Not all Detroit revitalization plans focus on downtown and Midtown, as Amy Haimerl describes in Crain's.
Today, the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. is announcing a $200,000 prize from ArtPlace, a national group of nonprofits and banks -- including the Ford Foundation and Chase bank -- to install art in the vacant storefronts and medians along Livernois Avenue from Seven Mile to West Outer Drive. . . .
Starting in June, the DEGC will be issuing a call for artists -- five with national reputations and five local talents -- to . . . create artworks that reflect the district's history.
That $200,000 is just the beginning of bigger funding for Livernois Avenue. Approximately $1.5 million will be flowing to the area for streetscaping projects along the 2.8-mile stretch from the Lodge freeway and Eight Mile. The money is a matching deal between the federal government ($975,000) and the DEGC and other partner organizations ($525,000), and will be used for landscaping in the medians and pedestrian-safety improvements. The project will start next spring.
That stretch of Livernois was "once the Rodeo Drive of Detroit shopping," Haimerl notes. Longtime Detroiters still use its nickname -- the Avenue of Fashion.
