  Thejesus Member Username: Thejesus Post Number: 2874 Registered: 06-2006 |
The township supervisor, Tom Yack, sent out a newsletter outlining various retail projects in Canton... · Busch’s received approval from the Planning Commission to construct a 40,000 square-foot grocery store at Cherry Hill and Denton. The store has great architecture and many great attributes; covered parking lot walkway (can be used for a farmers market), water feature and outdoor café. Also approved was a four-unit one-story retail building to be located on the Westside of Busch’s. · A Shopping Center at Beck and Michigan is scheduled to open in March of 2008. · Del Taco was approved for an out-lot at Ford across the street from Lowe’s. · Fed-Ex/Kinko’s is under construction in an out-lot in Canton Corners (Outback). · Also under construction in the same center is a Pot Belly Sandwich. · Two hotels on Haggerty, north and south of Ford, are now under construction. · Gordon Food Service is also under construction (west of Wal-Mart on Ford near Lotz). · Wal-Mart, plans to expand their Ford Road store into a Supercenter. · JCPenney construction is continuing on Ford Road behind Target · CVS Pharmacy land clearing completed to prepare for construction (Cherry Hill/Canton Center). | ||
Chris_rohn Member Username: Chris_rohn Post Number: 349 Registered: 04-2005 |
Wow a Del Taco! Canton has finally made it to civilization. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 6840 Registered: 02-2004 |
Yep and its civilization could reach to the county line. Folks really want to be 30 miles away from Detroit as possible. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 292 Registered: 07-2007 |
"The township supervisor, Tom Yack" How long has Yack been supervisor? 30 years? | ||
Crawford Member Username: Crawford Post Number: 173 Registered: 10-2006 |
Canton is about as unappealing as it gets. Living in the ugliest, most soulless suburbia imaginable, and understood by all as a cheapo version of Oakland County sprawl. Even Macomb sprawl is a bit better. At least the airport isn't too far away. I wouldn't feed Del Taco to a dog. Much worse even than Taco Bell. | ||
Crew Member Username: Crew Post Number: 1381 Registered: 02-2004 |
You might not feed it to a dog, but how about a Cantonite? | ||
Crawford Member Username: Crawford Post Number: 174 Registered: 10-2006 |
LOL. I know I'm exaggerating a bit about Canton, but I really don't understand these places. Is it just because people like newer homes? | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 3906 Registered: 10-2003 |
Two hotels for those people flocking to Canton on family vacation. "Look kids! A Wal-Mart!" | ||
Danindc Member Username: Danindc Post Number: 3786 Registered: 10-2003 |
What, no Applebee's? | ||
Stephenvb Member Username: Stephenvb Post Number: 44 Registered: 02-2006 |
I would be willing to bet that the hotels are serving people on an Ikea pilgrimage. Yack left out the proposed Best Buy right across the road from Ikea. | ||
Thejesus Member Username: Thejesus Post Number: 2887 Registered: 06-2006 |
"LOL. I know I'm exaggerating a bit about Canton, but I really don't understand these places. Is it just because people like newer homes?" It's that in part...I'm not certain, but I think the desire to raise ones kids far away from communities that average 400 murders a year while still maintaining quick freeway access for the occasional professional baseball game plays a part as well | ||
Nainrouge Member Username: Nainrouge Post Number: 428 Registered: 05-2006 |
Canton does have an Applebee's. It is right on Ford Road. I would argue that Novi should win the award for the most soulless suburb, however. The best thing about Canton is its location near Plymouth - which is anything but soulless. | ||
Crawford Member Username: Crawford Post Number: 176 Registered: 10-2006 |
Jesus, I'm sure there are places in metro D that aren't killing fields and that might offer a wee bit less ugly and mind-numbing lifestyle than Canton. Regarding safety, it's much more likely you will be killed in a car accident than in a random homicide, yet for some reason everyone in supposedly safety-conscious Canton drives everywhere. In fact, they have chosen to live in a place that forces families to spend a lot more time driving than if they lived in older suburbs, thereby heightening the risk of injury. Canton also seems pretty inconvenient to job centers unless you're working along I-275 (ugh). The Woodward corridor for starters is better in every way. I'd certainly also take something in Corktown, Midtown or Lafayette Park over the tract homes of Canton. | ||
Thejesus Member Username: Thejesus Post Number: 2893 Registered: 06-2006 |
well, to each their own I suppose...the people in Canton sure seem to be happy there though...and they don't even give people who choose to live in Detroit a second thought...they just write them off as crazies | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 4075 Registered: 02-2005 |
