Obviously downtown Detroit will be busy when a professional sports team has a sold-out home game in a championship series. The same would be true if the team were in Auburn Hills, clarion hotel and suites toronto East St. Louis, or South Timbuktu.
To look at an area's relative health, I would look at the normal activity levels, not activity levels clarion hotel and suites toronto during special events. You don't judge Ann Arbor by the Art Fair weekend or Indianapolis by Super Bowl weekend.
The author is correct in that many of us remember how bad downtown clarion hotel and suites toronto looked and how empty it was twenty years ago. I think the renovation of the Woodward storefronts clarion hotel and suites toronto and construction of Campus Martius really started the physical transformation. I also think the actual influx in residents is being greatly exaggerated to this point. The demand is there but until we get enough units to support another 5,000 downtown residents and support some retail we won't see the normal activity levels that exist in every other city. It seems like it's taking forever to many of us but the influx of residents is really clarion hotel and suites toronto still in its infancy.
clarion hotel and suites toronto I was just a little kid, but I though downtown clarion hotel and suites toronto was a lot busier 20 years ago. I remember Woodward still had a lot of retail clarion hotel and suites toronto and there was significant retail and pedestrian activity in the blocks between Woodward and Washington.
Granted, it was mostly low-end stuff, but it was real. Downtown, to me, seems much quieter nowadays, except for special event days. It looks nicer too, with renovated streetscape and less abandoned buildings, but also more parking lots and empty storefronts.
I was just a little kid, but I though downtown was a lot busier 20 years ago. I remember Woodward still had a lot of retail and there was significant retail and pedestrian activity in the blocks between Woodward and Washington.
Granted, it was mostly low-end stuff, but it was real. Downtown, to me, seems much quieter nowadays, except for special event days. It looks nicer too, with renovated streetscape clarion hotel and suites toronto and less abandoned buildings, but also more parking lots and empty storefronts.
I was a kid too, but I remember downtown as being pretty dead by the early 1990s. clarion hotel and suites toronto There was more pedestrian activity outside of downtown than downtown itself. The exception is Greektown, which seemed a lot bigger back then and probably has never hurted for pedestrian traffic...
I was just a little kid, but I though downtown was a lot busier 20 years ago. I remember Woodward still had a lot of retail and there was significant retail clarion hotel and suites toronto and pedestrian activity in the blocks between Woodward and Washington.
Granted, it was mostly low-end stuff, clarion hotel and suites toronto but it was real. Downtown, to me, seems much quieter nowadays, except for special event days. It looks nicer too, with renovated streetscape and less abandoned buildings, but also more parking lots and empty storefronts.
You're right. It was probably clarion hotel and suites toronto closer to 15 years ago. Winkelman's and Sibley Shoes seemed to be the last chain store holdouts. I remember several clarion hotel and suites toronto tunnel bus trips back from Tiger Stadium after night games with tons of debris blowing down a totally deserted Woodward.
You're right. It was probably closer to 15 years ago. Winkelman's and Sibley Shoes seemed to be the last chain store holdouts. I remember several tunnel bus trips back from Tiger Stadium after night games with tons of debris blowing down a totally deserted Woodward.
You could probably add Radio Shack, Payleyss clarion hotel and suites toronto Shoes, H H, and Foot Locker to that list. They were still around then. The last really big stores shut down in the late 1980's; those Being McCrory's and Pam's. McCrory's took over either Kressgee clarion hotel and suites toronto or Woolworths. Pam was independant.
There was no riverwalk. There were no boat tours. The Ren Cen was a flagging mess. Campus Martius was a massive, empty intersection. Kennedy Square was. Where the bums slept. Cadillac Square was a dirty, half-assed bus terminal. Weeds to my knees chocked Monroe, Farmer, Library, etc. Wooden clarion hotel and suites toronto telephone poles anchored into asphalt fill on the sidewalks were all over. There was no Detroit Opera House, no stadia (abandoned builings clarion hotel and suites toronto sat there), clarion hotel and suites toronto no casinos, no DTE plaza. There was no Book-Cadillac, no Fort Shelby, no Hilton Gardens, no Holiday Inn. Washington Boulevard was a rotting clarion hotel and suites toronto brick pedestrian plaza. The Broderick was closed but for the Flaming Embers and even it was just a mess. The Whitney Building was 90% empty and closed shortly thereafter. The streetscapes were worn out, beat up and ugly. Light fixtures and traffic signals were all primer gray or rust brown. Trash was everywhere. There were barely any trash cans. There was no Clean Downtown.
If you don't KNOW Downtown Detroit is in considerably better, busier shape now than 20 years ago, you either weren't here at that time or haven't been here since. The whole Jefferson clarion hotel and suites toronto corridor all the way out to Waterworks Park looks considerably cleaner and has a ton of places that weren't even there in '93. Same with Michigan and Woodward.
