  Ocean2026 Member Username: Ocean2026 Post Number: 27 Registered: 11-2008 |
The area from THe Riverfront Shops EAST going to say St Aubin St/ park. It seems there are some burnt out buildings there that have a view of the river. If Detroit ever makes a comeback and its hard to say what might happen in 15 or 20 years, that could be a good area. As Ive said before the next few years may be especially tough- local job losses and national economy etc Anyone know the buildings in this area? Some on map programs look vacant and in some state of decay. | ||
Ddaydave Member Username: Ddaydave Post Number: 610 Registered: 04-2005 |
What the city did to that area years ago still makes my blood boil even years later. That was a vibrant area with hopping clubs and night life. with all the vacant land Detroit had a casino decided that they wanted to be there so the city made everyone sell out and then never put up a casino there. It became a wasteland and almost all of the buildings have now been torn town. Franklin street brewery, soup kitchen saloon, rhino, wood bridge taverne, Sardine club and a few others fell soon after. It went from the warehouse district to rivertown to wasteland.Detroitblog.org has a posting of a homeless guy now living in the area. Dave (Message edited by ddaydave on November 28, 2008) | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 231 Registered: 07-2008 |
I absolutely agree. That was a great area, with unlimited potential. To have been deliberately dismantled by the city is a crime. Just one more example of the lack of professionalism of this town's so called "movers and shakers". Just as this area was destroyed, Greektown was stripped of its roots and replaced by a generic temporary casino. Unbelievable. Makes you want to holler.... | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 6466 Registered: 10-2003 |
Check this out: A Critique of the Riverfront East Proposal East Riverfront Visitors Guide - Model D Detroit Riverfront Conservancy - East Riverfront RenShore Condos (kind of doubtful this one is going to happen given GM's circumstances) | ||
Ocean2026 Member Username: Ocean2026 Post Number: 30 Registered: 11-2008 |
Good stuff Lmichigan - I wonder if those junk properties on Franklin are for sale - perhaps one day that will all be a nice area. For now financial constraints and more pressing issues will put this stuff on the bottom of any "to do" list. I disagree with the Critique though. Detroit should make itself attractive and the tax base will come. | ||
Single_malt Member Username: Single_malt Post Number: 65 Registered: 02-2008 |
I work near there off of Walker and Jefferson. I drive around sometimes on my lunch hour trying to remember what bars and what not were there. I remember going to Woodbridge, Soup Kitchen, BC's. Shame, damn shame. It had the makings of something great. Maybe not great, but much better than what is there now. | ||
Eastsideal Member Username: Eastsideal Post Number: 85 Registered: 10-2007 |
Bottom line: the city idiotically ruined one of the best, most active, and most hopeful areas in the city in the name of greed and a sort of obstinate and heedless stupidity. So they took a fine old area of the city with increasingly renovated buildings and an active restaurant/entertainment district, and instead of working to preserve and enhance it, clueless and tasteless planners looked at it and saw it as being in the way of some sort of midwestern Las Vegas strip. Of course, the first question is why the hell an older city like Detroit would want to look like a ludicrously gaudy expanded strip mall monument to the worst of American taste and greed like Vegas. But even you accept that this is something Detroit would want or need, there was no reason other than obstinate stupidity to insist that it had to be in that spot and ruin one of the few good, and economically and socially healthy, districts of a struggling city. It's not like they didn't have other available places to pick from, is it? But by then the dollar signs were rolling in people's eyes and no one was going to listen to reason. I was away from the city, and I was shocked when I came back and saw that some of my favorite places to go had been shuttered, and one of the livliest areas in the entire city had been emptied out and turned into a ghost town - unfathomably by the city's own administration. This was a real black mark on the legacy of the Archer administration as far as I'm concerned. | ||
Ddaydave Member Username: Ddaydave Post Number: 611 Registered: 04-2005 |
one other thing we are forgetting here there were also a lot of small thriving businesses in this area that are now long gone because of this decision | ||
Lostinyonkers Member Username: Lostinyonkers Post Number: 7 Registered: 06-2008 |
lived there for 5 years on Guoin until leaving the D last year. First off, the city did destroy that area for the casinos but had they gone down there it would have destroyed the riverfront. Those who work and live there are grateful that the rifraf and general tourist headache that is over in greektown is not mucking up the area. That is a side benifit of nothing being down there. There are great little secrets about that neighborhood, though. Like getting a cheap drink and a great cheap dinner while being served by the always entertaining Mikey at Andrews on the Corner. Plus the free shuttles to tigers and wings free parking and no traffic headache dealing with the suburb types. Then there is talking to Hazen the brewer at Atwater Block. Hella nice guy who REALLY knows beer. Dane, Rich and Deon at Cornerstone are great guys as well who serve uber cheap/stiff drinks as well. What else...you got always free pool at the Omni while watching the boats go by. Terry puts on great jazz at They Say. And then there is Bruce Bruce keeping the streets on point with a smile. Take care of him if you see him. He's got a big heart and would never hurt a soul.it's his choice to live how he does.and he likes it. Anyways the folks that i just mentioned plus those that live at garden court/ stroh really do care about Detroit and it is a great area to spend some time, money and show support. The area is truley one of the few things I miss about Michigan. | ||
