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.

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Expansion vs. Progress at The City Airport

Over the last few months, I've developed a love-hate relationship with The City Airport. After hours of poring over documents, going through the backlog of Detroit News articles since the airport’s opening in 1927, and leaving messages for Delbert Brown, the current director of the airport, I can honestly say I am going to miss reading, writing and discussing the airport so frequently.

Aerial view of City Airport

While I am still no expert on Detroit politics, I feel confident saying that what is going on at the city airport is an elephant that has been sitting so comfortably in the room that people don’t even notice now when he knocks a hole in the wall.

Many people have been quick to tell me that nothing I could write will change what is happening, and that may be so, but I am going to talk about the airport all the same.

There have always been, and always will be, people who oppose the airport, and for a number of legitimate reasons. I remember the first time I heard Pat Bosch explain a study that showed low flying planes in residential areas and its correlation to elevated blood pressure. While I still don’t doubt the findings of the study, it didn’t sound to me like the kind of argument that would get the attention of lawmakers. And it wasn’t.

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Business on Six Mile

At Marcus Hamburgers, on Six Mile Road west of The City Airport, the sign above the door says "Est. 1929." I had been driving around all morning and I needed lunch. I was told the food there was good, so I stopped.

Marcus Burgers, at 6349 E. McNichols Rd., west of the airport.

I sat down and ordered a BLT. As I ate, a few people came in and ordered Marcus Burgers, normally two at a time. Before I paid my check, I asked the waitress if the business had really been there since 1929. She said it had. I asked her if there was anyone who could talk about how business was impacted when Six Mile closed in 1987.

Mike, the owner and cook at Marcus Hamburgers, came out of the back to talk with me. "I remember people used to cruise down Six Mile," he said, but since the road was closed for the airport's expansion, business has slowed significantly. "I remember my business being hit the very first day they closed it down," he said. Since then, it has never been the same.

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Davis Aerospace Academy

What is now known as Davis Aerospace Technical High School was originally known as Aero Mechanics High School. According to The Histories of the Public Schools of Detroit Volume Three, published by the Detroit Public Schools in 1967, the school began in 1941 as facility to train aviation mechanics for WWII. In 1943, it officially became a high school, and before the war effort was done, 15,000 workers had been trained there.

Davis Aerospace Technical High School

After the war, the school became much like it is today, requiring students to apply for enrollment and providing them the opportunity to specialize in different fields of aerospace mechanics.

Since that time it has changed location, and in 1982 it was renamed after Air Force General Benjamin O. Davis, one of the famous Tuskegee Airmen. In 1986 flight training was added to the curriculum along with an Air Force JROTC program.

Davis is the only high school in the country in which students can get their pilots license as part of the curriculum. Each year, four or five students graduate either with licenses or having flown solo.

It is also one of the most positive things about City Airport.

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The Plan on File

The 1992 City Airport Master Plan (see end of post for complete PDFs)

Anyone at the last TOUCH meeting at Shield of Faith can tell you about the collective spirit of determination and enthusiasm for the future of the neighborhood evidenced there. But every discussion, every dream, seems shadowed by the fact that eventually we are going to have to talk about what is going on with The Detroit City Airport.

While everyone seemed familiar with the mini-take, the area just west of French road that the city has been trying to buy for more than 20 years, some people seemed surprised when I told them that the current plan on file includes the city eventually buying all the property between French and Van Dyke.

According to Mark Noel of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and Tony Molinaro of the FAA, the currently approved plan for the airport is the August 1992 Master Plan. The Master Plan, which includes plans for several new runways, calls for the acquisition of all the land between French and Van Dyke, and was supposed to be completed this year.

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The cost of doing the wrong thing

The people of the neighborhood aren't the only ones paying the price for the city's always expanding, but never really expanding, policy toward The City Airport. Ironically, the city is paying heavy price as well.

In 2004 and 2005 Detroit lost two reverse condemnation suits claiming that the city had purposefully blighted the area, and significantly restricted the property value of Merkur Steel Supply, Inc. According to Mark Demorest, the attorney for the steel company in both lawsuits, it cost the city $14 million.

Demorest said that there is also another lawsuit that is currently taking place, meaning that the total cost to the city for the mismanagement of this area may continue to rise.

To put this in perspective, one of the more recent Airport Layout Plan Updates estimated that the entire mini-take expansion project would cost somewhere around $50 million. This means the city has already paid out a fourth of that amount with nothing to show for it.

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Friends of City Airport

This Saturday I had the opportunity to sit down with Beverly Kindle-Walker, the executive director of Friends of City Airport. I found out that at the core, Friends of Fletcher Field and Friends of City Airport have a lot in common.

Friends of City Airport was started in the early 1990s to combat the anti-airport political groups that were growing in Warren and the Grosse Pointes. Today, the organization's focus has shifted to getting community children involved with the airport in the hopes of captivating imaginations and getting them to think about the possibilities in their future.

Kindle-Walker also told me that that as a group the group does not necessarily support the expansion of the airport. She views the airport as a good enough point-to-point for private aircraft and general aviation. The group is not be opposed to the reopening of Six Mile, either; she even recognizes it as something that should have been done some time ago.

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FAA Order 5190.6a

FAA Order 5190.6a (click to download PDF)

It didn't take me long to realize that there are a lot of conflicting opinions over what should be done with The City Airport. It also didn’t take long to realize that people on both sides need more information on why some of the more obvious solutions haven’t already happened, and why doing them is so difficult.

Today, I am talking about those people who want to see the airport closed.

When a governing body, like The City of Detroit, takes money from the FAA to build an airport, they are liable to the FAA for that money for the next 20 years.

Because the newest runway in the airport was built over 20 years ago, this should be good news for opponents of The City Airport. It should be, except there is a catch.

FAA Order 5190.6a states that if the FAA gave the city money to acquire the land that the airport was built on, then the city is liable for funds provided by the FAA indefinitely (for more details, download the FAA PDF of the order, and see Ch. 7, Section 3 - Grant Agreements).

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Happy’s Windmills

The future of City Airport?

When someone tries to discuss other possible uses for the property on which City Airport stands, most people in a position to make a change pay no attention.

That's why it was surprising to hear that Mike Happy's suggestion to turn the area into a wind farm actually generated some interest among people from the city.

Wind farming is a great idea, it is good for the environment, it would make money for the city, and it would show commitment to Obama’s plan for the future of our country. The question is, can Detroit get one up and running anytime soon?

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Another mayor, same old tune

A friend of mine just sent me a link to a story in today's Free Press:

Cockrel eyes aid for lighting, airport

According to the article, Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. is trying to take advantage of President-elect Barack Obama's proposed major federal spending package to prop up the economy.

The Free Press says Detroit's wish list includes $106.5 million to acquire land around City Airport for runway improvements as well as upgrades of the facility.

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