Whole Foods<\/a>\u00a0could ever work in Detroit. They also didn\u2019t think a Whole Foods could deliver change to a city plagued by poverty, blight, crime and unemployment.<\/p>\nYet in the 11\/2 years since the market opened, the aisles have been packed. Some residents say that a store known for its high prices and pretentious food options has brought small but real change to Detroit, delivering jobs to residents and new food alternatives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, as it happens, we were in that Whole Foods today. \u00a0Bought some cough drops before heading across the street to the symphony (the DSO is a great deal: \u00a0$25 per seat and $7 for parking, and we, spring-breaking-kids in tow, attended a matinee concert). \u00a0Was it full of locals filling their pantries? \u00a0 Not so much; people seemed as much to be picking up their lunch or other single-serve items.<\/p>\n
And the area? \u00a0On the one hand, yes, there did seem to be some new construction, a few businesses and apartment buildings along Woodward or along the side streets. \u00a0But this is the New Center area with the major hospitals, Wayne State University and Detroit extensions of both Michigan State and the University of Michigan, government offices, museums, the Fisher Theatre (for Broadway and Broadway-style touring shows) and other theaters, etc. \u00a0If there\u2019s to be any up-and-coming area of Detroit, this is it.<\/p>\n
But drive just a short distance further, and it\u2019s a different story: \u00a0just north is the Boston-Edison historical district. \u00a0And just north of there: \u00a0abandoned homes, burned-out houses, vacant lots where these houses used to stand. \u00a0And many of these were, you can tell, once nice homes.<\/p>\n
We drove north on Second Street all the way up, until we jogged over a bit for the Palmer Woods neighborhood, one of the very few remaining areas in good condition, with well-maintained attractive houses, patrolled, of course, by private security. \u00a0And then another jog over: \u00a0we were at Seven Mile Road, an area which I would have expected to be in better shape, being close to the city limit \u2014 but it was just as bad. \u00a0Perhaps, if anything, the city had been more diligent about demolition here, as there were lots of vacant lots. \u00a0But then just a couple blocks south of the city limit, four burned-out houses in a single block.<\/p>\n
What, we wondered, did things look like just on the other side of the city limit, in Hazel Park? \u00a0Was it just as bad? \u00a0No, not at all. \u00a0Small homes \u2014 smaller, in fact, than those to the south. \u00a0But all well-kept.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the extent of my report. \u00a0We had hoped to walk around the fabled reviving area, but it was 27 degrees and snowing. \u00a0I would have taken pictures, but, well, I\u2019m not going to get out of the car in some such neighborhood and advertise, \u201cHey, everyone, we\u2019re taking pictures of your block!\u201d \u00a0But you can take a look yourself, by following Second Street from the Fisher Theater northwards to McNichols, and then Derby from State Fair Ave. to 8 Mile Road, on Google Streetview.<\/p>\n
Is Detroit improving? \u00a0And, to the extent that it is, is this sustainable, or the effect of generous state and federal money?<\/p>\n
Yes, I\u2019m skeptical. \u00a0It comes from having witnessed decades, now, of claims that the city is undergoing a rebirth \u2014 our very own equivalent of the way Africa is euphemistically called \u201cthe developing world\u201d even though it never seems to actually \u201cdevelop.\u201d<\/p>\n
UPDATE: \u00a0I\u2019m told, via twitter, that \u201cmidtown\u201d refers to the area south of the New Center; it\u2019s the former Cass Corridor. \u00a0Which is actually encouraging, since \u201cCass Corridor\u201d used to be the shorthand way of referring to \u201carea of Detroit with druggies.\u201d<\/p>\n
You know, in a different context, I could so much be a Detroit booster, plucking articles about this or that new construction, or the Quicken Loans guy being a one-man downtown revitalization program. \u00a0And the downtown area did look cute when we drove through on our way back from John King Books. \u00a0(See my post from last Thanksgiving<\/a>\u00a0or this from two years ago<\/a>.) \u00a0But there have simply been too many times when they\u2019ve pronounced \u201cDetroit is on its way back now\u201d \u2014 going all the way back to the Renaissance Center itself. \u00a0It\u2019s like GM: \u00a0for quite some time we owned GM stock, and each year\u2019s annual report trumpeted the ways in which it had turned the corner. \u00a0Which means that it\u2019s really hard to believe that this time, it\u2019s for real \u2014 especially when the city is still following the same playbook of big construction projects ( now the streetcar and the hockey arena) that they\u2019ve pursued since the 70s.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone\u2019s oohing and aaahing about the claimed revival of Detroit, as epitomized by the new Whole Foods in the \u201cmidtown\u201d area. \u00a0(\u201cMidtown\u201d seems, by the way, to be a rebranding of what had know to be the New Center area; I suppose to market the area to outsiders for whom \u201cmidtown\u201d is a familiar sort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":1633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-1630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-detroit"],"yoast_head":"\n
Report from The D: it takes more than a Whole Foods to revive a city<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Everyone's oohing and aaahing about the claimed revival of Detroit, as epitomized by the new Whole Foods in the "midtown" area. \u00a0("Midtown" seems, by the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Report from The D: it takes more than a Whole Foods to revive a city\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Everyone's oohing and aaahing about the claimed revival of Detroit, as epitomized by the new Whole Foods in the "midtown" area. \u00a0("Midtown" seems, by the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-27T21:07:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-30T13:49:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/03\/Fisher_Building_Detroit.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"539\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html\",\"name\":\"Report from The D: it takes more than a Whole Foods to revive a city\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-27T21:07:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-30T13:49:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"Everyone's oohing and aaahing about the claimed revival of Detroit, as epitomized by the new Whole Foods in the \\\"midtown\\\" area. \u00a0(\\\"Midtown\\\" seems, by the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Report from The D: it takes more than a Whole Foods to revive a city\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Report from The D: it takes more than a Whole Foods to revive a city","description":"Everyone's oohing and aaahing about the claimed revival of Detroit, as epitomized by the new Whole Foods in the \"midtown\" area. \u00a0(\"Midtown\" seems, by the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Report from The D: it takes more than a Whole Foods to revive a city","og_description":"Everyone's oohing and aaahing about the claimed revival of Detroit, as epitomized by the new Whole Foods in the \"midtown\" area. \u00a0(\"Midtown\" seems, by the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2015-03-27T21:07:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-30T13:49:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":360,"height":539,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/03\/Fisher_Building_Detroit.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html","name":"Report from The D: it takes more than a Whole Foods to revive a city","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-27T21:07:40+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-30T13:49:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"Everyone's oohing and aaahing about the claimed revival of Detroit, as epitomized by the new Whole Foods in the \"midtown\" area. \u00a0(\"Midtown\" seems, by the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/report-from-the-d-it-takes-more-than-a-whole-foods-to-revive-a-city.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Report from The D: it takes more than a Whole Foods to revive a city"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Fisher](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/03\/Fisher_Building_Detroit.jpg\")
<\/a>