Origin of the name 'Cass Corridor'..?

[sumas]

Cass was named after Lewis Cass, who was ex military and gov. of the MI territory, I believe from 1813 to 1831.

Orgs set up there to assist Vietnam vets along the corridor to assist. Our government did a piss poor job to re assimilate our returning troops. It got kind of rough.

No problem with the re-branding but don't forget our history.

[Wesley Mouch]

I hate that we keep going over this. Cass Corridor is neighborhood within Midtown. It's just that simple. It ain't that deep for anyone to be getting angry or hyper-territorial over. Call whatever locality whatever you want within the district; but don't try to pretend that Midtown was meant to erase the identity of any of the localities within it. If anything, it was meant to give these neighborhoods within the district an umbrella to shield themselves under if they chose to do so. These areas are better off for the umbrella. Look on either side the Lodge of Chrysler to see what happens when everything else was meant to fend for itself in the old inner-city. Only Woodbridge has any semblence of being a cohesive neighborhood and it's only because Wayne State was across the way.

Grow up.

Its pretty clear that Midtown was a fabrication meant to obliterate history. I like hearing about it, and hardly think its infantile to discuss Detroit history. Let the old codgers tell tale of the old days. They weren't all great, but they were.

[esteban]

You talk about wanting to do something more constructive with your life so you opened a new thread on the Cass Corridor??

Thanks Gistok, should'a done my homework. I'll read the links, bitch some more, go back and, as you say, do something more interesting with my life.

[noise]

For that reason, in their rush to 'sanitize' the area by expunging the Cass Corridor name, they are essentially devaluing the property in the long run.

Yeah, just look at how much the area has devolved recently.

[EastsideAl]

The funny thing is that "Cass Corridor" was originally a planning term too. It goes back to the great city planning/urban renewal era that ran from the late '40s to the early '60s. Specifically, it has to do with what was discussed in the thread linked by MSUguy earlier here [[Dookie Joe particularly discusses it there): the planned relocation of 'less desirable' populations, like Chinese people or the residents of the old Skid Row on Michigan Ave., to the area just west of Woodward.

Back in the 40s and 50s, you would rarely hear areas called by a name [[Brightmore, East English Village, West Village). Areas were referred to by the major cross streets [[I live near Harper & Chalmers). "Downtown" was a vague thing meaning "down by Hudsons".

This is quite true. Other than very well-defined areas like Indian Village or Palmer Woods, most Detroit neighborhoods were largely undifferentiated and usually simply referred to by nearby major streets until the rise of urban planning. My Dad, who has spent his entire nearly 90 years in the city, still does that.

"Cass Corridor" was an urban panning attempt to define an area west of Woodward, north of downtown, and south of the university, that had certain characteristics [[a high-density collection of apartment dwellings, a mostly white working class-to-poor population with a higher than normal number of transients, and several high traffic north-south "corridor" streets with transit connections) by naming it after a very recognizable street. The name stuck with everybody because of those connections, and because it came to recognizably describe, in an easy short-hand, the unique mix that resulted from a mix of normal population shifts and the dynamics set in motion by urban planning decisions.

[Wesley Mouch]

The funny thing is that "Cass Corridor" was originally a planning term too. It goes back to the great city planning/urban renewal era that ran from the late '40s to the early '60s. Specifically, it has to do with what was discussed in the thread linked by MSUguy earlier here [[Dookie Joe particularly discusses it there): the planned relocation of 'less desirable' populations, like Chinese people or the residents of the old Skid Row on Michigan Ave., to the area just west of Woodward.



This is quite true. Other than very well-defined areas like Indian Village or Palmer Woods, most Detroit neighborhoods were largely undifferentiated and usually simply referred to by nearby major streets until the rise of urban planning. My Dad, who has spent his entire nearly 90 years in the city, still does that.

"Cass Corridor" was an urban panning attempt to define an area west of Woodward, north of downtown, and south of the university, that had certain characteristics [[a high-density collection of apartment dwellings, a mostly white working class-to-poor population with a higher than normal number of transients, and several high traffic north-south "corridor" streets with transit connections) by naming it after a very recognizable street. The name stuck with everybody because of those connections, and because it came to recognizably describe, in an easy short-hand, the unique mix that resulted from a mix of normal population shifts and the dynamics set in motion by urban planning decisions.

And also because it is alliterative. I appreciate your input, but I'd like to know more about this 'planning attempt'. Does make sense that the name came from planning rather than organically.

Another factor might be the decline. Was the name as widely used before it became a term of derision? Its always good to have a name for a place you don't want your kids to go -- but you hangout for your visits to the female impersonator clubs and colorful bars.

[Django]

Funny thing is that when someone mentions Cass Corridor we automatically think ghetto. Nothing wrong with the name of Cass and what is wrong with the word Corridor?

There is no doubt in mind that local developers in the area re-named it Midtown to distance themselves from the thought that the Corridor is a ghetto. Midtown sounds much more appealing after so many years of Corridor ghetto rhetoric.

[Dexlin]

It's funny to keep seeing people from the corridor try and pretend that everytime someone says Midtown they are talking about the corridor. Talk about presumptuous. No, old-timers, the Cass Corridor is not the only locality in Midtown, and the irony is that you guys are the one trying to conflate the two.

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. It's not always about the Corridor, folks. No, "Midtown" was not just a reaction solely to the Corridor. You probably think this song is about you, don't you? Get over yourselves.

[sumas]

Hey Django, you just got called an old fart, IE; old timer...too funny! Conflate means to "blow together" and or fuse, if you blow anyone let me know I'll take pictures.