Another "what if"

[tallboy66]

What if Detroit had all the buildings of Troy, Southfield, Dearborn, Auburn Hills, Warren all in the city say... along Jefferson and up Woodward to the Fisher instead of sprawl.

Any one with photoshop skills [[not me) want to to do a mock up?

I made one with old pics from 35mm but have no idea how to put it in a pano format to upload.

[hybridy]

i've often wondering the same thing myself. in all honesty, detroit would like much fuller, however the suburbs are largely populated by sprawling low-level office park and single-story commercial strips; so moving the few taller buildings wouldn't shrink the suburbs that much.

[dtowncitylover]

Every time I pass the Top of Troy, the Southfield Town Center or the old AMC headquarters, I always wish those were downtown.

[EMG]

It would be a shame to see all those buildings go the way of the Packard Plant!!!

[d.mcc]

What if Detroit had all the buildings of Troy, Southfield, Dearborn, Auburn Hills, Warren all in the city say... along Jefferson and up Woodward to the Fisher instead of sprawl.

Any one with photoshop skills [[not me) want to to do a mock up?

I made one with old pics from 35mm but have no idea how to put it in a pano format to upload.

I used to have a 3d model of detroit, and I have played around with that whole... "What if all the Planned Tall Buildings in Detroit had been Built" scenario. Let me see if I can dig it up somewhere

[jtf1972]

I've thought how nice the Chrylser HQ would look if placed next to Hart Plaza [[site of Ford Auditorium) instead of out where it gets absolutely no exposure. There is something special about having your building be a part of any skyline shot.

[Bearinabox]

What if Detroit had all the buildings of Troy, Southfield, Dearborn, Auburn Hills, Warren all in the city say... along Jefferson and up Woodward to the Fisher instead of sprawl.

Instead of sprawl? Those places [[except maybe Dearborn) are the definition of sprawl. Just having a bunch of floors in your building doesn't make it urban.

[tallboy66]

I know they're sprawl but I have often wondered "what if" Detroit instead of building multiple high rise cities in the suburbs they would be along Jefferson, and Up Woodward there'd still be Birmingham, Royal Oak, Ferndale, St. Clair Shores for suburban cities but they also have walkable areas where as Southfield Town Center is compact but where can you walk from there? Same thing with 16 mile and 75 to Long Lake and Crooks.

Then have the People Mover run from the bridge to Belle Isle, up to the Fisher building and make Cass ave. a one way street with the other lane being the people mover with parking spots under, then the return trip down John R. people would still have to drive out to the burb's but they could park downtown in the garages, get rid of the gravel parking lots and actually get somewhere on the PM.
It's not like the Big 3 can complain it would hurt their sales. LOL!

[DetroitPlanner]

What if Detroit had all the buildings of Troy, Southfield, Dearborn, Auburn Hills, Warren all in the city say... along Jefferson and up Woodward to the Fisher instead of sprawl.

Easy answer. Detroit would have a lot more empty buildings. Those buildings are not exactly doing gangbusters, every one of them has a huge for lease sign in the front. Detroit's high taxes has pushed those few businesses that are left out to the suburbs. Those folks ain't coming back until it makes financial sense to do so.

What we need are jobs. The current climate does not support jobs either in the City or the burbs. The one thing that Detroit has going for it has been hampered by federal policy designed to keep Mexicans out of California and Texas. We could be a trading powerhouse.

[tallboy66]

I thought they had a 56% tax break for a while for an incentive for people to move businesses into the city. They did a nice job for Compuware.
I know most of those suburban buildings were built in the early to mid 70's during "white flight" after the riots and so on but it's been 40+ years since then and there are still floors and floors of unoccupied space with rolodexes and phone books form that time still in trashed offices with broken or boarded up windows so how are the new cities going to deal with vacancy rates as more and more people leave, like me I left 2003.

[casscorridor]

The Suburbs will come to resemble much of the City today-- a vast expanse of abandonment, empty fields, crumbling buildings, homes, and infrastructure. Only the devestation will be more severe and will not be undone. The old City neighborhoods will be restored, and a new building stock will emerge to compliment the old... a city of 150 years of progress. The suburbs, on the other hand will see its neighborhoods die, with its reletively new building stock with it. Many people will see it easier to take Detroit's old grand buildings, built to last, and renovate them, and build new next door. While in the suburbs that will be hard, if not impossible, for the physical layout is too incompatible with real urbanism. Transit will be far and few between, and the desperate people living there will have a much lower quality of live than the currently impoverished in the City. The suburban wasteland will be far more dangeous, unlivable, and hopeless that what is currently called wasteland in Detroit. It will become a place with no past and no future. Everything was new, yet not built to last more than a generation. And a generation from now will hear about the suburbs from us, their parents, and we will tell them about the mistake, that our parents gave us to fix.