3rdworldcity Member Username: 3rdworldcity Post Number: 1477 Registered: 01-2005 |
That decimation of the riverfront is squarely the fault of Dennis Archer. The guy was an idiot, not only in the way he selected the casino operators, but by letting them play him like a violin once they were selected (corruption run rampant.) The casinos NEVER wanted to be down there although they conned him into believing they did. What they wanted was to get out of his mandate that compelled them to build new casinos in the original casino districts he established. The casinos set the ground rules for riverfront land acquisition and development. They established ground rules that were impossible to satisfy. They imposed a land acquisition cost cap that was ludicrously inadequate, the city tried to acquire the land by eminent domain and of course screwed that up as it always does (even had it not been screwed up, the courts would have escalated the cost significantly, and the city was obligated to pay the overages.) The casinos ended up exactly where they wanted to be, in their "temporary" locations without the obligation to build new permanent casinos (even though MGM did so.) If one read the casino trade papers at the time, they would have seen that Detroit was the laughing stock of the business and Archer was the unwitting fool who went along to get along, without realizing that the city held all the cards. My idea of heaven would be to play high stakes poker with Archer forever. The guy is an idiot. You Michiganians should thank God the guy decided (or had it decided for him) not to run for governor. | ||
Hamtragedy Member Username: Hamtragedy Post Number: 346 Registered: 10-2007 |
In hindsight, screwing over Barden seemed to also be a huge mistake. Instead of 1 Casino being run by a local, we get three of them who leave us with tax revenue, but send the profit home to Nevada. Oh, and one of them can't pay the builders to complete their hotel. Nice goin'! | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 6469 Registered: 10-2003 |
3rdworldcity, maybe I've missed this, but where do you live, now? It really was quite the place, and even as a kid in the 80's and 90's I can remember the relative vibrancy of the area. It's one of the few historic areas to largely retain its street grid, too, which always made it feel like a village within a city. Image, too, what it would have been like if everything north of Jefferson had been bulldozed and "renewed" as they used to call it. Perhaps, it would have had a fighting chance against the casinos. As it was, it was too small and isolated to compete against the interests Big Gaming. | ||
Ocean2026 Member Username: Ocean2026 Post Number: 37 Registered: 11-2008 |
It seems some of these properties -at least according to the Wayne County Treasurer's Office are owned by these guys: http://www.degc.org/rfps.aspx Economic Development corp. What are they like? | ||
Rj_spangler Member Username: Rj_spangler Post Number: 70 Registered: 10-2008 |
As I musician, I worked at several great little clubs in that area including the Riverotwn Saloon & the Soup Kitchen. After the Soup Kitchen closed, we never did get another "Home of the Blues" here in the D -- it was the end of an era. A tragic end for most of us. What a waste. | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 5688 Registered: 02-2004 |
I miss the Soup Kitchen so much. What a great bar, what great food, the music. Dammit. | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 1725 Registered: 11-2006 |
I worked at The Woodbridge Tavern around 1990. My brother worked at The Soup Kitchen also around that time. Hung out at both. Loved it down there. Saw an old blues guy from Chicago at SK and was blown away. Hadn't seen real live blues before. And, I don't remember anything bad ever happening to anyone in the area. I was never afraid to walk around at night. It's sick, I tell you, just sick that these businesses had to close. Maybe Marcia Kron and the others made out ok, I don't know. I do know that the Woodbridge had a history to it. It makes me want to cry. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 888 Registered: 07-2007 |
DEGC is the economic development arm of the city. While technically independent of the city, DEGC is intertwined with numerous city and city-connected development bodies. DEGC was likely the vehicle for assembling the properties for the casino relocations that never took place. | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 238 Registered: 07-2008 |
What a waste, indeed! For a brief time, it was possible to see live music at Soup Kitchen, Rivertown, Detroiter, Loco, then Music Menu. I used to walk back and forth, catching sets at Detroiter, Loco, Music Menu on the same evening. Miss the Soup Kitchen most of all...good music, good history, good people, and great sandwiches! This town has great music, and needs more venues like the SK...... | ||
Westsiiiide Member Username: Westsiiiide Post Number: 413 Registered: 05-2008 |
Also Sweet Water Tavern, Rhinoceros and in the 90's there was cool club called Taboo. | ||
Rj_spangler Member Username: Rj_spangler Post Number: 74 Registered: 10-2008 |
I certainly miss the Music Menu ! That was my musical home for over a decade. | ||
Razr66 Member Username: Razr66 Post Number: 11 Registered: 09-2008 |
I lived at the Pasadena in the 90's, and man, do I miss the Woodbridge Tavern, River Town Saloon and the whole area!! It had a vibrant feel back then. Could see live bands and catch shuttles to Wings and Tigers games, it was great!! Those were some great times!! |
