Construction at MLK and John C. Lodge

**boogiechillen** · August-21-10, 01:49 PM

As I rode my bike down MLK Blvd on my way to work this morning, I noticed some construction in the area South of MLK between the Lodge on the West and Fourth Street on the East. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,0.021329&z=16
It appears that some sewer pipes are going in, but I can't tell for what reason. Is this a potential site of Illich's Olympia II stadium? What was originally on this site? I think it may have been part of the Jeffries Homes originally. It's quite an expansive parcel.

**Detroit Stylin** · August-21-10, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by boogiechillen

As I rode my bike down MLK Blvd on my way to work this morning, I noticed some construction in the area South of MLK between the Lodge on the West and Fourth Street on the East. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,0.021329&z=16
It appears that some sewer pipes are going in, but I can't tell for what reason. Is this a potential site of Illich's Olympia II stadium? What was originally on this site? I think it may have been part of the Jeffries Homes originally. It's quite an expansive parcel.

That is going to be Woodbridge East. In the are that once housed the former Jeffries East.

An eye on the future. The NSO, DRMM, and the other social service agencies are already making plans [[or being coerced) to move out of that area. You know of course with all that pricey housing there they don't want to have be disturbed by the sight of people who cant pull themsselves up by their own boot straps. But I cannot lie I personally wouldnt want to see it every day, but that's not to say they should be hidden somewhere out of sight as if the problem will go away. However the work going on there will increase the quality of life and status of the area since that will add to the already smaller scale projects going on in the lower Corridor, so it comes out as a wash....

**boogiechillen** · August-21-10, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by Detroit Stylin

An eye on the future. The NSO, DRMM, and the other social service agencies are already making plans [[or being coerced) to move out of that area. You know of course with all that pricey housing there they don't want to have be disturbed by the sight of people who cant pull themsselves up by their own boot straps. But I cannot lie I personally wouldnt want to see it every day, but that's not to say they should be hidden somewhere out of sight as if the problem will go away. However the work going on there will increase the quality of life and status of the area since that will add to the already smaller scale projects going on in the lower Corridor, so it comes out as a wash....

I pass by that area practically every day, and it isn't exactly a joy to see so many destitute people milling about all the time. I recognize that they are probably victims of economic and social circumstances beyond their control, but it really bugs me to see the condition they leave the area [[the corner of 3rd Ave and MLK) in which they spend most of their time. The place is just filled with rubbish. Why not keep the area you eat and sleep in free of garbage? I don't expect these people to go away, and I think it's great that the organization on the corner provides meals to people in need, but I wish it would do more to encourage the people there to have more respect for the area and not just throw their trash any old place.

**East Detroit** · August-21-10, 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by boogiechillen

Why not keep the area you eat and sleep in free of garbage?

Then again, why should they? If life seems to be a constant struggle and you're despondent and desperate, I doubt that tidying up to please potential yuppie/hipster neighbors is high on your list of to-do items.

**m3h.shallal** · August-21-10, 07:23 PM

I also saw that construction today on my way to Eastern Market. Woodbridge East? does that mean they are going to be building houses there?

**jt1** · August-21-10, 08:36 PM

Originally Posted by East Detroit

Then again, why should they? If life seems to be a constant struggle and you're despondent and desperate, I doubt that tidying up to please potential yuppie/hipster neighbors is high on your list of to-do items.

Because we should expect people to pick up after themselves regardless of situation. I'm pretty sure that there are many non yuppie/hipsters in the area that don't care to see the area look like shit.

Would you consider this acceptable in your neighborhood?

**claireianthelibrarian** · August-22-10, 01:41 AM

I live pretty much right at the spot you all are discussing. It's not perfect, but it's not the worst. I had a job working with the homeless in the past, so I guess it doesn't bother me so much. I wish the area was less trashed, but those folks need to be somewhere and go somewhere, and have as much of a right to take up space as I do.

On a day-to-day basis, some of the college age kids in my building have more of a negative effect on my quality of life than the homeless population--seriously, who the hell pissed on our shared balcony? What the fuck? And can your friends get your apartment number right and not buzz me for once, thanks?

I am a little surprised how high the cost of rent and goods/services are in this immediate micro-area given the conditions and the lack of certain services here, but that's what I get for living near a university.

Bonus fun: On the above-linked Google map, the map view still shows the outline of the projects, but when you switch to satellite view they vanish.

**JenniferL** · August-22-10, 01:44 AM

If you think that corner looks bad now, you should have seen it in the early 1990s. I did field work at the Dewey Center school when I was an ed school student at Wayne State. There were no yuppies. You couldn't walk around the neighborhood at all. My fellow ed school students and I received multiple dire warnings about what would happen to us if we didn't take precautions as we went to and from the parking lot.

**fryar** · August-22-10, 03:45 AM

Originally Posted by JenniferL

If you think that corner looks bad now, you should have seen it in the early 1990s. I did field work at the Dewey Center school when I was an ed school student at Wayne State. There were no yuppies. You couldn't walk around the neighborhood at all. My fellow ed school students and I received multiple dire warnings about what would happen to us if we didn't take precautions as we went to and from the parking lot.

I'm sure it wasn't that bad. We just had a UP transplant from Seattle say that kind of thing a couple of weeks ago, and we called her a liar and a meanie.

Sorry. Don't mind me. Just rehashing the past.

Originally Posted by boogiechillen

Why not keep the area you eat and sleep in free of garbage?

I'm not one to blame the victim, but those with the inclination to tidy up their living space probably don't typify that demographic, so the most pragmatic approach probably takes that into account. The inclination to tidy up certainly eludes me.

Originally Posted by claireianthelibrarian

seriously, who the hell pissed on our shared balcony? What the fuck?

<Looks down. Looks back up. Smiles nonchalantly>
<shifts weight around>
Case in point?

**detroitbob66** · August-23-10, 10:51 PM

I live in the Cass Corridor also....right now as I type lookin out my window at Temple Street.....I love this area, love the neighborhood, and love the people. I work at a homeless shelter right here also, we that like this, are a unique breed of people. I believe that I tend to see it as part of the Cass Corridor/Detroit culture, history, and art.

**detroitsgwenivere** · August-23-10, 11:32 PM

I lived in the corridor as a teen during the 90's, and it was definitely more F'ed up than it is today. I'm going to miss it after the coming gentifrication is completed, especially after they name it something stupid like "hiptown" or "the entertainment district."

Almost as creative as "midtown."

**Gsgeorge** · August-24-10, 12:58 AM

Not sure about ya'll, but I'd rather see the riffraff outta Temple Street and 3rd/MLK. I would take emptiness, an occasional hipster, and a few boarded up historic buildings over heaping piles of trash, seedy vagrants everywhere walking in front of traffic, crackwhores screaming at each other across the block, and an overall air of Freakiness pervading my neighborhood. Say what you will about 'character' and 'uniqueness', but I think the regular folks I meet, work, live, and interact with on a daily basis in Detroit are plenty unique. I'm not sure how much a trash-littered street corner adds to Detroit's character.

**JJD** · August-24-10, 11:11 AM

Grew up there. The NSO is probably the furthest thing from a Service to Neighborhood you could have. It does nothing to imporve the lives of the people who use it. They give people a meal and a place to crash, I have personally chased people who stole from us and they always disappear into the NSO. They make the surrounding blockas a dumping ground for tattered clothes and litter. I think the altruistic people who defend the need for this service should move it into their subdivision. I would like to see this in Northville. If it happened there they would scoop up the vagrants and drop them somwhere south of 8-mile. Thats what the NSO is, a place for the burbs to drop the people the cops have picked up for loitering.