  Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 2487 Registered: 08-2007 |
Ken was just on WDET Detroit Today saying that he wants to use Obama Bucks to tear down the depot. Shouldn't the city use public dough to tear down public buildings first? I know Manny is hurting, but really, can't he pay to maintain his own property? | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 3656 Registered: 07-2004 |
Using any money to tear down Michigan Central Station sounds like a bad idea to me. | ||
Registeredguest Member Username: Registeredguest Post Number: 159 Registered: 10-2003 |
Or better yet, use stimulus money to build infrastructure, as opposed to tearing it down. Same stale ideas, different person delivering. | ||
Fnemecek Member Username: Fnemecek Post Number: 1967 Registered: 12-2004 |
Wonderful idea!!! I mean, just look at all of the good things that have happened as a result of the Hudson's demolition, the Madison-Lenox demolition, the Statler demolition, et cetera. *** N.B.: Please make sure your sarcasm detector is set to the "on" position when reading this post. | ||
Irvine_laird Member Username: Irvine_laird Post Number: 95 Registered: 02-2007 |
I'd like to keep the station around long enough to convert it into a...train station. I believe high speed rail will become a popular alternative to air travel over the next few decades. The increase in passenger train travel would necessitate a much larger train station than Detroit has in New Center. Much as hotels, restaurants, and shops thrive in and around airports, they could thrive around a train station. Michigan Central is not in the best location, but it's not bad either. Once light rail goes in along Michigan Avenue, the central business district and Corktown's business district would grow together. Call me crazy, but that building is grand and well worth preserving and putting to use. Much like the thread on the Book Tower, the matter is how to keep it safe and stable until that time comes. I believe a mothballed Book Tower or Michigan Central Station is far more appealing to investors than an overgrown lot. I will never get it over it if Cockrel tears down that building. | ||
Gravitymachine Member Username: Gravitymachine Post Number: 1754 Registered: 05-2005 |
public dollars for maintainance of private property? why the hell does the city keep doing and proposing this?! also, i'd hate to think how dusty my place would get if this actually came to pass | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 3657 Registered: 07-2004 |
I agree, Irvine. Check a rail map of Philly, the best-known Detroit-sized city. It has a grand old station outside downtown, where track continues on and goes underground for a final stop downtown. I don't see why you couldn't have the near west side location for the central station with track going underground for a downtown station at Fort and Cass in, say, 2039. Also, designed by the same architects who did Grand Central Terminal, which, when it was prevented from facing the same fate as old Penn Station, marked the birth of the modern preservation movement. | ||
Digitalvision Member Username: Digitalvision Post Number: 1402 Registered: 11-2003 |
Doesn't surprise me whatsoever. I'm firmly against this idea, most of all because this is an instance where the government should not be doing something that the owner or private company can do themselves. I wasn't listening, I'm going to go to the podcast version later to see what he exactly said. This is probably chalked up in the "city tears it down, Manny is stimulated to develop the vacant property" category. It'll be a cold day in hell when I believe he'd do anything like that will actually happen. However, I am sure this will be popular with many residents for a couple reasons. 1) Demolition is viewed as jobs "Detroiters can do." 2) The vast majority of Detroit residents I talk to just want the damn thing down because it takes down all of their property values. So even money says, without hearing the clip, if Cockrel or Bing gets reelected the thing comes down. I seriously doubt that Bing would do something different; he's said he'd "talk" to Manny, and obviously, Ken already did. This is probably the only way this land is going to have anything done with it. Manny is shrewd; he knows he doesn't have to do anything with the property and nobody else has the resources to meaningfully force him. | ||
1kielsondrive Member Username: 1kielsondrive Post Number: 1028 Registered: 08-2008 |
Why don't we use it to feed and house people? | ||
