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LYNCH-MASTERSREPORT-2020.Pdf Copyright by Tess Maura Lynch 2020 The Report Committee for Tess Maura Lynch Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Report: Driving Change: A Look at Detroit’s Oldest Neighborhood in the Face of the Redevelopment of the Michigan Central Station APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Patricia Wilson, Supervisor Elizabeth Frederick-Rothwell Driving Change: A Look at Detroit’s Oldest Neighborhood in the Face of the Redevelopment of the Michigan Central Station by Tess Maura Lynch Report Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning The University of Texas at Austin May 2020 Dedication This report is dedicated to my mother, for all her help and support. Abstract Driving Change: A Look at Detroit’s Oldest Neighborhood in the Face of the Redevelopment of the Michigan Central Station Tess Maura Lynch, MSCRP The University of Texas at Austin, 2020 Supervisor: Patricia Wilson Detroit’s oldest neighborhood is Corktown, founded in the early 1800s by Irish immigrants. It is also the site of the Michigan Central Station, a once-opulent train station that was often where new Detroiters first arrived in the city, many of whom went on to work in the automotive industry. Following declining usage, the station was abandoned in 1988 and left to fall into disrepair. The station became a symbol for Detroit’s spectacular fall from grace, and for three decades it fell victim to scrappers and became covered in graffiti. In 2018, the Ford Motor Company announced that they had purchased the station and intended to turn it into a new campus for the development of autonomous vehicles. This paper seeks to look at the history of the Corktown neighborhood up to the modern day, tracing its founding by the Irish and its current demographics and prominent culture, as well as the history of the train station itself. This paper also will investigate the concerns and hopes of Corktown stakeholders through a series of interviews conducted in the summer of 2019. These interviews sought to determine what aspects of the redevelopment locals were concerned about, as well as the perceived level of outreach and communication v from the city of Detroit and the Ford Motor Company itself. Through these discussions, the aim is to find areas in which the process could be improved and learn about the current strengths of the neighborhood, and what things people do not want to see change as a result of the development. vi Table of Contents List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: Background Research .........................................................................................6 Chapter 3: The Story of Corktown.......................................................................................9 Chapter 4: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Detroit ..............................................................13 Chapter 5: Corktown Today ...............................................................................................18 Chapter 6: The Michigan Central Station as a Parallel to the City ....................................27 Chapter 7: The Ford Motor Company Purchases the Michigan Central Station ...............35 Chapter 8: Threats and Challenges ....................................................................................41 Chapter 9: Ford's Information Center ................................................................................44 Chapter 10: The Community Benefits Ordinance .............................................................50 Chapter 11: Opinions and Concerns ..................................................................................57 Chapter 12: Interviews .......................................................................................................62 Interview with Steve .................................................................................................62 Interview with Patricia ..............................................................................................65 Interview with Laura .................................................................................................69 Interview with Frank .................................................................................................71 Interview with Sarah .................................................................................................76 Chapter 13: Findings ..........................................................................................................79 Chapter 14: What Should Be Done About Projects Like This? ........................................89 Chapter 15: What Is Next for the Train Station? ..............................................................91 vii Appendix ............................................................................................................................93 Works Cited .....................................................................................................................149 Vita ...................................................................................................................................161 viii List of Figures Figure 1: The Corktown neighborhood's relationship to downtown Detroit ............2 Figure 2: Corktown's early days ...............................................................................9 Figure 3: Corktown's residential neighborhood .....................................................21 Figure 4: Corktown's residential neighborhood .....................................................22 Figure 5: Corktown's main street, Michigan Avenue .............................................24 Figure 6: An image of the Michigan Central Station .............................................27 Figure 7: The interior of the Michigan Central Station ..........................................28 Figure 8: The interior of the abandoned Michigan Central Station........................31 Figure 9: The abandoned train station ....................................................................32 Figure 10: A map of Ford's Corktown projects ........................................................34 Figure 11: Renderings of what the station will look like .........................................38 Figure 12: The wall of community opinions ............................................................43 Figure 13: Two columns featuring information about the development ..................45 Figure 14: Two columns featuring information about the development ..................45 Figure 15: Two columns featuring information about the development ..................46 Figure 16: Two columns featuring information about the development ..................46 ix Chapter 1: Introduction New York has the Statue of Liberty. Paris has the Eiffel Tower. Detroit has the Michigan Central Train Station. Built in the magnificent Beaux-Arts style, the station is the picture of elegance, a model of Detroit’s place as a prominent, influential city.1 Or, at least, it was. Those who are not surprised to know that Detroit is no longer quite as prominent as it once was will likely also not be surprised to learn that the train station was abandoned in 1988 after years of declining service, and left to rot by absentee landlords for nearly 30 years.2 In combination with the city’s rising economic troubles stemming from the volatility of the automotive industry and suburbanization, more and more buildings around the city were faced with the same fate as the beautiful train station: abandonment, looting, and, for many, eventual demolition. The Michigan Central Station became an icon of Detroit’s abandonment, just one of Detroit’s many buildings considered “ruin porn.” But in 2018, it was announced that the Ford Motor Company had purchased the building and planned to redevelop it into a center for the development of autonomous automobiles, becoming the centerpiece of Ford’s new “Corktown campus.” Many view the train station as a future symbol of Detroit’s rebirth. But what are the effects this development - and the hundreds, if not thousands, of new Corktowners drawn to the area as a result - will have on the small historic neighborhood? 1 Aili McConnon, “How Detroit’s revival in anchored in its long-vacant train station,” Chicago Tribune, January 23, 2020, https://www.chicagotribune.com/midwest/ct-nw-nyt-detroit-revival-michigan-central- station-20200124-v7ajtszklvdznixkf4un4i2szq-story.html. 2 Amber Ainsworth, “A brief history of Michigan Central Station as historic Detroit train depot prepares for new chapter,” Click on Detroit, November 4, 2019, https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2018/06/16/a- brief-history-of-michigan-central-station-as-historic-detroit-train-depot-prepares-for-new-chapter/. 1 Figure 1: The Corktown neighborhood’s relationship to downtown Detroit (the red pin is Michigan Central Station)3 Corktown’s threat is not “gentrification” as it often applies to neighborhoods in cases like this. The neighborhood is a plurality white, and relatively middle-class. These aspects of the neighborhood may not change as a result of this development. But is there a “cultural” gentrification, or rather, a homogenization, that threatens neighborhoods,
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