Going Home

Leveling the old neighborhood?

If what has been reported to me during the last 24 hours is true, then Fletcher Field and the surrounding neighborhood could be history by the end of the summer.

First, I was informed by a friend via email last night that Fletcher Field had just appeared on a list of 100 city parks slated to be closed or sold. This didn't bother me so much because, for all intents and purposes, the park was already closed when we started this project back in July 2007. Only through the city's adopt-a-lot/park program and a lot of hard work by so many did Fletcher Field become a usable playfield again.

The final season at Fletcher?

What did bother me was a telephone call I received this morning from an area resident who has heard an increase in airport-expansion rumblings in the neighborhood recently and then watched the Detroit City Council session on television Tuesday night.

She says that City Airport director Delbert Brown gave his budget address to council last night, during which time he also announced that all phases of the French Road mini-take will be completed by July.

That means all the remaining houses in the airport buffer zone -- between Lynch and McNichols and French and Van Dyke -- would be purchased and leveled in the near future. Fletcher Field is also in that buffer zone, as is Shield of Faith Church, formerly Holy Name.

[More:]

The No. 1 question I have is, where did the money to finish this project come from? When the News' Christine MacDonald did a story on the mini-take back in December 2007, the project had been going on for more than 13 years and was only about 50 percent complete because of lack of funding.

I guess council members JoAnn Watson and Alberta Tinsley-Talabi had the same question -- and many more. According to my source, they pushed Brown to divulge more information, and he did say that he had formed a private-public relationship with a company out of New York City, which would fund the rest of the mini-take.

My source said that when Brown was questioned further about this relationship -- who had approved it -- and other issues, he became disrespectful and downright cantankerous. The meeting was then quickly adjourned and Brown was told that he had to appear in front of an executive council session next Tuesday with more answers.

Hopefully, the answers will come next week, and the fate of the neighborhood will finally be determined. It has been held hostage by the airport for way too long.

Kevin St. George of MSU has been chronicling the issues that face the airport, and we posted today his findings on how the city closing Six Mile has affected businesses and his analysis of the the future of City Airport (more on City Airport).

I just pray that whatever goes down, it is honest, fair to area residents and helps the city as a whole.

From what we have seen and heard during the past two years, I have my doubts.

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: 6/hoover [Member]

We have been hearing this news forever & being Detroit, I don't see this happening in the near future.

Permalink 05/07/09 @ 14:10

Comment from: bigdwis1 [Member]

I call BS but if it is true I hope the current residents get a fair shake then
I say we throw the biggest farewell party in the history of the world!

Permalink 05/07/09 @ 18:02

Comment from: Michael Happy [Member]

We certainly know how to throw a party. :0)

Permalink 05/07/09 @ 18:10