Arena's and their entertainment districts...

[hybridy]

Interesting parallels to the local conversation...

Why Bucks’ Entertainment District May Fail

Across the country these mega-projects have hurt cities with generic development that banishes local charm.


http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2015/07/14...rict-may-fail/

[401don]

Pretty sure Mr. Ilitch would never let anything like that happen here.

[emu steve]

Like compared to what? Do I have to post a dozen photographs of my trip to Detroit over the 4th? Show the 'now'...

Maybe then we will have some 'before' and 'after' photographs of what the area looks like now and see if the area will be 'hurt' [[OMG) by what is going up...

[mwilbert]

Like compared to what? Do I have to post a dozen photographs of my trip to Detroit over the 4th? Show the 'now'...

Maybe then we will have some 'before' and 'after' photographs of what the area looks like now and see if the area will be 'hurt' [[OMG) by what is going up...

I don't read the article as saying that the district was worse itself, but that the design was intended to capture all activity generated by the arena, that the result was [[by the author's standards) pretty uninteresting, and that this closed system would potentially harm neighboring areas. That may or may not be true, but that doesn't seem to be what you are disputing. I'm not optimistic about how the arena district will turn out, but I'll be happy if it turns out better than I expect.

[animatedmartian]

Like compared to what? Do I have to post a dozen photographs of my trip to Detroit over the 4th? Show the 'now'...

Maybe then we will have some 'before' and 'after' photographs of what the area looks like now and see if the area will be 'hurt' [[OMG) by what is going up...

The article is suggesting more along the lines that already thriving neighborhoods - for example, Midtown near WSU, Woodbridge, Corktown, etc - would be hurt by the new arena district because the old neighborhoods are unfamiliar and take time getting used to. A brand new neighborhood with new buildings and new stores would likely resemble any given suburban area or new urban neighborhood and therefore more people are going to be attracted to it, neglecting the older neighborhoods.

Just based on the renderings, I can already tell you nothing will look unique about the new neighborhoods Illitch has in plan. Other than logos of Detroit/Michigan companies and of course the arena itself, it's not going to look any different than Royal Oak or Novi or even other arena districts in other cities. It'll just be new cookie-cutter neighborhoods that happen to be within Detroit, and the fact that they're cookie-cutter will be their draw.

Of course, some of the neighborhoods could have some uniqueness by actually retaining a lot of the older buildings or actually have unique modern buildings. But at this point, neither is guaranteed by Ilitch.

[Bucket]

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing. Lots of good points made in the article. Having recently visited the arena district in Columbus, the only interesting thing surrounding the stadium is the historic North Market. The new development is uninteresting.