Series: Food Map of Detroit –the non gentrified version part 1 of a series

Food Map of Detroit –the non gentrified version ???What does that mean  the non- gentrified version? Well lets explore all the food venues that hung in there after the factory closed, a la Detropia  Like that bar that still makes soul food and has Live  Jazz 

 next to the Jefferson plant, (The Raven Lounge and Bar  ) this is a salute to food you can take home because its economical and tastes even better the next day.

SOme of these places are using locally sourced gardens now. Some of this is organic, but all of it requires that you walk some / ride the Dequindre cut – to burn some calories. What is so bad about that?

the facebook page to see why people LOVE this place

Motor City Soul Food is in the hood where I grew up.  NorthWest Side, not far from the old Jewish Community Center.  This place reminds me of New Years Day at my Aunts- Hopping John ,(Beans and Rice) ,  Chitterlings , mac and cheese, Collard Greens, fried chicken, potato salad, cornbread, pies, yams … like a church picnic

Motor City Soul Food

12700 W 7 Mile Rd
Detroit, Michigan 48235

(313) 863-7685

I grew up near here  from 1965 -1985  but this

joint was not here…It was fun coming back  to the hood  –  I knew the old Karps Drugstore was gone and Tom’s Tavern was still serving suds … if you like dives do stop by  …7 mile near Wyoming

Home Depot  is on the main corner across from Motor City Soul Food MAP

Do not be  surprised by the plexiglass, you get your food and take it home of course. Why ?   It is enough to spend $$$ on the rent/mortgage and the supplies and the food – which is why the place has not changed to satisfy those who need furniture … You should be cool, be hip and buy the product, then take your butt home.

Roots of the housing crisis started in the wake of the Great Migration

Service Industry Strikes Back :Escaping the Wage Earner Rut: The real roots of the housing crisis started in the wake of the Great Migration

Southwest Detroit : A neighborhood getting squeezed/written out of existence?

Southwest Detroit: A neighborhood being written/squeezed out of existence? 
I hope not. 

By margothefoodie

Lets see ...Southwest Detroit / Bagley street = Mexican Village Restaurants Row .A destination in the 1980s.
Not too many Mexicans here now, in 2017.

The dwindling Mexican population is not due to gentrification,

 or 
recent policy decisions by the Trump Administration. True 1985 was a long time ago, but now, the flavor is not the same. Having experienced the same in NYC Washington Heights I noticed something off right away.

 I  just recently located back to the Detroit Metropolitan area. Through  surviving a  NY through several waves of gentrification (Park Slope loft, Fort Green Brooklyn  conversion of a Mansion, Spanish Harlem Loft,  Central  Harlem Historical Rent Stabilized apartment etc ) I should  know the first thing that kills a neighborhood is the arrival of more money. WRONG.

The first thing that kills a NYC neighborhood is the arrival of more $$$. But in Detroit the first thing that kills a neighborhood is the squeezing of physical boundaries of a neighborhood; causing a loss of Identity.

I am not the only one who has noticed that Detroiters have a nebulous hold on their neighborhoods reason #1 for Southwest Detroit's problems is this ....
Poor neighborhood identification. Ask a Chicagoan where they’re from, and they will likely give you a neighborhood name — Wrigleyville, Jefferson Park, Chatham. The same is true in other neighborhood-oriented cities like New York, Boston, even Washington, D.C. However, ask a Detroiter where they’re from, and they will likely tell you East Side or West Side; if pressed, they might note a key intersection. While the Motor City does have its share of traditional enclaves (Indian Village and English Village) and emerging hot spots (Midtown), Detroit is notable among large U.S. cities for having very poorly defined neighborhoods.

Neighborhood identification is important because ideally residents live in a neighborhood context. Schools, convenience shopping, social activities and recreational uses, all connected and shared by locals in a defined area, can provide a sense of community ownership. An argument can be made that’s been lacking in Detroit for decades.

excerpted from

Nine Reasons Why Detroit Failed

 http://www.urbanophile.com/2012/02/21/the-reasons-behind-detroits-decline-by-pete-saunders/comment-page-2/

 No Identity= No reason to go there and spend $$.

What is odd/off?

Bagley Overpass is a work of art  But there is no foot traffic ...

Mexicantown was distinctly Latinx when I left.     Instead of relying on a distinct restaurant row on Bagley I ate food from Xochimilco and Tamaleria Nuevo Leon. In 2017 this

includes  Pupusería y Restaurante Salvadoreño too.

 Note that the last place I mentioned is not even Mexican but San Salvadorian.  It is included because it adds to the cultural mix, with a shift toward the fun in eating food from a Latin perspective/and possibly conversing in Spanish, without paying for a plane ticket.

