Detroit BikeBlog, Cycling the Renaissance City


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September 20th, Clearing the Yard (Part II, updated 9/21)

This afternoon I did a bit more investigating around the work going on to clear the Dequindre Cut. Basically there's been so much creative input into that short cutting from the river that I'd hate to see it blown away even for a bike route.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the new gate at the river end. Formerly it was just open, but I guess for the next few months this will be a building site so some form of access regulation is not unexpected. The second surprise was to see a DPD squad car driving down the cut ... not in all my years (well, 4 years) have I seen the DPD down there. My first thought was that this would be a death knell for serious graf artists if it became a regular patrol route. But thinking it through I'm guessing that the workers clearing the cut probably came across more than a few discarded weapons.

As I was grabbing shots a guy in a red pickup drove up to have a few words. At first I assumed this would be the usual encounter with security "what are you taking pictures of, you can't stand here" kind of stuff. But quite the reverse the guy pulled over the pickup and without even asking what I was taking pictures of volunteered any information I wanted to know on the project. So I spent a few minutes and was very reassured by what I heard. Basically the project is as has been described on the Model D website. A multi-use paved route for pedestrians and bicycles. The aim is to extend a spur of the riverwalk up towards Eastern Market and midtown. The project will take 6 months estimated, probably nearer 8 months in the real world. The route won't use the existing exits to the north of eastern market at Mac, but will instead introduce two new large ramps, one at Larned and one at Gratiot where the route will end. While slightly shorter than I'd hoped for it will still make getting between midtown and the river much easier. I was interested in whether they were just clearing green material right now, but it turns out they're pulling everything out, rails, old box cars, burnt out vehicles etc. Then the big question. What about the walls. This was where the news got even better. All the material currently on the walls with the exception of some low quality crap depicted near the entrance will be kept. Furthermore the walls will be left for graf and tag artists to continue using after the completion of the project. While I'm not sure that such a public location will be as inviting, I've seen locations set aside for this in other cities where it's worked well.

All in all a very positive encounter. Click here to see some of the art from the cut. Below are some news articles on the project

Detnews:        Detroit awards $2.8 million...
Freep:            Path to join RiverWalk, Eastern Market...
Model D         Part I
Downtown      Project Managers Detroit