Heidelberg Project to be Dismantled/Morphed, Gradually

[Jason]

I think it's sad but good for a few reasons.

1 - There's only so long you can drag on that kind of thing. The "cashing out" started a while ago and the thing is practically a tourist trap. 100 years from now are we supposed to be flying over it in our jetson cars?

2 - It's not happening yet, but it's location next to elmwood park, gratiot, and eastern market, and proximity to downtown, means that if Detroit stays on its current path there's going to be development around there. Are you going to form a ghetto preservation district to keep the development out of sight? Are you going to have a weird multiple-way conflict between the outsider developers, the outsider artist/preservationists, and the locals? Especially considering how the project started it would be really silly for there to be a fight over the revitalization of the neighborhood.


A new art oriented development initiated by them would have the potential to balance all of those forces harmoniously.

An art colony/center could be the core. They could run art programs at their own facility, and also in conjunction with the elementary school down the street and King High School which covers that area. There could also be a broader community groups component to the center, since Gleaners Community Food Bank and some other places are nearby.

For auxiliary developments they could team up with private developers and the city to have really affordable and inclusive housing. They can hire the right architects who share their values and are capable of designing buildings in accordance with those principles.

On the commercial side of things the developments could include spaces where local business could operate, maybe including some low cost shared office spaces, and other things which reduce the barriers to entering business. [[iirc when asked about what Detroit's kids wanted to be when they grew up, "business" was #2 after sports star)

There's a lot of ways it could work out really well, and with the fame of the project they could probably get a lot of cooperation for it.