Woodward Corridor redevelopment gets funding from national group

[begingri]

New York-based Living Cities, a collaborative of 22 national foundations and financial institutions, plans to invest $22 million in an effort to redensify Detroit's Woodward Corridor.


The money is comprised of grants, program-related investments from foundations and loans.


The investment is part of up to $80 million Living Cities is investing in five metropolitan areas over the next 10 years and the largest amount given to any of the cities.


Continued at: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...REE/101029873#

[n7hn]

Good news. I didnt see how to claim one of the jobs or my share of the cash tho....

[Hypestyles]

sounds good, especially the part about working to improve the circumstances of low-income residents.. I wonder how much money will go into job training, and what fields..

[casscorridor]

Wow, a community land trust in North End is really great news. When the light-rail tracks go in, property values will begin to go up, eventually skyrocketing after the neighborhood reaches a critical mass of new development and influx of wealthy, probably white, residents. There will be gentrification of the entire Woodward corridor, like it or not. The question is what to do about it. I think a land trust is an important solution because it takes property off of the market and reserves it for affordable/low-income housing.

The focus on collaboration between major institutions is also extremely critical, as well as how they spend their money. Millions of dollars could be pumped into the neighborhood economy if the anchor institutions supported the development of large scale worker-owned co-ops to provide services such as laundry, solar energy or even food. This is happening in Cleavland with much success [[see Evergreen Cooperatives).

I also like how a central focus is to "redensify" the Woodward corridor and act as a model of how to redevelop the rest of the city. I think it is becoming clear that while big projects like stadiums or hotels are nice but they aren't going to bring back the city. What is needed is collaboration, community participation, and brick by brick, building by building, storefront by storefront development to restore the urban fabric that has been lost for quite some time, but it is not too late to save. Detroit has to be innovative to survive. But if we are successful Detroit will act as model to the rest of the country, reclaim its rightful status as the "city of the future."

[mwilbert]

This is the right idea. As long as they don't spend too much effort trying to attract families with children from outside Detroit, it should work.

[hybridy]

makes a lot of sense to me...commenter on the article lays it out very simply.

"As a young professional that grew up in the suburbs, lived in Lafayette Park for 3 years, and then moved back to the suburbs I can see where this project may go wrong; Detroit needs to KEEP the young professionals that move in. Three major things are needed in the neighborhood to keep those that move in:

1. REASONABLY priced housing. $900/month apartments and $300,000 lofts and townhouses are not going to work. The goal is to attract 22-40 year old professionals earning $35,000 - $75,000 salaries. I realize that part of the goal of high-end housing in Detroit is to price out locals, but it backfires by pricing out young professionals still paying off student loans.

2. A reasonably priced grocery store with quality produce and meat/seafood department. Western Market in Ferndale, Holiday Market in Royal Oak and Harbor Town Market in Detroit are good examples. The market that didn't survive in Midtown was too high-end. The grocery store that didn't survive in Lafayette Park had horrible quality produce.

3. A charter school or private elementary school nearby that suburban transplants feel safe sending their children to. No one that is young and moves to Detroit stays in Detroit when they have children. The schools are unsafe, poor performing and full of students with parents that are bad influences.

I hope these millionaire investors understand what those of use that don't earn $100,000/year and are shelling out $200-$800 a month in undergraduate loans want."

From The Detroit News: http://apps.detnews.com/apps/forums/...#ixzz144Bn0FTg

[mwilbert]

People who can't afford $900/month rent can't afford private school. Charter schools can't exclude the children whose "parents are bad influences" who you want to exclude.

Families with children cannot be the main market for this without some kind of change to how public schools work in Detroit.