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Hype meets hard truths in a newly published look at glowing redevelopment visions for the blocks around Little Caesar's Arena.
"Colorful banners hang from temporary fencing, informing visitors they have arrived in the District Detroit," local journalist Tom Perkins writes at the start of a 1,300-word article for The Guardian, a British paper with a U.S. news website.
The neighborhood holds “a dynamic mix of shopping and dining” with “places to live in the heart of the action,” the signage reads. The banners depict a thriving urban core with smiling families holding hands while well-dressed people drink under patio lights.
The Guardian's report, posted Monday.
In reality, the freelancer reports, "there are few places to live in the District and little to eat."
Vacant, decaying buildings make up entire city blocks. There are almost no lights, save for those illuminating surface lots and parking garages. . . .
There’s growing frustration among many Detroiters over the discrepancy between the Ilitch family’s imaginative marketing and the neighborhood’s stark reality. . . . The Ilitches [in 2013] promised $200 million in development around the arena, claiming new housing, stores, restaurants, bars and offices would bloom. . . .
The District largely remains a redevelopment deadzone. Instead of gaining luxury lofts, it has lost housing, and the Ilitches have only renovated a small fraction of the hundreds of properties its companies purchased here. Now, after five years, there’s less confidence that The District Detroit is good for the city.
Perkins, who is dining editor at Metro Times, talks with the general manager at Harry's sports bar nearby: "I feel like I’m looking over the fence at my neighbor's yard at his half-finished project or garage."
For a scholar's perspective, the writer calls sports economist Victor Matheson at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.:
"It's not rare at all that new development [around a stadium] does not materialize or takes very long to materialize – that's very common. It is extremely rare to see a stadium cause a neighborhood to go backwards – that is very rare."
Graphic from The District
For its part, The District website says:
This stretch of Woodward Avenue is now a dynamic, connected stretch that has grown and attracted new businesses and investment with the promise of much more to come. . . .
Data from the Detroit Downtown Development Authority shows that property taxes in the Catalyst Development district have increased by an estimated 456 percent, which provides significant new revenue for the city. . . . The upcoming launch of the Columbia Street destination adjacent to the historic Fox Theatre will bring 10 new retail storefronts to a newly created, cobblestone festival street.
