Hoffa '96

Fisher W and Rosa Parks. A Hoffa 2001 sign has been removed and the '96 is starting to expose a a sign beneath indicating a party store.

Previous Post

20 Grand Motel

The 20 Grand Motel still shows vague signs of life. Anybody who was anybody in the Detroit music scene of the 1960s played at the 20 Grand lounge. The classic restaurant and lounge have been erased, but the original 20 Grand Motel lives on as the Economy Inn.





In the freezing January rain, the lights cautiously welcome anyone with enough money and need for a bed.




Office


Next Post
Previous Post

Jeffries East Housing Project Slated for Demolition

The Free Press featured this local headline last Friday:

City-owned slum awaits wreckers
Some residents welcome plans to rebuild Jeffries project

The tone of the article reminds me of the discourse used in the 1940s, 50s and 60s to justify the destruction of Paradise Valley and other so-called slums. The article reports that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will demolish the 252 row house units and build 188 low-income units in their place. Will new buildings dramatically improve life in this community?

The article claims that 131 families still live in Jeffries East. Driving through, I find this hard to believe as the vast majority of windows have been boarded up, but I guess that doesn't mean people aren't living behind those boards. Those living there have been told to leave by the middle of next month. By displacing them and drawing different low-income residents, will the problems currently associated with the neighborhood go away?

The article does not discuss the structural qualities of the buildings, their roofs, their brick or their foundations, all of which will soon be hauled away in dump trucks. It neglects to even raise the possibility that the current buildings, built in 1955, might be rehabbed. The article does, however, report that the 1941 built Sojourner Truth homes on 7 mile are being rehabilitated!


The solid brick rowhouses of Jeffries East will soon be demolished.

The article does cite a number of unanswered resident complaints about broken windows and pipes. With the Detroit Housing Commission taken over by the federal government in July of 2005, residents continue to face the same neglect and mismanagement at the hands of a different bureaucracy (HUD).

Also in July of 2005, a small fire broke out in one of the apartments. Although a fire station sits less than a mile from the apartments, Alexandrine Station's firefighters had been ordered not to respond to anything but calls pertaining to Major League Baseball's All-Star game that was happening on the same day.

As a result, firefighters from a more remote station were dispatched and the blaze consumed 8 units and damaged many more.

Firefighters finally arrive to battle a raging blaze at Jeffries East


The same units remain charred in January 2007

I have no illusions about the quality of life in the Jeffries East housing project. Desperate people walk along its streets. On Monday, instead of driving past the community along Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard as I normally do, I decided to turn down Fourth and take some pictures. A teenage boy standing on the sidewalk whistled loudly as my vehicle approached, communicating something to someone about my presence.

Perhaps he suspected I was a cop. On the DEA website, they praise themselves for raids conducted in the project in 2004. In addition to misspelling Jeffries, the press release includes the asinine claim that their sweeps of drug dealers meant that "business as usual" would not continue in the project.

Not much has been learned from our urban history of "slum removal." The core cause of this neighborhood's problems is poverty but the only time you hear about Jeffries is when a "major" drug bust happens or HUD comes up with plans to pack the same desperate people together into new units.


Next Post
Previous Post

Monroe Block Erasure

In 1852, Hiram R. Johnson began to finance the construction of a rather ambitious block of commercial buildings in downtown Detroit. People associated the "Johnson Block" more with the street it was on and eventually it became known as the "Monroe Block." Monroe extended eastward from Woodward's Campus Martius. Theaters, clothiers, hatters, hotels, restaurants, dentists, clothing makers, loan sharks and pawn shops were just some of the things operating on the street at one time or another. Hotels dominated the early decades and theaters were the rage later on, making it part of a theater district. The National Theater (built in 1913 on the next block and visible in some of the pictures below) remains abandoned but intact on the next block to the east, the only remaining testament to its theater district era. Through neglect, hatred, incompetence and other failures of society, much of the original Monroe block was beyond repair by 1990, when it was demolished. It was the last intact antebellum (pre-civil war) block of commercial buildings in Detroit.

For those not familiar with the oil-slicked parking lot now sitting where the "Monroe Block" once stood, here are some pictures:


The National Theater (1914) still sits at the beginning of the next block.




The Library of Congress has these amazing pictures of the now-erased Monroe Block to offer from throughout the 20th century:

1908


1913


1915


1917


1929. Note that black and white people are photographed together.


1933


1951


1982.
Property neglect was in full swing by the time of the above photo. The rear corner of the building is visibly caving in. "Vagrants" or "thugs" are often blamed for much of the damage these buildings suffered. However, people only took what little was valuable from these buildings when sporadic, half-assed attempts by landowners at securing these buildings failed. Structures weren't being ripped apart for materials as commonly as has been the case more recently. Others label property-owners as the culprits. The proprietors of businesses in these buildings certainly did witness some of the deterioration, but often times those people were distinct from the building owners, who seem to be owed the most blame for the neglect, including the city's stewardship of the block after they acquired the buildings in the mid-1970s.

Preservation efforts were underway for roughly the same 15 years that the city owned the property and are cited as insufficient to save the block from destruction in this phenomenally researched article.


1930

The dentist's office was open from 1921 to 1978. "Dr. Park's Painless Method Dentists" practiced here over the tumultuous 1929-1932 period. In 1933, Dr. William Zieve began practicing there until he vacated the building in 1978. Inside the Dentist's office in 1982:


So, here again we have today's "Monroe Block." A simple, ground-level parking lot. The National Theater awaits it's death row appeal in the background. Some people ask me, "Why not make the National Theater a stage for the Hard Rock to have concerts?" The Marxist in me usually answers something about capitalism and "All that is solid melts into air," but I still hold out hope that some asshole with money (perhaps this SUV's owner) will realize the potential of that weird old theater over there.





Next Post
Previous Post

White's Records

White's Records got boarded up again recently. Here's a picture from 2 nights ago.




Next Post
Previous Post

Ernie Harwell Sermonizes at New Salvation Army Rehab Center

The Salvation Army just concluded a weekend of activities to dedicate their new Adult Rehabilitation Center in Detroit. Sunday, former Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell delivered a speech that alluded to social collectivism. The building is located on Fort Street, between 10th and Rosa Parks.


New Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center




Street-faced Loading Docks

Down the block, a new Salvation Army thrift store is at Fort and Brooklyn, 4 blocks east (toward Downtown).



Facing west on Fort Street, new store, post office on the left, adult rehabilitation center just past the post office.


Next Post
Previous Post

Traffic Signal Removal

At the corner of Lafayette and Concord today, a car crashed into a traffic signal pole. The impact was so fierce that the car's airbags deployed and the pole snapped, leaving the traffic lights hanging just a few feet over the road.


Many of the traffic signals in depopulated areas of Detroit are regulating intersections with very few cars passing by. This particular traffic signal has flashed yellow on Lafayette and red on Concord for years. Instead of removing the signal, however, utility workers replaced the pole so the light could continue to blink.


Next Post
Previous Post