Rebecca Cook/Reuters The Michigan Central train station, just west of downtown Detroit, could be turned into a multiloft residence.Toby Barlow is the chief creative officer for Team Detroit, an advertising agency. He is also the author of the novel “Sharp Teeth” and has lived in Detroit since 2006. The following list accompanies Mark Binelli’s Riff on Detroit’s “ruin porn” in this past Sunday’s magazine.
1. Reclaim the Highland Park Ford Plan: Designed by Albert Kahn to house Henry Ford’s Model T production, this temple of industry lies waiting for a big idea. Once revitalized, Michigan’s Woodward Avenue corridor would be re-energized.
2. Create Public Transportation: In the time since I left New York, they’ve built a subway tunnel under much of Second Avenue, yet Detroit is still arguing over regional transportation and/or a light-rail system. It makes us look barbaric. Let’s fast-track this, now.
3. Develop Corktown: Detroit’s downtown is repopulating so fast that there is actually a housing shortage in historic Corktown. Begin by turning the abandoned Michigan Central station into a superfine multiloft residence.
4. Attract a Youth Movement: There are 47,000 students at Michigan State, 42,000 at Michigan. If the state can develop ways to encourage these students to come down the road to Detroit, the city would be rejuvenated. Maybe move them into that nice new Highland Park campus.
5. Everybody Move Here: We don’t have hurricanes like the East Coast. We don’t have droughts like the West. And everyone living in the middle of the country is nice. Plus, I bought a Mies van der Rohe town house downtown for just $100,000. Crazy, right?
