Greater Mack Avenue

[eastland]

Seeing that there was an earlier thread on Mack Avenue, does anyone know why Mack Avenue becomes Greater Mack Avenue at the St. Clair Shores border? And what is the story with Little Mack?

[MidTownMs]

Seeing that there was an earlier thread on Mack Avenue, does anyone know why Mack Avenue becomes Greater Mack Avenue at the St. Clair Shores border? And what is the story with Little Mack?

Good Question!

[Scottathew]

I was thinking the same thing last night. I started looking at the maps and I was scratching my head!

[ordinary]

I'm thinking probably because the street, Little Mack starts in St. Clair Shores near 9 & Harper and it was a way of differentiating the two for people not familiar with the area.

[Gistok]

Ordinary is correct.

At 8 Mile the name changes from Mack Ave. [[as it leaves Grosse Pointe Woods) to Greater Mack. However north of 9 Mile Greater Mack starts becoming a residential side street, so its' importance is greatly diminished, and it has several places where it ends and restarts up a few blocks away again, twisting its' way to the SCS city limits at 14 Mile Rd.

Little Mack, whcih starts [[branches off) 1/4 mile north of 9 Mile begins as a 5 lane roadway, and continues on into Roseville [[at 12 Mile) until it ends at Gratiot [[just south of 14 Mile Rd. For many years it was mainly just a residential 4 lane roadway, until about 20 years ago when businesses started buying up the very deep residential lots on the west side of the street.[[they're at least 400 ft. deep). So the houses came down and the properties were redeveloped for doctors and dentists offices.... not just little offices, but large suites of offices in very nicely styled brick and stone buildings. Beaumont has a large medical office building, and at the SE corner area of 12 Mile St. John has been building/expanding a very large medical complex.

I'm sure that 50 years ago Greater Mack was a much more important street than Little Mack... bu the scales have been tipping toward Little Mack's importance ever since.

[Bluenote132003]

Wondering why the street that branched off was called "Little Mack", as opposed to getting it's own, unique name? Anyone have any idea of what ties them together? And [[it's probably only a google search away, but I'm looking to see if someone's got a good story...) what is Mack named after?

[MidTownMs]

I remember years ago rumor was that the Grosse Pointes wanted to name Mack something else at the pointe where Grosse Pointe begins [[after Alter Rd.) because they did not want to be confused with Detroit. Please do not quote me on this I said it was a rumor.

[Detroitnerd]

Yeah, I imagine somebody said at one time: "If giving this road a different name keeps one black person out of the Grosse Pointes, it will have been worth the confusion."

[TKshreve]

Yeah, I imagine somebody said at one time: "If giving this road a different name keeps one black person out of the Grosse Pointes, it will have been worth the confusion."

Are you f*cking serious?

Way to poison a decent thread with your one-trick pony show.

[Detroitnerd]

Are you f*cking serious?

Way to poison a decent thread with your one-trick pony show.

It was meant in a funny way. But, yeah, Grosse Pointe's real estate businesses have a long history of doing everything possible to steer away black people. That's not little old me making some off-the-charts slur on poor little GP. It's a fact of history.

Nice try making me look like a meanie for making a joke with a bit of truth to it.

[Detroitnerd]

"In the spring of 1960, a civil court suit unexpectedly shed light on how the real estate market operated in Grosse Pointe. The trial revealed that there was a screening system in effect in the Grosse Pointes that required real estate brokers to submit the name of a potential property purchase to the Grosse Pointe Property Owners Association. The Association then engaged a private detective to fill out an investigative questionnaire. As was written in the pamphlet Rights, a publication of the Anti-defamation League of B’nai B’rith [[ N. Braverman, 1960), “The filled out questionnaire was then turned over by the Association to a committee of brokers which totaled up the scored points and sent it back to the Association. They made the final evaluation as to whether or not the prospective buyer had made a passing grade.” Out of a maximum of 100 points, a passing grade was based on a sliding scale for different nationalities; “Poles would pass with 55 points, Southern Europeans with 75, Jews with 85.” Negroes and “Orientals” were not even eligible; their disqualification was automatic.” The point system considered such details as whether the prospective buyer was “American” or “Americanized,” if his occupation was typical of his own race, or if either the Mr. or Mrs. was “swarthy” in appearance or spoke with an accent. The private detective was also asked to find out about the prospective buyer’s reputation and how the outside and inside of his previous home was maintained.” [[How this was determined without being a peeping tom was not in the court record!). “There was a question as to whether the buyer dressed “neat” or “slovenly;” and “conservative” or “flashy.” The trial even revealed that a new form had been introduced, the “blue form,” because too many Jews were passing the existing point system. The real estate brokers were constantly tinkering with the system to keep “undesirables” out of the Grosse Pointes. The trial also revealed that the system had been adopted in 1945 and that the Grosse Pointe Homeowners Association, in league with local realtors , had been blatantly discriminating for fifteen years. [[from my book, Privilege, Power, and Place: The Geography of the American Upper Class, p. 42). Today, almost 50 years later, there may be no systematic approach to Antisemitism and racism but Grosse Pointe remains a bastion of segregation that would put Selma to shame."

http://higley1000.com/archives/50