Origin of the name 'Cass Corridor'..?

Hi everyone,

Can anyone tell us the origin of the given name, "Cass Corridor", and when it was first used?

Good question. All I know is that I live in the Cass Corridor and I don't know where the fuck a Midtown is. Fuck a Midtown.

^^^ Uh-oh you're up early ready to rumble Dj...;)...!

My guess is the late 70s through to the 80s? That's really when it was most populated and had an urban bohemian vibe as far as I can tell.

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Originally Posted by Django

Good question. All I know is that I live in the Cass Corridor and I don't know where the fuck a Midtown is. Fuck a Midtown.

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HEY! For once I agree with you.....

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Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

HEY! For once I agree with you.....

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DJ & HT
I second that emotion...but I'm old school as well:cool:

Not to deviate from the original question, but I don't suppose a slight image segue will hurt :)

Attachment 25878

Good article here.

http://critical-moment.org/2012/02/1...ease-stand-up/

Are we really still doing this? The Cass Corridor is one specific part of Midtown, which covers a much larger geographical area, including other neighborhoods like Brush Park, Art Center, etc. All are Midtown; not all are Cass Corridor. There is no conflict. Just like Greektown is part of Downtown. Nothing to debate here.

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Originally Posted by Waymooreland

Are we really still doing this? The Cass Corridor is one specific part of Midtown, which covers a much larger geographical area, including other neighborhoods like Brush Park, Art Center, etc. All are Midtown; not all are Cass Corridor. There is no conflict. Just like Greektown is part of Downtown. Nothing to debate here.

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Thank you, the bug some people have up their ass about the Midtown thing is stupid.

I imagine it has to with how the Corridor was set up the replace Michigan Ave skid row. There is a thread on this with scanned articles about city council deliberating what to do with those displaced. Of note on the scanned articles one of the community group opposing it, the Midtown Community Action Council.

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...-Cass-Corridor

Well, in a pure, historical sense, Lewis Cass owned the land north of Michigan Avenue between Cass and Third. That long, narrow "corridor" of land takes its name from him. Anyway, sounds more urban than "the Cass farm," which is really what it was.

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Originally Posted by Waymooreland

Are we really still doing this? The Cass Corridor is one specific part of Midtown, which covers a much larger geographical area, including other neighborhoods like Brush Park, Art Center, etc. All are Midtown; not all are Cass Corridor. There is no conflict. Just like Greektown is part of Downtown. Nothing to debate here.

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Midtown was a fabrication created by people who wanted to avoid truth and history. That Midtown has been adopted by the greater Cass Corridor is simply more 1984-speak.

Nobody today uses Cass Corridor. It like Negro. Or Bombay. The corporate-loving rebranders won this battle. Detroit has lost a unique place name, and gained a generic term used by half the cities in the world where a strong cultural reference held sway.

In a way I don't mind either, and happy to see most of the development in both areas. I will say this: the term "Midtown" is not that recent.

I knew of a small business in 1978 bearing Midtown as part of its name on the upper end of Cass heading towards Baltimore.

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Originally Posted by Waymooreland

Are we really still doing this? The Cass Corridor is one specific part of Midtown, which covers a much larger geographical area, including other neighborhoods like Brush Park, Art Center, etc. All are Midtown; not all are Cass Corridor. There is no conflict. Just like Greektown is part of Downtown. Nothing to debate here.

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Originally Posted by Zacha341

In a way I don't mind either, and happy to see most of the development in both areas. I will say this: the term "Midtown" is not that recent.

I knew of a small business in 1978 bearing Midtown as part of its name on the upper end of Cass heading towards Baltimore.

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You see? In the late 1970s somebody was using the same name that dozens of cities use, even though Detroit had a name rooted in more than 150 years of history already. Do you SEE? YOU SEE what RICHES we TREAD OVER?

I just tell people that Midtown was founded in 1817 by Cornelius R. Midtown, a well-known pimp and operator of opium parlors.

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Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

You see? In the late 1970s somebody was using the same name that dozens of cities use, even though Detroit had a name rooted in more than 150 years of history already. Do you SEE? YOU SEE what RICHES we TREAD OVER?

I just tell people that Midtown was founded in 1817 by Cornelius R. Midtown, a well-known pimp and operator of opium parlors.

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I remember reading about him in History books..... I think.

Obviously, gentrification is rapidly changing the demographic of the Corridor and what it was, will be a ghost of the past. What I object to is the attempt at blotting out its history by attempting to remove the name.
Besides, if I were into gentrification, where would I rather live? In a monochrome wasteland in which there is no past, or a location that has gutsy historic flavor?
What real estate and merchant types don't seem to realize, is that the reason people pay the sky-high prices in Soho, NY is in part due to the name association.
For that reason, in their rush to 'sanitize' the area by expunging the Cass Corridor name, they are essentially devaluing the property in the long run.

