John R. South of Grand Blvd-Some things have gotten Better!

As a kid, I was driven to the Music institute for lessons. This was in the late sixties/early seventies. The institute is on John R and Kirby and my relative took the "direct route" after exiting the Lodge and taking Grand Blvd east shot down John R. [[Woodward would have been safer, I think.) It is near the old Piquette Model T plant.

In that area, at the time I saw seedy bars maybe vice and wooden tenements [[or VERY old apts) and row houses, the former with plastic dropcloth for windows! A neighbor said the former Police Chief of Highland Park said HE would not go near that Hood. I think it is considered part of Milwaukee Junction or North End and is mostly empty lots now. Anyone have memories of This? And there were even some houses being stripped of fixtures near the music institute during that time period.

PS: I find the Search function [[if it Exists) hard to use here. I

I don't see how it's better than in the past.

As you describe, it was a rundown and seedy area, but active and vibrant. It was basically like any poor urban U.S. neighborhood.

Now it doesn't really exist as a neighborhood. The ungentrified core neighborhoods of Detroit are basically gone. You have some islands of prosperity surrounded by nothing.

Well, I grew up in the suburbs and never knew the History of Detroit. Black Bottom [[named for rich farmland originally not racial reasons) was bulldozed in the early Fifties for upscale stuff the residents couldnt afford and those horrid hirise housing projects. The Medical Center replaced Sugar Hill [[really a continuation of Black Bottom) and the Chrysler Freeway Hastings street. There is some stuff in North End from the 1890s but most turn of the Century. I do not claim that the City as a Whole has gotten better.

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Originally Posted by drpoundsign

As a kid, I was driven to the Music institute for lessons. This was in the late sixties/early seventies. The institute is on John R and Kirby and my relative took the "direct route" after exiting the Lodge and taking Grand Blvd east shot down John R. [[Woodward would have been safer, I think.) It is near the old Piquette Model T plant.

In that area, at the time I saw seedy bars maybe vice and wooden tenements [[or VERY old apts) and row houses, the former with plastic dropcloth for windows! A neighbor said the former Police Chief of Highland Park said HE would not go near that Hood. I think it is considered part of Milwaukee Junction or North End and is mostly empty lots now. Anyone have memories of This? And there were even some houses being stripped of fixtures near the music institute during that time period.

PS: I find the Search function [[if it Exists) hard to use here. I

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Can you give us an example of what improvements you have observed in the area? I ask because I find this area to be fascinating and full of potential.