Eastern Market says more than 300 housing units in the works

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"From Midtown to downtown to Corktown, there is a market push for those three general areas and Eastern Market has been sort of left behind in that," said Craig Willian, vice president of real estate for Develop Detroit Inc., one of the developers working on Eastern Market area residential buildings.

Well, last time I checked, Corktown, Midtown, and downtown weren't doing a whole lot of projects for workforce/low-income and senior citizens. There are a few, but most of the development is market-rate. St. Aubin is on the periphery of Eastern Market [[EM)so I wouldn't say that development is going to do anything to enhance EM. Also, where would a development go along the South end of EM along Gratiot?

I was in New Orleans back in April and then went to an event at Eastern Market a week later an said to myself that Eastern Market has the potential to be Detroit's "French Quarter." I know it's a stretch. Greektown is more "Bourbon Street" but it's small compared to the French Quarter and EM. However, Eastern Market has a few things similar to the French Quarter: narrow streets, outside of Russell Street, especially those that head East and West, and the fact that it is a "gathering spot" for large crowds reminds me of a lot of what I saw in the French Quarter in New Orleans. All EM needs now is some residential that is dense and close to the streets; no lawns and mainly townhouses. This would be great along the streets heading towards Chene Street. However, that's not the plan for those streets.

Also, if EM would build a few more parking decks and build residential on some of the surface lots, it could really become a mixed-use community. There is some land along Russell Street just north of the Fire Department Lofts that would be ideal for some townhouses.

At any rate, developing Eastern Market has got to be bigger than what's being proposed in this article. I thought I'd give a different vision.