Vibrant urban waterfronts: The Detroit River

[thelakelander]

Modern Cities takes a visual walk through a revitalizing urban riverfront: The Detroit International Riverwalk

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/vibrant-urban-waterfronts-the-detroit-river/

[Adam White]

I got to be honest, Lake - the pics don't make it seem that vibrant.

[Peter Griffin]

I've got a lot of respect for the turnaround of Detroit. I visited there as a kid in the early 2000's and MAN it was a rough city. It looks to be turning around but seems to be in a similar state to Jax with a little bit more notoriety/fame and economic power behind it. Detroit's fall from grace was much farther than Jax's considering Jax never quite rose to the height that Detroit did during the post-WWII auto boom.

It's funny to see that we have a very comparable ridership on our people mover, too. Skyway is about 5,000/day, the article lists Detroit's as 5,300. Seems like monorails seem to work best in Disney and MCO. What about Central Florida makes monorails so much more attractive? /s

[thelakelander]

I got to be honest, Lake - the pics don't make it seem that vibrant.

I included areas where the riverwalk has been extended to that also happen to be far outside of downtown. They have a tendency to get infrastructure in place and then infill adjacent redevelopment sites with active uses when the opportunity presents themselves as opposed to doing nothing until hundreds of millions are in hand. Here's a few more images from the riverwalk in the downtown area. It's a great example of designing a trail in a manner where many uses take place within the space itself. As Detroit continues to revitalize with new infill development, it will increase in popularity and use.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Lake, any idea how much of the waterfront improvements are the result of public-private partnerships or corporate donations?  E.g., I presume the splash fountain and plaza in front of the Renaissance Center was at least in part a GM donation.

[thelakelander]

GM constructed the splash fountain and plaza as a part of its renovation of the Renaissance Center into its global headquarters. When they were completed in 2004, GM donated them to the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy. This space served as the kickoff for the riverwalk project. The equivalent would be CSX or Fidelity doing something similar with the spaces between their headquarters along the Northbank Riverwalk and then donating those improvements to the City of Jacksonville or a local non profit conservancy.

[Wacca Pilatka]

^ This sounds very much like an idea whose time has come. 

[Adam White]

I got to be honest, Lake - the pics don't make it seem that vibrant.

I included areas where the riverwalk has been extended to that also happen to be far outside of downtown. They have a tendency to get infrastructure in place and then infill adjacent redevelopment sites with active uses when the opportunity presents themselves as opposed to doing nothing until hundreds of millions are in hand. Here's a few more images from the riverwalk in the downtown area. It's a great example of designing a trail in a manner where many uses take place within the space itself. As Detroit continues to revitalize with new infill development, it will increase in popularity and use.

Thanks for the response. That makes a lot of sense. It seems like coming up with a plan and sticking to it probably is the way to approach things like this.