The Fluid Commons: Take me to the River

Take me to the River

Chia-Wei Chan, Yinan Fang and Wanrongmiao Zhang URP551 / Arch509: The Fluid Commons, Fall 2020

Historically, the Detroit River marked the last step to freedom for the enslaved African American escaping from the south, and the land of opportunity for millions shaping the Great Migration and contributing their labor in the river industries.

Legends Great Lakes Urban Areas State Boundaries Native and Indian Regions Routes of the Underground Railroad The Great Migration Stream (1910~1930) Routes maintained by abolitionists in Michigan Routes maintained by abolitionists in Michigan Iron Ore Coal Grain Other Canals

The Detroit Riverside communities, shaped by human migrations and the legacy of unjust urban policies, still carry the former glory enabled by the industrial regional economies.

Islandview

Delray

Wyandotte

Home Owner Loan Corporation Map, 1939

01 Conner Creek

01 Rivertown

Islandview

02 downtown Detroit 06 downtown Windsor

02 Zug Island

Delray

03 River Rouge

06 Ojibway

04 Wyandotte

Wyandotte

07 LaSalle

01 Conner Creek CSO Facility

05 Riverside

07 Bridgeview

02 Mistersky Power Station 03 Detroit Water & Sewerage 04 DTE River Rouge

07 Ambassador Bridge 08 Lou Romano Water Reclamation Plant

04 Downriver Wastewater Treatment Facility

03 Wyandotte

05 Trenton 04 Grosse Ile

08 Amherstburg

05 Grosse Ile Municipal Airport

08 Amherstburg

One of the most distinctive features of human traces along the Detroit River are the industrial and agricultural lands.

As the only way a ship could travel out of the upper Great Lakes system, the Detroit River played an essential role in the transformation of Detroit as a major industrial region.

And agricultural lands occupy a great proportion of LaSalle and Amherstburg.

Another form of productive landuse along the Detroit River is commercial: retail and offices. Especially in the downtown areas of the cities along the river, the commercial landscape is one of the most significant economic drivers and job providers.

The development of infrastructure and industry were closely intertwined in the region, making the Detroit River one of the busiest conduits of transportation in the early 20th century. Acting as a line of cargo transportation, docks and railways remain visible along the shoreline. Power stations and wastewater treatment plants were built to meet the needs of industrial production and the city’s daily use.

Productive Land: Industrial and Agriculture

Productive Land: Commercial

Infrastructure: Energy, Water, Transportation

01 Alfred Brush Ford Park

01 Jefferson Chalmers

01 Islandview

02 Islandview

02 Belle Isle Park

03 Cullen Plaza

02 Delray

07 Great Western Park

06 Bridgeview

Islandview 05 Riverside

Delray

03 River Rouge

08 golf course

06 Fighting Island 04 golf course 04 Hennepin Point

07 Fighting Island

08 North Amherstburg

05 golf course

03 Wyandotte

07 LaSalle

Wyandotte 04 Grosse Ile

05 Gibraltar

08 Amherstburg

06 Lake Erie Metropark

Economic prosperity brings the demand for recreational opportunities. The scenic and pleasurable atraction to the waters of the Detroit River drives the development of recreational uses including marinas, public parks, golf courses. Linear riverfront parks are located along the city of Detroit and Windsor, while numerous large parks, like Belle Isle and the Wildlife Refuge populate the shorelands.

With the deindustrialization in the late 20th century, quantities of lands were abandoned and remained vacant, especially in the city of Detroit. Vacant lands could also be seen in the lower part along the river that are remained unbuilt and wild.

Residential landuses interspersed with industrial, infrastructural and parklands trace the regimes of human occupation of the shorelands overtime. From modest workers’ housing close to industries, to exclusive gated communities, towers and hotels, to riverfront single family homes, the diverse building types signal many different lifestyles along the shore.