[crawford]

The Suburbs will come to resemble much of the City today-- a vast expanse of abandonment, empty fields, crumbling buildings, homes, and infrastructure. Only the devestation will be more severe and will not be undone. The old City neighborhoods will be restored, and a new building stock will emerge to compliment the old... a city of 150 years of progress. The suburbs, on the other hand will see its neighborhoods die, with its reletively new building stock with it. Many people will see it easier to take Detroit's old grand buildings, built to last, and renovate them, and build new next door. While in the suburbs that will be hard, if not impossible, for the physical layout is too incompatible with real urbanism. Transit will be far and few between, and the desperate people living there will have a much lower quality of live than the currently impoverished in the City. The suburban wasteland will be far more dangeous, unlivable, and hopeless that what is currently called wasteland in Detroit. It will become a place with no past and no future. Everything was new, yet not built to last more than a generation. And a generation from now will hear about the suburbs from us, their parents, and we will tell them about the mistake, that our parents gave us to fix.

This, in a nutshell, is the Great Hope of DYes.

As to whether it makes any sense or has any chance of happening, or even why it would be any better than the existing predicament, I have no clue.

[ChickenSoupForTheDee]

This, in a nutshell, is the Great Hope of DYes.

As to whether it makes any sense or has any chance of happening, or even why it would be any better than the existing predicament, I have no clue.

Not all DYes thinks like this, but I have noticed a certain "Cargo-Cult" mentality. Look to the skies, pray for the return of the white man, etc., etc. Why pin your hopes on the collapse of suburbia? Why not instead take what you have, and make the most of it? This is what I think is the intended viable theme of DYes.

[Stosh]

Not all DYes thinks like this, but I have noticed a certain "Cargo-Cult" mentality. Look to the skies, pray for the return of the white man, etc., etc. Why pin your hopes on the collapse of suburbia? Why not instead take what you have, and make the most of it? This is what I think is the intended viable theme of DYes.

I'm already scoping out potential landing spots for next year's governmental meltdown. The bigger fear isn't the bankruptcy of Detroit, it's Michigan in general.

[tallboy66]

Not all DYes thinks like this, but I have noticed a certain "Cargo-Cult" mentality. Look to the skies, pray for the return of the white man, etc., etc. Why pin your hopes on the collapse of suburbia? Why not instead take what you have, and make the most of it? This is what I think is the intended viable theme of DYes.

It's not even the return of "the white man" Southfield has been influxed by middle to upper class "blacks" that knew in order to have any type of life they had to leave, [[Detroit), I mean when the city make up is 85% +/- percent African American and still losing population something is seriously effed up.

The suburbs always are replaced with newer but in the case of Detroit it looks like it's reached an end. Just take a drive up 75 and the problems repeat all the way, Pontiac, Flint, Saginaw.

You'd think with all the abandon bldg. and low prices on historic homes that hipsters and preservationists would be stampeding Detroit but it just hasn't done what other old industrial cities have done to revitalize, and cities like Troy, West Bloomfield are filled with junk houses, wood frame subdivisions built in a few years.
No history, no craftsmanship, most of the trees aren't even half way to being mature,if they've even stayed alive,and how many people do you see walking on the sidewalks along Big Beaver, Crooks, Long Lake?

I hope it does come back and redevelops but I'm not holding my breath.

[noula]

I'm already scoping out potential landing spots for next year's governmental meltdown. The bigger fear isn't the bankruptcy of Detroit, it's Michigan in general.

Stosh is bang-on! We are witnessing the beginning of the end of big government. Our elite masters have encouraged the departure of America's once great industrial base to foreign climes. The productive tax base remains in serious decline and this too may accelerate.

Socialism ends when government runs out of other peoples money to spend [[i.e the productive sector). We are at that point. The parasites are in panic. Follow long-term interest rates and the ever rising number of dollars to buy an ounce of gold.

Just look at Detroit's geographical location. No wonder it was such an economic dynamo. It'll come back once the governments fail and the private sector is freed.

[ziggyselbin]

This, in a nutshell, is the Great Hope of DYes.

As to whether it makes any sense or has any chance of happening, or even why it would be any better than the existing predicament, I have no clue.

And neither do the know-it-alls that constantly post this doomsday crap.

[Stosh]

Just look at Detroit's geographical location. No wonder it was such an economic dynamo. It'll come back once the governments fail and the private sector is freed.

Detroit's geographical location was wonderful, if you were an 18th to early 20th century industrialist. It only makes sense in a world where raw materials flow and are consumed. The fur trade, lumber, copper, iron flowed down from upstate. This spawned the growth of settlement in Detroit, from Trapper's alley for furs, then manufacturing of all sorts, train cars, stoves, etc.

The only actual import of manufacturing supply was that of tobacco. And that was only due to the massive influx of immigrant labor then.

Detroit's location [[and it's suburbs too ) makes absolutely no economic sense today. It has to come up with a way to become economically useful, or it will perish, plain and simple.

[ChickenSoupForTheDee]

something is seriously effed up.

No doubt, and the big non-starter is the schools. I've even imagined going Catholic and moving to West Burner. Once you become a parent, it gets complicated.