Detroit's bet on urban renewal: casinos

Although Newark, NJ and Detroit, MI have much in common, their plans for urban renewal divide in a few key areas including not only mass transit, but also development of new downtown attractions.

Perhaps it's Newark's proximity to Atlantic City and Connecticut's casinos, that's stopped it from pursuing casino development as a revitalization strategy, and maybe that's a good thing. Instead Newark's focused on alternatives such as NJPAC, The Rock, and increased investment in its museum and Rutgers University areas. This assortment of diverse alternatives has helped Newark not only rebuild quickly, but also re-establish the city as a cultural destination for its surrounding suburban areas.

Like Newark, Detroit is surrounded by sprawling suburbs-- the destination for those fleeing the city since the 1950s and 60s. Also like Newark, Detroit's received little support from its suburban neighbors, instead being pretty much ignored for most of the last half of the 20th century as the city falls further into ruin.

Unlike Newark, Detroit is situated across the river from another country, and the city of Windsor, Ontario, a booming "Atlantic City" of Canada. The past 15 years has seen an explosion of casino development in Canada, and Detroit's renewal strategy hinges on cashing in on this phenomenon.

Detroit is now home to three casinos: MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino Hotel, and Greektown Casino.  Unfortunately this redevelopment strategy hasn't been completely successful; for example, the Greektown Casino filed for bankruptcy in May 2008, and the other two Detroit casinos have seen profits plummet as the U.S. economy sinks further into one of the greatest recessions in the country's history.

I think one of the big problems with this sort of development is that it doesn't benefit the surrounding community as promised. Atlantic City is a good example-- the casino areas and boardwalk have been renewed, but walk 2-blocks from that area and urban decay, poverty, and crime are still very much a part of AC.

Another problem with casino-focused development is that it doesn't rebuild a much needed bridge from the downtown urban area back to the surrounding suburbs. By not investing in downtown culture (as Newark has done), Detroit's created a vacuum whereby local culture has taken flight to the suburbs (such as Ann Arbor), with no incentive to return to downtown Detroit.

Art communities rejuvenate urban economies; Chicago and Asbury Park are good examples of this phenomenon. Newark is also home to a thriving artist movement. Although Detroit has created an emerging artist market, it might benefit from rethinking its casino-centric development plans and increase investment in attracting artists communities to downtown Detroit to help increase the diversity of its redevelopment plans.

The People Mover and Detroit's lost public transportation system

One thing that separates Detroit from other American cities is its lack of a consistent public transportation system. Although this can be attributed mostly to Detroit's car culture, the oil industry is also to blame.

Like other early 20th century cities, Detroit possessed several substantial electric trolley lines, and before that, trolleys pulled by horses. Like trolley systems in most American cities, Detroit's was dismantled in the 1950's through efforts of the Rockefeller family, owners of Exxon-Mobil:

By design, the Rockefellers have received no blame for their pivotal role in destroying the vast trolley car system that dominated U.S. cities before the 1940s, thereby increasing city dwellers' dependence on automobiles and gas-fueled bus lines. Yet the Rockefellers' Standard Oil of California joined General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, and Phillips Petroleum to form the National City Lines holding company, which bought out and dismantled more than 100 trolley systems in 45 cities (including New York, Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Tulsa, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles) between 1936 and 1950 (source).

Although a small tourist line was built in 1976 (and dismantled in 2003), today the only public transportation Detroiters have are buses and the fairly useless Detroit People Mover, a fully automated elevated train that travels in a 2.9 mile circle through Detroit's downtown.

Now that I commute from Northern NJ to Manhattan, and use the NYC subway 5 days a week, I can see just how important public transportation is to maintaining a vibrant urban environment. As energy costs increase, mass transit will become even more important. The smartest thing a declining city can do is invest in mass transit programs. Even Newark, NJ, in many ways similar to Detroit, has invested heavily in mass transit, and the payoff has been a resurgence of Newark's downtown area, including NJPAC and the new Prudential Center. 

Buses alone are not the answer to Detroit's urban renewal problems. People won't buy condo lofts in an abandoned downtown center supported by only bus service and a useless circular elevated train. Casinos aren't the answer either. Detroit will never recover as a first rate city unless it can convince the Big 3 and Big Oil to step aside and let the city develop real mass transit solutions to support its renewal efforts. If Detroit's leadership can't do this, then the city, like the Big 3, will never recover.

Dinner in Mexicantown

After the Coney Island stop I drove around downtown Detroit some more, then made my way down to Mexicantown which, like Newark's Ironbound, is past the RR tracks that divide the city. 

