Tami Salisbury of the Eight Mile Boulevard Association has dreams of seeing brick pavers, park benches, ornamental lighting, pedestrian areas and lights on utility towers consistently along Eight Mile Road.
Explore the northwest Detroit neighborhoods and you'll find some of the city's most beloved establishments — from the sweet treats at Dutch Girl Donuts to the hot jazz at Baker's to the frothy cold beverages at the Dakota Inn.
When traditional media outlets didn’t deliver, TheUrbanFlavor started its own scene, sending out a weekly who-what-where-when on city happenings geared toward young, urban, African-American professionals. The newsletter has made Detroiters see a new side of their city.
Lofts are hot. No doubt about it. They are like urban-living magnets, attracting young professionals and suburbanites back to the city’s core, with their exposed brick walls, historic facades and high ceilings. But what makes a loft a loft and not just a condo or an apartment?
When some suburban parents hear their kids are moving to the city, they think the worst. But through their kids’ enthusiasm for Detroit, parents are reconnecting to the city and discovering all of the positive things happening Downtown.
Ann Cuddohy Slawnik leads dozens of metro Detroiters on a three-day crash course in all things Detroit — from the impressive mansions of Boston-Edison to the hip new lofts downtown, and all the good and bad, ugly and beautiful in between.
The grass is starting to look the same on either side of 8 Mile Road. The city’s first-ring suburbs are finding that economic disinvestment and changing social demographics have made their communities seem more like extensions of Detroit than part of their sprawling counties. Now both sides of Detroit’s great divide are starting to work together to blur the lines and spark economic renewal.
Population shrinkage in major cities is not in itself unusual in the suburbanized environments we live in, but it has become a growing concern throughout the world and here in the Motor City. If Detroit is to think of winning back those who’ve left the city, its leaders should first look to those who are coming here. The quality that Detroit has, more than all the suburbs, is cultural diversity, and that is what attracts people to world-class cities.
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