With all the buzz around the fate of Tiger Stadium and the Lafayette Building, Model D asked two outspoken members of the preservation and development communities to share their points of view with our readers.
This one comes from Jeff T. Wattrick, the former project manager of The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy. He works as a writer and lives in Detroit. We also asked DEGC's George Jackson to write on the same topic. Click
here to read it.
Excerpt:
If the DEGC or Planning and Development can spot unique "one off"
opportunities in the meantime, that's great. However they shouldn't try
to fix a city with problems far larger than an office vacancy rate. Nor
should they be expected to. This requires some level of sophistication
on the part of a body politic that too often behaves like a petulant
child. We want what we want either now or yesterday.
Geographically,
Detroit has a lot to offer. There is no reason our city center cannot
once again be one of the great cities of North America. But we have to
get serious about fixing the underlying problems that continue to hold
Detroit back before we tackle the bricks and mortar. So let's leave the
bricks and mortar alone, for now. Like FDR's Bank Holiday, it will be
an opportunity to assess honestly what is best in the long term.
If
Detroit comes out the other end and we still want to get rid of the
Lafayette Building, I'll volunteer to operate the wrecking ball. Please
let me know when we get there.
Read the entire article
here.
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