Dequindre Cut Bike-Walkway Update Pictures

[Lowell]

Development of extension of Dequindre Cut the bicycle and walking trail in the Eastern Market area is progressing. The old rails have been removed and dumpsites cleared.

This view looks south from the Wilkins Street Bridge with the former Thorn Apple Valley slaughterhouse on the right.


Looking north from the same bridge.


To the left of the view about one can see another area improvement, the Greening of Detroit's urban gardens named Detroit Market Garden.


Further south on the completed section of the cut a family enjoys a Sunday bike ride.


In decades gone by the Dequindre Cut was a recessed railway route running from the north down to Detroit's riverfront accessing the industries that once existed there. Discontinued a few decades ago it became overgrown and languished in deterioration becoming most famous as a grafitti site for those in the know and brave enough to venture into it.

What did it look like then? Tour the old cut in these previous DetroitYES webisodes here:
Lascaux Detroit -The Cave Paintings of Detroit
and here:
LASCAUX DETROIT II - THE CAVE PAINTINGS OF DETROIT

[gthomas]

Also, I've notice the Midtown Loop started its development along Wilkins st to connect with the Dequindre Cut. Good work!

[DetroitPlanner]

Nice shots!

Here is the DPW's entire plan:
http://www.detroitmi.gov/Portals/0/d...pplication.pdf

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

Thanks, Lowell.

[mikeg19]

Once the Riverwalk and Dequindre Cut are complete, I really think that the east riverfront will become a major draw for visitors and vacationers, not to mention major development. Between the Orleans development, the new DNR/Globe Building activity center, and Eastern Market upgrades, I don't know how that area won't be ripe for major infusions of cash.

I'm wondering if Jerome Bettis is still actually planning on utilizing the old Uniroyal site, or if that will be seeking new developers.

[cosine]

Does anyone have photos of trains running through the Dequindre Cut or along the riverfront leading up to it?

[Crystal]

Last October we enjoyed a tour of the Milliken State Park Wetlands, followed by a walk from the Riverfront to Eastern Market and back. It was great fun to enjoy the path with many other walkers and cyclists.

[Hypestyles]

what's going to be done with those abandoned buildings?

[mikeg19]

what's going to be done with those abandoned buildings?

I believe that the Dequindre Cut would be referred to in military terms as a "killbox". Gunmen hiding out above while there druggie tweaker friends rob people below.


Realistically, it'd be really cool if they were renovated into housing. Maybe some retail,gift shops,restaurants for people/families on the trail on the ground floor.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

I believe that the Dequindre Cut would be referred to in military terms as a "killbox". Gunmen hiding out above while there druggie tweaker friends rob people below.


Realistically, it'd be really cool if they were renovated into housing. Maybe some retail,gift shops,restaurants for people/families on the trail on the ground floor.

I would think that proximity to the Cut would make for a very fashionable address; I would be quite surprised if there isn't substantial residential development [[whether renovations or new condos) build along the DC, the Riverwalk, and the other planned/underway trails around the city.

[p69rrh51]

I was very happy when this Harley & Ellington design for the Schmidt Brewing Company at 1940 Wilkins was cleared of all the foliage.

The brewery was built in 1948

[p69rrh51]

Crews working on the Division Street bridge over the Dequindre Cut 3/5/14.

[old guy]

Great pictures from all of the transformation. interesting to see some positive shit moving along. It does make an outsider, visitor want to visit the city. Nice stuff.

[corktownyuppie]

I believe that the Dequindre Cut would be referred to in military terms as a "killbox". Gunmen hiding out above while there druggie tweaker friends rob people below.


Realistically, it'd be really cool if they were renovated into housing. Maybe some retail,gift shops,restaurants for people/families on the trail on the ground floor.

Thankfully private security is everywhere there. Detroit is such a bizarre place when it comes to security. In one place bicycle cops whizz by you every 10 minutes as jog a path filled with emergency phone stations. 3 miles away, you're at the Packard Plant.

When the path connects Belle Isle, Eastern Market, and the Ambassador Bridge, the Dequindre Cut/Riverfront will be one of the coolest attractions downtown.

[Mikeg]

Does anyone have photos of trains running through the Dequindre Cut or along the riverfront leading up to it?

It doesn't include any of the commuter trains that used the Cut back then, but here is a photo I took in June 1982 of the Renaissance Center, looking west from Rivard Street down the Grand Trunk railroad right of way towards where the passenger trains would start and end their runs. It was taken with a telephoto lens. [[click here for the full size version).

[DetroitPlanner]

Here is the train on the tracks Mikeg shows above. Nothing in the cut though.
http://www.smartbus.org/aboutus/over...n-Region-.aspx

This one is labled wrong. First it is Amtrak not Amtrackm send second the logo is SEMTA. http://olddetroit.tumblr.com/post/31...rencen-amtrack

Here is the train around Milwaukee
http://www.rr-roadtrip.com/pass100425d.jpg

[douglasm]

What's missing here are earlier "before" pictures. The Brush Street Station area is much different in the Ren-Cen shots than it was when the ferry boats were still active.

[DetroitPlanner]

What's missing here are earlier "before" pictures. The Brush Street Station area is much different in the Ren-Cen shots than it was when the ferry boats were still active.

There is not much on the internet prior to the mid 1990s when the content started to explode as technology improved and access exploded.

[stasu1213]

Here is the train on the tracks Mikeg shows above. Nothing in the cut though.
http://www.smartbus.org/aboutus/over...n-Region-.aspx

This one is labled wrong. First it is Amtrak not Amtrackm send second the logo is SEMTA. http://olddetroit.tumblr.com/post/31...rencen-amtrack

Here is the train around Milwaukee
http://www.rr-roadtrip.com/pass100425d.jpg

I used to tear up the rims on my 10 speed going over those tracks. We did have some type of commuter rail system with these tracks for passengers could board at this spot and travel to Royal Oak and to Pontiac

[stasu1213]

This look the same as it did last fall. He anything else done since?