  E_hemingway Member Username: E_hemingway Post Number: 1520 Registered: 11-2004 |
Some days I really wish someone hadn’t killed off my alley. I have no idea when it happened, or why. I moved in seven years ago, long after the decision was made. My house was built in 1925 and at some point along the way, the alley was vacated and the land given to homeowners to lengthen their back yards by 9 feet, or so my deed tells me. I’d gladly give back that land on days when parking is scarce. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20080115/BLO G13/80115025/1012/ | ||
Living_in_the_d Member Username: Living_in_the_d Post Number: 3 Registered: 01-2008 |
Yeah, I miss the alleys too. When We were kids you could get from one side of the city to the other, just traveling at your own pace and talking to almost every neighbor/homeowner along the way. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 11361 Registered: 12-2003 |
I remember when they all went away in Dearborn. Summer of '78. Dearborn's maintenance men, driving those yellow trucks, aided by temporary employment gleaned from a government jobs program. I know, I was in the program. Cleared the alleys, planted the grass. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 3577 Registered: 10-2003 |
The best thing about alleys is that they keep the trash off the curb in front of the house. If alleys are maintained and kept fairly clean, they're a great concept.  | ||
1953 Member Username: 1953 Post Number: 1527 Registered: 12-2004 |
I love my alley in Hamtramck. It (and my garage) are always a last resort for parking needs. (Message edited by 1953 on January 16, 2008) | ||
Norwalk Member Username: Norwalk Post Number: 171 Registered: 11-2006 |
Yes I love my Hamtramck alley as well. I just wish my neighbors kept it up as well as I do. | ||
Detroitplanner Member Username: Detroitplanner Post Number: 1519 Registered: 04-2006 |
Norwalk wrote: "I just wish my neighbors kept it up as well as I do." I have the same issue. While I tend to my alley (closed mid-block) others do not, often turning it into a dumping ground. I think it is a lack of understanding that the alley is their responsibility, and a lack of enforcement (to both the dumpers and the property owners). | ||
Gogo Member Username: Gogo Post Number: 1398 Registered: 11-2003 |
Some alley photos from Flickr... Indian Village 1 Indian Village 2 Indian Village 3 (Message edited by gogo on January 16, 2008) | ||
Craig Member Username: Craig Post Number: 637 Registered: 02-2007 |
One spring when the snow melted the bodies of two executed thugs were found in the alley a few blocks from out home. Our west side alleys were becoming highways for criminals before the City finally closed them down. | ||
Dustin89 Member Username: Dustin89 Post Number: 181 Registered: 07-2006 |
I remember when I was working in Ferndale a year back, I was surprised at how long I could drive down an alley that paralleled Woodward, heading north from downtown Ferndale. | ||
Detroitplanner Member Username: Detroitplanner Post Number: 1520 Registered: 04-2006 |
Does anyone know who to check with to see if your alley is officially closed? I keep waffling back and forth between wanting to fence it off and spending hours cleaning up the messes behind my neighbor's homes. | ||
Funaho Member Username: Funaho Post Number: 16 Registered: 11-2007 |
I certainly don't miss my alley. It's cut down on some of the crime, especially home break-ins. I'll admit though my area isn't typical, because I'm on a well-travelled, well-lit street so the alleys were really the only way for burglars to sneak in and out without major risk of being noticed. | ||
Goblue Member Username: Goblue Post Number: 956 Registered: 03-2007 |
This one is going to date me...but...I remember the trash man on a horse drawn wagon coming down our alley on Fordham near 7 & Gratiot on about a monthly basis. He'd blow his horn to let people know that he was coming in case anyway had scrap to sell to him. This was in the 40's and very early 50's. For kids it was a great opportunity to sell him scrap metal that we'd collected from new construction sites to get enough to buy candy at the neighborhood grocery store. The alley also was an alternative playground for neighborhood kids...it flooded behind our home every winter which provided my first skating rink where I could use my Christmas clamp-on double runners. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 3587 Registered: 10-2003 |
The way to reduce crime in and from alleys is to hire more police and have more patrols... on foot, preferably. Cops walkin' a beat... what a concept! | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 4360 Registered: 02-2005 |
Alleys are our allies. Gogo, I took the first picture you posted. I certainly don't mind the link. | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 1614 Registered: 02-2006 |
My alley in Chicago is more brightly lit than many streets elsewhere. Seriously. At least 85% of the times I leave/arrive at my house, it's through the alley rather than the street. (Message edited by focusonthed on January 16, 2008) | ||
Ltdave Member Username: Ltdave Post Number: 109 Registered: 09-2006 |
they closed many alleys up in port huron in the 70s as well. my dad kept his travel trailer in the back yard and went to the city council and planning division to get the city to give him a waiver of some sort to park his trailer beside the house (ord against that) so they just ran a fence across our alley at the far end, leaving it clear enough that he could get in the yard. my first house had a closed alley as my driveway. it was a pain in the winter because it was 153' of snow shoveling to get to the garage at the back of the property... | ||
Detourdetroit Member Username: Detourdetroit Post Number: 362 Registered: 10-2003 |
alleys are good friends of city life. if I were king, all the alleys would come back | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 779 Registered: 08-2006 |
