What's going on with that mall? (Detroit, Royal Oak: shopping center, bus, moving)

[Slappy san]

Originally Posted by canudigit

While we're on the subject of that general area, what's up with that huge, partially finished church on Woodward? Seems I read somewhere that the Winans family of gospel music fame started it, but what happened, and will it ever be finished or will it just sit there and rot? Or are they working on it and I just don't know it, since I haven't been through that area in a couple of months?

For the longest time I wasn't even sure what it was. Then after months they did some work. Then it stopped again.

[Slappy san]

Originally Posted by [JS]

Northland isn't very close to Detroit, it's up by 13 mile on Woodward. I go by there often - people in that neighborhood usually refer to it as the "World's loudest car alarm"

But malls in Detroit are pretty shameful. They really never succeed. Cambridge closed only a decade after it opened and turned into New Jack City. Universal started failing around 1990 and now it's just some hideous half-mile-long strip mall. Oakland is pretty much nothing but shoe stores now. Macomb Mall is never really any sort of exciting place anymore, just a place where adults shop to be honest.

Somerset, Partridge Creek and Great Lakes Crossing seem to be the only successful malls I know of. And Somerset's a pretty small place

EDIT: I'm sorry, you're right, Northland is right by Detroit. I'm thinking of Northwood.

There are no malls in Detroit.

[Slappy san]

I haven't been by much in the last year. Did they ever do anything? I wouldn't be shocked if the this strip went the same was as the motor speedway, actual shopping mall and all the other things talked about before.

[Ohio248]

Slappysan, you sure you've been to Detroit?

Northland is at 13 & Woodward?

Somerset, with two large malls, one with three levels, is "quite small"?

And all these malls are in the City of Detroit?

[Slappy san]

Originally Posted by Ohio248

Slappysan, you sure you've been to Detroit?

Northland is at 13 & Woodward?

Somerset, with two large malls, one with three levels, is "quite small"?

And all these malls are in the City of Detroit?

I must be missing something here. So I'll just play it straight.

I was born in and have lived most of my life in Detroit.

No, Northland is between Greenfield and the Southfield Freeway and a couple minute walk over Eight Mile....in the city of Southfield.

I wouldn't call Somerset small. That must be for someone else.

No, no malls in the city.

EDIT: Ah, it'd be a good idea to address each point to the poster you are referencing.

[scolls]

Lets be honest. Eastland is a Detroit mall. You literally can't get closer to Detroit without being in Detroit. Harper Woods is just a neighborhood of a Detroit. It just has different city services.

[Slappy san]

Originally Posted by scolls

Lets be honest. Eastland is a Detroit mall. You literally can't get closer to Detroit without being in Detroit. Harper Woods is just a neighborhood of a Detroit. It just has different city services.

I'm sure the folks in Harper Woods would disagree. Eastland is not in Detroit. It's as simple as that. Detroit = no malls.

[scolls]

Originally Posted by Slappy san

I'm sure the folks in Harper Woods would disagree. Eastland is not in Detroit. It's as simple as that. Detroit = no malls.

As a resident of Harper Woods, I agree with the assessment. In fact, most everybody who has moved into Harper Woods has come from the city of Detroit because Harper Woods has all the characteristics of a northeast Detroit neighborhood but with better schools and city services.

[Slappy san]

That may be true but the simple fact is....it's either in Detroit or it isn't. Just because people from Detroit travel to the mall does not magically make it's address in Detroit. If that were the case...Lakeside is a Detroit mall. I've gotten there on the bus before.

But this is thread drift.

Forgive me if I come across as bitter. Detroit gets blamed for things all the time. I wish it would at least be things within her borders. You should hear my rants on "Malice at the Palace" and people claiming the UFC is coming to Detroit.

[313 TUxedo]

Originally Posted by us66

Wow...I don't go online for a couple of days and another thread goes south...
1. Why aren't there malls in the Detroit city limits? Why did they build two of them within sight of the city (N'land and E'land) and one very close (Fairlane) but not within the city limits? Either land wasn't readily available (most of the Detroit houses closest to E'land and N'land predate the malls by a couple of years) or (more likely) Detroit taxes were higher.
<snip>
Crimes Committed At Shopping Malls - Detroit Local News Story - WDIV Detroit (http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/17233327/detail.html - broken link)

Do not forget that large shopping malls like Northland, Eastland, Lakeside, etc., did not really exist in North America until the mid 1950's. Northland was revolutionary when it opened in 1954, and it was not even enclosed (that would happen in the 1970's) The first enclosed mall would be two years later yet (in a place even colder than Detroit - a Minneapolis suburb).

Now consider that 1954 is right about the same time the last significant tracts of undeveloped land in Detroit proper (other than city parks) were developed. After that, Detroit was "full", no new large developments, only "infill" of areas that somehow not been sold out earlier (e.g., 20000's of Fenelon, Conley and Keystone). Hence, by the time malls were en vogue, a new Detroit mall was already impossible.