Detroit's top 10 urban planning blunders (and 10 successes)

[Coldjensens]

I think there were a lot of linchpins.

The development of suburbs and the push by employers and the media to encourage people to move there. The degrading of the cities (more crime, more dirtiness, more and more crowded and ever growing expense). Civil unrest. Prejudice and a shift in demographics. Growth of the wealth of the middle class (who could now afford to own a small home rather than renting an apartment int eh city). Development of freeways which made commuting practical and also destroyed some of the nicer neighborhoods in Detroit. Really bad planning decisions by the City.

My parents lived in the City. They moved out after a tank rumbled down their street. Also because they wanted more room for the growing family. They were in an apartment with no yard. They moved to a small (900 s.f.) house with a yard in Livonia. Great neighbors and no tanks. Monthly cost for buying their house was cheaper than their rent. They were part of a mass exodus from the city (moved in later 1950s).

When the middle class basically left the City, the lower class grew, and the upper class moved away to escape them.

[OyCrumbler]

Detroit's dense highway system in the urban core is something that's arguably not quite a planning blunder, but did present a lot of significant issues and is something that's reversible to some extent. Those highways tear through and separate neighborhoods from each other and aren't too pleasant as a pedestrian to traverse or residents to live near by, and they also laid the foundations for people to move out of the urban core both by making it literally convenient to move out and commute to the city, but also with the then lack of knowledge of the health and social consequences of leaded gasoline and the dense concentration of deleterious exhaust from vehicles commuting in and out from the suburbs would cause for city residents. That a highway through a neighborhood might not be great was understood to some extent as there are freeway cap parks within Metro Detroit that was built at the prodding of residents, but for the most part that wasn't the case.

One good thing though is that this is maybe reversible. We have far better air filtration systems and lighting systems than we had in the past, our vehicles for the most part emit far less toxic pollutants than they did when these freeways were built especially as pretty much all gasoline is unleaded, and many of the freeways within the city were built below grade. This seems like it'd be an excellent opportunity for the city to start converting parts of the freeway outside of some interchanges to being capped with parks especially if some of the on and off ramps were also removed to have larger contiguous greenspaces. I'd think that doing this in segments with a plan to cap most below grade segments, but with a priority list for segments like that between downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods and midtown and new center would be a great planning rectification/success of sorts.

[keraT]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

I think there were a lot of linchpins.

The development of suburbs and the push by employers and the media to encourage people to move there. The degrading of the cities (more crime, more dirtiness, more and more crowded and ever growing expense). Civil unrest. Prejudice and a shift in demographics. Growth of the wealth of the middle class (who could now afford to own a small home rather than renting an apartment int eh city). Development of freeways which made commuting practical and also destroyed some of the nicer neighborhoods in Detroit. Really bad planning decisions by the City.
.

this push by employers and media to encourage people to move to city is happening now, reversal of 1950s.

[usroute10]

WESTERN MARKET

Another big blunder by Detroit was the destruction of the Western Market in Corktown. While not as big as its counterpart a few miles, it was still a vibrant institution of its own. It was demolished for the I75/I96 interchange in 1965



This Twitter post shows the location of the Western Market and the dense urban fabric surrounding it in 1951.

This article shows the crowds during the Market Days

RIVERTOWN

Another terrible decision by the city was, in the mid-1990s, the Dennis Archer administration announced its intention to develop a riverfront casino district in the East Riverfront Warehouse District. The East Riverfront was then a fledgling bar district with about 10 or so establishments in some of the oldest and more historic buildings in the city. This announcement spurred speculators to buy up all of the land in "Rivertown". They closed all of the establishments and sat on the land waiting for the big pay day from the city buying their property. Ultimately, the city nixed the idea and over the next 10-15 years, all of those old buildings were either burned down or demolished. Below is the Rhinoceros Club (burned down/demo'ed in 2012).



Legendary Woodbridge Tavern destroyed by fire (with pics)

Post #11 of this thread in the DetroitYES website shows 4 of these establishments

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by usroute10

WESTERN MARKET

Another big blunder by Detroit was the destruction of the Western Market in Corktown. While not as big as its counterpart a few miles, it was still a vibrant institution of its own. It was demolished for the I75/I96 interchange in 1965



This Twitter post shows the location of the Western Market and the dense urban fabric surrounding it in 1951.

This article shows the crowds during the Market Days

RIVERTOWN

Another terrible decision by the city was, in the mid-1990s, the Dennis Archer administration announced its intention to develop a riverfront casino district in the East Riverfront Warehouse District. The East Riverfront was then a fledgling bar district with about 10 or so establishments in some of the oldest and more historic buildings in the city. This announcement spurred speculators to buy up all of the land in "Rivertown". They closed all of the establishments and sat on the land waiting for the big pay day from the city buying their property. Ultimately, the city nixed the idea and over the next 10-15 years, all of those old buildings were either burned down or demolished. Below is the Rhinoceros Club (burned down/demo'ed in 2012).



Legendary Woodbridge Tavern destroyed by fire (with pics)

Post #11 of this thread in the DetroitYES website shows 4 of these establishments

Sounds like 2 terrible decisions.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by usroute10

WESTERN MARKET

Another big blunder by Detroit was the destruction of the Western Market in Corktown. While not as big as its counterpart a few miles, it was still a vibrant institution of its own. It was demolished for the I75/I96 interchange in 1965



This Twitter post shows the location of the Western Market and the dense urban fabric surrounding it in 1951.

This article shows the crowds during the Market Days

RIVERTOWN

Another terrible decision by the city was, in the mid-1990s, the Dennis Archer administration announced its intention to develop a riverfront casino district in the East Riverfront Warehouse District. The East Riverfront was then a fledgling bar district with about 10 or so establishments in some of the oldest and more historic buildings in the city. This announcement spurred speculators to buy up all of the land in "Rivertown". They closed all of the establishments and sat on the land waiting for the big pay day from the city buying their property. Ultimately, the city nixed the idea and over the next 10-15 years, all of those old buildings were either burned down or demolished. Below is the Rhinoceros Club (burned down/demo'ed in 2012).



Legendary Woodbridge Tavern destroyed by fire (with pics)

Post #11 of this thread in the DetroitYES website shows 4 of these establishments

Woof, those are some primo bad decisions.

[coventry80]

Originally Posted by keraT

this push by employers and media to encourage people to move to city is happening now, reversal of 1950s.

There was actual city growth in many U.S. the first part of the 2010s but since then and back on track is suburban growth, despite what the media and employers may be encouraging.

With Covid and now personal and property safety in jeopardy, the appeal of city life is under additional strain.