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The Environment
CasiNO s
:
Judge Sapala rules for REAL
Neighborhood to argue against
necessity of Rivertown Casinos
(Fasten your seat belt, because the coaster ride ain’t over yet!)
According to a ruling in the Third Circuit Court for
Wayne County on November 5th, the Riverfront East Alliance (REAL) will be allowed to make
its case that permanent
casinos should not be allowed in Rivertown.
The City of Detroit had condemned 47 properties in Rivertown earlier this year, in order
to take the properties at condemnation prices and sell them to the three potential casinos
(MGM Grand, Motor City, and Greektown). In October REAL filed a motion to intervene in the
condemnation cases on behalf of the surrounding community. TheCity sought to block the
intervention and argued that REAL did not have standing to intervene. After six weeks of
listening to arguments from REAL attorneys Hugh Davis and Cynthia Heenan and from
attorneys from the city, Chief Judge Michael F. Sapala was persuaded that REAL has an
interest in this case and should be allowed to intervene. According to REAL’s motion,
the group seeks to "obtain a determination as to whether the planned casinos
constitute a public purpose sufficient to authorize the City’s use of eminent domain
under the heightened scutiny mandated by Poletown Neighborhood vs. Detroit (1981)".
In addition, REAL plans to question the adequacy of the process for considering citizen
input .
Final decisions on these issues
are not expected before March of 2000.
At least six of the Rivertown
property owners have also questioned the legality of the taking of priivate
property for privately owned casinos. The vast majority of the owners are in court to argue about the compensation
offered by the City, said by many to be only a fraction of what riverfront property
is worth. REAL attorneys argued that the community’s interests could not
be adequately represented by the six property owners, even though they are raising
some of the same issues. Now that REAL is an intervenor in the court
case, the REAL Board is putting out the call for donations to the legal fund.
While some of the work is being done on a pro-bono basis, we must pay for court
costs, court appearances, and preparation of materials. The Board asks that
every family make whatever donation they can. Please send your contribution
to REAL, 960 East Jefferson, Detroit, Michigan 48207.
(Reprinted. with Carol Wisefield’s permission, from the
Real Report, Oct / Nov 1999)
New Friends gather for Green
Prix III
by Jim Stone
Why bother having American Heritage River status if you don t get out and enjoy your
river? It was in this spirit that bicycle riders assembled at Holy Redeemer Church in
Southwest Detroit on Saturday, September 18th for the third annual "Green Prix."
The purpose of the Friends sponsored Green Prix Bicycle Rally is to bring people together
and have fun, while exploring a part of our city & heritage that we too often take for
granted.
The themes of health, history, and community are celebrated. Contrast this with the more
famous "Detroit Grand Prix", with it’s themes of speed, greed, and excess
need. Holding our event after the more publicized one draws attention to existing
neighborhoods, parks, schools, unique businesses, and places of interest. We follow a
route of a future (hopefully during our lifetimes) Detroit American Heritage River
Greenway.
Joe, Jim, Harriet, Jane and Clive
overlooking the Parade Grounds at Historic Fort Wayne on Your American Heritage
River
With helmets secured and tires
properly inflated, riders proceeded from Holy Redeemer to Clark Park. The story of the
Clark Park Coalition and the Detroit Summer Murals was told. Traffic was light as the tour
rolled through the Mexicantown Restaurant District around 1-75 to Fiesta Gardens. This is
the future site of the community-based Visitor Center for the Ambassador Bridge
Gateway Project. All were glad to learn that it is to include a pedestrian bridge for
Bagley Street connecting the two districts that the freeway divided years ago.
The next stop was the Geodesic Dome
House under construction at St. Anne s and Vernor. We lucked out to fmd the owners/builders, Parki &
Leo Gillis, around back and hard at work. They kindly answered questions about the unusual
shape of the structure, plus construction details. A gleam came to Leo s eye as he told
about the day when the cement footings were poured-- the exact same day of the famous
Hudson’s Building Demolition. The Great Spirit works in curious ways, as this
coincidence was not planned in advance.
With the new comes the old. The ride proceeded past the vacant Michigan Central Train
Depot, the soon-to-be vacated Tiger Stadium, and the Corktown Bread & Breakfast (which
we later learned was up for sale). At Holy Trinity Church we looked across the pedestrian
bridge to the MGM Grand Casino. Will this temporary casino become permanent? if not, what
will it become?
One of the riders cracked sarcastically, "This is perfect. The senior citizens they
bus in to gamble can walk across the freeway bridge (good thing it’s enclosed with
fencing) to church before the ride home. They can ask the Lord’s forgiveness for
gambling away the money they planned to leave to the grandchildren for college or business
start-up."
The Detroit River leg of the ride took us along the Free Press Easement, through the bumps
of West Jefferson next to the CSX railroad yard, under the Ambassador Bridge to Riverside
Park. Right on schedule, the J.W. Westcott Mailboat made their afternoon delivery to two
freighters, the up-bound one
first before turning to port for the down-bound vessel.
