Well, yes, there was a "Chinatown" there, but that was Detroit's second Chinatown. The original Chinatown, which was a neighborhood where Chinese people actually lived, was on the streets around Third and Second south of Michigan Ave.
This 'slum' was cleared, along with old 'Skid Row' along Michigan Ave. and large parts of old Corktown, in the 'urban renewal' efforts surrounding the building of the nearby Lodge Freeway in the late '50s and early '60s. The elements of that community that the city found 'less desirable', i.e. chronic alcoholics and Chinese, were encouraged by the city to move to the already declining Cass Corridor area.
Many Chinese businesses and some Chinese residents took the city up on its offer, and "Chinese themed" kiosks, phone booths, and signs were put in. But the idea never really 'took.' The Chinese residents mostly soon scattered from this less family-friendly area, and most of the businesses eventually closed. By the late '70s all that was left was Chung's restaurant at Cass and Peterboro and a small Chinese senior center behind it where old men played mahjong all day.
Some shots of Chinese New Year in Detroit's original Chinatown, from WSU's Virtual Motor City site:
http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...y=1;view=image
http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...y=1;view=image