Businesses are closer to transforming an eyesore into a ‘green alley’

The alley between the Motor City Brewing Works and the Green Garage off Cass is getting a green makeover. These two businesses are transforming the trash littered alley into a green space with a pedestrian-bicycling pathway and indigenous plants.

Excerpt from the Detroit News:

The trash-strewn alley with big potholes and constant flooding problems is nearly gone. Detroit is now a few weeks away from having its first “green alley” — an eco-friendly patch of urban infrastructure behind the two Midtown businesses that spearheaded the project.

On Tuesday, a backhoe started tearing up the concrete, which will be recycled. Last week, the city government finished relining the late 19th-century sewer line with fiberglass-reinforced poly resin. Next week begins the preparation for permeable concrete, historic brick pavers and indigenous plants that will create a better-functioning alley with a pedestrian-bicycling pathway.

“We pretty much have a new infrastructure for the next 100 years,” said Dan Scarsella, co-owner of the Motor City Brewing Works, a micro-brewery and eatery that’s one of the businesses behind the project. The other is the Green Garage, a business incubator for green building concepts. Green Garage, which hasn’t formally opened yet, is owned by Tom and Peggy Brennan.

Read the entire article here.