Dequindre greenway zeitgeist

A buddy who lives in the city looked at me askance when I mentioned how a I found on Google Maps a blighted stretch of abandoned sunken rail corridor through one of the seedier sections of Detroit could be mown down, paved, and turned into a path for bikes, pedestrians, etc. It stretched from an underdeveloped part of the waterfront into an area near Eastern Market. Since it would likely attract graffiti artists anyway, art installations could be set up as well I thought, funneling some of their creative efforts to give the place some personality. He laughed at me and suggested arming anyone who might want to venture into it.

A week or so later he said he'd been thinking about it and thought (after repeatedly passing over it) that the idea might have some merit. We decided something should be done to make it happen.

Saving us the trouble, someone else had the exact same thought, and already mustered forces to make it reality. Model D explains in this article how the Dequindre Cut, previously a commuter rail and more recently a hotbed of high-quality graffiti and homeless enclaves, is being transformed by a number of groups working together (Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan’s GreenWays Initiative, Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, the Michigan Department of Transportation, The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, and the Downtown Detroit Partnership - I imagine there are others as well) into a link that will tie together the RiverWalk, Tri-Centennial State Park, and Eastern Market. Links to Midtown and Hamtramck currently on the drawing board.

From the Model D article:

• The path will stretch one mile in length, running north and south along half of the former rail corridor. The paved path will be 20 feet wide and will include separate lanes for bicycle and foot traffic.
• The other half will be left in natural grasses and reserved for potential future rail transit. The possibility still exists, Sutherland says, that in the future a light rail line could be developed in the cut.
• The pathway will include lighting and security cameras.
• Landscape modification includes selective clearing of underbrush, preservation of specimen trees and selective planting of appropriate native species.
• ADA compliant access ramps will be placed at Lafayette Street and Gratiot Avenue, at the southern end of Eastern Market. The ramps will be able to accommodate maintenance and emergency vehicles.
• Sutherland says because the Cut has already seen organic development by artists, the DDP supports keeping the area as an art park. “It makes sense to keep it going rather than try to develop a similar concept elsewhere,” he says.

There's another good post on the beginning stages of this project at DetroitBikeBlog (which is where this post's photos came from as well).

UPDATE: Some cool visual layouts can be found here - elevations, plan within the overall area, etc.