Recreation

Vacant Land

Residential

01

05

01

05

01

05

02

06

02

06

02

06

03

07

03

07

03

07

04

08

04

08

04

08

Productive Land: Industrial and Agriculture

Productive Land: Commercial

Infrastructure: Energy, Water, Transportation

01

05

01

05

01

05

02

06

02

06

02

06

03

07

03

07

03

07

04

08

04

08

04

08

Recreation

Vacant Land

Residential

Islandview

Delray

Wyandotte

River

River

Population

Household Income ($)

0 - 794

0 - 19,826

795 - 1,089

19,827 - 31,384

1,090 - 1,883

41,385 - 51,210

1884 - 9,763

51,211 - 85,221

River

85,222 - 143,566 0 0

1.5 mi

3 mi

0

1 mi

0

1.5 mi

Hispanic

3 mi

0

1 mi

0

1.5 mi

3 mi

1 mi

The population of the river region began to expand rapidly based on resource extraction from around the Great Lakes region. The early 20th century and through World War II marked the period of largest and most rapid growth with the development of the auto plants and related heavy industry. Attracting hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Europe and the Near East, Black and White migrants from the South, the Detroit River shorelands boomed.

Due to heavy industry beginning to decentralize, locating new plants in outlying areas, most industrial areas along the river are vacant or facing the possibilities of vacancy.

That’s why households near the industry have the lowest income.

In the early 1900s, Detroit companies attracted thousands of workers from around the US to work in labor-intensive industries. Detroit’s Hispanic population has more than doubled since the 1990s. While many work in the service industry and construction along the river, a significant number have opened food and restaurants in Springwells Village.

Population

Household Income

Hispanic

Islandview

Delray

Wyandotte

River

River

Asian 0 0

1.5 mi

River

Black 3 mi

0

1 mi

0

1.5 mi

White 3 mi

0

1 mi

0

1.5 mi

3 mi

1 mi

Many East Asians came to build railroads in the 1800s, and eventually had two Chinatowns. As crime hit their communities, they scattered to the suburbs in the 1970s.

Today, the excellent geographic location of the Detroit River ensures a large market for international commercial development connected to Canada. This trading trend reattracted the Asian population from the suburbs and the Cass Corridor to the financial district along the river.

Before World War I, Detroit only had about 4,000 Black people, 1% of its population. The first major period of black growth occurred from 1910 to 1930, during the economic expansion in the auto industry. By 1970 Detroit, Ecorse and River Rouge had higher than average black populations due to heavy industry needs. In 2019, blacks or African Americans living in Detroit accounted for 77.9% of the total population, and most of them along the river.

The expansion of industry for war production in the 1940s resulted in a population boom; whites still made up 90.4% of the shorelands’ population. The white population oin Detroit peaked in 1950 and then steadily declined due to white flight and net emigration through 2010. Today, more than half of whites along the Detroit River settled in the downriver communities escaping from Detroit downtown.

Asian

Black

White

What are the catalysts of the transformation of three riverfront neighborhoods?

Islandview

Delray

Wyandotte

Islandview 1949

Wyandotte 1949

Delray 1949

Islandview 1949

Wyandotte 1967

Delray 1961

Islandview 1967

Wyandotte 1981

Delray 1981

Islandview 1981

Wyandotte 1999

Delray 1999

Islandview 1999

Wyandotte Neighborhood

1981

Population of Wyandotte

Wyandotte Neighborhood

Wyandotte is a Detroit Riverside community in South-east Michigan, Wayne County, some ten miles from Detroit. With 28,000 citizens, the city is predominantly White and middle income.

Wyandotte was first settled in 1732 by a branch of the Huron Tribe known as the Wyandots. In 1854, Eureka Iron Works became the first industry in the area and the first mill in the US to produce steel using the Bessemer Process. This method was the foundation of the industrial revolution and the key to making high quality steel in large quantities. Unfortunately, the Eureka Iron Works suffered a boiler explosion and fire in 1888, from which it never recovered.

