by Rogobob77 » Tue Jun 07, 2016 11:16 am
The article I linked under a separate topic on UDM public safety also had some interesting information on Live6 development plans. I've taken the liberty to cut and paste:
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Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on Wednesday announced plans to pump money into the Fitzgerald neighborhood, which is bounded by Fenkell Avenue to the south, Six Mile Road to the north, Livernois Avenue to the west and Wyoming Avenue to the east.
The neighborhood is flanked on the north end by UDM and Marygrove College. There are several dense neighborhoods in the area, which has made it an increasingly desirable area for developers.
Adding campus security to DPD patrols would bolster police presence outside the gated college campuses.
With new development, Garibaldi said he and others are working to ensure no one's pushed out of the area.
The Fitzgerald neighborhood could be turned into something the mayor calls a "20 minute" neighborhood, in that everything someone would need outside of a job can be reached within a 20-minute walk of their home.
Points highlighted in the Mayor's speech, namely neighborhood stabilization and attracting businesses, come directly from what Garibaldi and others are hearing from people in the neighborhoods west of Livernois.
"People would stay in that neighborhood if those homes were occupied, if you eliminated the blight in the neighborhood ... and then also beautify some of those areas that just had a vacancy on it," Garibaldi said. "So, they've been a part of this process from the very beginning."
Duggan's plan aims to renovate 70 houses in the Fitzgerald neighborhood, add urban gardens and orchards to open space left by demolitions and create a greenway link -- a walking and bike path -- between Marygrove and Detroit Mercy. Eventually, the path would connect with the Dequindre Cut
There would be supplemental work along Livernois to support and unify businesses.
There's a lot of change in the works, Garibaldi said.
He said he is trying to ensure the improvements are geared as much toward the people who already live in the area as attracting newcomers.
"It's making the area even stronger than what it is today," he said.
"We've tried to be real careful," Garibaldi said. "We're very, very conscious about gentrification, and one of the reasons that we didn't say a lot about (all the plans in northwest Detroit) is because we did not want prospective developers coming into the areas and buying up properties," until they had worked with the neighborhood groups to figure out what's needed.
A big step is filling the empty storefronts along Livernois from M-10 through the Avenue of Fashion.
"What we are about is making sure this community is as solid as it has been in the past," he said.
According to Garibaldi, the area is clearly desirable to developers, with "great housing stock" in the University District, Sherwood Forest, Martin Park, Green Acres, Fitzgerald, Bagley and other neighborhoods along Livernois.
With Detroit Mercy and Marygrove College at its core and the storied history of the Avenue of Fashion, it's a sort of perfect storm for significant development outside of downtown.
"There's a lot of neighborhood stability there already," Garibaldi said. "It's recognized as a very solid neighborhood on which to build."
He said more will be announced soon.