When I lived in Eastpointe, I noticed as I drove up Gratiot through Roseville that the west side of Gratiot had tons old-fashioned retail [[right up to the sidewalk), while the east side had almost all of the more modern suburban-style retail. Obviously, there are exceptions. "Downtown" Roseville's main strip is on the east side of the road, and by about 13 Mile everything is modern suburbia. So we're really talking about maybe a 5 mile stretch north of 8 Mile.
Still, I found myself wondering how that setup emerged. Either the zoning was intentional from that start [[big parking lots on one side, street parking and alleys on the other), or a change was made during a road widening [[demolishing one side and preserving the other). I know Warren pulled a trick similar to the latter scenario on Mound, demolishing around half of Downtown Warren's main retail strip during a road widening. Of course, now Warren is trying to fabricate a fake downtown out of thin air and grass plots on Van Dyke, but that's another story.
Anyhoo... does anyone have any details or recollections on this? Also, it'd be interesting to find what that whole weird splitting of Gratiot in Mt. Clemens involved. Did they have to demolish much in the two areas where northbound and southbound Gratiot combine again?
