Midtown vs. Cass Corridor

[Downriviera]

Since we're rebranding let's change Cass Park to Central Park.

[daveyarm]

I live in Downtown, but often travel to Midtown to do my banking, shopping, etc. I consider the Cass Corridor to be a "connector" between the two.

[dookie joe]

I grew up in the Corridor in the 1970s. It will always be the Corridor to me.

This reminds me of the marketing schmucks who tried to rebrand downriver "Metro Shores," and the change from East Detroit to Eastpointe. Since they clearly were trying to distance themselves from Detroit and cozy up to the Pointes, my friends and I call it Grosse Detroit.

BTW, I researched the Corridor for a book a few years ago [[there's a thread on the subject on this website somewhere), and the earliest newspaper references of the term I could were in the early 1970s. Back then, it was called the "Cass corridor," with the second word starting with a lower case. That wasn't a comprehensive search, but it's what I found in my research.

And, another useless tidbit: The area now known as "New Center" was once called "Uptown."

[Lowell]

Cass Corridor is a unique name with character and history. Midtown sounds like any place, anywhere -- a faceless boring nowhere name befitting a dollar store strip mall -- exactly what that district isn't. The Cass Corridor was/is the core of Detroit's arts bohemia and creativity. Rename it whatever you want, but not a bland sparkless name like, yawn, Midtown.

[erikd]

Midtown is a generic term used in many cities, just like downtown is a generic term used in most cities. IMO, if you are talking about a specific section or neighborhood within the downtown or midtown area, you should use the specific neighborhood/district name, and if you are talking about the larger group of neighborhoods, you would use the more general term.

For example: If you have lunch in Greektown and then go to an appointment in the Financial District, then you spent the afternoon downtown. If you just went to Greektown, then you just went to Greektown.

If you went to the Cass Corridor for lunch at Avalon, then went to see your doctor in the Medical Center, and then visited a friend in Brush Park, you spent the whole day in midtown.

I don't see this as an either-or situation. The Cass Corridor is just one part of midtown.

[Zug]

I prefer using the term Midtown even when talking about the Cass Corridor. In my head, the name "Cass Corridor" brings up images of homeless people camped out in fields. As others have said, "Midtown" gives a singular image [[and branding) to the little pieces within the area [[WSU, medical center, cultural center, etc.). Yes, it's more generic, but it also sounds more appealing.

[corktownyuppie]

Yes, it's more generic, but it also sounds more appealing.

Well that's the problem. Being appealing is so against our cultural DNA...when you combine an insatiable desire to be seen as "gritty", combine it with an anti-establishment posture, and then add a few drops of insecurity about our identities, you can see where the problem is.

[Detroitnerd]

Well that's the problem. Being appealing is so against our cultural DNA...when you combine an insatiable desire to be seen as "gritty", combine it with an anti-establishment posture, and then add a few drops of insecurity about our identities, you can see where the problem is.

Yeah! With THEM!

[Zug]

I don't think "Midtown" has a "cheap" sound to it. It's just a term like "Downtown"...or suggesting that there's another central business district beyond the city's downtown. I understand the name Cass Corridor has local history, but I think the name doesn't serve as an accurate name most of the time. Most of what is called Midtown was never considered the Cass Corridor...so in those cases, it's a debate of Midtown vs Cultural Center, Midtown vs Brush Park, etc. Combining all the little pieces under the "Midtown" name makes the greater area seem more significant instead of little neighborhoods with their own landmarks [[for example, you can say that Midtown has museums, an art college, a university, hosiptals, an orchestra hall, numerous theaters, etc., etc.).

Since 2000, Wayne State has made an effort to make Woodward it's "main street" instead of Cass because of it's significance to the region. I haven't talked to any younger WSU students that would refer to WSU being in the Cass Corridor. I hear people refer to WSU [[or just south) as simply "Wayne State" or "near Wayne State." The only area where the name Cass Corridor still seems to be used is the most depressing part of Midtown [[with the exception of Cass Tech), along Cass between I-75 and Myrtle/MLK. And even in that area, there seems to be lots of people that refer to parts of it as "Downtown." So I think there would be very few that would actually want to use the name Cass Corridor for anything beyond the depressed area I mentioned.

[corktownyuppie]

Yeah! With THEM!

Hahahaha. Ok...that actually made me laugh