History of Southfield becoming the commercial and business hub of Metro Detroit?

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Some people see prosperity and community life only when the people are like them. Everyone else is relegated to less than desirable status.

Bingo !! Truer words were never spoken.

[DTWflyer]

Dearborn commerical real estate is almost entirely controlled by Ford Land. They've done a great job of keeping most of their properties full and they aggresively market vacant properties. That being said, the true appeal of the Dearborn commerical space is either what is directly needed by Ford, or for what companies/businesses need to be located near 1) Ford 2) the airport 3) desire suburban style office space relatively close to downtown.
Some of the challenges in Dearborn include filling vacant spaces in Fairlane Mall, the vacant sprawling complex formerly occupied by Lear at Ford Rd & M-39, and the former Hyatt hotel now downgraded to a lower-tier property.

I work in Dearborn and from my observation, the majority of low - mid-level managers that I work with live primarily in Plymouth, Canton, Westland, Livonia, or western Dearborn. Many of the younger people live either in Royal Oak, Berkley, downtown Detroit, or Ann Arbor. The executive in my group live in Chelsea, Ann Arbor, Grosse Ile, Franklin/Bingham Farms, or Birmingham.

Troy may have experienced a decline in their commerical real estate but much of the residential property has bounced back or remained stable. The schools in Troy are much better regarded than Dearborn and Troy is a much more desirable community where one can both live and work.

The importance of rail transit in communities like Troy or Dearborn are a moot point. For the forseeable future, these communities will rely upon the automobile. Mass transit just isn't feasible for such places and generally the road system is pretty good in these places. There is too much low density suburb to suburb commuting for rail to be an option. So be it.

[Bham1982]

The original point was, is Dearborn on a good track as a city. I think, due to its compactness and solid employment base, and because of all the immigrants who've built up a real community there, yes, it's on a good track.

The Dearborn Arab community is leaving, though. Dearborn will probably be less Arab in the future. Dearborn's population is dropping again, per most recent estimates, and, anecdotally, I have noticed a huge surge of Arab population in places like Canton, Northville, South Lyon, and the like. This wasn't true even 5 years ago. And commercially, Dearborn is going downhill. Fairlane sucks, and both downtown districts are hurting. Ritz Carlton left, Hyatt left, all the good department stores left.

[Detroitnerd]

"If anything, by becoming office meccas, Southfield and Troy aren't as diversified and could be courting long-term trouble."

Could be courting trouble? Both cities have already had major budget problems due to declines in the property values associated with the commercial and office properties in both cities.

You're right, Novine. It was only a few years ago that Troy gave tax abatements to Kelly Services just to keep its HQ in Troy. That's sort of the problem: Once you have this huge emphasis on commercial real estate being your moneymaker, it's all well and good while the development is taking place, but sooner or later you're built out, like Troy was in 2000. After that, what do you do? You have to strike it rich like Dearborn, and have wave after wave of immigrants, or, barring those boons, suffer as the inexorable wave of development passes you by for the next office center of the 2020s.

I think what a lot of people, especially our charming Oakland County triumphalists, do not realize is that prosperity is only one part of the process when it comes to local development. Hey, don't get me wrong, Dearborn had its boom in the 1950s and 1960s, but at least it has several different kinds of things going for it: different kinds of neighborhoods, different kinds of housing stock, history, a sense of place, an identity. The Arab-American community has really moved in and made it shinier and newer than what it could have been without immigration. If it's a jobs center, so much the better. Ford provides a solid footing for the municipal government, so not everybody must live in town. But many do, and they contribute to the community. I don't care what color they are if they're well-educated and sweep their walk. [[Let's not even get into the silly xenophobic comments on this thread.)

But, yes, Troy and Southfield and all the communities of Oakland County are threatened by the very same forces that threaten the region, and Detroit itself. It's all well and good to spit out of the car when you're at the top of the Ferris Wheel -- for a moment -- but what about what comes next?

It was all spelled out 40 years ago in the task force report on what ails metro Detroit. You have a troubled region, but "the approach, however, of the region and the state and federal governments to attacking these problems is fragmented, uncoordinated and generally ineffective." And that's because you have people comfortably predicting the doom of other communities while they don't realize the same rot is sapping away at their own foundations.

[p69rrh51]

I need a little help finding this Carl Habermas design. The image has Southfield Village as a location. Sorry its not mid-century but your help would be most appreciated.

[gazhekwe]

Well, it will be a trick and then some to find this. I bet I know of a hundred houses of similar design, but when I looked up a few, there were significant differences.

There is a neighborhood called Southfield Village Estates, now largely Orthodox. It runs from Ten Mile to Lincoln west of Greenfield, behind the New Orleans Mall. From what I can see, most of the homes in that area are at least two or three decades newer than the Habermas house you posted. I found a couple other Southfield Villages, one in CT and one in OH.

The house you posted looks to have been built no later than the 1920s, which makes it likely to be in some of the older areas of town. Eight Mile to Nine Mile, from Southfield to Lahser, Magnolia east of Southfield north of Northland Gardens, here and there along Ten Mile all the way to Inkster, along Berg Road from Eight Mile to Ten Mile and Code Road Between Ten Mile and Civic Center. You will see lots of newer houses in these areas as well, but there are plenty of older ones dating from the small farms era when people came here looking for space and a place to grow things.

[p69rrh51]

Well, it will be a trick and then some to find this. I bet I know of a hundred houses of similar design, but when I looked up a few, there were significant differences.

There is a neighborhood called Southfield Village Estates, now largely Orthodox. It runs from Ten Mile to Lincoln west of Greenfield, behind the New Orleans Mall. From what I can see, most of the homes in that area are at least two or three decades newer than the Habermas house you posted. I found a couple other Southfield Villages, one in CT and one in OH.

The house you posted looks to have been built no later than the 1920s, which makes it likely to be in some of the older areas of town. Eight Mile to Nine Mile, from Southfield to Lahser, Magnolia east of Southfield north of Northland Gardens, here and there along Ten Mile all the way to Inkster, along Berg Road from Eight Mile to Ten Mile and Code Road Between Ten Mile and Civic Center. You will see lots of newer houses in these areas as well, but there are plenty of older ones dating from the small farms era when people came here looking for space and a place to grow things.

Habermas was a local architect. This is one of the few buildings I have found of his outside of Grosse Pointe. The image is from a 1940 issue of Michigan Architect and Engineer and most of Habermas' work is from the 1930's to the 1950's. I will take a look in the areas you suggested thx!