Cleaning up Detroit doesn't have to mean demolition

Cleaning up Detroit isn't the same as demolishing it. Some should keep that in mind.

Excerpt:

While downtown doesn't look anything like it looked 10 years ago, 10 years from now we'll be able to say the same thing about the present. But with this vision comes a harsh but viable question; will there even be a downtown 10 years from now?

We're demolishing more than we're replacing. We're swapping out irreplaceable building masses and street-walls that are such an important part of any vibrant city, for parking lots and fence-lines, detrimental to any pedestrian-friendly street scape. Our once grand avenues will soon be lined with fields, anchored by wetlands (Statler Hotel site), desolate, yet returned to earth. Is this how we envision our downtown?


The vision is not far away. The prized buildings that line many of our streets sit largely vacant. How soon will these buildings meet their fate of becoming landfill-bound? Some are already on their way.With the large-scale events that seem to be coming into town every year, the association of the word "cleanup" with "demolition" must be reconsidered. It’s frustrating that the pervading mentality of "a clean-up" is to demolish buildings; as if Detroit won't have the same impact on the sports media if we have vacant buildings instead of parking lots.

Read the entire article here.