Canals of Detroit

[Richard]

Somebody uploaded a video to YouTube cruising the canals,I am impressed,I hear them mentioned but not to the extent that is shown and never would have guessed they would accommodate larger craft.

You guys got your own little Venice going on,albeit in need of some maintenance,saw several fixer upper looking properties along the route,if I was going to relocate there,that would be it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ne5Zl...BvZiBkZXRyb2l0

[GrtLksMarlin]

Thanks for the video! It looked as though many of those flanking homes experience regular flooding. Pity that the investment required to move up [raise the home] may not match the return.

B.E.F.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Those canals are hidden jewels that have gone astray.

[MikeM]

One of the first houses on the left, after the reeds and before the first bridge, is currently for sale for $399k. The house on the right after the bridge once had the national champion weeping willow tree in its front yard. That bridge was rebuilt in the 1990s but used to be the infamous "Ashland bump" that eastside kids would try to get airborne when speeding over it.

That whole neighborhood is a FEMA designated flood zone and floods in times of high water levels. Tiger dams had to be deployed just a few years ago to keep the area from being inundated. And when the water is high, some boats get trapped by the low bridge clearance. When it's low, parts of the canals become very shallow. There's no natural flow to keep it flushed ever since the Fox Creek was enclosed, and before the outfalls were sealed, the storm flow that was released included raw sewage.

[Zacha341]

^ That's alot of money for flooding basements [including sewage] etc. Though I do get the beauty and aesthetic of the area.

[Richard]

Ha that will get you a 750 sqft house on a 6000 sqft lot in my hood,no basement and flooding in many parts,canal frontage and people buy them without doing research to find out the canals do not have an exit will be in the $600k range.

That house is totally redone,albeit with a sketchy spot in the roof rafters.

Built in 1914 but when you look at the kitchen,they tiled the ceilings,if that is original it pays homage to Detroits international flare because tiled ceilings in the high end French Chateaus in the 1600 - 1700s but was faded out by the 1800s.

When people had large houses built they usually traveled to Europe to get design ideas.

You see other vintage houses in there with boat garages,wonder what happens when it floods and they hit the rafters?

I saw the metal sheets,I thought it was for wake and erosion control but apparently for flooding?

They are pretty high banks in most spots,wonder why they decided to shut off the flow?

Anywhere else that is like prime real estate.

[One Shot]

I too just watched that and as a boater always found the area fascinating.

[K-slice]

When looking at the storm damage in Ft. Meyers beach a couple years ago I discovered that several of the old oceanfront buildings and homes had been built with full basements! Seems insane that these oceanfront buildings, or the homes on our canals were built with swimming pools below them. Apparently there was a time when building on a slab was just unheard of...

[Richard]

Monolithic slab ,in Florida lots of basements.

in the early days they built with stem walls,dig down pour footings then block wall solid pour the cells then pour the slab on top.

To cut costs in the 80s and 90s builders switched to monolithic slab,pour small footing then slab on top.

But the ground is constantly moving,and it cracks,my 1992 house is monolithic slab,it cracks,heavy rains,water rises up through the cracks,that house is high ground low water table,but else where is an issue.

So now they went back to stem walls and no monolithic slab


My other house is raised on piers 1928,but a couple of blocks away my friends 40 X 50 metal building shop was built on a monolithic slab,a couple of weeks ago the whole back side cracked and sunk down so now 1/2 of his shop is almost like a sink hole,I will not walk on it.

Would not have had that issue with stem wall construction.

Its all about water table,those canals are lower then the ground on the banks,so that is where the water table is,if you dig in the dry season and when the water table is lower you can put a basement and seal the exterior walls before putting dirt back in.

The problem you may run into,is the same thing as with in ground pools,if you drain all the water out,the hydraulic action of the rising water table will push the pool out of the ground or push the floor up and out.

It’s like my house,I can dig in the dry season and build a concrete storm/bomb shelter,but if I were to put a prefabricated fiberglass one in,when the water table rises it will pop out like a fishing bobber.

That’s what is wired about the ocean front condos here in Florida,the ocean is right there so you would figure that that’s the level of the water table,but it is not,but go one mile in and it can be.

But they have to worry about storm surge flooding more so,they all have underground parking.

It’s like the flooding issues in Detroit ,they filled in that creek that use to go through the city to the river,I kinda think if they dug that back out it would lower the water table everywhere else and allow the water to drain to the river instead of flooding.

I say that not being an expert,but they did the same stuff here,fill in swamps and old creeks for development,then have to come back and spend millions because they have flooding issues.

Unless you live in New Orleans,the land always tapers towards a body of water for drainage,mother nature was a heck of an engineer.

When we build and develop based on the lay of the land instead of trying to adapt the land to meet the development,we get flooding.

I do not know the history behind those canals,but in Floridas majority are man made for the timber industry back in the day to transport lumber.

They became a natural part of the system.

If those canals were originally a part of Detroits water flow outlets to the river,cutting off the natural flow would be causing problems city wide.

Florida is spending billions undoing the mistakes of the past when it comes to water flow and flooding mitigation.

It’s like a beaver building a dam across a creek and flooding out 100s of acres as a result in order to create its habitat,good for the beaver but not so much for the rest of the eco system.