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▲ 8 r/Detroit

Update on "Park House" in Wilson Park

Asked this sub last week about the purpose and status of this. Consensus seemed to be it was never built due to funding constraints, but was planned as a park operations (security/maintenance) office, plus a small cafe and additional restrooms. So similar to the facilities at Mt. Elliott Park.

Commenters were unclear, however, if this building was merely delayed, or actually cancelled entirely. I emailed the DRC about this last week and just got their response today:

>Hello and thank you for reaching out.

>You are correct, the early approved plans for the park included a "Park House" indoor space to be used for park operations and security. As construction costs increased, our team had to pivot from some of the original plans in order to complete the park for public use within the approved budget.

>We are currently using the trailer for all operations and security but hope to revisit the Park House construction in the future. There is currently no timeline for that project but it is not out of the picture! 

Best Regards,
Detroit Riverfront Conservancy

Their email doesn't mention a cafe, but that's hopefully still included as well. Feels like the one lacking aspect of Wilson Park is that there's nowhere nearby to grab a bite.

So TLDR is that it's still coming eventually, but there are no immediate plans to complete it.

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u/HazenThrowaway — 3 months ago
▲ 41 r/Detroit

Anyone know what this is supposed to be at Wilson Park?

Photo from Memorial Day (not mine). Not the vent for the rail tunnel, but the circular area around it. Couple of Google searches came up blank. It's called the "Park House" in rendering overviews (second image). Is it supposed to be a visitor center, a cafe, both, or something else?

The site is currently a construction trailer with some scattered equipment, but it doesn't look like any work has progressed since the grand opening last October. Curious to know if anyone is aware of the plan and timeline on this. It's a bit of an eyesore with all the dirt and temporary fencing.

Side note, but a couple other areas of the park don't quite live up to the rendering. The "East Comfort Station" by the playground area was never built, and from what I could tell, visitors and kids have to walk to the opposite side of the park for restrooms. The "River Terrace" is just an empty patch of pavement. The aquatic habitat cove is just rocks with no vegetation. Guessing the whole fraud/embezzlement scandal forced the Conservancy to cut some corners?

Still a 9/10 park overall, don't mean to nitpick too harshly, but I hope they can someday finish up that missing 10%.

u/HazenThrowaway — 3 months ago
▲ 61 r/Detroit

Detroit population growth outpacing peer cities

With the new Census Bureau numbers out this week, we can see how Detroit compares to other "Rust Belt" and/or Midwest cities since 2020. Splitting them into a couple categories..

Legacy Industrial:

Cincinnati: +1.63%
Detroit: +1.56%
Pittsburgh: +1.54%

Chicago: -0.54%
Buffalo: -1.34%
Cleveland: -2.42%
Milwaukee: -2.57%
Baltimore: -2.68%
Memphis: -3.71%
St. Louis: -7.77%

Recent Growers:

Madison: +6.08%
Columbus: +3.60%
Kansas City: +2.58%
Detroit: +1.56%
Indianapolis: +1.52%
Louisville: +1.41%
Grand Rapids: +1.14%
Omaha: +0.56%
Minneapolis: +0.09%

Wikipedia has been updated with the full list of US cities over 100k residents.

Overall, Detroit has caught up to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh as the only growing major cities in the Rust Belt, and we're even outpacing some other cities that have been steadily growing for years.

Disclaimer: these are just estimates, so take them with a grain of salt.

u/HazenThrowaway — 3 months ago
▲ 82 r/transit

For context, it was announced last fall that Amtrak service would return to Michigan Central Station, replacing the outdated Amshack. Officials hope the alignment will be used once again for a Chicago-Toronto service in the future - maybe even HSR.

MDOT will also set aside a platform for the forever-proposed, never-funded regional rail line that could link Ann Arbor, Pontiac, and the airport to downtown. This multimodal hub would also replace the old intercity bus depot.

Detroit's People Mover operator, DTC, is now lead on the whole project. They have been studying expansion opportunities, and connecting to Michigan Central now seems like an obvious choice. It's only 1.5 miles away and could directly link with the maintenance facility/HQ on Michigan Ave. Their proposals should be released soon.

u/HazenThrowaway — 3 months ago
▲ 385 r/Detroit

Just commented this under yesterday's parking lot meme, but felt it was worth posting for wider awareness.

The first District Detroit plan in 2017 called for a new hotel on the corner of Woodward and 75. The "second phase" announced in 2023 still included this hotel. Both plans were awarded significant tax incentives.

Now in 2026, over nine years after the first announcement, the hotel still shows no signs of breaking ground soon.

Other downtown hotels that have opened/will open before this one:

  • Foundation Hotel (100 rooms)
  • The Siren (106)
  • Element (110)
  • Cambria (158)
  • Roost (118)
  • Godfrey (227)
  • AC Marriott (152)
  • Merchants Building (135)
  • Edition Hudson's (210)
  • NoMad Michigan Central (180)
  • JW Marriott (600)

But Olympia somehow can't make the numbers work for a hotel here, directly connected to Michigan's busiest entertainment venue..

The first District Detroit announcement also included 600 new apartments. Only 92 have opened in The Eddystone. I considered tallying the total number of housing units opened since 2017, but it was quickly clear that figure would be much larger and more difficult to count than the hotels.

u/HazenThrowaway — 4 months ago