Quote Originally Posted by corktownyuppie View Post
Well for me this is less about race and more about walkability. I'm glad it's not as welcoming to motorists from any direction. Paris is not welcoming to motorists. I think it's a great place to be.
And I understand that you feel that way. But perhaps in your impatience to dismiss the connotations the market presents, you miss the way this is certain to alienate and disturb Detroiters. Detroiters, especially African-American Detroiters, have a long history of being faced with walls and barriers to hem them in. In the case of the Grosse Pointes, the barriers were often social -- a "points system" employed by real estate agents to keep out ethnic whites, Jews and blacks -- as well as the physical blocking-off of through streets.

Might I suggest that this is an opportunity to explore that history and perhaps develop a sensitivity to these issues that will help bridge these divides, rather that waving them away in the interest of leaving a stubborn problem unexamined?