In NY the Latinx diaspora live happily together on 5th avenue in Brooklyn, Roosevelt/ 74th ave  nexus  in Queens, etc. Every cultural culinary representation makes $$$ as a result, and it evolves constantly. It is also fun, a destination. Do not say only Vernor or Bagley is the destination- Create a new district instead that is not a strip...
Expanding your perceived borders creates commerce opportunities.

Some History 

The foodie revolution started in the 1980s when people started eating here in Southwest Detroit and calling it Mexican Town .

Today in 2017 on a map below ,the Restaurants @ the Ambassador Bridge   to  Taqueria Mi Pueblo on Dix form a curve.  It is what I call the   Culinary Cresent in English or the Creciente Culinaria 

click on image to enlarge

This crescent is a larger swath of SouthWest Detroit than the original Mexican Town.

Notice that I renamed the Southwest Detroit area SoWeDe  (pronounced swede) 
Do not say so weedy - not the image you want...

 I am an outsider. How do I get away with this?

 Well, the Southwest Detroit insiders let outsiders define the area. Example from 2006 

Meghan McEwen of Model D said "Nebulous are the borders of Mexicantown" and that "Some say it begins at the old train station and ends at Clark Park. Others passionately insist it includes Clark Park. More than a few people expand its spread all the way to Livernois."

The problem with the above description is not only is it by a non Southwest Detroiter, it lacks a central vision of southwest Detroit.
It also does not define what is left of Mexican Town.
 In SouthWest Detroit , the commerce  in 2017 is Latinix and  not necessarily Mexican...

Solution #1

Physically making Clark Park the Central area of SoWeDe 

 means you can have a district within a district which is happening already on Vernor between Clark and Scotten streets. There is a Food truck with a patio,(RockysRoadBrewDetroit) an artgallery/vintage store,(GreyArea) a hangout bar dance/concert venue(El Club) - all new within the past 5 years.

Look between the 2 stars connected by the green line.

click on image to enlarge

By foot , walking and sampling  the  restaurants that are  Mexican  on a  path  between the Ambassador Bridge along both Vernor Ave and Bagley to this new Central SoWeDe (swede) area is only  a 2.9 mile  adventure. Detroiters tend not to walk. Ok -this  is also a  good bike route !!
-see Red line in the map  here: and click on map for a slightly bigger image.

SoWeDe Central Bike Route

 Follow Michigan Avenue west to 6th street, jog over to Bagley and miss all that crazy confluence of  freeway to Canada and beyond by crossing over the Bagley Overpass and it is a straight line to Clark Park near the north end -where the above mentioned gallery food truck Concert/club are located on Vernor.  Cross Clark and now you are on the west side of SoWede. 

click on map for bigger image

Unfortunately the direct route (proposed) is  not driveable. Google says it is not. The map shows 2 routes,both indirect. 

click on image to enlarge

 Bagley or Vernor could be made more pedestrian friendly so a walk or bike to the area from Downtown would be doable on a nice day.

Solution#2  

Grab the edge of Hubbard Farms from Scotten/Clark Parks Eastern Border and take it all the way to the Fischer Freeway/Ambassador Bridge/ 21^st street causeway.Let us designate this  now as the east side of SoWeDe.  Why ?  Hubbard Farms is a dull name. Hubbard Farms- there are no farms there now.  SoWeDe (pronounced swede) sounds cool. 

Pronounce  it suede if you do not like swede. It is very urban to have a tomatoe/ twomato dichotomy. The insiders could pronounce it one way and the outsiders could be immediately identifiable when they pronounce SoDeWe the other way. Eventually everyone will adopt a pronunciation and consolidate your location as identifiable in their heads.

 In any case, make sure you have kiosks with maps that show the 

Creciente Culinaria  route 

 

click on image to enlarge

Solution #3 

 Now we  considering the west side of SoWeDe which begins on Clark and extends over to the Central Avenue/Dix nexus. It does not have to extend to the official zipcode /ward/ map. That is ok for business/industry
but for people enjoying themselves  
think differently.

 Every cool neighborhood needs a  less expensive side- especially if it is near the remaining jobs. Gritty and cheaper is ok too, just make it stay safe!! Citizen / precinct community policing is muy importante throughout the district boundaries…

Following the Creciente Culinaria  route 
explain the quantity of places to eat  on the kiosks , the variety of the environment etc. This side of Southwest Detroit is more industrial and true to Detroit’s Past so why not hype that a little? You can always write a grant or two to put in greenspaces here and there- Planting trees would clean up the air. You are not going to make industry go away - actually you need to enlist them in the concept of west SoWeDe...

 

click on image to enlarge

...which leads  to Branding.

SoWeDe lends itself to great Geography .The map below is not the most accurate boundary of Southwest Detroit. The boundaries created by me in thisarticle fit inside the yellow area in the map.

click on map to enlarge

Creciente Culinaria  route 

Bridge to Canada is @ 21st street/ Jeffries Freeway 

 =The Eastern Border

Central Avenue is the Western Border 

John Kronk =Northern Border 

Fisher Freeway = Southern Border 

Notice SoWeDe does not claim the Michigan Train Terminal.  SoWeDe is too cool for that.

