A New Vision for Roosevelt Park Led by Community Stakeholders

In a story Friday on Curbed.com, the story talks about the Corktown/Mexicantown communities bringing to city planners proposals for re-imagining Roosevelt Park. The three proposals are interesting but still don't seem to logically address an issue I've had with the configuration of Vernor Highway through the the park.

As you travel from Mexicantown into Corktown, there's never an issue from where you are coming from and where you are going. You travel along Vernor Highway until it ends at Michigan and 14th streets. However, if you want to get to Mexicantown, travelling along Vernor is not that easy. First, there's no left turn from the Michigan Avenue/14th Street intersection that gets you onto Vernor. That's because the southbound lanes of Vernor aren't in alignment with the northbound lanes of Vernor. If the northbound lanes and the southbound lanes were side-by-side, then turning left onto Vernor from Michigan Avenue wouldn't be a problem. Therefore, closing the southbound lanes would make more room for the park. Currently, you have to be in the know to know that to get to Vernor from Michigan Avernue you have to turn left onto 16th Street.

Two of the three plans to re-imagine Roosevelt Park have Vernor rerouted to 14th Street heading north. That gives the park more room but it still doesn't address a simple way to get to Vernor heading south. These two plans still have travelers travelling along 16th Street to get Vernor heading south. Why not make Vernor a two-way at 14th so that you could avoid having to travel to 16th Street? Also, in these two plans, there are two awkward turns along 16th Street that you have to take to get to southbound Vernor. Very confusing. Now, the third plan has travelers turning onto lanes that head south along Vernor but the plan cuts the park in half.

For visitors/tourists, it would be easier to get to southbound Vernor by being able to turn on Vernor/14th Street from Michigan Avenue at the intersection where these three streets currently intersect. Why have travelers guess how to get to southbound Vernor?

Why complicate things? Reconstruct Vernor to the red line shown. You'd only take a small corner of a couple of properties, no buildings. Make it four lanes if possible. Close off the entire boulevard in front of the Monstrosity and make it bike or walk area.

Attachment 33792

Close 17th at the church and make that whole grey area green as an expansion of the park. If Matty doesn't like it ... tough.

Something like this

Attachment 33793

Vernor should be closed so the park is not divided into two sides. Traffic can go around.

I'm not sure there's any practical way to do that.

I'd also take the unused track areas and the platform to turn into pedestrian areas and a rail museum. Could be a collaborative effort between the railroads and historical groups.

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Originally Posted by royce

If you want to get to Mexicantown, travelling along Vernor is not that easy. First, there's no left turn from the Michigan Avenue/14th Street intersection that gets you onto Vernor. That's because the southbound lanes of Vernor aren't in alignment with the northbound lanes of Vernor. If the northbound lanes and the southbound lanes were side-by-side, then turning left onto Vernor from Michigan Avenue wouldn't be a problem.

Therefore, closing the southbound lanes would make more room for the park. Currently, you have to be in the know to know that to get to Vernor from Michigan Avernue you have to turn left onto 16th Street.

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Does any of this come down to Matty Maroun's mysterious plans for MCS? Don't we have to wait to see what's really going on there first?

I discovered the left turn problem myself when getting off Michigan Avenue, but going up a few blocks further [[a few hundred yards) and then turning left was no problem. Just look for an appropriate turn-off.

Traffic lights at/just past the Mercury Bar might work, too.

Is there $ to pay for this?

This park seems to have great potential if done right. To be done right requires very good planning [[which they are trying to do) plus a lot of $.

Just think, they could even take Qewpie Line loop out Michigan to the new/proposed Vernor [[above), down to Mexican Town.

Like Brush Park, this part of Detroit has huge potential. Corktown and Michigan Avenue have already shown that. Then do something with the large block of land at the former Tiger Stadium on Michigan so close to Downtown if a plan isn't already in place for that particular site.

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Originally Posted by night-timer

Like Brush Park, this part of Detroit has huge potential. Corktown and Michigan Avenue have already shown that. Then do something with the large block of land at the former Tiger Stadium on Michigan so close to Downtown if a plan isn't already in place for that particular site.

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Agree with you.

