An experience I have been fortunate enough to have multiple times throughout my time here in Detroit is driving along Woodward all the way from downtown to Royal Oak. Woodward is such a historical street, one of the first major roads and highways in Michigan. Woodward is one of Detroit’s defining characteristics, it divides the city into the East and West and is a universal place marker. Driving down Woodward is like getting a sample of the whole city. You get to see the glamour of downtown and the hipster vibe of Midtown but you also get to see Highland Park and the Northern part of the city, both areas suffering from lack of residents, extreme blight, and high crime rates. Woodward ties all of this together and serves all those within the city. You can see Detroit transition into Ferndale as you pass 8 mile and then into Royal Oak and beyond. The street is lined with dozens of large, historical churches, chain malls, and abandoned buildings. Every time I ride down Woodward I feel like I see a new part of Detroit. I can see what’s leftover of the early 1900s and Detroit’s boom era and I can see what new life is growing in between the reminders of the past. I think it’s symbolic of the way Detroit needs to progress, by embracing and taking advantage of what remains from the past to create a stronger Detroit.
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I share the wroters sentiment as he traviled up Woodward Av northbound. I found myself reminiscencing wirh him ss he shared
those nostalgic emotions and local glimpses of local history. I been to a few major cities, and non have the foreward thinkimg that our civic planners exhibited. Woodward Av is one of several of our wide (4) lane thorough-fares, and as ee travile those thorough fares (those are U.S. Businrss Spurs), we can envision what was a study growth in American urban growtj and commerce-at the turn of the century the Detroit population was (aprpx) 200,000, in 1950, the Detroit population was over a miiion people-that’s equivelent to a rapid population growth of over 800,000 few current cities can match those numbers. We were the natioms leading indistrial hud. Now with our education team spirit and forward thinking we are all called on to contribute in any way possible to these revitalization efforts-the death of heavy industry inour urban cities was a death blow. Its now up to the communties to redevelop and to rebuild our communities.
Your comments about woodward are very insightful. Being that I am from Detroit and travel along Woodward fairly often I have never once stopped to think or admire the historical significance of the street that has been apart of my city for so long.