Tag: Dequindre Cut

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Greenways Safety & Education

Detroit Trails Excluded

People gathered to celebrate the opening of the UniRoyal Promenade in October 2023.

Back in 2017, we were made aware that trails within the city of Detroit were not included in the Michigan Trails Magazine — both the print publication and the website — which claims to include “more than 180 of Michigan’s best non-motorized biking, hiking, cross-country skiing, and water trails.”

According to the Internet Archive, the Detroit RiverWalk and Dequindre Cut were shown on the website in 2015.

We contacted the publisher and learned they were removed after they’d experienced an unfortunate smash-and-grab at a Detroit trailhead parking lot. The publisher told us they could no longer recommend Detroit trails to its readers.

They will simply become more easy prey for Detroit’s criminals. I would be doing Detroit’s criminals a big favor sending more easy money their way.

Email correspondence with the publisher, June 2017

We noted that a Macomb County trail had a murder, but that trail remained in the publication.

We shared this issue with the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance, which we are a member of. The compromise they reached was for the publisher to link to our website’s Detroit Riverfront Trail Network page. When we recently added context to that page explaining this exclusion, the link was removed.

Our Tweet goes Viral

When dropping off our new Detroit Bike and Trail Maps at the Michigan Welcome Center in Southwest Detroit, we saw the magazine and tweeted about this exclusion.

It went viral with nearly 73K impressions in a week’s time, including a very thoughtful response from State Representative Laurie Pohutsky, who chairs the House Natural Resources, Environmental, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation committee.

Next Steps

We’ve patiently waited for a permanent solution to this issue. Our tweet has unexpectedly rekindled discussions on how to move forward on this.

We’ve met with MTGA, MEDC (who manages the Pure Michigan brand), and others. The Detroit News published the article, Michigan’s ‘premier’ trails magazine omits Detroit walkways ($). More groups have plans to release statements. We wouldn’t be surprised if some of the publication’s sponsors weigh in on this as well.

But in the end, it’s a private publication that can choose what to include and what not to.

We will continue doing our best making more people aware of this.

Thanks to Craig Wood and others who brought this to our attention and offered their assistance in this matter.

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Complete Streets Greenways Newsletter Policy Safety & Education

News from the Trail – July 2022

New concrete for the Joe Louis Greenway

Link to our July 2022 newsletter

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Complete Streets Greenways

Our thoughts: Milliken State Park Master Planning

One preliminary concept rendering

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is creating a master plan for the Milliken State Park and Harbor. Besides being a key piece of the RiverWalk, it also includes the lower end of the Dequindre Cut. Both of these trails are part of the Joe Louis Greenway as well.

Below are our comments that have a major focus on improvements to Atwater for bicyclists and scooterists, as well as the Dequindre Cut connection to the RiverWalk.

Continue reading “Our thoughts: Milliken State Park Master Planning”
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Greenways

Thanks for all your work, Jose Abraham

Jose Abraham shows where the planned Wilkins Connector just off the Dequindre Cut Extension.

Most ride, run and walk the trails throughout the city of Detroit without knowing who helped create them.

One person you should know is our good friend, the recently-retired Deputy Director of the Department of Public Works, Jose Abraham.

Jose started as a Dequindre Cut skeptic. Why convert this decrepit, abandoned rail corridor into a trail? Will it get used?

However, once it was built, he saw its potential and fully bought in. He led efforts on the Dequindre Cut Extension, part of the Link Detroit project. One highlight was landing a major federal TIGER grant to help fund it. Though the city had requested $15 million, the feds only approved $10 million — still a substantial grant.

We’ll never forget an initial TIGER grant meeting with Federal Highway Administration officials where Jose asked if we could scale back the project since we didn’t get all the funding that was requested. The officials said no, the city needed to find another $5 million dollars elsewhere. After a bit of nervous laughter, the meeting continued — and Jose made it happen. (Fortunately the construction bids came in lower than anticipated, too.)

