How the Warehouse District became Rivertown

[Henry Whalley]

As I recall, in early 1978 the group of drinking and eating establishments around Jacoby's began to call themselves Bricktown for marketing the area to the coming 1980 Republican National Convention. These included Galligan's, Sweetwater Tavern, and Detroiter around the block on Beaubien.

Then proprietors in the Warehouse District held several rebranding meetings in the spring of 1978 at the Brauhaus Restaurant on Woodbridge. Scattered between Schweizer's and Andrew's on Joseph Campau there were plenty of old brick streets, but Bricktown was already spoken for so they decided to brand it Rivertown.

[Satiricalivory]

I'd be happy to name it back "Warehouse District". Rivertown sounds like an outdoor mall. And Detroit doesn't even sit on a river, the body of water is a strait. Detroit literally means strait in French...

[Henry Whalley]

I also prefer Warehouse District.

[Gistok]

I'd be happy to name it back "Warehouse District". Rivertown sounds like an outdoor mall. And Detroit doesn't even sit on a river, the body of water is a strait. Detroit literally means strait in French...

The point that we are on a strait is rather moot when it comes to naming conventions... the land along the "river" has always been called the riverfront, we have Riverwalk, River Place... and the earliest road in Detroit pre-1805 was called "River Road" [[almost where Atwater is today).

[preserve]

I loved the Warehouse District, the Woodbridge Saloon was a favorite along with the Soup Kitchen and loved the Dunleavz for the short time it was there.

[masterblaster]

Here is an article from 1999 showing all of the businesses in Rivertown and discusses the uncertainty of this district with a potential Riverfront Casino district being established there.

https://imgur.com/gallery/eeZRiAa

Thanks for the history of the naming of the district. I wish more of the warehouses had survived. The place is half vacant lots.

[EGrant]

I'd be happy to name it back "Warehouse District". Rivertown sounds like an outdoor mall. And Detroit doesn't even sit on a river, the body of water is a strait. Detroit literally means strait in French...

It's actually a [[indoor) mall in Grand Rapids!

[iheartthed]

The point that we are on a strait is rather moot when it comes to naming conventions... the land along the "river" has always been called the riverfront, we have Riverwalk, River Place... and the earliest road in Detroit pre-1805 was called "River Road" [[almost where Atwater is today).

The Detroit River is a river. Rivers can be straits. But it most closely fits the modern definition of a river.

[Wheels]

Mackinaw is a strait Detroit is a river nobody cares about a technicality!

[Henry Whalley]

I don't care what the waterway is called.

I just prefer 'Warehouse District' because 'Rivertown' sounds like it was made up by an ad agency.

[Jason]

Coleman Young had spent most of his time in office trying to get casinos in Detroit, and looking at how much money they make the city now, you wonder about what trajectory Detroit would have taken if it hadn't been caught in the spiral of raising taxes and cutting services.

[Henry Whalley]

Coleman Young had spent most of his time in office trying to get casinos in Detroit...

The Sicilian Potawotami may have had a hand in the process as well.

As to services, for several decades there were zero streetlights in the Warehouse District. Going to the Soup Kitchen, Woodbridge Tavern, etc., after dark began to feel more than a little frightening.

[EastsideAl]

Coleman Young did push for casinos, but that push failed [[twice) while he was mayor and didn't pass until after he left office. By the time any of the casinos actually opened he had died.

The mayor when casino gambling finally passed, and the one who pushed most of the businesses out of Rivertown for the never-executed plan to turn that area into a casino district, was Dennis Archer.

[gnome]

The Sicilian Potawotami may have had a hand in the process as well.

What the heck does that mean? Are you trying to be witty?

[Satiricalivory]

The Detroit River is a river. Rivers can be straits. But it most closely fits the modern definition of a river.

It does not fit the definition of a river nearly as much as a strait, it fits basically the exact definition of a strait.

"Strait: a narrow passage of water connecting two seas or two other large areas of water."


"A strait is a naturally formed, narrow, typically navigable waterway that connects two larger bodies of water"

The Detroit strait is a narrow passage of water that connects Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. Calling it a river is mostly a misnomer.

[gnome]

Wha!?

If you are strictly speaking about a dictionary definition, maybe, but no one in the history of Detroit ever said, “I’m going fishing in the Detroit strait.”

No one ever pulled a body out of the Detroit strait. No one ever ran booze across a frozen Detroit strait. No one ever dipped their toes in the Detroit strait.

For 300 years it’s been called a river, it’s a river.

[Henry Whalley]

Are you trying to be witty?

Affirmative.

[Seven&wyo]

This thread has taken a weird turn....

[Gistok]

Wha!?

For 300 years it’s been called a river, it’s a river.

Agreed... besides "D'etroit" is already the French word for strait... so it would be overkill to call it "the strait strait"....

[Jason]

The Sicilian Potawotami may have had a hand in the process as well.

As to services, for several decades there were zero streetlights in the Warehouse District. Going to the Soup Kitchen, Woodbridge Tavern, etc., after dark began to feel more than a little frightening.

What I mean is that today the casinos bring in about 200 million per year, while property taxes are about 135 million and income taxes are about 300 million. Young was dedicated to balancing the budget which with declining revenues meant cutting services and raising property taxes and borrowing money more often.

[Henry Whalley]

...today the casinos bring in about 200 million per year

The casinos could have been put elsewhere. They could have been put anywhere. There was no need to destroy the Warehouse District or Greektown, and thank goodness the Casinistas didn't get their grubby hands on Belle Isle. Detroit contains plenty of vacant land.

I personally have no use for casinos. The social libertarian in me has no problem with their existence for others who enjoy them but it's tragic that the Casinistas were allowed to ruin thriving business districts when there were plenty of other ruins to pick from.

[iheartthed]

It does not fit the definition of a river nearly as much as a strait, it fits basically the exact definition of a strait.



The Detroit strait is a narrow passage of water that connects Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. Calling it a river is mostly a misnomer.

It's not a misnomer. It only flows one way, so it's a river. Straits don't necessarily have to flow one way.

Also, the French called it a river as well:

[Henry Whalley]

...the French called it a river as well:

True, but the French called it the 'Whorehouse District' as well -- and that was where the French Pox was found.

[Wesley Mouch]

What the heck does that mean? Are you trying to be witty?

Succeeding, I say!

A little politically incorrect humor is a great way to start a morning.

And given that much native band leadership is, shall we say, unelected democratically -- a reminder that how we've structured our reparations to those who preceded us isn't always pretty.

[Henry Whalley]

...a reminder that how we've structured our reparations...

The Law is a Human Institution.

Perhaps organized crime had a hand in the attempted taking of the Warehouse District because any urban planner would know that eminent domain wouldn't apply to poaching those properties for casinos -- that's just Urban Planning 101. So maybe when the City told the wise guys that a swindle masquerading as eminent domain wasn't achievable, their reply echoed that of Private Detective Loren Visser in 'Blood Simple' viz. 'The law is a human institution.'