The abandoned Michigan Central Station can be seen in the background by the old Tiger Stadium when traveling to Mexicantown.

Downtown Detroit's "American Coney Island"

So I drove into downtown Detroit on Tuesday. The snow and wind were much worse than I'd thought--near blizzard conditions and impossible to take many photos. I got a few...but mostly I just drove around in the slush since none of the streets were plowed. 

The snow gave the old pre depression-era buildings a surreal look, almost made them clean and new, and there were a couple of streets that looked almost Manhattan-like in their canyonish layout. There were other cars and some buses around too, but not many people on this day before Christmas eve, but then again there was no shopping to be done because there are almost no businesses of any kind in this barren cityscape. Like midtown Manhattan after the apocalypse.

After sliding around in my rental car for about an hour I decided  to take a break, but that's a problem in a nearly abandoned city like Detroit. Unlike Manhattan, or even downtown Newark, there's really no coffee shops, bodegas, or Starbucks anywhere--just abandoned storefronts of what probably used to be restaurants.

I finally found something on Lafayette Street-- two "restaurants": Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island, located next to each other in dumpy old buildings, which was next to what looked like a 1960s-era skyscraper that was abandoned with graffiti in all its  windows up to the top floor. The bottom of that building looked like it was home to the "Lafayette Deli" which was long ago boarded up and abandoned.

I parked across the street in a rising snowbank. For a city with no population it was strange to see that on-street parking was managed by fairly new muni-meters. As other people parked near me I observed that they didn't pay the meter, so I decided not to as well. What are the chances of a cop giving out parking tickets in a snow storm anyway?

The American Coney Island looked less dumpy than it's sister restaurant, so I went in, wondering again WTF "Coney Island" implied. Inside it looked as if time had stopped--checkerboard floors, old counters with stools, and a very retro feel. The 3 men behind the counter wore Happy Days era paper hats and white uniforms. They were all Albanian immigrants.  The only other customer was a homeless man huddled in one corner smoking a cigarette.

I learned that "Coney Island" had nothing to do with the now defunct NY amusement park. "Coney Island" is a type of hotdog style made popular here by Greek immigrants in the late 19th century. Apparently these immigrants sold their dogs under the assumption that they were what was eaten at the real Coney Island--which I guess sounded exotic to a land-locked place like Detroit. The hot dog includes chili, onions, and mustard and reminds me of what NJ refers to as a "Texas Weiner". 

American Coney Island is some sort of landmark here, and I'd chanced upon it in a snow storm. It's counterpart next door, Lafayette Coney Island, is also a landmark but a bit dumpier.

Not my usual food, but it was cold and I was hungry, so I ordered 2 with coffee and asked if I could take some photos, and they agreed. 

The food was ok, but I think Nathan's is better (and more authentically Coney Island), or any cartdog in NYC for that matter. After I ate I started taking photos. That's when the owner walked in and asked if I was going to use the photos for "commercial gain". Seeing that this place was in the middle of an apocalyptic nowhere land straight out of Mad Max, I was puzzled by this because I think at this point any publicity would be better than none. I stifled a smirk while answering "no" and explained that my intent was artistic only. 

The photos will be up on Flickr when I get back.

Looking Around

Today I'm going into Detroit. It snowed this morning and the temperature is about 10 degrees, but I'm going to see what I can find.

Detroit Metro Tide Packets

As the news has blared for weeks, Michigan's economy is tanking. I think its been on this track for at least 30 yrs, but the recent economic tsunami really impacted this region, perhaps even more than lower Manhattan.

I guess a sure sign of economic end times are half empty stores 2 days before Christmas...which is what I experienced last night as I shopped to replace my lost luggage.

Walmart was busier than Sears, but not packed. Probably because Walmart's prices are so dirt cheap. But even with that, most of the purchases I observed at Walmart were for food.

At home I deliberately don't shop at Walmart because I don't like how they treat their employess. Here I had little choice-- its the only cheap game in town. I have to admit they are super cheap, and  had some unusual stuff I don't remember seeing in Kmart or Target.

Probably the best item I purchased yesterday was Tide's Travel Sink Packets. For $0.33 I can recycle what I wore on the plane in the hotel sink, so one less change of clothes to buy. Neat.

McDonald's "Classic"

Then there's McDonald's "classic" 'restaurants'. This throwback to hulahoops and communism sports no indoor eating area. As I drove by one tonight I thought it was a great idea to put one in Dearborn, MI where  the current temperature is 10 degrees. Despite that, I did see a long line at the drive through on the side.