Good news for Detroit, it has long been a dream of the city to restore the streetcar to Woodward Ave.
http://m-1rail.com/
Luckily the line was not dependent on city financing, as Detroit works thru bankruptcy.
We'll also see how much urban renewal it brings because most of the businesses on Woodward look like they belong on Beirut, Lebanon.
Bankrupt or not, isn't Detroit building a new sports arena? Funny that there's money for that. I would think that they would put a line on Michigan avenue, you can still see streetcar rails in place near the MC station.
54light15 Bankrupt or not, isn't Detroit building a new sports arena? Funny that there's money for that. I would think that they would put a line on Michigan avenue, you can still see streetcar rails in place near the MC station.
Yes, i read about that somewhere and believe it or not I think they are putting that in the New Center area vs Downtown and I am not sure why they would choose New Center vs Downtown. Seems to me they need to concentrate on downtown redevelopment then the outlying small areas of the city that have not been destroyed yet.
They are replacing their street lights with LED street lights and at times using solar power, which I think is pretty cool. Not many cities are doing that.
CMStPnP 54light15 Bankrupt or not, isn't Detroit building a new sports arena? Funny that there's money for that. I would think that they would put a line on Michigan avenue, you can still see streetcar rails in place near the MC station. Yes, i read about that somewhere and believe it or not I think they are putting that in the New Center area vs Downtown and I am not sure why they would choose New Center vs Downtown. Seems to me they need to concentrate on downtown redevelopment then the outlying small areas of the city that have not been destroyed yet. They are replacing their street lights with LED street lights and at times using solar power, which I think is pretty cool. Not many cities are doing that.
The main draws out Michigan Ave were the MC station and the old Tiger's Stadium, but both are abandoned, although the station owner is reported to be making progress on clean-up in the old building.
New Center is the site of universities and major hospitals. Downtown has undergone appreciable redevelopment, and the office space and residential vacancy rate is essentially zero.
MidlandMike The main draws out Michigan Ave were the MC station and the old Tiger's Stadium, but both are abandoned, although the station owner is reported to be making progress on clean-up in the old building. New Center is the site of universities and major hospitals. Downtown has undergone appreciable redevelopment, and the office space and residential vacancy rate is essentially zero.
Well that is good news about Downtown I guess. I have not been there since 1990-1994 back when Billy Bonds would anchor the evening news in a drunken state and issue the occasional sexist comment to his female co-anchor........then pretend to be on the phone at the next camera shot taking heat for it.......lol.
Soon after I mentioned that Tiger Stadium was still abandoned, PAL announced they will be building something of a sports complex, with the old ball diamond as the centerpiece. There will be apartments and commercial buildings on part of the footprint of the old stands. New life in that part of town couldn't hurt the prospects for the old Michigan Central Depot.
The MC station has to be the biggest building in the world where every single window is busted. Must be some kind of record. I was in Ypsilanti not long ago and everyone was talking about the new streetcar line. Funny, that being in the land of the automobile. And, the Amtraks FLY through town!
MidlandMike Soon after I mentioned that Tiger Stadium was still abandoned, PAL announced they will be building something of a sports complex, with the old ball diamond as the centerpiece. There will be apartments and commercial buildings on part of the footprint of the old stands. New life in that part of town couldn't hurt the prospects for the old Michigan Central Depot.
Last I heard the developer that owned MC was going to spend $150k of his own money to "Stabilize" it. Whatever that means. Really if I were the city I would give the guy a deadline for fixing it up or face eminent domain siezure. He's played Detroit for a number of decades with MC Depot. Time for a new owner or someone willing to bring it back fully.
CMStPnP Last I heard the developer that owned MC was going to spend $150k of his own money to "Stabilize" it. Whatever that means. Really if I were the city I would give the guy a deadline for fixing it up or face eminent domain siezure. He's played Detroit for a number of decades with MC Depot. Time for a new owner or someone willing to bring it back fully.
The City of Detroit already has hundreds of buildings they don't have the money to demolish. They don't want to be saddled with a huge bldg and depot that has no foreseeable developer. I was happy that the owner was finally spending so much to clean it up. He is quite a piece of work. He owns many dilapidated properties. His main business is trucking, and he also owns the only highway bridge across the Detroit River to Canada. The only other option is a tunnel. His bridge is also showing its age. Michigan and Canada want to build a new international bridge. To keep his monopoly, he spent $20 million on a state referendum to prohibit state money from being spent on a new bridge. The referendum failed, so he contributed big money to some key state senators, who buried the bridge bill. Canada wanted the bridge so bad, they offered to finance the total bridge. Since the state did not have to appropriate any money, the governor was able approve construction of the bridge.
CP was considering building a new RR tunnel with better clearances. There was also a proposal to convert to old MC twin tunnels to use for trucks. The bridge owner again opposed the new RR tunnel to prevent the possibility of the old tunnel conversion causing competition. He only relented when it was determined the old RR tunnels were not appropriate for roadway conversion.
I crossed the Ambassador Bridge a while back, I had just heard about Manny Maroun. I asked the U.S. customs guy after his usual questions if it was true that one man owned the bridge. He said yes, then went into a bit of a rant how Manny got a million dollars a year from the U.S. government for the use of his building where the customs guys worked. He said how the building is decrepit and falling down and there's rarely hot water.
I didn't know that he also owned the MC station so I don't think it's likely that anything will change about that. There's been many articles over the years about Manny in Canadian newspapers. On the Windsor side, they are building a new approach highway to the Ambassador Bridge and the new bridge for when it ever gets built. Manny is like a Howard Hughes character, no one seems to even know what he looks like.
I find it very hard to believe that one man can own that bridge, but there you go.
The Canadians agreed to finance the entire new highway bridge. The only thing remaining was the US Customs facility, however, Customs has not found the money in their budget for it yet.
MidlandMike The Canadians agreed to finance the entire new highway bridge. The only thing remaining was the US Customs facility, however, Customs has not found the money in their budget for it yet.
IMO, they need to build the second bridge. Design looks a lot nicer than the Ambassador Bridge and that border crossing is a major bottleneck at times.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.