SoWeDe

Labels: branding, cook, culinary, Detroit, economy, food trucks, gentrification, menu, restaurant, southwest detroit, urban, urban renewal

http://detroitgetlucky.blogspot.com/2017/11/southwest-detroit-neighborhood-getting.html

Fitz Forward or Fitzed the %^$#@& Up ?

 Fitz Forward or Fitzed the %^$#@& Up ?

Fact: Upcoming Housing  auction for normal people not developers  in Detroit - October  2017

Did you know that certain neighborhoods have been on the radar since at least  1890 ? Thanks to Alex Hill and his site Detroitography - the history of  urban ideas in Detroit can be examined visually 

Let's talk @Fitzgerald  -  Map see section 9   Fitgerald is  Yellow box below#9  

(or click for a bigger visual )

 see section 9  ----Fitzgerald is divided diagonally by JC Lodge Freeway aka M-10

 In a Larry Gilbert original article  in metrotimes.com   Oct 4 2017 he mentions that he lives in the area. This area is a big project under the current mayor. Since the election will take place in a month, it is a part of Detroit that is not gentrified but is still getting attention- Fitzgerald is the experiment .
I was wondering what happens to people in urban experiments.

What if you want to be an active participant in your future?

 I grew up with HUD. Model Cities , Urban Renewal  and then I moved to NYC- Harlem.

clicking on box = easier to read 

So many dollars so little results. Neoliberal thought and action means there is not a tendency to throw federal /state/civic money at anything too large/unpredictable . Experience has shown to legislatures that agencies designed to improve urban environments tend to be ineffective.
Better to use private money.
 The unidentified 89 year old has her own money
so how much would she need to get a house in this improvement zone.???????

The less work needing to bring the house to habitation the better. So the first  Detroit Housing Auction in September tends to move houses that are more readily fixable.
Acccording to the official website  bidder registration started in August

Provided that the bidder is sharp and sticks to deadlines and is Internet savvy , all they really need is money in the bank  to bid on something decent- aka a Premium Property 
  

The specific rules for this auction are in a pdf .   The money requirements are from pg. 5-
not in this exact order 

III. THE AUCTION

1. The Auction will be conducted on the internet by the Treasurer, at

www.waynecountytreasurermi.com 

    Deposits and/or Bids

 WILL NOT BE accepted 

 at the Office of the Wayne County Treasurer. 

 At the sole discretion of the Treasurer a property identified as a (decent property)

 Premium Parcel may require a deposit of $25,000.00 and a registration fee of $35.00. A deposit of $25,000.00 will enable the bidder to bid on multiple properties.

In order to participate in the auction a deposit and registration fee are required.  

To bid on one  property the deposit is $1,000.00 with a registration fee of $35.00

Lower $$ attracts hipsters like me - all I want is a fixer upper with a taxable yard  of @ 1000 sq feet so I can park the mobile home and not incur the wrath of  the Zoning Board

 Deposit payments shall be submitted by utilizing the auction screens in order to be transferred to J.P. Morgan Chase’s online payment system. 

Hope you have a credit card   because prepaid debit/credit cards are not accepted

What are you buying? 
You had better drive by it first.
 Be careful.... it could be occupied, so do not go in!!

 My retired cop friend warned me that if I was this  a serious  purchase call him  so he could go along ... I had to admit it was not a bad idea, but since I was not in a rush to purchase I figured Zillow and a combination of Google Mapping and the auction.com site would do for this article.

Looking online in the Fitzgerald zipcode I quickly found a pleasant possibility 

The home resembles the colonial I grew up in pre and post  1967 Detroit    
it is 16573 Griggs  -   and listed for @ 20K
the go to site is Loveland  Technologies   Detroit if you are bidding   https://detroit.makeloveland.com/#p=/us/mi/wayne/detroit/62898 

 Thoroughly  examine  the zoning and plot info  links to the Wayne County site that you need to consult before going to the bidding site  www.waynecountytreasurermi.com 

•  You need to do Due Diligence  - there is a kiosk where you can look up parcels/info  
• You must check the deed information before you purchase a parcel. 
• Deed information can be checked at the kiosk for free, at 400 Monroe Street, 7th Floor.

Finally,  if you are feeling pretty comfortable about the purchase , review your contractors on Angie's List/ Home Adviser .com and vet their honesty.  The main thing to know is their willingness to work in Fitzgerald - the Home Depot is   on 7  mile and Meyers and they will be making lots of trips. 

