  Ramcharger Member Username: Ramcharger Post Number: 212 Registered: 05-2006 |
Paradise lost? Memorial park delayed This is the first I have heard of this planned park and I have not been able to find any references to it here at DetroitYes. It sounds like a very interesting project, too bad it appears to be in such disarray. quote: What a strange way of gauging the passage of time, especially coming from a 76-year-old woman. | ||
Kathleen Member Username: Kathleen Post Number: 2011 Registered: 10-2003 |
Yes, there has been prior discussion on this subject over the last several years. This is a link to a 2006 thread (some dead links to prior threads since they've since been archived elsewhere): https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/76017/75441.html | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 8431 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: That is an interesting way to say that the freeways were run through this and other black and ethnic communities. They phrase it like it was unintentional. | ||
Jimg Member Username: Jimg Post Number: 795 Registered: 10-2003 |
This issue is presented in some detail in Conant's book. | ||
Emu_steve Member Username: Emu_steve Post Number: 165 Registered: 11-2006 |
In time there goes another parking lot... that will make many happy to see. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 3720 Registered: 08-2004 |
OK, I'll bite Jt1... where would you have put the freeway? Torn out the middle of Lafayette Park? I'm not saying that it wasn't deliberate, but it was the most practical route. What galls me is that they ripped up the last remnants of it just in the last few years to put up that Waterhouse Price Building. They could have salvaged what was left, and built onto it behind Ford Field, as a small entertainment enclave of what was once there. But no one gave that much thought. And there was little or no indignation when the last remnants were torn down. So now what are they planning? A park where the 39th District Court Building now stands? Hardly. Looks like another DetNews typo. I find a "memorial park" a rather piss poor alternative. But that's just my opinion. | ||
Terryh Member Username: Terryh Post Number: 192 Registered: 11-2006 |
The far north end of Hastings is still in existance. Didn't black bottom refer to the area just north of Jefferson up to where Ford Field and Comerica park now stand? I think Paradise valley was just north of that. | ||
Norwalk Member Username: Norwalk Post Number: 30 Registered: 11-2006 |
Tell me that parking lot is not the site of the old Horseshoe Bar. Tear down the memories and put up a sign! | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 3722 Registered: 08-2004 |
Bingo Norwalk! Plus there'll be a few park benches and some nice trees. As an added touch, maybe they can outline in pavers the footprint of the Horseshoe Bar. So it will be well worth it!! (Sarcasm alert) P.S. Sorry I'm crabby this morning, but to me this whole concept is absurd. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 8440 Registered: 10-2003 |
Gistok - It isn't just this situation but the fact that so much of the freeway system in the city ran through black and ethnic neighborhoods. Do you not believe that the routes were intentional in that regard? | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 3724 Registered: 08-2004 |
Jt1, I can see your point... but it would be nearly impossible to not go thru an ethnic neighborhood when searching a route for freeways. As for displacing black neighborhoods, did the city fathers back in the 50's really want to displace blacks? I mean it would have meant that they would have to move to other neighborhoods, and we all know how "welcome" blacks were in many Detroit neighborhoods in the 1950's. I would have thought that they would have preferred to keep blacks in segregated neighborhoods back then, and not have them displaced into white areas. So to be honest with you, I really don't know what the mentality was. By the results of what actually happened then, you would be correct. But was that their real intention (to disperse blacks), or was it just that they cared less about how blacks felt about being displaced, rather than how whites felt about it? But the end result was the destruction of the black entertainment district. But they also displaced folks in nicer parts of town as well. Just look at the Lodge Freeway going thru the Boston/Edison and Virginia Park area, both well to do parts of town back then. | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 594 Registered: 10-2006 |
Nothing like commemorating a former thriving neighborhood with a park. Sounds like 1960s urban renewal all over again... | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 5175 Registered: 10-2003 |
Not only a park, but a park that is really just a plot of a parking lot. Gistok, the city fathers of that time didn't much care about the communities. They simply moved them into the human filing cabinants known as the Jeffries and Brewsters. It's not mistake those were built where they were built. I guess they saw that as a concession. | ||
Kathleen Member Username: Kathleen Post Number: 2013 Registered: 10-2003 |
Interested in learning more about Black Bottom and Paradise Valley? Then mark your calendar for this program: There’s No Place Like Home: Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, Tuesday, April 3, 2007, 6 pm, Charles Wright Museum of African American History. Struggling against segregation and poverty, African American Detroiters carved out Black Bottom and Paradise Valley in the early twentieth century. Robert Smith, living history project manager at the museum, and historian Sharon E. Sexton, will discuss the rise and fall of these communities. The program will be held in the Lewis Latimer Café in the lower level of the Museum. Free of charge. |
