What makes a city truly great? Well, besides the obvious
architecture, arts and culture, have you ever considered that it might
be the infrastructure that allows you to easily stumble home from the
bar?
C’mon, you all hoofed it around Downtown during Super
Bowl and Winter Blast — no doubt drooling at the amount of bars you
could duck into one after the other. You probably also had a moment of
pause where you looked around at all the other wannabe barflies walking
about and thought to yourself: Wow, this is pretty cool. This is what a
city should be.
Would you go as far to call Detroit a walkable
city? Are you still on the fence about that one? Well, based on the
fact that most of you both walked and drank the city recently, there
has to be something to that.
Walkability — that feeling that
it’s safe and convenient to get around on foot — is important not just
for the obvious drinking-and-driving-don’t-mix reasons, but also
because it is part of the urban experience that draws people to live in
big cities. With more places to live, eat, drink and play in close
proximity to each other in downtown and in other neighborhoods, Detroit
is getting more walkable all the time.
And there are
organizations dedicated to getting you from watering hole A to watering
hole B without any wheels, or at least to making the city more
pedestrian-friendly.
100 Detroit bars on foot
Lifetime
city girl Jeanette Pierce and her business partner, longtime Detroiter
and D.C. native Maureen Kearns, say being able to go out and stumble
home safely is part of the beauty of living downtown and in the
surrounding neighborhoods.
Their business, Inside Detroit,
is exactly what every bar/food/music lover needs to ensure they get
just the right taste of Detroit. With an ever-expanding list of more
than 100 bars and restaurants within walking distance of Downtown
business district, the Inside Detroit ladies create unique outings
that, in Pierce’s words, “let people know there are other options. You
know, in the suburbs, you’re either with the people you came with, or
the ones you want to go home with. In Detroit, you can actually go to
the bar to actually meet people!”
To help their clients say
“Hello!” to the city, Inside Detroit has created a “five-course” menu
for their outings, based on different levels of familiarity with
Detroit and each group’s interests. Detroit 101 serves as a “Welcome to
Detroit!” visitor’s tour, where participants visit the basis like Hard Rock Cafe,
Fishbone’s and Old Shillelagh — standards any Detroiter should already
know. Detroit 201 focuses on sports bars, and 250 and 301 on more
upscale venues. And for the upperclassmen, there is Detroit 401, which
features bars and restaurants even a local might not know about, such
as the coffee/liquor blending Buzz Bar on Larned and Ted’s (Baltimore
Lunch) on Randolph— a great spot for a burger and beer.
And just what else comes included in an Inside Detroit outing? Well,
the history of Downtown dwellings, including architectural facts, and
even introductions to at least one staff member at each joint, whether
it is a doorman, bartender or the owner.
“You know, I was born
and raised in Detroit, but when I went on a walking tour of the city a
couple years back, I was shocked at how much I didn’t know,” says
Pierce, who busts out facts now from memory as she leads tours through
the streets of Downtown. “I just want people to see Detroit through my
eyes,” she says. “It’s like, most people don’t even know that there is
26 percent less crime Downtown than elsewhere in the city.”
More places to walk to
Another organization that is helping to highlight and improve upon Detroit’s walkability is the University Cultural Center Association(UCCA).
The instigators of the Midtown Greenway Project (a two-mile
walking/cycling path that will follow the existing street patterns
along Cass, Kirby, John R and Canfield) and the developers of the Inn
on Ferry Street, the UCCA is all about Detroit walkability.
Says the UCCA’s Annmarie Borucki: “Midtown is definitely much more
walkable now than five years ago. However, the proximity of bars and
restaurants are not clustered as close as we would like them to be. But
with the current rate of new infill construction and rehab projects, we
are definitely creating an environment that is more conducive to
walkability, and that may in part bring more bars and restaurants to
Midtown.”
Borucki continues her survey of Midtown, saying,
“Already, a new restaurant is scheduled to move into newly renovated
commercial space at the corner of John R and Canfield. Agave is working on expanding into its second floor. The Majestic Theater Complex
just recently completed their façade renovation with funding support
from UCCA. Twingo’s just reopened.” She continues, “UCCA is also
working with Agave and Union Street on their façade redevelopments.”
And walk they do. Many Midtown dwellers make the trek to Avalon every Saturday, Majestic or Union Street for brunch on Sunday, and to the Bronx Bar, um well, pretty much every day. Now with the reopened Twingo’s, along with old standards Mario’s, Traffic Jam & Snug
and Cass Café, getting a morning fix for coffee or an evening buzz for
booze means putting one foot forward, not the pedal to the metal.
The
UCCA even took part in a “walkability” study in Midtown commissioned by
the Gov. Granholm “Cool Cities” initiative. The study was led by
walkability expert Dan Burden.
“Probably the most important finding we’ve made is the need for
residential and commercial infill of vacant lots to create a ‘street
wall’ that makes people feel more comfortable walking in Midtown,” says
Borucki. “We want people to feel safe, and feel that there isn’t a need
for a car in getting around Midtown.”
So whether it’s Downtown, Midtown or even the other more “walkable” districts of the city like Mexicantown and Corktown,
don’t forget a couple things you learned during that “super” week we
all had at the beginning of February: Keep drinking in the city and,
most importantly, keep on walkin’.
Photos, from the top:
Hard Rock Cafe in the Compuware Building
Maureen Kearns of Inside Detroit at Jacoby's
Nemo's in Corktown
The Inn on Ferry Street in Midtown
A Cosmo from Union Street in Midtown
All Photographs Copyright Dave Krieger
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