Closure of Abbott Street

I recently contacted the Detroit Building Authority to protest the closure of Abbott Street between Third and the Lodge Service Drive. They quickly sent me back a very nice letter telling me that the closure could not be avoided, in the interest of security for the new public safety headquarters.

I am now thinking about my next steps, and whether its worth my energy to continue fighting this closure. Can anyone tell me who has ultimate decision making authority for this kind of project, and what means the public has to participate in this decision, if any?

Also, what do others think? Will closing Abbott really improve safety of a building that can still be approached from several sides?

Thanks,

1953

Why not just go down to Howard?

what are they planning to do with the area?

Superblocks are dumb and hurt the city.

If buildings are such a threat to public safety, that they require street closures, they do not belong downtown, putting innocent people at risk. They need to be located in remote low density areas, in a secure campus setting.

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Originally Posted by Mark Smiles

If buildings are such a threat to public safety, that they require street closures, they do not belong downtown, putting innocent people at risk. They need to be located in remote low density areas, in a secure campus setting.

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The chicken came before the egg in this case.

This particular block goes directly under part of the building and had direct access onto the northbound JC Lodge. The same on ramp is accessed from Howard Street just one block south. I do see a reason for closing the street, and an easy alternate route.

It has to be closed, because someone might want sneak up behind the DPD! maybe to bomb them! And that would probably be enough to cause them to show up in, oh, 30 minutes or so... and what if they showed up and had nowhere to park!

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Originally Posted by gazhekwe

This particular block goes directly under part of the building and had direct access onto the northbound JC Lodge. The same on ramp is accessed from Howard Street just one block south. I do see a reason for closing the street, and an easy alternate route.

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But that entrance ramp was built for the purpose of being directly accessed by Abbott St. Thereby keeping the other nearby streets that cross the freeway from backing up. Access to the Lodge via Abbott was the very reason why they built a bridge over that street years ago, rather than just shut it off then.

It seems pretty dumb to go to all the trouble to build a new police headquarters in a central location, only to screw up the designed traffic pattern by closing off a major traffic artery that runs near it - with no public review. If that was going to be the case, like Mark Smiles says above, why not build it on some of the great abundance of empty land this city has that is well away from any major traffic?

The traffic pattern over there was screwed up when 9/11 happened and they closed the service drive.

You could argue that the City will no longer get funds from the State's Act 51 formula, but for such a small segment it won't matter as maintenance costs far outweigh what it gets to keep it open.

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Originally Posted by EastsideAl

But that entrance ramp was built for the purpose of being directly accessed by Abbott St. Thereby keeping the other nearby streets that cross the freeway from backing up. Access to the Lodge via Abbott was the very reason why they built a bridge over that street years ago, rather than just shut it off then.

It seems pretty dumb to go to all the trouble to build a new police headquarters in a central location, only to screw up the designed traffic pattern by closing off a major traffic artery that runs near it - with no public review. If that was going to be the case, like Mark Smiles says above, why not build it on some of the great abundance of empty land this city has that is well away from any major traffic?

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For that matter, why not just stay put, spend the $60 mil on more cops and cop cars, make a dent in the crime, then people might consider staying put, or moving back to the City, increasing the tax base..... Oh wait, there I go hating Detroit again and wanting it to fail.....

Here are my thoughts on the closure:

1. Its generally bad for the street grid.

2. It cuts off the pedestrian bridge to Corktown.

3. It may increase perceptions of safety, but it doesn't actually increase safety.

The building is no safer than if Abbott were open because all that separates the building from traffic is a measly control arm, and maybe a sleepy security guard.

Plus, you can still access the back of the building on the Lodge Service Drive, unless the city decides to close that street at Howard, effectively cutting off the Lodge from most of downtown.

And, with modern weapons, anyone who is serious can do harm to the building from Third Avenue anyway.

Furthermore, the existing police and fire headquarters have stood without any setback from the street a very long time, demonstrating that the threat to them is more perceived than real.

What I still want to know is who has the legal authority to shut this street, and how does the public comment or influence this process?

1953

I agree with 1953 on this one.

No more superblocks.

Closing this street only protects the bridge between the building and the parking structure. The building is still just as vulnerable on other sides.

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Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

For that matter, why not just stay put, spend the $60 mil on more cops and cop cars, make a dent in the crime

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Yes, but that wouldn't have given the "leadership" much more comfortable new offices, a parking garage with a bridge to keep them out of the cold, and no cool green panels!

I've long thought that this was a particularly dumb move for a department that claims to be too cash-strapped and under-manned to do its actual job. Since they were going to move several of the departments out temporarily anyway, why not renovate the historic 1300 and stay there on Beaubien? Why does a largely ineffective police dept. in a broke and shrinking city need a huge and expensive hq building?

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Originally Posted by EastsideAl

Yes, but that wouldn't have given the "leadership" much more comfortable new offices, a parking garage with a bridge to keep them out of the cold, and no cool green panels!

I've long thought that this was a particularly dumb move for a department that claims to be too cash-strapped and under-manned to do its actual job. Since they were going to move several of the departments out temporarily anyway, why not renovate the historic 1300 and stay there on Beaubien? Why does a largely ineffective police dept. in a broke and shrinking city need a huge and expensive hq building?

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Thank You. The $1.49, 2 Piece Dark, Tuesday Deal, is on me......

This is one street closing I don't have a problem with, especially since travelling along Howard Street will get you back to the freeway. A superblock here doesn't hurt pedestrian traffic since there's nothing to walk to along that stretch of Abbott. I'm going to assume that the City is going to use the parking structure next to its public safety headquarters. For safety reasons it does make sense to cut Abbott off to the public. You don't want the public loitering between the headquarters and the parking structure.

I do agree that this was a poor location for the police headquarters. Something should have been worked out with Wayne County where the county jail being built and the public safety headquarters should have shared that same space, keeping the police in the heart of downtown. Given what we now know about the jail's financial problems, the city could have helped pay for a shared public safety/jail structure. Too bad it didn't happen. It would have saved millions of taxpayers' dollars.