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Originally Posted by animatedmartian

My guess is the late 70s through to the 80s? That's really when it was most populated and had an urban bohemian vibe as far as I can tell.

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It was known as the Cass Corridor way before the late 70's.

Hah! Arguably for that northern end at least.

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Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

...I just tell people that Midtown was founded in 1817 by Cornelius R. Midtown, a well-known pimp and operator of opium parlors.

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My personal preference is Cass Corridor, but I like Detroitnerds post, and will borrow it if I am asked about this.
"...I just tell people that Midtown was founded in 1817 by Cornelius R. Midtown, a well-known pimp and operator of opium parlors..."

Say it loud, I'm a CCC and I'm proud!

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Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch

Nobody today uses Cass Corridor. It like Negro. Or Bombay. The corporate-loving rebranders won this battle. Detroit has lost a unique place name, and gained a generic term used by half the cities in the world where a strong cultural reference held sway.

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Did I miss something? Since when do people not use the term Cass Corridor? I hear it used all the time, when referring to the appropriate area.

Here is a Susan Mosey presentation at the The Economics of Urbanism Symposium in Birmingham Michigan, 2014, re-coining the Cass Corridor into "Midtown", attempting to erase decades of history pertaining to a thread that leads for better or worse, to an exceedingly colorful cultural past, all in the name of short term financial expediency.

Throughout my life, I have done my best to keep these folks at arms length, and now they have finally caught up with me, ready to erase the very existence of my memories, to obliterate the Cass Corridor as if it never existed.
Although the presentation is plainly about the Cass Corridor, see how many times you can hear her mention the Cass Corridor in this presentation. I got half way through before I needed to do something more constructive with my life.

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Originally Posted by esteban

Here is a Susan Mosey presentation at the The Economics of Urbanism Symposium in Birmingham Michigan, 2014, re-coining the Cass Corridor into "Midtown", attempting to erase decades of history pertaining to a thread that leads for better or worse, to an exceedingly colorful cultural past, all in the name of short term financial expediency.

Throughout my life, I have done my best to keep these folks at arms length, and now they have finally caught up with me, ready to erase the very existence of my memories, to obliterate the Cass Corridor as if it never existed.
Although the presentation is plainly about the Cass Corridor, see how many times you can hear her mention the Cass Corridor in this presentation. I got half way through before I needed to do something more constructive with my life.

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You talk about wanting to do something more constructive with your life so you opened a new thread on the Cass Corridor?? :eek:

See if any of the old threads are constructive enough for you before opening the same old can o' worms....

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...-Cass-Corridor

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...Alley-District

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...um-coming-soon

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...-Cass-Corridor

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...nabis-Industry

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...sed-to-blossom

Back in the 40s and 50s, you would rarely hear areas called by a name [[Brightmore, East English Village, West Village). Areas were referred to by the major cross streets [[I live near Harper & Chalmers). "Downtown" was a vague thing meaning "down by Hudsons".

I hate that we keep going over this. Cass Corridor is neighborhood within Midtown. It's just that simple. It ain't that deep for anyone to be getting angry or hyper-territorial over. Call whatever locality whatever you want within the district; but don't try to pretend that Midtown was meant to erase the identity of any of the localities within it. If anything, it was meant to give these neighborhoods within the district an umbrella to shield themselves under if they chose to do so. These areas are better off for the umbrella. Look on either side the Lodge of Chrysler to see what happens when everything else was meant to fend for itself in the old inner-city. Only Woodbridge has any semblence of being a cohesive neighborhood and it's only because Wayne State was across the way.

Grow up.

Cass was named after Lewis Cass, who was ex military and gov. of the MI territory, I believe from 1813 to 1831.

Orgs set up there to assist Vietnam vets along the corridor to assist. Our government did a piss poor job to re assimilate our returning troops. It got kind of rough.

No problem with the re-branding but don't forget our history.

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Originally Posted by Dexlin

I hate that we keep going over this. Cass Corridor is neighborhood within Midtown. It's just that simple. It ain't that deep for anyone to be getting angry or hyper-territorial over. Call whatever locality whatever you want within the district; but don't try to pretend that Midtown was meant to erase the identity of any of the localities within it. If anything, it was meant to give these neighborhoods within the district an umbrella to shield themselves under if they chose to do so. These areas are better off for the umbrella. Look on either side the Lodge of Chrysler to see what happens when everything else was meant to fend for itself in the old inner-city. Only Woodbridge has any semblence of being a cohesive neighborhood and it's only because Wayne State was across the way.

