Hubbard Richard District Revitalized?

[davewindsor]

I was reading the Windsor Star today and it was talking about a revitalized, thriving paradise neighbourhood that looked like it was out of the suburbs, west of downtown and east of the bridge called Richard Hubbard. A decade ago it, it was slums. Now it has 93 new or restord houses, no blight with the exception of the MCS in the distance, a grocery store and many chain stores with only one vacant storefront, beautifully landscaped yards and no for sale signs anywhere. There was even a Mercedes parked in the driveway. I've seen dilapidated houses in Brush and Boston-Edison, yet this place is the exception? Reading about all the other neighbourhoods tanking in Detroit, how accurate is this article? Are there any other pictures of it? I can't seem to be able to find them in a regular google to verify what's being said. They had a picture pf a new townhouse complex, but I just find it hard to believe that an area of the city I've avoided for so many years because of what I saw over a decade ago is like the reporter describes. She actually suggests this neighbourhood should be an example for Windsor?


http://www.windsorstar.com/Jarvis+Re...243/story.html
Windsor's Anne Jarvis: Neighbourhood reborn in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge

By Anne Jarvis, The Windsor StarDecember 7, 2009

When Canadians drive off the Ambassador Bridge into the U.S. and turn east into the neighbourhood called Hubbard-Richard in Southwest Detroit, they're genuinely shocked.
"What's this?" they want to know.
This isn't what they think of when they think of Detroit.
Indeed, this oasis is hard to fathom. The bold rebuilding of hijacked Hubbard-Richard, in the shadow of the giant and insatiable bridge, has been stunning.
"It was quite wonderful," said Father Leo Reilly, assistant pastor of historic Ste. Anne Church, the rock of the community. The parishioner who led the revitalization called it a miracle.
"It has become a neighbourhood again in the true sense of the word, where people care about each other, look out for each other, talk to each other," said resident Jim Garrison. "It's a nice place."
What can Windsor do about the bridge's blight on the city's west side? This is what Windsor can do.
A little over 10 years ago, Hubbard-Richard was a wasteland of decrepit buildings, overgrown vacant lots and barbed wire fences. Whole blocks were lost. There were drugs and crime. If you drove on nearby Vernor Avenue, you took your life in your hands.
The deterioration started in the 1970s and '80s. Then, say residents and activists, the bridge came, and the devastation began again. It did there what it's doing here, now. It wanted land. It bought people out. Others fled. Those who remained began to let their homes go. Said Vito Valdez, who grew up there: "It was bleak."
Now, 93 houses have been built or renovated. The Star's Dave Battagello took me on a tour last week. There are small storey-and-a-half houses with big dormer windows and porches and tall, narrow two-storey homes with high ceilings. They have pastel siding, some green, some yellow, some blue or beige, with white trim and big windows. Many are subsidized.
There is a handsome red and beige brick 65-unit apartment building for seniors. It has a courtyard with a garden and a pavilion. Many of the residents walk to Ste. Anne.
There are 64 smart red brick townhouses for single professionals who work downtown. We peered inside a window [[from the street). They're beautiful inside, with wooden staircases, art on the walls. Parked outside one was a Mercedes.
There are garages at the back. The yards are neatly landscaped. There are sidewalks, stylish streetlights and a small park with a garden, new trees and a modest but elegant sign announcing Ste. Anne's Gate.
It's like the suburbs. All within blocks of the bridge.
Most of what has been built is occupied. There were no For Sale signs.
A charter school has opened for at-risk kids, drawing students from across the city.
The neighbourhood grocery store, The Honey Bee Market, once the size of a corner store, expanded three years ago, quadrupling in size. It's another attractive red brick and stone building with large, ornate lamps, decorated for the season with green garland and red bows. It's one of the best grocery stores in Southwest Detroit.
Vernor west of the bridge, where many in Hubbard-Richard work and shop, is thriving now. There are popular chain stores, restaurants, hair salons, dentists, financial consultants, auto repair shops, bakeries, banks and pharmacies.

