Trying to pull something positive out of the 2010 Census...

By now, you've probably heard endless analysis of the 2010 US Census results. In ten years, Detroit lost a quarter of its population and is at its lowest numbers since 1910. The Free Press published a pretty interesting map showing population change over the last ten years by census tract. The official count (713,777 residents) is apparently far lower than anyone expected, and Dave Bing plans to challenge that number. He might be right, because the Free Press article mentions that the Census undercounted Detroit by 50,000 residents in 2000, and the city was successful in getting the number changed.

The Census results are obviously bad news in many ways for Detroit -- on a practical level, the city will lose state and federal funding as well as representation in government. And this is just more glaring proof that the city's epic decline refuses to quit, even into the twenty-first century.

Still, I don't think these Census results mean that Detroit is on the brink of total collapse and that everyone should abandon ship as a quickly as possible. For one thing, I don't think it's necessarily devastating for Detroit to end up with a lower population than it had at its peak in the mid-twentieth century. Large population does not equal a better city. Honestly, I don't think it's that big of a surprise that Detroit lost 25% of its population. You'd be pretty hard-pressed to attract either new residents or businesses to most of the decaying neighborhoods on the far east and north sides. Most of the population movement in these areas is understandably moving out of, not into, the city.

If you look at the Free Press map, the majority of census tracts which either gained population or lost relatively little population are clustered around the downtown/Wayne State/Woodbridge/Southwest Detroit area. These are clearly the areas that are attracting the most attention. If Detroit ended up as a smaller, more dense city with a lot of green space and great public transportation, I think that would be an overwhelmingly positive change. So, the Census results basically validate what Bing has been trying to do -- stop wasting resources trying to desperately fill in a sprawling, disconnected city. Detroit can be smaller and better.

Even Yahoo thinks Detroit is underrated

Yahoo Travel included Detroit on its list of the most underrated cities in the world.

"A new breed of urban homesteader is helping to revive Motor City. Abandoned factories and warehouses like the Russell Industrial Center have been turned into studios for artists and artisans, while gardens now flourish in formerly vacant lots. The exuberant Heidelberg Art Project turns urban blight into a symbol of hope. Detroit's food scene, meanwhile, is taking off. Foran's Grand Trunk micropub, the Eastern Market, Supino Pizzeria, and Slows BBQ are just some of the gastronomic must-dos. Don't forget the city's museums, including the Detroit Institute of Art, home to Diego Rivera's 'Detroit Industry' murals, and the delightful Motown Museum."

They also suggest that you not miss Cafe D'Mongo's.

The article's comments section provides a nice example of the way in which people feel the need to make ridiculously uninformed, hyperbolic comments about Detroit. A user named "pkr" has this piece of knowledge to add: "There may be some really nifty new features in Detroit but you'll be robbed or killed getting to them. Detroit + Late night Friday = murder\death\kill"

Keep that in mind. If you're in Detroit on a Friday night, you will be murdered.

Cafe D'Mongo's Speakeasy, 1439 Griswold

Cafe D'Mongo's on the left / Downtown Synagogue on the right




Fireplace at Cafe D'Mongo's (photo by Margaret O'Leary)


This place is truly bizarre. Located on the northernmost block of Griswold, next to a synagogue and across the street from a strip club, it looks like some cramped combination of diner, jazz club, and Victorian parlor.

Go here on Friday night, because it's closed every other day of the week. This is the kind of place that is able to quietly thrive in a city that has a fraction of the respect but twice the personality of its contemporaries.

More on brownfield and historic preservation tax credits

An article in Saturday's Free Press discusses some specific consequences of eliminating Michigan's tax credits for the redevelopment of brownfield sites and historic properties.

Gov. Snyder hopes to get rid of these tax credits (along with others), which have helped to finance the redevelopment of abandoned structures, to "create a more level playing field" for business in Michigan. Snyder is always saying that the future of Michigan is strongly tied to the future of Detroit, but he seems to ignore the fact that older cities like Detroit are at an automatic disadvantage when it comes to economic development. For most of these projects to work, an extra investment is needed.

The article lists five major projects which will almost certainly be scrapped if these tax credits are eliminated:

1. Shopping center at Old Redford High School
2. Retail/residential project at Uniroyal industrial site on Jefferson, next to the Belle Isle bridge
3. David Whitney Building
4. Gateway retail center at Woodward and 8 Mile
5. Several properties near Capitol Park

Corridor Stories

"People Live in the Cass Corridor" is a series of short stories inspired by Douglas Ekman's five years living in the Cass Corridor, a neighborhood which was considered ground zero for urban decay in Detroit. Ekman took a job in advertising at Chrysler in 1977, and he and his future wife moved into a rowhouse near Second and Willis, decades before the Corridor was given the more friendly designation, "Midtown." The stigma worked hard against the neighborhood and prevented most suburbanites from doing any more than pass it on the freeway, but Ekman found "a very close-knit community, not unlike any small town made up of people... good people who through no fault of their own attempted to live their lives in the eye of a storm."

These stories, loosely based on Ekman's five years in the Cass Corridor, both confirm and shatter the neighborhood's bad reputation, illustrating the complexity beneath the very one-sided story that is told about the decline of Detroit's (and America's) urban areas.

Another interesting aspect of this project is that the stories are not available in print - Ekman made studio recordings of himself reading each of them, and you can listen to the audio recordings for free at http://www.peopleliveinthecasscorridor.com/. Single stories or the entire album can also be purchased on the website.