The Southwest Detroit community has banded together to produce a map of the area's five business districts: Corktown, Michigan Avenue, Mexicantown, W. Vernor and Oakwood Heights.
The Detroit Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau will have 15,000 of the maps to distribute to conventioneers and information kiosks they maintain at places like Cobo Hall and the airport. Another 10,000 will go to the business associations to distribute.
Vittoria Katanski, marketing director for
Southwest Detroit Business Association, says that the closure of I-75 has affected the area's 170 restaurants, 35 bakeries and 56 specialty food stores, and that its production was a way for the area's community development corporations to help.
"They're trying some unique things -- like Armando's adding downtown delivery -- on their own, to get
people in here," she says. "That’s been positive."
Kattanski says that regional neighborhood cooperation is key to the map's impact. "In Southwest Detroit, we're working really well
together," she says. "We're hoping that other people see the impact of doing regional marketing."
Next on the agenda is the production of a "passport" that will act much like an
Entertainment Book in that it will offer specific discounts from participating merchants. It will first be available on August 24, which is set to be the Southwest Detroit Lowrider Hop.
Model D will bring you more deets on the hop and the passport in the coming weeks.
Source: Vittoria Kattanski, SDBA
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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