Last week, after our Thursday event downtown, a few friends and I decided to bike around the area a little. After all, it was nice out, and we all spend way too much time in University Tower. We biked through Corktown and into Southwest. We saw many historic homes and lots of beautiful street art. Something that really stood out to me was Michigan Central Station. Maddy said that she had seen this huge, beautiful abandoned building in the area, but she did not know what it was. As soon as it was in sight, I realized that it was the abandoned train station that I knew existed in Detroit, but had never seen. With a foreboding, stickered chain link fence in front, Central Station looms over 15th Street in Corktown. It is massive and beautiful. If any of you have not seen it yet, I would highly recommend checking it out. While it is impressive from the outside, what really struck me was how much of a wasted opportunity this was. While on Youtube you can find a tour of the inside from a homeless man who lives inside, there is no official/legal way to get inside. It says in huge letters outside, “NO TRESPASSING.” The City of Detroit could easily turn this into a revenue generator. They could make a train/transit type of museum (there’s a Transit Museum in New York that I love), or allow local artists to work inside, or grow something inside, the possibilities are endless. According to the Wikipedia article about the Station, there are no current plans for its future. While it would be a shame for it to turn into something that the community doesn’t want, it seems like such a waste to me to sit there the same way that it is right now. I think that the way that Brilliant Detroit spoke about having listen-ins with the community, a large forum could be held with Detroit residents for what to make out of Central Station. It would be awesome if it could generate revenue that would go back into the community.
Hey Sophia,
I feel like this sometimes whenever I see the many abandoned homes and buildings all around the city. I also think about what they were once like- why might’ve lived in them, what their days were like, what Detroit was like then. I think it’s a really interesting topic and I hope that more communities can talk about what they would like there and find a way to use them again and give them new lives.
I was going to write about this!!! Now that I just admitted to seeing it before I posted, do I have to chose something else? Probably, in my mind at least. THX SOPH