Detroit's Beautiful Decrepit Abandoned Central Train Station Gets A New Life

I love Beaux Arts. I'm glad the building is getting new life.

Those people completely destroyed Detroit'

Agreed OP.

Great that it survived and will finally be restored. Thanks for posting.

Great that it survived and will finally be restored. Thanks for posting.

Lotsa luck tearing out the asbestos and replacing the stolen copper plumbing pipes and electrical wiring.

r6 they apparently have money to burn (but not the asbestos, as it is flame-retardant).

That video is almost a decade old, R6. The city or someone replaced all the windows since and cleared out the inside but it's still mostly barely concrete.

What a gorgeous building. I'm so glad that it is being restored.

Should have happened in the 1990s. Detroit lost out on a lot of opportunities .

Fix it up all pretty inside. Meanwhile, right outside...

It would be nicer if it were to going a public building rather than something that only Ford employees will ever see.

A postcard from its golden years...

Hmm... wish they'd pull these old things down and just shrink the city - replant trees, etc.

Where is Detroit's train station today? Why not use this building again in addition to what Ford has planned for it? I imagine the train station now is one of those small, boxy, characterless buildings for which Amtrak is well known.

how's detroit doing these days? Is it better or still a ghost town?

[quote] how's detroit doing these days?

The downtown symbol of the city summarizes affairs.

everyone that's not on heroin and starving is basically fat in Detroit.

Detroit is very strange city. Even so called very poor people are fat

We hate looking at it.

Let's get Trump to build and pay for a wall.

How nice that when people flee this city they can do so from a nice train station.

R19, carbs are the cheapest food to buy. Throw in alcohol and the weight goes up.

I can see that area becoming like the old factories along the Gowanus in Brooklyn - spaces for artists and other businesses. There's potential.

[quote]R19, carbs are the cheapest food to buy.

I was just going to post the same thing.

Why do people like R19 not understand that?

R19, as others have pointed out, check the prices. When wild-caught king salmon is like $40/lb right now, but Entemann's is buy one, get one free, how do you expect people to eat healthily?

Detroit has gorgeous housing stock that's dirt-cheap because nobody wants to live there.

Detroit will have its day again. Right now, the hot spot is Baltimore, but I'm sure the Hipsters will discover Detroit soon enough.

Detroit = evidence that gentrification has its limits. So much possibility - but not close to a thriving major city like Baltimore and lacking jobs. Some of the real estate on Curbed is drool worthy for dirt cheap. But would rather live in a 1BR in a more upbeat, thriving city.

These people destroyed Detroit -R2

What a joke ! The people who destroyed Detroit were their so called leaders over the last few decades -Kwame Killpatrick -former mayor -beloved by his public -now in jail- mail fraud wire fraud racketeering -and probably orchestrated the murder of an exotic dancer who was at a party at his house and got in a fight with his life Good grief get your facts straight

Hence, the saying, R28: Location x3

I live in the D.... First the Ford family are royalty around here and they deserve it... The project will be paid mostly by taxpayers and not Ford Motor Company. The original architects also did Grand Central in NYC. This will be a total bitch to restore combining the intricate old with the new. Don't cry for the neighbors who will be priced out soon The whites in nearby Corktown and the Hispanics in nearby Mexican Town who bought their houses in the 90's have seen a 4000 plus percent return on their homes When I travel people ask if they should invest in the D, Probably too late and not sll of the city will come back. Completely along the yhe Detroit River (15 miles) and around the Ford venture are or have gone all white. Secrion 8 clients are being pushed out to the older suburbs. Ford will have to bring back some of the engineering jobs farmed out to Rimanian engineers ( 6 dollars an hour not any benefits) for this tech house venture. Mon thru Fri Michigan is the best for daily living. But, a plane ride somewhere else for the faster things in life.

The project will be paid mostly by taxpayers and not Ford Motor Company.

I sorta figured. There will be some hefty kickbacks and sweetheart contracts.

Seriously, why are the politicians there so lacking in even the most basic ethics? I think it's disgusting that people vote for them and those elected immediately abuse that honor. Just gross. They abuse what MLK died for, they should be ashamed.

We're constantly reading stories here on DL about people being squeezed/priced out of places like NYC, LA and SF. Yet most of those correspondents aren't planning to buy farms or ranches, are they? They'll end up moving to so-called second-tier cities, where their money goes much further. Detroit may fall into the category of third-tier, because of all its woes, but rust belt cities (I live in one) have a lot to offer, since you can actually afford little luxuries that help tide you over.

Anyway, I enjoyed OP's article. I'm disappointed (but not surprised) by the pessimism and racism on this thread.

Detroit tops the list of Worst 50 American Cities in Which to Live

1. Detroit, Michigan

> Population: 672,829

> Median home value: $43,500

> Poverty rate: 35.7%

> Pct. with at least a bachelor’s degree: 14.9%

The poster child of American post-industrial urban decline, Detroit, Michigan, ranks as the worst city in the country to live in. Once home to 1.8 million residents at the peak of U.S. auto manufacturing in the 1950s, the city is now home to fewer than 700,000 after decades of decline.

A poor, economically depressed city, more than one in every three Detroit residents live below the poverty line. The city also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the United States, with 10.9% of the workforce out of a job. Detroit is also dangerous. It is the only city in the country where there were over 2,000 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents in 2016.

It’s a gorgeous building.

Looking at R35's stats made me think about how often DLers compare Detroit with Newark as if their conditions are identical, even though Detroit is so much worse.

Let me take it point by point.

While Newark's population of 281,764 is a major drop from its peak of 438,776, that represents a 36% loss (compared with Detroit 63% drop).

The median home value is $225,700 - BTW up 38% over last year- (compared with Detroit's $43,500).

The poverty rate is 28.2% (compared with Detroit's 35.7%).

The unemployment rate is 7.8% (compared with Detroit's 10.9%)

The violent crime rate per 100,000 people is 937 (compared with Detroit's 2,000).

The only thing that's about the same is the # of people with a bachelor's degree or higher.

I think Newark has a greater chance of a rebirth

[quote]Detroit will have its day again. Right now, the hot spot is Baltimore, but I'm sure the Hipsters will discover Detroit soon enough.

There are hipsters around the Eastern Market area for sure. There are tiny pockets throughout the city.

I once read something interesting about Michigan. It is surrounded by the largest freshwater lakes in the world. As climate changes advances and resources become scarce, Michigan and Detroit will see a real Renaissance. That made sense to me, I think it will happen.

My impression is that Detroit's current mayor is pretty sharp and competent.

What if freshwater was so scarce we went to war over the Great Lakes?