Quote Originally Posted by afoley View Post
I grew up in Russell Woods and currently live on the other side of Dexter near Central High. As a current resident, the entire area should be treated -- much like Detroit itself -- as a street-by-street, almost block-by-block case. Some of the two-family streets are still well-occupied. Go over one street, and you'll see two-family homes falling down and boarded up. Our biggest problem are the empty apartment buildings. My part of the neighborhood is all single-family: Very well occupied, mostly homeowners with some renters scattered in between. But all is not lost. As I've said on this board before, while we're far from being a Midtown-type neighborhood, we still have churches, schools, some urban gardens and a few businesses in the area and shouldn't be lumped in with the East Robinwoods and other bombed-out areas of the city.

We've recently re-energized our block club/neighborhood association to target what we can do about addressing specific concerns, particularly the empty apartment buildings, potholes and getting more stop signs on the side streets. The Food Farm grocery store on the corner of Lawrence and Dexter has a new owner, I'm told, and should be opening sometime this year. Soul Brothers Eatery is doing well, and we've seen homes for sale go quickly to new owners just as fast as they come on the market. Don't count us out yet.
We definitely won't! Thanks for the update. For so many years, up until my last immediate family members moved out in 2008, that was home for me... just to hear that intersection named brings back so many memories...