There was no riverwalk. There were no boat tours. The Ren Cen was a flagging mess. Campus Martius was a massive, empty intersection. Kennedy Square was. Where the bums slept. Cadillac Square was a dirty, half-assed bus terminal. Weeds to my knees chocked Monroe, Farmer, Library, etc. Wooden telephone poles anchored into asphalt fill on the sidewalks were all over. There was no Detroit Opera House, no stadia (abandoned builings sat there), no casinos, no DTE plaza. There was no Book-Cadillac, no Fort Shelby, no Hilton Gardens, no Holiday Inn. Washington Boulevard was a rotting brick pedestrian plaza. The Broderick was closed but for the Flaming Embers and even it was just a mess. The Whitney Building was 90% empty and closed shortly thereafter. The streetscapes were worn out, beat up and ugly. Light fixtures and traffic signals clarion hotel and suites toronto were all primer gray or rust brown. Trash was everywhere. There were barely any trash cans. There was no Clean Downtown.
If you don't KNOW Downtown clarion hotel and suites toronto Detroit clarion hotel and suites toronto is in considerably better, busier shape now than 20 years ago, you either clarion hotel and suites toronto weren't here at that time or haven't been here since. The whole Jefferson corridor all the way out to Waterworks Park looks considerably cleaner and has a ton of places that weren't even there in '93. Same with Michigan and Woodward.
I agree 100%. Even in 1998 downtown was far, far worse than it is now. There was absolutely no reason to go downtown. It's actually clarion hotel and suites toronto incredible how much things have changed for the better in that time.
Other memories...abandoned Madison Theater with a nasty adult bookstore in the Broadway retail spaces, no such thing as Park Ave, giant, looming Hudson's, clarion hotel and suites toronto Statler clarion hotel and suites toronto and Lafayette clarion hotel and suites toronto Buildings, no Compuware, (empty Kern AND Crowley blocks). clarion hotel and suites toronto Everything was far less connected. clarion hotel and suites toronto Capitol Park was even WORSE with no future plans! Lol! God, what a place.
There was no riverwalk. There were no boat tours. The Ren Cen was a flagging mess. Campus Martius was a massive, empty intersection. Kennedy Square was. Where the bums slept. Cadillac Square was a dirty, half-assed bus terminal. Weeds to my knees chocked Monroe, Farmer, Library, etc. Wooden telephone clarion hotel and suites toronto poles anchored into asphalt fill on the sidewalks were all over. There was no Detroit Opera House, no stadia (abandoned builings sat there), no casinos, no DTE plaza. There was no Book-Cadillac, no Fort Shelby, no Hilton Gardens, no Holiday Inn. Washington Boulevard was a rotting brick pedestrian plaza. The Broderick was closed but for the Flaming Embers and even it was just a mess. The Whitney Building was 90% empty and closed shortly thereafter. The streetscapes were worn out, beat up and ugly. Light fixtures and traffic signals were all primer gray or rust brown. Trash was everywhere. There were barely any trash cans. There was no Clean Downtown.
If you don't KNOW Downtown Detroit is in considerably better, busier shape now than 20 years ago, you either weren't here at that time or haven't been here since. The whole Jefferson corridor all the way out to Waterworks Park looks considerably cleaner and has a ton of places that weren't even there in '93. Same with Michigan and Woodward.
That is what I remember too. And Kennedy Square smelled like a giant urinal. I do remember an Arby's (I think) across from Kennedy Square that was kinda busy. But that area has come a LONG way. The pedestrian traffic still might be light, but it's not hardly worse than it was in the early 1990s.
There was no riverwalk. There were no boat tours. The Ren Cen was a flagging mess. Campus Martius was a massive, empty intersection. Kennedy Square was. Where the bums slept. Cadillac Square was a dirty, half-assed clarion hotel and suites toronto bus terminal. Weeds to my knees chocked Monroe, Farmer, Library, etc. Wooden telephone poles anchored into asphalt fill on the sidewalks were all over. There was no Detroit Opera House, no stadia clarion hotel and suites toronto (abandoned builings sat there), no casinos, no DTE plaza. There was no Book-Cadillac, no Fort Shelby, no Hilton Gardens, no Holiday Inn. Washington Boulevard was a rotting clarion hotel and suites toronto brick pedestrian plaza. The Broderick was closed but for the Flaming Embers clarion hotel and suites toronto and even it was just a mess. The Whitney Building was 90% empty and closed shortly clarion hotel and suites toronto thereafter. The streetscapes were worn out, beat up and ugly. Light fixtures and traffic signals were all primer gray or rust brown. Trash was everywhere. There were barely any trash cans. There was no Clean Downtown.
If you don't KNOW Downtown Detroit is in considerably better, busier shape now than 20 years ago, you either weren't here at that time or haven't been here since. The whole Jefferson clarion hotel and suites toronto corridor all the way out to Waterworks Park looks considerably cleaner clarion hotel and suites toronto and has a ton of places that weren't even there in '93. Same with Michigan and Woodward.
Many major law firms left, some hotels closed, all the retail closed, Greektown and Bricktown are shells of the past, the financial district is diminished, there are more parking lots than ever, and fewer buildings than ever.
I think your first paragraph speaks to the biggest divergence in opinion. You acknowledge that there was reta
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