Zrx_doug Member Username: Zrx_doug Post Number: 847 Registered: 03-2008 |
I've got a better plan..why don't we re-assess this property and raise the living crap out of the taxes on it until it is put to use? Other cities charge elevated tax rates for empty/disused buildings, why not Detroit? | ||
1kielsondrive Member Username: 1kielsondrive Post Number: 1030 Registered: 08-2008 |
Zrx, I love it. | ||
J_to_the_jeremy Member Username: J_to_the_jeremy Post Number: 198 Registered: 03-2007 |
Yeah just drive the taxes on it through the roof. I love that idea. Use the extra revenue to build infrastructure, too. | ||
Eastsideal Member Username: Eastsideal Post Number: 410 Registered: 10-2007 |
Sad and stupid. There are much better uses for that money that would actually benefit the city and its people (like, say, what 1kielsodrive proposes above) during this time of obvious crisis. He should instead be talking about holding Manny's feet to the fire, as well as the feet of anyone else who owns a large abandoned structure in the city and has left it to rot. Someone really needs to finally take the emphasis off of the demolishing of the city's urban fabric and heritage. | ||
E_hemingway Member Username: E_hemingway Post Number: 1554 Registered: 11-2004 |
So much for Cockrell's "People before Politics" slogan. He almost had me back in his camp and then he pulls this out of his arse. If Cockrell really wants to get something done with MCS then city inspectors should be papering that place and the old DPS warehouse with blight tickets and kicking Matty out of Riverside Park. Make Maroun fix up both before even considering selling any part of the park to him. But that won't happen. Cockrell doesn't have the guts to stand up to the city's most notorious slumlord. Nor does this self-professed "nerd" have the ability to think far enough outside of the box to really turn this problem into an opportunity. Rip on Kwame all you want (and he deserves it) but at least he took a chance on returning that eyesore back to a semblance of its former glory. Something that would have created job after job and spurred more development in the surround neighborhood. What's Ken's big idea? Squander more of our tax dollars on tearing down a building owned by one of the richest people in the world? | ||
Detourdetroit Member Username: Detourdetroit Post Number: 369 Registered: 10-2003 |
terrible idea. detroiters need to begin a different narrative with the train station. it's pretty clear it will never be renovated in a traditional sense. but that's ok... there is so much inherent beauty it's such a shame we only see the *blight* and shame. let's embrace it in repose and talk about it more as part of a landscape we can be inspired by and celebrate. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 3658 Registered: 07-2004 |
I guess it's up to us to get mad as hell and make the demolition politically unpalatable. I do wish Cockrel showed more spine on this. Is it possible he's putting this out there just to test the idea's political feasibility? Anyway, I didn't hear the broadcast. What exactly did he say? | ||
Crumbled_pavement Member Username: Crumbled_pavement Post Number: 756 Registered: 08-2007 |
Anyone have Cockrel's email address? | ||
Carman Member Username: Carman Post Number: 19 Registered: 08-2008 |
OK. But will the contractors that take this task on, look like the City Council? Because if they don't...... | ||
Lowell Moderator Username: Lowell Post Number: 2249 Registered: 09-2003 |
How about using it as a new police HQ?  Better yet use some of the 'bama bucks to hire building inspectors to go there, write up violations on the property and start slapping fines on Moroun. I can never comprehend why he gets a pass on simple code compliance. [Okay I can, but you know what I mean.] | ||
Russix Member Username: Russix Post Number: 203 Registered: 11-2006 |
Zrx_doug! A+ | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 2488 Registered: 08-2007 |
http://www.wdetfm.org/detroitt oday/ The link isn't up yet for today's show, but it should be there around 4:30-5PM kenneth.cockrel@detroitmi.gov | ||
Hunchentoot Member Username: Hunchentoot Post Number: 130 Registered: 03-2005 |
Wow, Cockrel just lost my vote. | ||
Crumbled_pavement Member Username: Crumbled_pavement Post Number: 757 Registered: 08-2007 |
Thank you Gnome. I'm going to send him an email along with a link to this thread. There needs to be more thought given to what should be done with MCS. Tearing it down is just too easy. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 5394 Registered: 06-2004 |
