...

In my research of Detroit architecture and development projects, I got in contact with Michael Poris of McIntosh Poris Associates. I asked him about a variety of things including whether the plans on their site for Lafayette Park were just concepts or the real deal. To my surprised, he told me that not only are the plans the real deal, but that they've already been approved/given blessing by the historic commission and city. He says what's holding up the developer (does anyone know the developers of these?) are some deed restrictions, but that they plan to move the project foward by next year. This includes the townhomes you see on their website. I've always thought Lafayette Park would be a great district to add more density to. Hopefully, if things go well, we might even see new towers. Imagine how cool that would be.

He also told me about a project I have no idea about, and that is 66 new townhouses across Lafayette where Rochdale housing used to be. I'm not sure where that is but he said that he'd be before the BZA (not sure what that is) next tuesday, Aug 22, and that he'd like to see some interested Detroiter's there for support.

Just passing on some info.

Edited August 16, 2006 by Lmichigan

[detroitfan]

BZA= Board of Zoning Appeals

You might want to offer your insight about this over at DY one the forumers lives nearby a got hearning notice for the project. It's titled: DuCharme Place Partners LLC and 1544-56 E. Lafayette( for some reason it won't let me link directly to the thread)

Edited August 16, 2006 by detroitfan

[Zissou]

Im not familiar with the Lafayette proposal or development, any links to where I might be able to see renderings or get more info?

[RustTown]

http://www.mcintoshporis.com/lafayette.html

[Zissou]

Thank you sir.

[resourcefulidiot]

wow that threw me off...I had no idea Lafayette park was planning that rennovation.

What is the timetable for this project/its status?

[statedude3]

Oh my goodness...I am getting ripped apart over on Detroit Yes. Just needed to come back to my safe place forum for a bit.

[wolverine]

DetroitYES has become incredibly trite. There's a handful of respected members there, but the rest post absolute nonesense. Let's not forget to make 50 threads about the Broderick, 30 about Cheesecake factory, and 10,000 about parking structures with ground floor retail. Don't forget to have at least one post per thread with "tear that schitt down" followed by 300 or so mispelled, mailed letters to Rock Financial

[statedude3]

DetroitYES has become incredibly trite. There's a handful of respected members there, but the rest post absolute nonesense. Let's not forget to make 50 threads about the Broderick, 30 about Cheesecake factory, and 10,000 about parking structures with ground floor retail. Don't forget to have at least one post per thread with "tear that schitt down" followed by 300 or so mispelled, mailed letters to Rock Financial

Thank god I'm not the only one who sees this. I dont have a problem with useless message board banter (I belong to another board that is known worldwide for such crap), but DY is getting a bit out of hand, in my honest opinion.

[Allan]

DY is beyond out of contol. There's a reason why most of the insiders and longtime posters aren't around anymore....

[Jasoncw]

You know what I wonder, is how some of the people at Detroit Yes are able to keep good enough of a job to be able to pay for an internet connection. There are also some interesting conversations there though, and despite some of the people, I don't think it's a bad site.

[Allan]

Bah! It looks like the city's online property tax database will become unusable on September 1st unless you are a property owner in the city.

Data retrievals are free until September 1st, 2006, after that date users will be charged a $2.00 convenience fee, payable on a credit card, to retrieve property information.

Note: Detroit Taxpayers will still be able to view their own parcel information for free.

Ummm, ok. So you're going to make me go all the way to the city county building everytime I want some info? What a load of crap that is....

[Ramcharger]

Aren

[hudkina]

No, it's a "convenience" charge. Going to city hall would be inconvenient.

[Allan]

All that stuff is public record. I'm pretty sure that it's against the law for them to charge you $2.00 to go see the stuff at City Hall. They really don't want you to obtain those records...after all, that does require them to do real, actual work, but if you go downtown to city hall and don't mind waiting a while and putting up with a few pretty rude people, you can get all the tax info.

[RustTown]

Talk about a user-unfriendly city. It's almost as if they want to purposefully make themselves as inaccessible as possible. In this information age MORE services should be added to the web; services definitely shouldn't be taken off the web. Talk about backwards.

[Allan]

I see work has started on the Lafer Building. Today they were finishing up the fire escape removal.

[dtown]

Today, i read an article in the Flint Journal that said that Detroit's povery rate had dropped! Actually, its no longer the poorest city with over 65,000 people, unfortunatly, Flint is now.

Anyway, its good to hear some good news about Detroit.

Edited August 30, 2006 by dtown

[RustTown]

It dropped 1% or something ridiculous like that to 31% instead of 32%, and is still number two for large American cities. That is nothing to celebrate about. Cleveland at #1, was only a percentage point higher. Nothing is changing, and least not significantly when it comes to poverty rates. Detroit is just about as poverty-stricken as it ever was, unfortunately.

Edited August 30, 2006 by Lmichigan

[dtown]

i was just trying to make something positive about it.

[RustTown]

I know, but there is nothing positive about these numbers. It would have been better and honest to play it down the middle and straight through (i.e. there is no use for an exclaimation mark).

Edited August 30, 2006 by Lmichigan

[dtown]

I was just thinking that hopefully, i was a sign of what might be to come in Detroit. While it hasnt dropped much yet, it has dropped, and maybe it will continue to drop, but at a faster rate.

but yeah, there probobly was no use for the exclamation mark.

Anyway though, i was thinking earlier today, and i though about things that downtown Detroit needed to compete with the suburbs. I think that Dretoit needs a downtown department store of somekind. Like a Marshall Feilds or something, to try to get shoppers to come down and shop there, and make downtown a shopping destination for the area. Kina like what the Somerset mall has become.

[RustTown]

There are few downtown department stores left in this country, and the trend doesn't look like it's going to reverse. I see a downtown shopping center in downtown's future, but with the current trends, I don't see a full-scale department store setting up downtown anytime soon. The way downtowns are coming back is by filling niche markets with unique retail. At the moment, enclosed malls may be becoming less popular, but not the popular movement is "lifestyle centers." It will be quite some time before that trend swings back towards centralized, downtown department stores.