“I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.” When asked how long he has lived in Detroit, Mr. Jackson, a fixture in the neighborhood around the El Moore, responds, “I have been here since nineteen hundred and sixty nine.” Not quite elderly just yet, Mr. Jackson makes his way around his Midtown neighborhood somewhat …
The El Moore is a project under construction that will be a model of urban residential sustainable living. Like most cities in the United States, Detroit went through a phase of “urban renewal” in the mid-20th century, with very mixed results. Jane Jacobs, author of the seminal 1961 book on urban planning, The Death and …
Recently, when many people talk about the “rebirth of Detroit”, they proudly point to the flurry of redevelopment and resurgence mainly in three areas of our city: Downtown, Midtown, and Corktown. But as we native and long-time Detroiters know, there is much, much more to Detroit than those areas. People look to rehabilitation projects such …
John White: A Story of Revitalizing a Detroit Neighborhood Read More »
If you know anything about the happenings in Midtown Detroit, you know that Sue Mosey, President of Midtown Detroit Inc., has been leading the charge to see to it that Midtown thrives as both a neighborhood and business center – no wonder she has come to be affectionately known as the “mayor of Midtown”. Sue …
Over at the El Moore, a sustainable urban living project now under construction in Detroit at the corner of 2nd Avenue and West Alexandrine, we are also re-building a community. In his 2009 book, Community: The Structure of Belonging, Peter Block describes the plight of many of today’s communities: fragmented, trapped in dysfunctional and outdated …
The Process of Detroit Community Building, Part 2 Read More »
So Tomboy Supermarket (some might say the ‘notorious’ Tomboy Market) is no more. Perusing the handful of articles and posts about the location over the years offer a conflicted portrait of the El Moore’s rugged neighbor on the east side opposite corner of Second Avenue. If there is any kind of common thread among the commentators, …
“This whole area was big automotive when it started.” –Pat Dorne, Executive Director, Cass Corridor Neighborhood Development Corporation Cass Corridor has been a lot of things throughout the years, but in those early years during the latter part of the 1800s when the area was really coming to life, the area surrounding the El Moore and …
During the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the El Moore building on 2nd Avenue and Alexandrine, we are building more than a residential complex. We are building a community. How do you “build” a community? Over the past few years in Detroit, especially in Midtown and downtown, there has been a boom of new businesses, rehabbing …
The Process of Detroit Community Building, Part 1 Read More »
