Should the city of Detroit have five sides???

[wanderer34]

The city of Detroit, for practically much of it's existence, has been defined by it's sides, with Woodward Ave being the dividing line between the East and West sides. The East Side has been defined by ethnic neighborhoods such as long forgotten and demolished Poletown, Little Italy from the Eastern Market to Conner Ave all the way to 8 Mile via Gratiot, and other ethnicities such as the Belgians, the Greeks, the Lebanese, the Chaldeans, and the Albanians.

The west side has been considered the more WASPish side of Detroit, and also the home of Corktown, the city's Irish neighborhood, and where much of the city's Arab population had migrated before they went mainly to Dearborn. As for blacks, and in particular, African Americans, much of the black community started in the Lower East Side, especially on Hastings St. Before that, it was the Jews before they migrated into Central Side Detroit and later into Oakland County [[Southfield and the Bloomfields). The Cass Corridor, on the other hand, was inhabited by the Appalachians from Kentucky and West Virginia, but many of them, moved northeast to Warren, and others moved into Downriver.

And while the city has another side called the Southwest, I believe that it should be renamed South Side Detroit [[seriously!!!) and the boundaries should be changed from Michigan Ave as the northern border to Tireman and Grand River Aves and the eastern border should be Route 10 into the Detroit River.

Central or Center Side Detroit should be bounded by I-94, St Aubin, Dequindre, Webb, John Lodge and Highland Park western city limits, Wyoming, and I-96. North Detroit should be bounded by Eight Mile to the north, John Lodge, Highland Park and Hamtramck city limits, Conant, McNichols, and the Grand Trunk Railroad. The new East Side will be defined by the Grand Trunk RR, Hamtramck city limits, I-75, Detroit River, and the eastern Detroit city limits, while the new West Side will be bounded by Eight Mile, John Lodge, Wyoming, I-96, Livernois, Tireman, and the western Detroit city limits.

The only parts of the city which should be defined by and east-west basis IMHO should be Downtown, Midtown, and New Center, since it's where the original city had it's roots. The rest of the city should be defined by these new sides.

I've always seen South Detroit as the most industrial and polluted as well as the most diverse, Center Detroit as the most saddest since it's close to the Boston-Edison and Arden Park districts, and one which could gauge Detroit's comeback as a major city, North Detroit as arguably the most stable due to the Palmer Park, University District, and Palmer Woods areas, and West Side Detroit as the most boring and most suburban looking side of the city.

The East Side Detroit, however is the most interesting, not necessarily because of it's past diverse demographics, but because it too can gauge Detroit's comeback, as well as the fact that it's considered Detroit's Gold Coast from Downtown to Alter Road with many prewar apartment buildings, to many pristine neighborhoods such as Indian Village and Jefferson Chalmers, to many neighborhoods in Eastern Detroit that can make a comeback such as the Gratiot area north of Conner which be use some Italians, some new Polish immigrants as well as the Muslim community in Hamtramck and northeastern Detroit, and maybe newer immigrants can help fill out the East Side such as South Americans [[Venezuelans, Colombians, Brazilians), Southern Europeans such as the Portuguese, Spanish, and Albanians east of the Grand Trunk RR and especially from the Spanish Caribbean [[Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic) along Van Dyke, Mount Elliot, and along portions of Harper, Warren, Forest, and Mack west of Gratiot and east or I-75.

As for the black community, I believe it's very important that the East, Center, North, and West sides that they currently inhabit must be maintained because the worst thing that could happen is if gentrification destroys the fabric of the black community to the point where Detroit starts to look like San Francisco demographically. Since blacks have contributed to the Detroit cultural fabric the most, it's very important that major black leaders maintain and even help attract blacks to Detroit.

