Originally Posted by
Parkguy
Another thing to remember is that Old Redford isn't really an urban setting, but rather it is identical to the layout and density of inner-ring suburbs. In fact, it WAS an inner-ring suburb. That's the case just about everywhere in the city outside of the Boulevard. If you look at "downtown" Old Redford, it is designed very much like downtown Farmington or Northville. Certainly more recent development has been really, really different, but the underlying structure is the same. In fact, Old Redford was originally called Downtown Redford when it was still part of Redford Township. Grand River/Greenfield [[which I mentioned in my earlier post) was identical to the old shopping district in East Dearborn [[Michigan/Schaefer), or Ferndale [[Woodward/Nine Mile). They even had the identical stores. Detroit is a suburban region, even within the city limits. [[Maybe some of our problems stem from trying to use urban solutions in suburban-type neighborhoods. Urban solutions are perfectly appropriate for Downtown or along the Woodward Corridor or inside the Boulevard,) Places like Rosedale Park, Grandmont, the Villages were really conceived and built as "garden suburbs" that were later brought into the city proper. I think that this plan for the Redford HS site is a modern version of the kinds of neighborhood anchor stores that we saw in decades past. If the city integrates it well with transit, pedestrian traffic, and vehicle traffic, and with the surrounding community [[which already has regional drawing power, like the Redford Theater, Artist Village, Rogell Golf Course, the public library branch, and the pagoda on Redford Street) you could see some real improvement in the commercial area and redevelopment in housing.