Pumping out cookie-cutter sprawl like it's nobody's business. | ||
Drankin21 Member Username: Drankin21 Post Number: 132 Registered: 12-2003 |
I lived in Canton for a couple of years. It was the worst couple of years of my life. Subdivision, Subdivision, Landfill, Strip Mall, Subdivision, Subdivision, Strip Mall, Strip Mall, Landfill, Subdivision...... | ||
Alan55 Member Username: Alan55 Post Number: 798 Registered: 09-2005 |
I have found that when you ask many exurbanites where they live, they don't say Canton, or Washington Township, or Wixom, they say " I live in Lost Quail Run Hollow Estates" (as if everyone should automatically know where that sub is). Their sense of community is not to the municipality, but to thir cookie-cutter subdivision. I suspect that is because many of them only spend 5 - 8 years in the area before their jobs gets transferred to Seattle or Savanna. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 293 Registered: 07-2007 |
"I would argue that Novi should win the award for the most soulless suburb, however." OK, we don't have a real downtown but Novi is at least trying which is a lot more than you can say for some of our suburban counterparts. | ||
Amiller Member Username: Amiller Post Number: 11 Registered: 09-2007 |
I find it interesting that Canton's new urbanist development is way out on the edge of the city and county line. It is also interesting that the rest of the township continues business as usual in suburban sprawl development. You see a faux "traditional town" surrounded by McMansions just a few blocs away. It is even more interesting that all this new development is exactly the same in every suburb. New CVS's, Pot Belly's, and Wall-Marts in every town to compliment our sterile, homogeneous consumer lifestyle. I spent a lot of time in Canton over the summer, and I can say, hopefully with no offense to anyone else, that it is one of the most depressing places I've spent time in. I think the new generation of youth is realizing that they won't live the privilege of their parents, and that our economic system is fraud, and will inevitably collapse. The American people are going broke Young are going to lead a vales shift from materialism, greed, and competition... to dignity, community, and cooperation. | ||
Alan55 Member Username: Alan55 Post Number: 800 Registered: 09-2005 |
Novine, why should Novi TRY to have a downtown? It is not, and never has been, an urban area. In the last 40 years it's gone from a farm area to exurbia. Why try to be something it never was? I can see it Novi was trying to rebuild its malls or subdivisions into something more-pedestrian friendly, but a downtown? I really lose patience when every suburban mayor, and every township supervisor, tries to fashion his little 6-mile by 6-mile postage stamp into his own all-inclusive pocket kingdom. I would expect it to have all of the authenticity of Main Street USA at Disney World. Perhaps Detroit should try to refashion itself as a ski resort like Vail. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 296 Registered: 07-2007 |
"Novine, why should Novi TRY to have a downtown?" There's two alternatives. You can have more of the typical suburban car-oriented development that's lifeless and soulless. Or you can have some pedestrian-oriented development that gives people the opportunity to shop and maybe even live without having to be 100% dependent on a car. The question isn't whether there's going to be development or not. It's coming to that part of Novi either way. The question is how that development will be built and whether it's more of the same or something different. Maybe you're hung up on the definition of "downtown". Novi's "downtown" is never going to be a Detroit-sized downtown or Pontiac-sized downtown. It probably won't even be a Plymouth-sized downtown. But it can be something that gives Novi an identity beyond just the mall and provide a shopping, working and living environment that isn't otherwise available in Novi. | ||
Alan55 Member Username: Alan55 Post Number: 803 Registered: 09-2005 |
Yeah, why does Novi need an "identity"? It has done without one for forty years. The people out there have pretty much chosen to live in an anonymous exurb. As far as being car-dependent, other than a couple of hundred people who may live there, it will be. It is a waste of energy to try and make it something it's not. I am certain that it will have all of the authentic downtown feel as "The Village of Rochester Hills" shopping center on Adams and University. | ||
Usnsubvet77 Member Username: Usnsubvet77 Post Number: 62 Registered: 07-2007 |
