Ruh Oh! Grosse Pointe may have built new blockade on Detroit Property!

[Wesley Mouch]

You are perpetuating a false narrative. The traffic circle and the sheds did not result from any professional recommendation that traffic calming was necessary to boost walkability. Kercheval Ave. did not need calming. The existing scale of the ROW and the very low vehicle speeds in the four block commercial district already made for an ideal mix of pedestrian and vehicle uses. Remove or drastically reduce the vehicles and you sap energy and customers from the district. The only thing this ill-advised infrastructure expenditure achieved for Grosse Pointe Park was a cheap home for its Farmers’ Market for a couple dozen days a year while at the same time creating a permanent physical obstacle to the successful redevelopment of the Detroit side of Kercheval Ave. The negotiated partial restoration of the Kercheval Ave. traffic lanes is an insufficient resolution but is likely the best compromise possible. In order to save face, GPP’s leadership was never going to completely back away from its bone-headed decision.

You don't think that Detroit can redevelop the Detroit side? Why is that? Is all Detroit development dependent on GPP? Why is GPP obligated to assist w/ Detroit development on Kercheval.

[nain rouge]

I seem to remember a business in GPP on one of the main streets that used to have a big sign on the window that said something to the effect that we leave no cash in the store overnight. Does anyone else remember that? It wasn't too long ago.

[expatriate]

You are perpetuating a false narrative. The traffic circle and the sheds did not result from any professional recommendation that traffic calming was necessary to boost walkability. Kercheval Ave. did not need calming. The existing scale of the ROW and the very low vehicle speeds in the four block commercial district already made for an ideal mix of pedestrian and vehicle uses. Remove or drastically reduce the vehicles and you sap energy and customers from the district. The only thing this ill-advised infrastructure expenditure achieved for Grosse Pointe Park was a cheap home for its Farmers’ Market for a couple dozen days a year while at the same time creating a permanent physical obstacle to the successful redevelopment of the Detroit side of Kercheval Ave. The negotiated partial restoration of the Kercheval Ave. traffic lanes is an insufficient resolution but is likely the best compromise possible. In order to save face, GPP’s leadership was never going to completely back away from its bone-headed decision.

You know what? You're right. I concede your point. Traffic calming was not necessary adjacent to such a depopulated area and the traffic circle by itself would have sufficed for that purpose in any case. I'm sure it really just a matter of aesthetics since no one could seriously believe that it would prevent people from entering the Park. A better case against closure is that delivery traffic is now routed down residential streets. [[unless they have been using the alley). Detroit has been unable or unwilling to do anything about the blight at the border and I can't fault GPP for its, perhaps ill conceived, attempt to isolate itself from it.

[bailey]

Remove or drastically reduce the vehicles and you sap energy and customers from the district. The only thing this ill-advised infrastructure expenditure achieved for Grosse Pointe Park was a cheap home for its Farmers’ Market for a couple dozen days a year while at the same time creating a permanent physical obstacle to the successful redevelopment of the Detroit side of Kercheval Ave. The negotiated partial restoration of the Kercheval Ave. traffic lanes is an insufficient resolution but is likely the best compromise possible. In order to save face, GPP’s leadership was never going to completely back away from its bone-headed decision.

Just as a point of fact Kerch in the Park has more activity and more going on there than at anytime in anyone's recent memory. Regardless of the aesthetics and the trumped up "traffic calming"... to say energy and customers from the district has been sapped ignores reality.

[Wesley Mouch]

Just as a point of fact Kerch in the Park has more activity and more going on there than at anytime in anyone's recent memory. Regardless of the aesthetics and the trumped up "traffic calming"... to say energy and customers from the district has been sapped ignores reality.

Thread here is not about facts, but made me laugh.

Whether or not GPP is doing the best thing for their business district is beside the point. They have the right to try things and see what works, and what doesn't.

Detroit, and her zealots, should start working on developing their side of the border -- and stop worrying about the grass on the other side. The obsession with what GPP is doing distracts from Detroit's own issues.