one less site for the filmmakers to use | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 2489 Registered: 08-2007 |
When the link is up, you can use your own ears, but ... Craiggy asked him, "so Mr. Mayor, what about this stimulus package from Washington? How are you planning on using the funds?" "Well Craig, as you know there are several resrictions on what and how the money can be used. We have submitted plans for a half dozen projects that fit the criteria. Craiigy, "In many ways I understand, Like what? " KC: "Well, taking down the old train station for one. It's been an impediment to development for too long and ..." At that point my ear canals collapsed, so I didn't hear the rest. Also, don't beat me up when my reporting turns out not to be word-4-word. But that's what I heard. | ||
Hunchentoot Member Username: Hunchentoot Post Number: 131 Registered: 03-2005 |
Dave Bing didn't impress me when I saw him speak. I was confident that Cockrel was the right choice and was not only going to vote for him but was considering helping his campaign. I've been impressed by Cockrel's experience, nerdiness, praise for renovation of the Opera House and of Mayor Pingree, and showing up to a lecture I attended on Midtown plans. I gave Cockrel a pass on keeping George Jackson around, but this shows that it's more than just coincidence. When I saw Jackson speak, he talked about how exciting it was to create the incredibly complex financial plan to renovate the Book Cadillac and that it would be something the DECG would be pursuing in the future. But they seem to be pursuing the easy way out, and Ken would as well. What are we going to need when there are gas shortages and when people can't afford cars and when the Big Three are two or one? How will be continue to try to make downtown a rewarding urban neighborhood? Rail. Maybe not now, but the day will come, probably within our lifetimes. Even now, when we all have lost so much money and credit in this recession, we're still wealthier than throughout most of our history, but that isn't going to last. What a criminal outrage for the building to last for decades unsued and be removed a decade before it is needed again. The building should be renovated with public funds and put to use by the public. Take some of Obama's cash, fight with the state to use some public demolition money for renovation instead, get some investors, fine Matty so that he contributes, start a business district around the park with a special tax structure to help pay for the true economic development rail would bring -- have Slows move inside of it. The entire population of this city has good ideas for what to do with this building. Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas. Renovation would lift everyone's spirits every time they saw it. It would make Cockrel into Superman. And most importantly, it would put a train station exactly where we will need a train station in the near future. Come on, Cockrel, you have a lot going for you as a candidate but this is too big to make up for. If you don't get it I'll have to reconsider the voting booth and let my neighbors know why. | ||
Dcmorrison12 Member Username: Dcmorrison12 Post Number: 99 Registered: 02-2009 |
I sent him an e-mail about my displeasure in the matter - I'd recommend doing the same. | ||
Stosh Member Username: Stosh Post Number: 132 Registered: 01-2009 |
Anybody that has read the 3 billion dollar wish list that the City of Detroit proposes knows that this will not get funded. Many City projects, including school district and other entities within city limits not counted in the above total, are far more worthy of funding besides this inane Manny grab (pun intended). | ||
Shadesofbleu Member Username: Shadesofbleu Post Number: 7 Registered: 03-2009 |
Please contact Mayor Cockrel at: City of Detroit Executive Office Coleman A. Young Municipal Center 2 Woodward Ave., Ste. 1126 Detroit, MI 48226 (313) 224-3400 Dcmorrison12, there is no e-mail address listed on the city website. What is his official e-mail address? | ||
Daddeeo Member Username: Daddeeo Post Number: 568 Registered: 09-2008 |
I wonder how much money Matty has contributed to his campaign. There are a lot of other buildings that could be torn down with that money. More bang for the buck. Make the owner tear that albatross down. Kwame was all talk about the new police headquarters going there. I guess no one got the joke. He was trying to be funny. He's laughing now all the way to Texas. We'll be lucky to get pennies on the dollar for what he owes taxpayers. |
