More on Detroit Future City
The team at Detroit Future City wanted to set the record straight regarding several statements made about the think tank in our Jan. 7 cover story about efforts to rebrand a Southwest Detroit neighborhood as "Springwells Village." The following comes in from DFC executive director Kenneth Cockrel Jr.:
The Detroit Future City (DFC) Strategic Framework does not recommend "moving people from less-populated areas into denser ones" as was stated in a recent article published by Metro Times. Nor does DFC recommend creating "enclaves" that receive investment while the others around it do not, which the article also stated.
DFC recognizes the challenges people face in all areas of the city. Our organization has identified opportunities for strategic reinvestment that can improve quality of life, reduce overall costs for services, improve service delivery and fulfill long-term opportunities for land reutilization to generate energy, food, advanced systems, and jobs.
The DFC Implementation Office is working daily with many stakeholders, including residents and community partners — from all areas of Southwest Detroit and across the city's 139 square miles — to activate these opportunities, and offer information and resources to all Detroiters.
Crazy for Casey's
We got a number of Facebook comments on our Jan. 22 blog post about the return of Casey's Pub, which briefly closed as owners brainstormed ways to adapt to Corktown's changing demographics:
• This place has so much potential, but even with the revamped listed menu items it's not going to be enough, not in Corktown. New name, new signage, new menu that caters to a new market is what this place needs. I would scour some of the culinary schools' newer graduates and make one of them your head chef, give them the liberty to write a brand-new menu within the confines of a budget set forth for them. Let Casey's die with the rest of old Detroit. Honor the old Casey's with a new face for a new time.
• NO! Do NOT let Casey's "die with old Detroit!" Some things are worth saving and Casey's is one of those things! Not everyone wants "new and trendy" ... that is not always the answer!
• If everything becomes hip and trendy and expensive then I won't have anywhere to get my drink on during Parade Day. Some things just need to be.
• Don't need another hipster spot.
• Well then, let's let the good times commence. Make mine an original "Casey Burger" please.
• Burger. Guinness. Jameson. What more do you need from this place?
Waxing nostalgic for Hudson's
We got a number of responses to our Jan. 23 blog post looking back at the demolition of downtown Detroit's J.L Hudson's building:
• All those people cheering in the video ... disgusting.
• I was a kid at the time and I thought the same thing.
• My mother cried when Hudson's was imploded.
• And as said prior — it would be the epicenter of downtown's comeback right now if it were still there. What a totally missed, blown opportunity. Hopefully a very hard lesson learned.
• Next to demolishing Tiger Stadium, this was the best thing to happen in the city in years. The so-called plan to save the building at the 11th hour would have ended like most pie in the sky plans announced — with nothing happening once they discovered it would have cost $300 million to accomplish, and the downtown wasteland of 1998 couldn't have possibly supported it. Many good things happened on this stretch of Woodward as a result, and today it stands transformed.
The time is now to save the remaining historic buildings in the city, and we should work toward that goal, appreciate the past, and shed an occasional tear that we couldn't save this great structure.
• This is why I take pics of all the old buildings down here, we don't know what's coming next.