In 1871, the Wyandotte Shipyards started operation. The shipyards produced many hulls including the famous and speedy passenger boat, the Tashmoo and the Columbia, one of the Bob-Lo boats. The Shipyard remained in operation until 1922. Also in the early 1890’s, Captain J.B. Ford traveled to Wyandotte to investigate the salt deposits in the area and he created the Michigan Alkali Company and processed the soda-ash into various soaps and cleansers sold commercially. The company, later renamed Wyandotte Chemicals Co., went on to create a variety of soaps and cleaners, eventually becoming part of BASF and expanding into the BASF industrial complex.

Several waves of immigrant populations moving into the area seeking jobs and community. Much of the City’s culture is influenced by the German, Irish, Italian, and Polish immigrants. The neighborhood under study follows the typical scheme of the neighborhood unit first conceptualized by Clarence Perry, with the elementary school in the center. Demographic changes led to the closure of the school building, and plans for redevelopment continue to be discussed in the community.

Today, some of the former industrial sites have been transformed to parks or recreational playfields. The area, also affected by redlining practices, shows a modest housing stock.

0 2 0 2

9 4 9 1

Delray Neighborhood

1997

population of Delray Population of Delray

Delray Neighborhood

Delray is a neighborhood located on the southwest side of the city of Detroit, directly abutting Zug Island and the mouth of Rouge River. The former prosperity of Delray relied on the waterfront industries during the early 1900s that attracted many Hungarians to settle in the proximity building modest.

The neighborhood’s population peaked at 23,000 residents in 1930, and at the time the neighborhood had schools, churches, a hospital and many vibrant commercial areas. Yet the industrialization that gave Delray its success also spelled its own undoing.

The 1951 City Master Plan zoned the entire area as industrial, calling for the residential areas to be phased out. Delray gradually became home to massive infrastructure including Fisher Freeway, the largest sewage treatment facility in North America, a DTE Plant, and some heavy pollutant industries. Many of the residents left and others suffered from forced removals and evictions. Over time, ever-changing exploitation had transformed this land of marginality into a wasteland, with fragments of buildings, high contaminated lands, and dominating infrastructure networks. Due to the high level of disrepair, in 2007, the Detroit Metro Times described Delray as “the closest thing to a ghost town within a city.”

In the 21st century, Delray was selected for the location of the upcoming Gordie Howe International Bridge. The enormous project will radically alter the neighborhood and result in the destruction of numerous structures and roadways, as well as the relocation of some of the remaining residents.

0 2 0 2

9 4 9 1

Islandview Neighborhood

1981

1997

1

Population of Islandview

Islandview Neighborhood

The Detroit’s Islandview neighborhood has roughly 5,700 inhabitants and is currently populated primarily by African American residents. Named by its proximity to Belle Isle, the neighborhood displays an abundance of historic single- and multi-family homes, apartments and row houses on the east end of the neighborhood. The connection to Belle Isle through the MacArthur Bridge, follows E Grand Boulevard, the main arterial running across the neighborhood.

This parkway was designed to connect Detroit, Hamtramck, Greenfield, and Springwells townships back in the 1890s, at a time in which much of the land was still agricultural.

Islandview was impacted by the redlining practices imposed in many urban centers in the country. After the Great Depression and World War II, the E Grand Boulevard experienced a deep transformation that cut the massive elegant homes into small apartments. The impact of urban renewal also came close to it, transforming many areas on the west side. Either to define or mark itself as the profile of the neighborhood, the spine can also be viewed as a buffer zone when transitioning from the Belt Line, the industrial land on the west end, through the residential areas in Indian and West Village.

In terms of resident’s engagement and cultural activities, religious centers and soul food restaurants are highly recognizable in Islandview. On top of that, it is also a home to many community-based nonprofit organizations that promote a fair and just society within the highly segregated city.

0 2 0 2

9 4 19

The spatial transformations driven by human migrations along the Detroit River can be regarded as a contextual data for the study of past and present conditions, and the formulation of possible futures.

URP551 / Arch509: The Fluid Commons Michigan Engaging Community through the Classroom (MECC)