Finally, while gentrification is solely needed in Downtown, Midtown, and the New Center, I don't believe gentrification should define the city like it has defined San Francisco and Boston. Detroit is 138 sq mi, and such a huge city needs space for not only it's racial and cultural ethnicities [[I personally hate using the term minority, even though I know it means racial minorities). I believe there should be an Arabtown along West Warren from Dearborn into McGraw, a Chinatown in Midtown where the original one was located, an India Town along Oakland St from Grand Blvd to Holbrook, and even allow Caribbeans such as Trinidadians, and Bahamians to inhabit and rebuild Jefferson Chalmers in the east side, and the 7 Mile Livernois area in the North Side, and make Highland Park Michigan's center for Caribbean and African culture!!!

[Hermod]

Why should Chinatown necessarily go where it was before? Chinatown and Little Saigon has migrated to the John R corridor north of 10 Mile.

[Honky Tonk]

Is this guy Hitler's kid?

[detroitsgwenivere]

^^^Hahahahah right on.

Areas in Detroit will be called whatever Detroiters want to call them. And people will settle wherever works best for them.

[Hypestyles]

Detroit FutureCity addresses some of the issues the OP writes about. A lot more work needs to be done to clear out the blighted structures [[residential and commercial) throughout Detroit's residential neighborhoods. To me, only then can a comprehensive citywide redevelopment plan be strategized and potentially implemented.
Detroit proper needs more economic/industrial and ethnic diversity on an ongoing basis.

[Canadian Visitor]

Telds).

Detroit is 138 sq mi, and such a huge city!

Far bit it from me to quibble about the finer details of Detroit's neighbourhoods, as I'm not nearly as familiar w/them as most of you.

But 'huge city' ?????

Based on 138 sq miles?

First I checked Canada's major cities for comparison.

Only one [[Vancouver) was smaller.

And Montreal is similar.

But every other city was quite a bit bigger; Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg.

***

In fairness, I thought maybe this is just a Canadian thing.

So checked both NYC and Chicago and both are much larger in land area.

Even San Fran is 230 Sq. M

Detroit is a great city. [[sincerely)

But not huge.

Just sayin.

[Gannon]

Detroit has two sides...maybe three.

The UPside and the OTHERside.

And perhaps the FALLOWside, that prairie which's been bulldozingly revirginized.

[detroittrader]

Far bit it from me to quibble about the finer details of Detroit's neighbourhoods, as I'm not nearly as familiar w/them as most of you.

But 'huge city' ?????

Based on 138 sq miles?

First I checked Canada's major cities for comparison.

Only one [[Vancouver) was smaller.

And Montreal is similar.

But every other city was quite a bit bigger; Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg.

***

In fairness, I thought maybe this is just a Canadian thing.

So checked both NYC and Chicago and both are much larger in land area.

Even San Fran is 230 Sq. M

Detroit is a great city. [[sincerely)

But not huge.

Just sayin.

Your wrong on this one, San Francisco is 46.9 square miles. Just sayin'.

[Canadian Visitor]

Your wrong on this one, San Francisco is 46.9 square miles. Just sayin'.

My apologies on that, I reference Wikipedia; and the City/County land area, the top number, is as a I quoted.

However, I see that the area you quoted is then stated as land w/the rest being water.

That's not the way most cities are described, so I wasn't looking for that.

[Hermod]

I believe the biggest US city in area is Jacksonville, Florida.

The biggest in the world is a city in northern Sweden.

[gnome]

Detroit needs green people.

period

[mtburb]

Here's how I would define it, easily accomplishable by modern geographic borders.

The north side is everything within Detroit north of Hamtramck and Highland Park between Conant and Livernois and Oakland and Livingston Counties. Anything in Detroit east of Woodward, Hamtramck and Conant and Macomb and Saint Clair is the east side. Detroit west of Woodward, Highland Park and Livernois and north of Tireman and Wayne County north of Michigan Avenue and Washtenaw County is the west side. All areas of Detroit west of Woodward and south of Tireman and the metro area south of Michigan through Wayne and Monroe down to Ohio is the south side.