Grow up.

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Its pretty clear that Midtown was a fabrication meant to obliterate history. I like hearing about it, and hardly think its infantile to discuss Detroit history. Let the old codgers tell tale of the old days. They weren't all great, but they were.

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Originally Posted by Gistok

You talk about wanting to do something more constructive with your life so you opened a new thread on the Cass Corridor?? :eek:

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Thanks Gistok, should'a done my homework. I'll read the links, bitch some more, go back and, as you say, do something more interesting with my life. :)

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Originally Posted by esteban

For that reason, in their rush to 'sanitize' the area by expunging the Cass Corridor name, they are essentially devaluing the property in the long run.

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Yeah, just look at how much the area has devolved recently.

The funny thing is that "Cass Corridor" was originally a planning term too. It goes back to the great city planning/urban renewal era that ran from the late '40s to the early '60s. Specifically, it has to do with what was discussed in the thread linked by MSUguy earlier here [[Dookie Joe particularly discusses it there): the planned relocation of 'less desirable' populations, like Chinese people or the residents of the old Skid Row on Michigan Ave., to the area just west of Woodward.

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Originally Posted by Hermod

Back in the 40s and 50s, you would rarely hear areas called by a name [[Brightmore, East English Village, West Village). Areas were referred to by the major cross streets [[I live near Harper & Chalmers). "Downtown" was a vague thing meaning "down by Hudsons".

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This is quite true. Other than very well-defined areas like Indian Village or Palmer Woods, most Detroit neighborhoods were largely undifferentiated and usually simply referred to by nearby major streets until the rise of urban planning. My Dad, who has spent his entire nearly 90 years in the city, still does that.

"Cass Corridor" was an urban panning attempt to define an area west of Woodward, north of downtown, and south of the university, that had certain characteristics [[a high-density collection of apartment dwellings, a mostly white working class-to-poor population with a higher than normal number of transients, and several high traffic north-south "corridor" streets with transit connections) by naming it after a very recognizable street. The name stuck with everybody because of those connections, and because it came to recognizably describe, in an easy short-hand, the unique mix that resulted from a mix of normal population shifts and the dynamics set in motion by urban planning decisions.

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Originally Posted by EastsideAl

The funny thing is that "Cass Corridor" was originally a planning term too. It goes back to the great city planning/urban renewal era that ran from the late '40s to the early '60s. Specifically, it has to do with what was discussed in the thread linked by MSUguy earlier here [[Dookie Joe particularly discusses it there): the planned relocation of 'less desirable' populations, like Chinese people or the residents of the old Skid Row on Michigan Ave., to the area just west of Woodward.



This is quite true. Other than very well-defined areas like Indian Village or Palmer Woods, most Detroit neighborhoods were largely undifferentiated and usually simply referred to by nearby major streets until the rise of urban planning. My Dad, who has spent his entire nearly 90 years in the city, still does that.

"Cass Corridor" was an urban panning attempt to define an area west of Woodward, north of downtown, and south of the university, that had certain characteristics [[a high-density collection of apartment dwellings, a mostly white working class-to-poor population with a higher than normal number of transients, and several high traffic north-south "corridor" streets with transit connections) by naming it after a very recognizable street. The name stuck with everybody because of those connections, and because it came to recognizably describe, in an easy short-hand, the unique mix that resulted from a mix of normal population shifts and the dynamics set in motion by urban planning decisions.

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And also because it is alliterative. I appreciate your input, but I'd like to know more about this 'planning attempt'. Does make sense that the name came from planning rather than organically.

Another factor might be the decline. Was the name as widely used before it became a term of derision? Its always good to have a name for a place you don't want your kids to go -- but you hangout for your visits to the female impersonator clubs and colorful bars.

Funny thing is that when someone mentions Cass Corridor we automatically think ghetto. Nothing wrong with the name of Cass and what is wrong with the word Corridor?

There is no doubt in mind that local developers in the area re-named it Midtown to distance themselves from the thought that the Corridor is a ghetto. Midtown sounds much more appealing after so many years of Corridor ghetto rhetoric.

It's funny to keep seeing people from the corridor try and pretend that everytime someone says Midtown they are talking about the corridor. Talk about presumptuous. No, old-timers, the Cass Corridor is not the only locality in Midtown, and the irony is that you guys are the one trying to conflate the two.

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. It's not always about the Corridor, folks. No, "Midtown" was not just a reaction solely to the Corridor. You probably think this song is about you, don't you? Get over yourselves.

Hey Django, you just got called an old fart, IE; old timer...too funny! Conflate means to "blow together" and or fuse, if you blow anyone let me know I'll take pictures.