So, is anyone ever going to do anything about Hart Plaza?

[EastsideAl]

Just spent the long weekend at the Detroit Jazz Festival. The music was, of course, magnificent as always [[at least until the rains came on Monday and screwed everything up). And the volunteers who give up their weekend for the event were amazing. The crowds were as big as I've ever seen.

But every year the main venue where the festival takes place gets more and more decrepit. Almost all of the stones on the plaza itself are cracked and coming apart, loose or chipped stones and unsteady footing are everywhere and accidents seem inevitable, at least one of the stairways appears to be on the verge of collapse, water is leaking from pipes all over the place and rainwater isn't draining properly so some walkways had to be closed because of standing water, parts of the main amphitheater were awash in suspiciously smelly water seeping out from between the stones all weekend, and I don't even want to talk about the appalling state of the restrooms.

The decay of Hart Plaza has been apparent for many years. But the plaza's state is now verging on the unusable. Several years ago, when things were a lot more desperate around here, it was understandable that the situation went unaddressed. But now, with development popping out all over, lavish sums of public money being thrown at facilities for privately-owned sports teams, and huge improvements having been made to other public areas like Campus Martius and the Riverwalk, leaving one of the city's major public event areas in such a state seems both shameful and irresponsible. Bringing out-of-town and international visitors there for this event, as I do every year, has become increasingly embarrassing.

Yet neither the city itself, who is ultimately responsible for the plaza, nor any of the usual suspects among our city's regular benefactors, seem to be stepping up to the plate at all. And thus the decay continues unabated. There has been some vague talk in the recent past of significantly reconfiguring the plaza, or of scraping it and starting over with a different concept. However, it sure seems like the urgent need now is not pie-in-the-sky conceptualizing, but just to address and stabilize the current situation and assure that the plaza is reasonably clean, safe, and usable for upcoming events.