Even before the Extension was under construction, Jose was looking to do more. He picked up Coalition plans for an Inner Circle Greenway, a 26-mile trail encircling the city. “The mother of all non-motorized trails,” as he liked to say. Of course this trail was recently renamed as the Joe Louis Greenway.

We worked closely with him writing grants under his direction, including the successful $3.4 million Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund and $1.2 million MDOT grants. These grants are now being used to acquire nearly 8 miles of abandoned Detroit Terminal Railroad property to close one of the biggest gaps in the Joe Louis Greenway.

We are certainly going to miss working with Jose on the numerous non-motorized projects happening all across Detroit, so many of which he played an instrumental role. This is especially true of the Joe Louis Greenway.

Thanks Jose for all you’ve done getting us to this point. You’re efforts will not be forgotten.

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Greenways

Growing city support for greenways in Detroit

2015 Bike Trails and Cocktails bike tour mapSeven years ago our only major biking and trails proponent was packing up his desk at the Detroit Mayor’s office and heading back to a job in the private sector. Our city support was looking bleak.

What a change we’ve seen since then!

We now have supporters throughout most city departments and in the Mayor’s office. Though Detroit has many challenges and priorities, our work is seen as an important quality of life issue from the neighborhoods to downtown.

This summer we’ve gained another supporter with the new Planning and Development Director Maurice Cox. We heard this support firsthand at a recent event on the RiverWalk

With help from the Detroit Food and Fitness Collaborative and Bedrock Management, the inaugural Bike Trails and Cocktails event was held. It began with a guided 8-mile bike tour of nearby greenway projects with assistance from Detroit’s Eastside Riders bike club. This tour included recently completed portions of the Detroit RiverWalk, the Dequindre Cut Extension, the planned Beltline Greenway and Elmwood Connector.

At the ride’s conclusion, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy provided more updates on their work and answered questions.

Next up was Cox who made a statement by riding to the event. This was not atypical for him though. He bikes to work, to Eastern Market, and all around town. Biking has been his primary means of transportation long before he got to the Motor City and he sees no need to change.

Bike-Trails-and-Cocktrails-by-Khalil-LigonLiving in Lafayette Park, he uses the nearby Dequindre Cut often. He told the attendees that every Detroit neighborhood deserves a great greenway like this — something that’s very much in line with the Detroit Greenways Coalition vision and Food and Fitness Collaborative goals.

One major project that will bring a greenway to many Detroit neighborhoods (as well as Hamtramck, Highland Park and Dearborn) is the 26-mile Inner Circle Greenway. Cox spoke highly of the project and the opportunity to look beyond just the trail. He added that the greenway can be catalyst for development similar to the Atlanta Beltline.

He also stressed the value in having the Coalition in Detroit to help show community support. He told the crowd that he would join the Coalition before the event was over. He also noted that he was heading to Copenhagen the next day as part of a study tour that looks at progressive European transportation and public space designs that are people-focused. We’re looking forward to what ideas he can bring back to Detroit.

What a change from seven years ago!

 

Categories
Greenways

Trails spur economic development in Detroit

Orleans Landing on the Dequindre CutGood trails foster economic development. It’s been studied and proven nationally.

It’s also be documented by the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy’s Economic Impact Study: Detroit Riverfront 2013.

Within that riverfront study is the $61 million Orleans Landing, 20 new buildings with mixed-use development and 278 residential units along the Dequindre Cut and just north of Milliken State Park. The initials plans include new retail along the Dequindre Cut. We sure hope that includes a coffee shop.

According to this mLive article, the “apartments will be marketed toward those seeking an active urban lifestyle and people who work downtown.”

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation also has bought into this development and have even made a video about it. We love this quote from Jack Hambene, Sr. Vice President, McCormack Baron Salazar.

While everyone else was fleeing, we saw an opportunity. And I think the fact that the site has such an incredible investment of public infrastructure with the RiverWalk and [Dequindre] Cut bike trail and now of course the Outdoors Adventure Center, I think it really is a unique opportunity — and it’s right on the riverfront. We don’t know where that exists anywhere else in urban America.

What excites us is this is just the beginning. We waiting for those GM surface lots to transform, and of course, the UniRoyal site.