Beacon Park Opening & Gerry Anderson
The upward spiral of Downtown Detroit hits an upbeat plateau with the opening of Beacon Park, as reported here by John Gallagher of the Free Press and shown below in the accompanying image. It opens with a bang next weekend and four days of events.
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Who'd a thunk it? Just a few years ago we had the magnificent vacant and decaying ruin of the GAR Building and, across Grand River Ave, a crumbling faceless asphalt parking lot. Today the GAR is filled with two restaurants on the ground floor and and edgy tenants above like film producers Running With Scissors and Mindfield. And now Beacon Park opens.
The backstory of DTE CEO Gerry Anderson, whose baby this project is, is also a bright spot. Inspiration came from Bostons Leventhal Park
His other civic efforts are very commendable. From the same Freep article:
"Today, the Beacon Park and [soon-being-head] of the Detroit Economic Club are just two of the many things on his agenda:
- Over the past year, Anderson has quietly recruited Detroit's top CEOs to join him in a behind-the-scenes working group to tackle issues such as insurance rates in Detroit and the need for more public transportation. Among those on the team: Mary Barra of General Motors, Chris Ilitch of Ilitch Holdings, and auto magnate and Grand Prix head Roger Penske.
- DTE Energy, in collaboration with the City of Detroit, began construction this year on nine acres at O’Shea Playground in northwest Detroit on one of the largest urban arrays of solar panels in the U.S. When completed, the solar park will generate enough clean energy to power 450 homes.
- And recently Anderson announced that DTE Energy will reduce carbon emissions from its plants by 80% or more by 2050. "It shapes the way that we’ll reinvest in power production," he said. "We’re retiring a lot of plants that have powered this state for the last half century.”