Sometime from the 50s to 70s many were closed as they were seen as crime attractors and unsightly. Many were closed and split between the lots evenly which gave them a bit more land. I remeber seeing a public awareness picture before maybe even on here. It showed kids playing in grass and half the image merged with it was a dirty alley a way to show the change from a dirty alley to a clean safe play area for kids. MAny Detroit alleys were closed. Often the only reason some will be open is if a particular homeowners garage opens only to the alley. Almost all streets in the D had alleys and many were vacated. Most properties include 1/2 of the vacated alley. It is interesting to see in Texas that many typical subdivisions with Mcmansions and curvelinear streets are still built with alleys and even rear facing garages! One of the first threads I started here on DY was on Alleys of the D! | ||
Royce Member Username: Royce Post Number: 2512 Registered: 07-2004 |
Alleys were great places to catch bees and sneak into yards to get fruits such as cherries, apples, pears, plums, marberries, and grapes. Before the modern-day portable basketball rims that kids put out in the streets, we used to affix a basketball rim to either the back of the garage or on a telephone pole. Did our Evel Knieval stuff in the alleys too. Great memories. BTW, Grosse Pointe Park has some of the cleanest alleys I've ever seen. Also, regarding Chicago, does it still take three men to pick up the garbage from the alleys? (Message edited by royce on January 16, 2008) | ||
Terryh Member Username: Terryh Post Number: 651 Registered: 11-2006 |
Funny my first thought on reading the title of this thread is that Hamtramck has some nice alleys. Ferndale has a nice alley way just south of Nine Mile Rd. | ||
Hamtragedy Member Username: Hamtragedy Post Number: 51 Registered: 10-2007 |
Trust me, most alleys in Hamtramck look like shit. I walk the dog every day thru town and for the most part they are fenced off & forgotten about. I'm a block S of Carpenter, so the people that live behind me have the Detroit prairie view (tall grass, old grafitti school bus, vandalized homes) from their front porches, so they all hang out in the back. As a result, my end of the alley looks okay, (I got flowers behind my painted fence), but the bar 5 houses down could care less, and the businesses at the end of my block haven't done a thing to tend to their debris or the peeling paint for years. Come to think of it, I'll call & complain tomorrow. See what that does!? | ||
Reddog289 Member Username: Reddog289 Post Number: 213 Registered: 08-2007 |
learned how to ride my bike in the alley between stahalin & artisian,[joy&evergreen]. got good enuff riding the bike to go to the dairy queen by myself and ride back eatin ice cream. | ||
Kville Member Username: Kville Post Number: 93 Registered: 04-2007 |
Alleys were an alternative to streets for play areas back in the 50's. We managed to play baseball in our alley. Because they were narrow, it taught us to hit straight to keep from constantly jumping fences to retrieve the ball; but it was better than having to dodge parked cars on the street and having to wait for passing traffic every couple of minutes. I have to admit, though, that even way out in our Kelly-Moross area, they did become unsightly; but as kids we didn't care. It was a fun way to travel through the neighborhood and see what people were doing in their yards. It was also a great place to hide out from our parents to sneak a smoke. They also kept us from being boxed in by 3 neighbors instead of the typical 2 on each side. | ||
Tammypio Member Username: Tammypio Post Number: 166 Registered: 04-2005 |
I learned to ride my bike in our alley in Hamtramck. Lots of scraped knees until I figured out that "pedal backwards" thing to stop! We also used to play ball back there and other games. I don't recall the alley as being the most pleasant place, but it was generally clean enough to play in. It's funny....since I didn't travel much as a child....Didn't really leave Hamtramck too often...I had no idea that alleys weren't everywhere! I remember talking about "the alley" with a college friend and him having no idea what I was referring to. I live in Lincoln Park now and it still seems odd to me to have the neighbors from the next block's yards back right up to our yard. | ||
Imhere Member Username: Imhere Post Number: 39 Registered: 02-2007 |
I grew up on the Far Northeast side of Detroit. I remember, as a kid, playing in the alleys. The alley was always considered a shortcut when going anywhere (whether it really was or not). The city stopped using the alley sometime in early - mid '80s. They wouldn't let the homeowners extend the back yards though, never did find out why. A few years after I moved some of the neighbors "Claimed" their piece of the alley. My mom (who still lives there) never moved her fence to take over the extra space. | ||
Detroitpetanque Member Username: Detroitpetanque Post Number: 44 Registered: 09-2006 |
We have a rear-facing garage to our alley and love the extra space in our front yard where a driveway would have been. Plus, when it snow-storms, there's no long driveway for shoveling! As far as folks fencing in their alleyways ... I wonder how many people really needed that extra 10 feet of yard... | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 1616 Registered: 02-2006 |
quote: Not sure about 3, but there are definitely at least 2. One driving the truck, 1 loading the bins. | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 780 Registered: 08-2006 |
Now may alleys that never have the fence extended have turned into mini thin strips of tall thick growing vegetation. Sadly to I have seen some where there is an unimaginable amount of garbage! I never understood why people would just throw there trash over the fence and let it pile up. Why would you want to live next to your garbage? | ||
Hudkina Member Username: Hudkina Post Number: 93 Registered: 12-2004 |
Downtown Trenton still has alleys, and for the most part they are well maintained. Most houses don't have front facing garages so they use the alley to get to them. As far as crime is concerned, the city has a low crime rate. While I don't know how alleys have affected crime in the city I certainly had no fear of my alley. In fact most alleys are lit as well as the streets. |
