Roosevelt Park Revival

[Joseph C. Krause]

A group in Corktown lead by some of the Slow's team has a comprehensive plan to re-do Roosevelt Park. They want the park to contain a bus shelter, playground for children, skate park/plaza, athletic courts, a gallery, and an amphitheater. Several elements of their plan have already been implemented, beginning with the triangular traffic island next to Slow's and continuing with the half-circle "reflection garden" in front of MCS.

Here are the two images of the plan that I've seen, although I don't know if they are the most current:





Here's the site for the project:
http://rooseveltparkrevival.org/

I'm posting this because they want community input but so far I have seen virtually no public discussion for these very prominent changes to a public space. They have held meetings about it, but the buzz has not seeped into the public discussion outside of those meetings.

Let me lead with a complement. I'm very happy that my neighbors who have found success here are putting forth the effort to improve this large public park, not only with a plan to clean it up, but by adding many amenities that are currently absent.

But, since they're asking for community input, here's mine.

Roosevelt Park was designed to be part of Michigan Central Station. 15th Street was closed, property was seized, and houses were demolished to make way for a formal processional park leading to the entrance. This plan eliminates the formal elements and symmetry of the park entirely. There is nothing leading up to the central entrance of the station, in fact, that line is asymmetrically obstructed by the proposed amphitheater.

Vernor Highway is closed, and an off-center row of trees and walking path are placed near where the Eastern side of Vernor today stands. I tend to feel that closing the street is unnecessary and may be a hassle for drivers, who will need to use 16th Street to connect from Vernor to Michigan [[unless I'm misreading the plan, it isn't clear to me whether the automotive connection with Vernor is eliminated completely or not). Should a streetcar ever again be installed on Michigan Avenue, it would also make a great deal of sense for it to use Vernor to connect to MCS and Southwest. If the complaint about the road is dangerous, speeding traffic, this would be reduced by restoring the classical geometries of the curves along the road instead of the easier, modern traffic-engineered curves, adding four rows of parking along the sides, and potentially narrowing the road slightly.

I don't support the amphitheater. There are many places to hold outdoor concerts in the city, large and small. New Center Park. The Belle Isle band shell. Chene Park. Hart Plaza. None of these are located in a primarily residential neighborhood of this kind. Two of my years in Corktown so far were spent living on Wabash Street, next to MCS. Though things look empty around the park, Wabash is a stable, mostly-occupied street with residents who value quiet just as much as anyone in the suburbs. I feel it's disrespectful to residents within earshot to program extremely loud music as anything other than an occasional special event.

A new path is added along the axis of 15th Street, echoing what came before Roosevelt Park. I think this is an interesting touch, but not one that is an improvement over a restoration for the park as designed. The coolness of a historical reference doesn't change the fact that it is dissonant with the spirit of the park, which is why it was removed in the first place, and from a strictly practical standpoint, 15th to the South of the park quickly transitions to a sidewalkless bridge ending at Bagley a few yards from 14th Street, [[which does contain sidewalks) and to the North dead ends at I-75 after one-half-block. I don't foresee this becoming a heavily traveled walkway.

The "reflection garden", already built, is actually OK. The native grasses planted to imitate the broken windows of MCS, with larger areas aligned with the main windows is an image of a kind of deliberate shabbiness that I interpret to be a statement that this isn't just an abandoned train station, that there are still people here living with it, reacting to it, and thinking about it. It's kind of sorrowful to me, but that's OK. I think it's valid. Should MCS ever come back online, though, I would suggest modifying the "reflection garden" to reflect that change as well and take a more lifelike form. Included in that change should be a restoration of sidewalks to the front door that once connected to the sides of the boulevard.

The skate park or skate plaza. I don't know what's up with these kids and their skate-boards but La Junta, Colorado has a better skate park than Detroit and I'm OK building something so that the kids don't crunch up the marble outside of Compuware.

The bus shelter, athletic courts, and art center -- let's do it. People don't need to be rained on just to wait for a bus that doesn't run frequently enough. People don't need to be fat. People like to look at art, sometimes.

Kids need a place to play, and there are three places already within a few blocks: Macomb Park at Rose and 17th, a jungle gym and basketball court at Marantette and Wabash, and Mulitett Park on Vermont South of Dalzelle. They all could stand a clean-up, but otherwise are already good amenities.

The site of Roosevelt Park is nearly as large as Hart Plaza! There's room in the naturalistically landscaped "wings" of the park to place all of these features and even some of the postmodern elements [[even the amphitheater, should that remain). All of that can coexist with a restoration of the formal esplanade with four rows of trees down Vernor Highway. The park is part of the station.



So as a citizen of Corktown, there's my "community input". I don't mean my critical comments to be taken personally by anybody involved in the project, but the plan is for a big change to the neighborhood's defining landmark, and only a few people are discussing it.