RustTown

Very tacky, and the siteplan for the proposed intermodal station doesn't look much better. People would be hard pressed, these days with the decline of Amtrak, to find a good station. Heck, the one here in Lansing (East Lansing proper) is literally a little shack very similar to Detroit's and tucked out of sight and out of mind. If you didn't know where it was, you'd never think it was a train station, and it's nearly totally invisible from the road. If Detroit is banking on Amtrak to get a station built for possible light rail, they'll be waiting for years to come.

Well, MDOT has been planning the New Center Intermodal Station across from the current Amtramk station for a few years, now. I think what's been holding that up is the Feds since no one can seem to decided for any forseeable time the future of Amtramk. If built, it is designed so that it could also be a northern terminus/station for a light rail line up Woodward.

It's really turqois, still too close to blue, though.

I definitely don't subscribe to that belief. That would imply that some humans are born criminals and can't escape their "destiny," and I've seen nothing to substantiate that claim I hear people make, sometime.

Hey, I just discovered Hot Fudge Detroit (), something I heard made reference to on detroit.com a few times over the last year or so. Needless to say I thought it was all a joke, at first, but then I went to their "general discussions" board and nearly fell out my chair (not laughing).

I think you read me wrong. What I meant by preventitive measures are things like simply continuing D.A.R.E. programs (instead of cutting them), a committment to community policing, things like that. Anything further would be oppresive and thus ineffective in the long run. Preventitive would be catching criminals before they become criminals, and largely lies in the hands of the community, not the police force, which again is a reactive orginization by its nature. While the DPD has many places in which it could do better, we're not going to see any huge drops in murders until more communities start to take back their neighborhoods, and who knows when that will happen. It's really a huge social issue facing almost all of our nation's inner-cities. And, there is no quick or easy solution. I'm still not ready to judge how large the reduction will be in murders this year, or how many extra the city will have over last year. This may turn out to be another huge drop in homicides. Who knows?

I agree with that. The art of policing is in its nature reactive. That is their job, to act to situations, though, there are significant preventive measures they can take on some crime. Community involvement is proactive, and the only thing that will continue to drop the murder rate. My only point was that even if tourist and law-abidding citizens are not targeted, you can't say that the difference between 300 or 900 murders wouldn't mean something and put more people at risk. The whole disconnect between downtown residents and visitors and "everybody else" is an ideology I'm not going to accept. What effects one effects the other, if even to varying degrees.

That's really making light of the situation. That's common sense, but doesn't excuse a rising murder rate. That's not a groove the city should be comfortable fitting into, which is why I don't think it's all that important of a quote at all. 1 murder is too many.

Trying to predict crime even into the next week is fuzzy science, at best. Hopefully, though, homocides continue to go down like they have been for a few years now.

My family lived that way before we moved. 12th and Clairmont was not an easy place to live by any means, but that doesn't mean ot was hell everyday. Still and again, if not exaggerated, it is one sided and purposefully made to focus mostly on the bad times in his life leading up to his success.

8 Mile is nothing more than strip malls. And, you have to be able to distinguish between movies and real life. lol I really do hate that so many see the movie and really think that nothing is played or or exaggerated. Eminem's portrayal of Detroit in the movie is actually very exaggerated, and if not exaggerated, one-sided. It really does make me ask the question if any press is really good press.

Detroit's current revitalization (focused mostly, though not exclusively, within the historic boundaries of the old city) is probably the most tangible one to ever occur and is in full swing. The past 6 years or so have probably been the most exciting time for central Detroit in many, many decades, and is the first time in many, many decades that the downtown is growing, again. The city is still facing many and very real problems, but there is an optimism for many that hasn't been felt in the city in decades.

A photo I took back in 2003. I'm not sure where I was except that it was the near westside. If anyone could place the location that'd be great. I really like it because it was gritty; reminded me of home:

I was happy to read that. In fact, Councilwoman Dunbar asked my opinion on this some weeks ago why they were still crafting the change around. As I said in the other thread, I can't remember the last time the regulars have ever been so nasty. They are getting completely out of hand. Again, most of them have gone beyond the point of simply being watchdogs for the city, and have turned into people that don't give a damn about Lansing, rather how good they look on the camera, and how loud they can talk without screaming. If they aren't grandstanding, than someone needs to give me a new defintion for the word. lol

Well, probably because she switched real estate agents, or actually got one for the first time for this property.

It's been up for sale for quite some time as the last owner (one of the old timers that began to bring Old Town back in the Mid-to-late 90's) moved, and sold off her assessts, here, earlier this year.

Has a parking garage ever been converted to other uses. I have never heard of that. It does sound good on paper, but has it ever been done? Usually, parking garage are built with less of a shelf-life than say and office building or residential building, and are almost always torn down at the end of their lives. In that regard, I don't think it makes much of a difference if the floors are sloped or not.

The bottom floors would almost definitely be retail or office space, though. It only makes the most sense. It's set up perfecting for retail and service-oriented buildings. The David Whitney housed a lot of medical arts, right?

I'm not sure about the cost, but the building is owned by a Troy investor, who I assume is doing like all of the others downtown squatting on their buildings until downtown can get to the point of where they can justify the ridiculously high price they are asking.

A pic I took last year. It's an interesting view of part of my city's skyline, and an unusual view for a few reasons:

Great pics, especially the one looking just over the parapet into Midtown and New Center. People tend to forget about those skylines because they are relatively short, but they are skylines nonetheless, and bigger on their own than many Michigan cities. I wish downtown had more greenspace like Hart Plaza. I'd hope wherever downtown renovation goes, that monumental greenspace is kept in mind.

One more thing. Since there no longer seems to be a project page (page with basics) on this one, I was wondering how will be the tenants of the three towers, or if they are being built as speculative medical office buildings? I tried looking back through all 13 pages of this, but couldn't find anything. Grand Rapids' healthcare developments really make my mind spin as the names DeVos, Spectrum...all seem to run into each other after awhile. lol

No, I meant of the ones that are the most heavily photoshopped, the last two.

Great Pictures! Though, I'd like to see the original versions before the photoshopping.

Maybe I missed this, but does this project has an official name yet, or is that something coming down the road?