IF Gilbert/Gores don't get the fail jail site, Tiger Stadium site would be ideal. I know Gilbert [[and presumably Gores) are married to the fail jail site the way the Ilitches were/are married to the current LCA site.

But...

Tiger Stadium site has the following advantages:

1). The city owns a site which is [[obviously) large enough for a stadium. The current usage isn't ideal.

2). Access via automobile [[this is Detroit and not NYC/Yankee Stadium where folks take the subway) is easy via Michigan Ave., Trumbull, access from freeways, etc.

3). There is enough undeveloped land to the west of Tiger Stadium for building housing and commercial development, i.e., 'neighborhood building' and parking.

How about the city sell Tiger Stadium site to G/G for $1.00 if they build the stadium themselves and promise to spend say 75M on housing or other commercial building on Michigan Ave. between the Lodge and say 14th street?

This, to me, seems infinitely better than at say Wayne State [[replace Adams Field with a soccer/football stadium). That would do almost nothing in terms of development.

And yes, maybe G/G would get involved with the Roosevelt Park and low and behold some day, some day, maybe something would happen with the MCS and maybe a QLine extension down Michigan Ave. to say 14th street.

The Tiger Stadium site has been sold and is in the process of redevelopment. Am I missing something here?

emu steve.... the best thing that ever happened to the Corktown neighborhood around Tiger Stadium was the Tigers leaving for Comerica park. I remember as a teenager parking for a game in the neighborhood empty weed strewn lots for a game. And those empty lots were everywhere in Corktown. Although I can't remember the exact details, in some places every 5th house was torn down for the lucrative parking generation that those empty [[ugly) lots provided. It has only been since the Tigers left that that neighborhood has rebounded with infill housing.

Nobody wants to live "in a residential housing tract neighborhood" near a stadium, and the parking and littering issues are among the reasons why.

And as Southen said... mercifully there are other plans for that site.

I hear you. I don't remember those days.

I used to take the bus [[Michigan Ave.) to Tiger Stadium while a h.s. student.

Later I left the Detroit area and lost interest in baseball.

As I'm a baby boomer, last time I was at Tiger Stadium was gee... [[I do remember the '68 World Series, but not the next one) And believe me, when I was a teenager, I wasn't worried about car strewn lawns, etc. etc.

They do have some nice ideas.

A green space bike/walking path over the rail tunnel connecting Roosevelt Park to West Riverfront Park would be pretty cool.

https://detroit.curbed.com/2017/7/21...rk-vision-plan

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Originally Posted by Gistok

emu steve.... the best thing that ever happened to the Corktown neighborhood around Tiger Stadium was the Tigers leaving for Comerica park. I remember as a teenager parking for a game in the neighborhood empty weed strewn lots for a game. And those empty lots were everywhere in Corktown. Although I can't remember the exact details, in some places every 5th house was torn down for the lucrative parking generation that those empty [[ugly) lots provided. It has only been since the Tigers left that that neighborhood has rebounded with infill housing.

Nobody wants to live "in a residential housing tract neighborhood" near a stadium, and the parking and littering issues are among the reasons why.

And as Southen said... mercifully there are other plans for that site.

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Good info.

This does make the point, I think, that I have been making is that stadium/arena either belong in say downtown areas, with plenty of freeways, parking, etc. or heaven forbid, in some far out area where a few freeways intersect. Comerica/Ford Field/LCA/fail-jail site meet that first definition. The Palace meets neither. Could anyone ever think of building an arena where the old Olympia was???? Cars? Parking?

I don't know how many baseball fans here ever attended a game in Baltimore's old Memorial Stadium? It was a big stadium right in the middle of a residential area. Not good.

I can't see how this design would help the future revitalization of MCS. You're basically cutting it off from Michigan Ave and the car, bike, and pedestrian traffic it could bring.

I'm all for activating this park, but this just looks like some undergrad design school project rather than a serious, thoughtful proposal.

"slight undulations in the topography rise and fall to form a gorgeous landscape of diverse experiences." Are you serious?

Previously, I apologized for forgetting about the redevelopment plans for Tiger Stadium.

This is the article title [[$4.375 loan from the state) for those who wish to search for it.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...lion-loan-from