Do the math ---- on paper you need  to have liquid approximately 5 times what it would take to make a home habitable in 6 months because it will be furnished ...
 5 x 25,000  minus 25,000 for the auction is approximately  100,000 which  should cover EVERY last  Unforeseen, Emergency , Cursed  Nain Rouge problem that can happen

  

Set aside   3.5 times the initial cost of the bid margin (25,000 x 3.5)  for   work by deadline : 
there is still a fixer upper deadline in these Special sales!Also assume you will need basic decent furniture/appliances  that fits the house  -stove, fridge, washer, dryer, bed, couch, table, chair ..
..adds up to the other 1.5 times the initial investment.(25,000 x 1.5 )

 Guess who is not that affluent??? Despite  saving $ by not paying average  NYC rent , and having some $ in the bank , this writer decided it was too easy to  spend 100 K total . Also This writer is not trying to flip anything since we never had 100 K to begin with.
 If you want to simply retire and not be too worried about hurricanes, bad guardians , living wills, rising taxes, etc , it makes sense to move to Kentucky and grow tomatoes.

 What can that 89 year old in 48227 do ?That 89 year old could easily overspend for her child and offspring.  I hope you are using an online calculator, printing the results  and asking yourself

Can it get done for less?

If you belong to the Boomer demographic (lets say Zoomer - Plan to Ski when retired) You are computer savvy compared to an 89 year old . In my case , the move back to the Detroit Metro area   from NYC  gave me a unique perspective. I could go hipster and be creative , even Detropia on this Land Bank and do something cool... using grant money along with my money, and I could plan it all out by research online. No tiny  house in my future. Hello Brick House with features!!

That did not happen . Money went to other things , like school loans.
Despite tools, rough carpentry background and friends with skills the $500 dollar house was a fleeting dream-Even with me getting the permits and parking the motorhome on site  with tools and a concealed permit, as suggested by my retired cop friend,I knew better... $500 dollars needs to be 50,000  - just the gas needed to transport materials would add up quickly. The obvious costs versus the hidden ones like security for the tools until the job was DONE.
 (I would probably just hire security anyway which means the $500 dollar house is no longer at $500..)

But dreamers deserve to dream and maybe get a book out of their efforts...

Just in case you want to go that route here is a  16  things to deal with   Buzzfeed article  . More interesting is the  article about the book written by

  Amy Haimerl  and her partner Karl Kaebnick on the initial  35 K investment (which is $ amount total  Wayne County Bid  pg 5  of the auction rules .pdf cites for the Premium Parcel)  They ended up spending a lot more.

 Most 89 year old Detroiters cannot afford to do what Drew Phillips did either-

https://www.amazon.com/500-House-Detroit-Rebuilding-Abandoned/dp/1476797986#reader_1476797986

I have yet to find a memoir  by a Boomer / Retiree or a Black Person or all three at once! 

 on restoring a house in Detroit. 

This also explains why the Hungry Black Man does not see a Boomer / Retiree /Black Person  Demographic ( the type that reads Black Enterprise, travels abroad and supports HBCU's)

 regularly populating restaurants in Detroit ...

Now because I find myself easily 20 miles from Corktown or Agnes Street /Grand River (sorry Vegan Soul) and have other responsibilities...

 Taking on a restoration project or even traveling to eat out is a no go. Being a homebody  is probably true for those who live in my old neighborhood or Fitzgerald as well . Not easy to go out on the regular , driving and discovering the next cool thing that is  popping up less than 10 miles via M10/Lodge Freeway . It should be easy to figure out that Boomers are not in the home renovation business in Detroit due to Life getting in the way. Yet they are the ones with some need to establish security  - but not the 89 year old----- this will wreck her security  ...

....Be kind to this 89 year old. Her auction project could be realized It is all about being in the Know and reading every last link in this article .... It is about doing doing the math. Consider the  great Metropolitan area between the riverfront and the old Selfridge Air force base even though it is not all Oakland county . Money not extending far enough  is the issue.  The  average cost of taxes, water bill, and electric resulted in a  9% increase in Oakland county in 2017 . If you are a retiree,your social security /pension had to absorb a 9 % increase  from 2016-2017 just because you live in the general area between here and the closest farmland. 
(No stats for Detroit yet but lets say it went up about that much there too) 

 Your ability to absorb  that 9%   is based on an income above $37,000- which is easily done in Oakland county since the median income in @ 65 ,000 . 
Guess what the medium income is in Detroit ?  

Conclusion :you will do fine- in Oakland County so get your kid to take over your old house in Fitzgerald, and you need to move out here to Waterford , South Milford or Pontiac - Unless you are very connected to your church you will find a new community here by using on demand SMART transit to hang out  at the local civic center.
Here is Troy as an example

 Then again, it all depends on the schools. Maybe you stay put and get your grandkids in the aforementioned towns where the education is almost as good as private, and it is free.
Your Call. Just do not Fitz yourself.