Sunday, January 6, 2008

Cass Corridor in context

Lately lots of new developments have been announced for the Cass Corridor, or what's now known as Midtown. This is a total transformation from the past when the area was possibly the seediest neighborhood in Detroit.

Back in February, Detroit Blog discussed the history of the Cass Corridor and explored the once notorious, now abandoned Hotel Fort Wayne at the corner of Cass and Temple:

Before there was Midtown, there was Cass Corridor, Detroit’s notorious skid row. Back then, before marketers and urban planners began efforts to gentrify it and remake it as a cultural urban enclave, it was the wild, lawless home of the dregs of society – prostitutes, junkies, alcoholics, homeless, the mentally ill, perverts and all-around weirdos.


It's great reading.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a really great opening paragraph. Especially since I read "Wild, lawless home of the dregs of society – ...and all-around weirdos" and think "my parents!" They were renovating a huge Victorian house on Alexandrine in the seventies. Since then it's burned down.

Scott said...

To see the future, come visit the Bowery in NYC some time.