An Urban beach for Detroit’s Riverfront?

[Lowell]

Nice idea for the dog days of winter, eh? An idea for converting a section of the Detroit Riverfront between Chene Park and Stroh's place into an urban beach front has made the list, along with 20 other intriguing proposals, of finalists for the Knight [Foundation] Cities Challenge as reported by Curbed Detroit which included the below image of an example from Toronto.



Other Finalist Proposals for Detroit include:

Atwater Beach by Detroit RiverFront Conservancy [[submitted by Jan Shimshock): Further activating the Detroit waterfront by creating an inviting, urban beach along the city’s Atwater Street.

Better Buildings, Better Blocks by Building Community Value [[submitted by Chase L. Cantrell): Fostering talent in Detroit, and providing a pipeline for minorities into real estate jobs, by teaching the fundamentals of small-scale property development and providing initial project financing.

Bus Stoplets by Southwest Detroit Business Association [[submitted by Greg Mangan): Improving the commute for transit riders by creating inviting bus stops that have the feel of an intimate city park.

Crossing Trumbull by Woodbridge Neighborhood Development Corp. [[submitted by Angie Gaabo): Bringing together the residents of Woodbridge, often divided geographically and socio-economically, through adult walking and youth biking clubs.

City Asset Map: Mapping Mobility in Motown by Detroit Experience Factory [[submitted by Matt Chung): Fostering connection and civic involvement in Detroit by creating a map that highlights cultural, educational and mobility resources, such as libraries, health centers, museums, educational spaces, bike infrastructure and parks.

Design Center in a Box: A Place for Informed Community Exchange by City of Detroit Department of Planning [[submitted by Maurice D. Cox): Promoting civic engagement by creating “pop-up” city planning offices where residents can connect with city planning staff and others to exchange ideas and become informed about the design and planning work happening in their neighborhood and the city at large.

Detroit Youth Council of Urban Explorers by Bleeding Heart Design [[submitted by Rebecca Bucky Willis): Helping the next generation advocate for good city planning by sending Detroit teenagers to pioneering cities to learn best practices they can execute back home.

Dip ’N’ Dive Detroit by City of Detroit Planning and Development Department [[submitted by Maurice D. Cox):Creating spaces where residents can meet, connect and share experiences by creating pop-up swimming events at a temporary “River Pool” at the Detroit River.

The Discovery Place by Detroit Future City [[submitted by Allandra Bulger): Activating open spaces in Detroit as meeting places and libraries run by and for residents who otherwise lack these amenities.

Green Culture Shift by Detroit Future City [[submitted by Alex Kellogg): Creating innovative, experiential tools that change how Detroiters think about planning and transforming green spaces in urban neighborhoods.

Happy 18th Birthday! Local Citizenship Kit by CitizenDetroit [[submitted by Sandra Stahl): Celebrating Detroiters becoming eligible to vote by sending them a local citizenship kit in the mail on their 18th birthday.

Las Luces de la Noche by Invest Detroit [[submitted by Michael R. Smith): Making Clark Park, a neighborhood recreation hub, a safer place for residents to come together through new public lighting and programming.

Mack Lot: A New Kind of Gathering Place by MACC Development [[submitted by Ezekiel Harris): Bringing people of different backgrounds together by transforming a vacant 8,000-square-foot lot into a meeting space that will include a performance stage, a playground, rain gardens, public work spaces and space for food vendors.

Mine Your Own Business by Michigan Women’s Foundation [[submitted by Carolyn Cassin): Offering education, mentorship and capital for aspiring women entrepreneurs through business accelerators at neighborhood churches.
Motor City Matchbox by Detroit Economic Growth Corp. Small Business/Motor

City Match [[submitted by Helen Broughton): Making it easier to launch pop-up business and art events in the city’s vacant buildings – and demonstrate what could happen in disinvested areas – by creating a mobile how-to toolkit.
Neighborhood Voice: Increase Civic Engagement by Equipping Community

Connectors [[submitted by Garlin Gilchrist II): Improving ways to obtain feedback from neighborhoods by supporting the best connected people – such as barbers, bartenders and baristas – to get and share feedback through technology, tools and training.

Reaching Across the Border: Detroit and Grosse Pointe by Mash Detroit [[submitted by Marlowe Stoudamire): Inspiring residents near the border of Detroit and Grosse Pointe to collaborate on reimagining their common public spaces by offering mini-grants to teams of residents from both areas.

Shovel Share by Michigan Community Resources [[submitted by Lydia Rae Levinson): Sparking neighborhood revitalization by providing community groups with the tools and resources they need to maintain and revamp their neighborhoods.

Sign ON by Grandmont Rosedale Development Corp. [[submitted by Martha Potere): Enlivening Grandmont Rosedale by pairing local artists with small business owners to create a “gallery of signage” that treats commercial signs as public art.

Slow Roll – The Power of 25,000 by Detroit Bike City LLC [[doing business as Slow Roll) [[submitted by Jeff Herron): Exploring why 25,000 Detroiters joined a cycling movement and sharing the learning with other cities so they can replicate the model.