[EastsideAl]

Wow... just, wow... Maybe we should worry about stabilizing population loss, and repopulating much of the city, before we worry too much about what ethnicities we "allow" to live where.

Oh, and on a purely historical note, Detroit's original Chinatown was on Third and the sidestreets just off of it, south of Michigan Ave. The move to Cass & Peterboro was the result of urban renewal decisions on clearing out 'undesirable populations' west of downtown in the 1950s.

[EastsideAl]

Detroit is actually quite large physically, particularly with only about 700,000 people rattling around in it. Some of the cities you're comparing it to, like New York and Greater Toronto, are actually made up of several municipalities that were consolidated into a multi-part city. And comparing Detroit with Canadian cities is really apples and oranges, since Canada's program of local administrative consolidation has hugely increased the physical territory of many Canadian municipalities. Similarly, other later-developing southern or western cities, such as Houston, Jacksonville, or Nashville, annexed or became administratively co-extensive with most of their surrounding county, often in advance of actual development. Detroit did that kind of thing too, but only up to 1926, when it became hemmed in.

Detroit, though, is indeed physically larger than most major U.S. cities that developed in a comparable timeframe. And many of those cities now have populations nearly equal to or larger than Detroit's. In fact, Detroit's large physical size, and under-population for that size and the infrastructure it contains, is one of the city's biggest problems and challenges.

[archfan]

Well, if you do rename Southwest as South Detroit, you'll get a thank you card from Steve Perry.

[lemon_fresh_lorax]

I believe the biggest US city in area is Jacksonville, Florida.

The biggest in the world is a city in northern Sweden.

Actually Anchorage, Alaska is more than twice the size of Jacksonville at 1968.6 Sq miles.

[Honky Tonk]

Actually Anchorage, Alaska is more than twice the size of Jacksonville at 1968.6 Sq miles.

Love the handle.....

[Danny]

What's going on Detroit's eight sides:

1. Downtown Detroit [[Gilbertown Detroit) 60% black 38% white [[since 2010) But due to all the gentrification and Dan Gilbert's buying spree,Gilbertown Detroit is 55% black and 42% white.

2. New Center Area 80% black 9%white.

3. Northwest Side 91% black 7% white 1%other.

4. Northeast Side 86%black 10% white 2% other.

5. East Side 92% black, 6%white, 1%other

6. West Side 91% black, 5% whit,e 1% Hispanic, 3% other

7. North Side 84% black, 20% white, 5% other

8. Southwest Side. 68% Hispanic, 24% white, 20% black, 8% other

[casscorridor]

Far fetched idea, but what if Metro Detroit was split into boroughs [[districts, cities, call it what you want), each with their own council, and combined into Greater Detroit, with a council and mayor representing the entire city. Local governance would still hold, so issues such as trash collection, urban planning, schools, and so on would remain local issues. But regional matters like public transport, sewage, public safety and regional planning would become matters handled by the city at large.

Each borough would have significant autonomy within the greater unit. Counties would be dissolved and the state constitution would have to be amended to allow for this new unit of government.

There are already aspects of this at work [[regional transit authority, regional sewage authority, etc) but to have one regional body representing all citizens of the "city" [[Metro Detroit), with representatives elected to the council directly by their constituencies. The regional governance is way too complicated and bloated to get anything done.

There is really no reason why Greater Detroit should not, politically, be one city. No one cares that Ferndale or Dearborn is not technically "Detroit." It already is seen as one city to the rest of the world.

[Now&then]

Is the creator of this thread from Detroit? He seems to have some odd ideas of how it is "
"supposed" be here.

I still don't get how some towns name things. When my son went to Boston he told me about North and East and South End [[which is not the same as "Southie" which gets confusing but it's where Whitey Bulger was from), and to me none of it makes sense, -except some of their named areas make sense [[Waltham, Brookline) while others don't [[like streets called Church or School with neither a church or school on them)-yet, that's the way the folks there like it.

[KJ5]

The o.p. reads like some racist, Asperger's ramblings.