I saw only one vacant store [[unlike Ouellette Avenue in Windsor), and the street was bustling.
The non-profit organization that has developed much of the area just bought the old police station near the foot of the bridge and is planning a creative arts centre. A pedestrian bridge under construction will link the two sides of the freeways.
This isn't Grosse Pointe. The homes are modest. The area is still rough around the edges. And still hovering over all is the bridge. It owns 12 to 15 properties that the neighbourhood still wants but says the bridge won't sell. It owns the land around three sides of Hubbard-Richard, distinctive by the rundown buildings, lots that are either vacant or look like construction zones and fences, some with barbed wire.
Some streets are blocked off because the bridge has simply taken them [[the issue is in court). Rising into the sky nearby is the historic but crumbling train station, also belonging to bridge owner Matty Moroun.
But there are people, homes, jobs and businesses. This is a stable and ethnically and socially diverse community. People know each other. They sit on their porches and gather at the church plaza. Children play. Southwest Detroit is now an up-and-coming area of the city.
"People are really excited to see the neighbourhood growing," said Ken Koehler, who owns Honey Bee. "It reflects on everything."
And they've stopped the encroachment by the bridge.
Imagine all this in the shadow of the bridge in west Windsor, a stone's throw from the University of Windsor's new medical and engineering schools. Isn't this what we want?
Later this week, I'll tell you how Southwest Detroit did it -- and how Windsor can, too.
ajarvis@thestar.canwest.com

[gnome]

Sorry I can't add any info other than to point out that the area is named after a couple of famous pioneers: Bela Hubbard and Father Gabriel Richard. Richard is pronouced like Rocket Richard [[reeeCHard).

[urbanoutdoors]

It is quite nice... Bagley Housing became part of Southwest Housing earlier this year.... I have thought of buying a house over there, new bungalows for 65,000 since they have to sell for assessed value and the housing market plummeted they did sell for about 120,000... They just sold their final units... The area still has issues, it is not a utopic community but it is a very nice area that once the housing market picks back up and the entire project is completed I could definitely see it being a model for Windsor... Honey Bee Market also makes the neighborhood quite attractive...
here is some info...
http://www.swsol.org/bagleyproject.php

[texorama]

I believe she's referring to the Ste. Anne area, south of the Honey Bee, rather than strictly to Hubbard-Richard, which I've thought of as being along the streets of those names. But yes--drive in there, and you'll find this generally accurate. What they're describing is the new construction in that area, which did make a marked difference. My take would be that various factors came together--church programs [[which financed a lot of the home construction, I think), the prosperity of the Mexican community in the 1990s, the strength of the Honey Bee and other businesses, the proximity to downtown and Corktown. But it certainly could provide a blueprint for the revitalization of other areas--and heck, even for Windsor.

[MichMatters]

Dave, just to correct the title of the post, it's Hubbard-Richard. You got the names mixed up.

BTW, I always thought Hubbard-Richard was more situated west of the bridge than east, and, in fact, I'd always considered this area in between Corktown proper and Mexicantown just a part of greater Corktown, or the western end of it. Is there a proper definition of a place and/or an actual neighborhood association, or is it just an historical definition of the farms in the area like so much of the rest of riverfront Detroit?

[texorama]

Or part of Mexicantown, perhaps--one of the intangibles contributing to the success of that neighborhood is that the plaza in front of Ste. Anne's so much resembles what you'd find in a Mexican town beside its old Catholic church.

[urbanoutdoors]

Hubbard Richard is technically 16th to WGB. Hubbard Farms is WGB to clark.... Corktown ends at 14th that far south where it goes all the way to 96 around Michigan and in North Corktown... Bagley Housing Association did an amazing job on the neighborhood as I have spent a great deal of time around the area since 1999...

[MichMatters]

Thanks, urbanoutdoors. I'd forgot about the division of Hubbard Farms, which is probably the area I was thinking about.

[texorama]

I notice that they've now changed the text online to refer to Hubbard Farms rather than Hubbard-Richard.

Be interesting to see the followup articles in the series.

[barnesfoto]

As UO pointed out, the two neighborhoods overlap and are often confused, especially as HR is bisected by the freeway.
Bagley Housing did a great job redeveloping, and the nice thing about the area just behind the bridge [[where my last Detroit address was) is this: lower crime than HF, due perhaps to being somewhat isolated, and no large apt buildings filled with unemployed people. Oh yeah, and walking distance to Honey Bee and Slows.

Last time I checked, there's a few of those St. Annes Gate Townhouses in foreclosure, they are selling for considerably less then a few years ago.

[urbanoutdoors]

A much more in depth look at what could be done in sandwich by lookingat hubbrd richards example....
http://www.windsorstar.com/columnist...176/story.html

[kathy2trips]

Cracker boxes can be built anywhere. Reuse, Renovate, Recycle.