To me anyways there is really nothing to say about what Detroit was as a city before and one cannot say that because things were that way they were going to stay that way forever.
I still believe the whole belle island thing was not necessary because it was a decision made in the heat of the moment and not looking into the future.
Detroit is a city just like thousands of more cities out there the metrics are the same no matter what,like I said before Detroit has the advantage of learning from the mistakes that others have made in the rebuilding process.
There is nothing that is going to happen in the city that has not already happened elsewhere.
If the general plan is for an entertainment district and more housing etc etc which is not going to happen overnight,why is there a need to demolish these buildings because they are representive of exactly what is being proposed in the future.
The only option out there is point blank demolition for a parking lot?
The stadium on its own is a large piece of real estate that will be sitting there empty and not a destination other then game time.
Who says,hey I am bored let's go go hang out in front of that big empty stadium,the city is supposed to be stepping up its game and not settling for because it is better then nothing.
When everybody goes home after the game,they still live there and in theory are helping pay for the thing.
The whole aspect of you help pay for my stadium but you get no say in it is not really a very fair way to look at it.
Atlanta,Orlando,Tampa,St. Petersburg 4 cities 5 stadiums every one was built on the same pretense,5,10,20 years later they are still the same as the day they were built after demolishing entire neighborhoods and promising the exact same thing,go look at them,every single one is a stadium in the city surrounded by nothing.
Because nothing survives around them based of 90 days a year of business,even if you do build a entertainment district around them they still are a big hole of empty mass in the middle.
My thinking would be with these two buildings is no demolishing for 5 years and no demolition by neglect,then revisit it at that time.
There is plenty of vacant lots around there for parking and they can pretty up the facades,highly unlikely but hopefully everything will be built out then and the ideas can be floated again.
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