Following the river current south, we looped around the Detroit Marine Terminal to Fort
Street, around the Empowerment Zone redevelopment at Clark Street, and back to the river
at West Jefferson. The dream for future Green Prix is to ride over top of the Detroit
Marine Terminal storage yard via an elevated trail similar to the one that Alcoa developed
in Cleveland to connect the Cuyahoga Towpath Trail with the Flats Entertainment District.
The highlight of the trip was Historic Fort Wayne. Riding past the guard station
onto the grounds makes one happy and
sad. Happy in that it is such a peaceful setting and sad that you must get special
permission to even go in. The lack of
attention to the grounds and the buildings are an embarrassment to all. Hopefully this
will change. (Contact us about advocating the Powers-that-Be to bring back Historic Fort
Wayne for all people.)
Joe Riley, Far right in front of a burial
mound, interprets his people's history. Officer's Row buildings are in the background
Joe Riley, member of the Cherokee
Nation and Senior at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources, reminded us
of our purpose on these sacred grounds. Stopping the ride at the 1000-year old Indian
Burial Mound, he led us in offerings of tobacco and silent prayers to honor all our
ancestors who came to this place, Detroit, from all corners of Mother Earth.
A PERFECT GREENWAY END
By JIM STONE
LAST FALL, the League of Michigan
Bicyclists held its annual meeting in Detroit, which included a visit to Historic Fort
Wayne. After a leisurely ride around the grounds, we were drawn to the state conservation
easement at the water s edge.
Cyclists from Mackinac City to Monroe did not need
encouragement to climb to the top of the 30-foot earth berm. The view was picture-perfect,
ranking with any on either peninsula.
Looking east, upstream, through the busy Ambassador Bridge,
we could see the downtown Detroit skyline. To the north were the Fisher Building, historic
Tiger Stadium, and the vacant skeleton of the Michigan Central train depot.
Northwest stretched the Rouge River and the green canopy
over distant Greenfield Village, Henry Ford Museum and the University of Michigan-Dearborn
natural area.
To the west were steel and petrochemical manufacturing
facilities on Zug Island. The historic Ford Rouge complex stretched as far as the eye
could see. From a height of 30 feet, a viewer is up close and personal with the region s
industrial past, present and future.
South across blue-green Yondotega —
a historic Ojibwa name
for the Detroit River —
lay Canada. Downstream the group could see Grosse Ile and the beginning of the
Conservation Crescent, stretching from Stony Island to Humbug Marsh. From that hill at
Fort Wayne, the elements of earth, air, water and fire were visible together on what was
and is still sacred ground to native Americans.
If only Fort Wayne were open and accessible, not just
another barrier to the waterfront like its industrial neighbors, what an asset it would
be. Many people, locally and nationally, see a Detroit River greenway as having immense
potential for our region. Plans are under way for a promenade from the Belle Isle Bridge
to the Ambassador Bridge.
But there s one small geographic detail often left out. A
riverfront promenade that stops at the Ambassador Bridge stops a mile and a half too soon.
The walkway and bikeway should extend from the Belle Isle Bridge to Historic Fort Wayne.
There is new optimism with the recent
designation of the Detroit River as an American Heritage River. The goals of the river
initiative reflect the same four things that are needed at Fort Wayne
— economic revitalization,
education and training, natural resource protection and historic and cultural
preservation.
Greenways do all of the above. They are corridors for
wildlife, habitat for diverse plant communities. Schools use them as outdoor environmental
classrooms. Commuters use them as an alternative to car or bus.
The riverfront walkway and bikeway should extend from the
Belle Isle Bridge to Historic Fort Wayne.
Historic structures along old train lines find adaptive
reuses as restaurants, ice cream parlors or bike shops when a greenway is created. Housing
values next to the trails go up once people learn to use them. Businesses choose to locate
nearby, so employees can walk there and eat their lunches. Construction, landscaping and
management jobs are created for local residents.
Planning for a Southwest Detroit Greenway
Project is complete. It will be one of
two demonstration projects for the Southeast Michigan Greenways
Initiative of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. The greenway will link parks, schools,
neighborhoods, churches and businesses to the river. Historic Fort Wayne is the sprocket
for greenway spokes radiating along the Detroit and Rouge Rivers, the abandoned railroad
tracks and wide boulevards in this part of Detroit.
The fort lies at a strategic spot on the Detroit River,
where the river bends and is at its narrowest from one shore to another. The cyclists who
came from all over Michigan that day last fall were fascinated by what they could see from
the overlook.
One, looking at Zug Island and the Rouge complex, said he
felt eyeball to eyeball with a blast furnace. Another lost a bet about whether Canada was
to the north or south. Others almost cried, because they saw the fort as such a neglected
asset, in such a state of weedy disrepair.
There is no better way to celebrate Detroit s 300th
anniversary in the year 2001 than a Detroit River greenway that goes all the way to
Historic Fort Wayne. During the recent meeting in Detroit on sustainable development, a
retired architect made the perfect statement: "Pedestrians and bicyclists are the
indicator species for a healthy, vibrant city," he said.
The way to begin creating that healthy,
vibrant city is to open up the riverfront —
all the way to a revitalized Historic Fort Wayne.
This editorial by Jim stone first
appeared in the Sunday August 15, 1999 Detroit Free Press
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