The much-celebrated Detroit Grand Prix is controversial.
The race drivers first ran through downtown Detroit but have since moved to Belle Isle, upsetting some park lovers, who feel it's a noisy, fume-spewing, crowded intrusion.
Race fans say it makes sense that the Motor City host the event in the best venue possible. Plus, they say Roger Penske, organizer of the race, has put money into Belle Isle to fix things up. Opponents say the race limits access to the park and negatively impacts the character of the island.
Tom Perkins of Metro Times looks into the issue, writing:
This year, construction for the June 2- 4 event started in early April, and breakdown will last several weeks beyond that.
While there's a lot of debate about the race's impact, a few things are objectively true. The construction project to set up and break down the Grand Prix stretches between 80 and 120 days — the longest of any race in the world, as we verified with other race organizers and media outlets.
Visit Belle Isle during the April, May, or June construction period, and you'll find the island's western half filled with concrete barriers, cables, portajohns, cell phone towers, trucks, forklifts, shipping containers, construction barrels, billboards, and miles of fencing. Next to the Scott Memorial Fountain, race organizer Roger Penske's team laid a permanent 400,000-square-foot concrete paddock, and Belle Isle's streets are left gridlocked with traffic jams when they start closing roads in the weeks around the race.
Understandably, the intrusion is dismaying and frustrating to many regular parkgoers who visit the island for its natural beauty.
Though most critics aren't calling for the race to be canceled altogether, many want the construction timeline to be shortened to several weeks, or the race moved to a different venue — downtown or City Airport are some suggested alternatives. That would leave southeast Michigan with both a world-class race and a park, as it can't have both in one venue, they argue.
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