The Table [[submitted by Orlando P. Bailey): Giving people a voice in what happens next in their neighborhoods by convening them regularly to share ideas that can move the city forward.

http://www.knightfoundation.org/arti...ties-challenge

[One Shot]

LOVE the idea and hope they do something like this. Campus is cool when they do the sand thing over there.

[ABetterDetroit]

Without vetting the applicants my pick would be the Shovel and Share.

We have some new bling in the downtown and it is working. The neighborhoods need some more of that love.

[Bobl]

The riverfront has been neglected for too long, but with the imminent destruction of virtually all environmental laws, the river will soon smell like sewage again.

[renf]

Thanks for providing this information.

[softailrider]

That's just too great of an idea. It'll never happen.

[mikeg19]

These was one of these in Miami I visited the last time I was there. It was pretty cool. Might be a nice concept here as well.

[GMan]

I would rather see something more like Riverside park on the other side of the river.
Green space / with parking areas / fishing piers / picnic areas.

Having a beach with a break-wall and water you can't swim in doesn't do it for me.
Besides get a windy day and that sand will be everywhere but where you want it to be.

[bust]

These have been successful in New York, on Governor's Island and in Long Island City Queens.





Of course NYC has real beaches too.

[bust]

Judging them only by their short descriptions, a few ideas I especially like are the following [[each would benefit the whole city):

Detroit Youth Council of Urban Explorers
Perhaps my favorite. It would be great for Detroit youth to witness first hand ways healthier cities [[co-)operate, especially with some educational guidance. Fresh perspectives, new ideas, and greater hope would do the city good. Just please make sure the expeditions are well-managed.

Happy 18th Birthday! Local Citizenship Kit

Shovel Share

City Asset Map: Mapping Mobility in Motown struck me as a good idea, but one that should already exist. I know budgets are tight but that it doesn't seems reflective of misplaced priorities.

[Al Publican]

Chicago has a beach adjacent to its downtown, something San Diego does not have.

[Jason]

If the "beach" is just going to be dumping a truckload of sand by the riverwalk then it's going to be pretty lame imo, but it would probably get a lot of hype and use relative to the cost of the sand so I guess it would be ok.

Belle Isle has a beach but, as always with Belle Isle, it's not integrated with anything so it's only good for "spending the day at the beach". I think a more integrated beach would be good though. Looking at the riverfront, to me the uniroyal site has the most potential, where I could imagine a sheltered bay being carved out of the site and being lined with a large mixed use development. There would be enough surface area to accommodate a good number of people while being very close to eateries. There'd also be the new residents who would presumably move there so they could conveniently use the beach. This would all cost many millions of dollars though.


While some things on the list don't seem to provide much value to me, some of the things stood out as having a lot of benefit.

Better Buildings, Better Blocks A lot of the bad things in Detroit are either directly or indirectly related to what is basically a real estate market failure in Detroit. Teaching more people the skills to make healthy investments and manage properties profitably could improve one of Detroit's biggest problems.

Bus Stoplets A lot of people in Detroit are dependent on the bus system and spend a lot of time waiting at stops, in all weather. Improving the bus shelters seems like a straightforward way of improving the quality of life of residents without [[in the big picture) spending a lot of money. It could also encourage ridership which would be beneficial.

Happy 18th Birthday! Local Citizenship Kits Another major problem Detroit faces is a political problem. Sending something like that out could improve the quality of the city's political culture. It would also give Detroit interests more power at the regional state and national levels. But this one would get really expensive really fast.

Mine Your Own Business By necessity Detroit needs a lot of entrepreneurship, but most small business owners [[not just in Detroit) don't really know much about how to run a business. But I also have the feeling that this type of resource is already provided by existing groups.

Reaching Across the Border: Detroit and Grosse Pointe There are a lot of social problems between the city and suburbs and the border between Grosse Pointe and Detroit has some of the most tension. These issues are our region's greatest problem and there's a huge amount of potential benefit. Grosse Pointe and the neighboring parts of Detroit are small enough to be manageable compared to the overall regional problems.

Las Luces de la Noche Some of these proposals are too narrow imo but in this case a nice park would be more than just a nice park. It's in the thick of a coherent community, it's adjacent to multiple schools, the commercial area, and residential areas. High quality physical assets and strong programming could have a great impact on the community.


I think that pop up things and art projects are mainly fluffy things for well to do people to enjoy and in the big picture the city only benefits from them to the extent that they make well to do people more likely to come to Detroit. I'm not sure how much they improve the quality of life of ordinary residents. Art projects would make more sense in conjunction with others, like the bus stop project.

[royce]

The area south of Atwater between Riopelle and Orleans would be an ideal spot for a beach. This is where the "hill" in Milliken Park is located. It could also be extended to cover the area where the "inlet" for repairing old ships is located. With the Orleans Landing development right across the street, this would be ideal for the residents living there. Some other residential or hotel development could go on the land just west of this beach, increasing the number of users and visitors. Now, I don't know the engineering that would be needed to make this work, but because it would be essentially and "inlet" beach, I don't think the strong currents of the Detroit River would be a concern. Well, that's my two cents.