I work in Canton on Haggerty. Many people I work with live in Canton and truly thats all that is said..."I live in Sleepy Hollow Estates, or The Traditions..." Worst of them all is "Cherry Hill Village". Talk about cookie cutter homes with ZERO sense of community, disguised as this quasi-utopia with a theatre and Coldstone Creamery. Driving through there to show my wife, it sickly reminded me of a scene in Edward Scissor Hands when all the robotic people in their cars leave for work and arrive home at the same exact time.... To each his own I suppose, I just don't care for it.... | ||
El_jimbo Member Username: El_jimbo Post Number: 393 Registered: 12-2006 |
My family lived in Canton in the 80s and it was very nice back then. Ford road traffic was still ok at the time and west of Canton Center, many of the roads were still dirt. There was a pretty nice apple orchard on Joy a little west of Canton Center Road. Now Canton is just the ugliest of ugly sprawl. | ||
Ffdfd Member Username: Ffdfd Post Number: 236 Registered: 09-2006 |
Blah, blah, blah. We get it. Those of you who do not like the suburbs and/or "exurbs" are better people than those soulless saps who do. Really, you are. Really. | ||
Stephenvb Member Username: Stephenvb Post Number: 45 Registered: 02-2006 |
Usnsubvet77 - Would you care to define what your sense of community is so I understand your reference to ZERO sense of community in Cherry Hill Village? Obviously downtown is not well established which is a major strike, but the homeowners are a different story. I know all the people who live on my street, not just one house each way. We all watch out for each others houses, children, etc. I can assure you that people do not leave/arrive home at the exact same time. Did you drive through when one a jazz performance was taking place in the park or, better yet, the annual Christmas in the Village festival? There is a strong sense of community that you chose to overlook because you couldn't get past the downtown or the cookie cutter homes. | ||
Plymouthres Member Username: Plymouthres Post Number: 271 Registered: 02-2007 |
Subvet is right-that place is like Stepford Village. Cookie-cutter doesn't even begin to describe the type of McMansions that are there. Bet those houses are just selling like top-dollar hotcakes right now, eh? Communities, or a sense of community, develope over time and are not just thrust into the middle of a cornfield and occupied overnight. CHV is what, all of 5 years old? Let me know when they finally reach the age of consent! Lastly, one trip to the annual fireworks at the Summit will let you all about that great sense of community they got going on out there. P.S. Subvet NEVER mentioned the people, only the forced sense of "city" one gets when driving west on CH past Denton. He was not attacking the residents, just the residences. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 300 Registered: 07-2007 |
"I am certain that it will have all of the authentic downtown feel as "The Village of Rochester Hills" shopping center on Adams and University." One big difference is that the new development will include quite a bit of residential in the downtown core including mixed-use buildings. The "Village" in RH doesn't have any residential in the development and very little adjacent, if I recall correctly. As far as identity, why shouldn't communities try to establish an identity? Lots of people bashed on Wixom's attempts to recreate a downtown but they seem to be doing a pretty good job of that and Wixom probably wants to be known as something more than just a closed Ford assembly plant and lots of apartments. Novi as a township has been around since the 1830s and long before 12 Oaks Mall was a destination for people going to the "Walled Lake Casino" (which was in Novi and didn't have a casino) to see performers like Chuck Berry and Stevie Wonder: http://www.waterwinterwonderla nd.com/walledlakeamusementpark .asp So you don't like the idea? So what? How is Novi's efforts detracting from any other community's efforts? I think the people who want the "authentic" urban experience aren't going to flock to Novi to live "downtown". But there are people who don't necessarily want to live in Detroit for many different reasons who want something that the usual suburban cookie-cutter subdivision or condo. development. Why do you seem so intent on insisting everything has to fit that mold? | ||
Thejesus Member Username: Thejesus Post Number: 2898 Registered: 06-2006 |
Novie: There's nothing you can do to satisfy these people. They're just just tired, cold, bitter souls who are frustrated at the fact that they can't force other people to want what they want. It's amusing how they all preach regionalism and yet at the same time are satisfied with nothing short of places like Novi disappearing into oblivion. | ||
Crawford Member Username: Crawford Post Number: 177 Registered: 10-2006 |
Once gas hits $4/gallon, and the auto layoffs really start kicking in, who is going to buy all that flimsy-looking inventory in places like Canton? |
