Painted Detroit : blog @ signs on businesses still? open?

Painted Detroit  http://painteddetroit.tumblr.com/   

is a blog about  signs on businesses that have not given up the ghost - ?? Still kicking out quality like Lou's Deli on  McNichols and Roselawn , Up the block U of D M. and across from Marygrove

8220 W Mcnichols Rd (Roselawn) 

Detroit, MI 48221

I will write about those who are still there like the Louis Ace Hardware on Oakman/Mcnichols  in the other blog below...

DetroitGetLucky.blogspot.com

What is Fisher Canyon looking like now in 48208?

 Thanks to  A Dubs on March 16, 2016 on this site https://fadeddetroit.blogspot.com/search/label/Fisher%20Canyon

There are some great pictures at this site- on the industrial side of 48208 
It is an under pass on Lincoln called Fisher Canyon 
@around the corner  and in the back of  Recycle Here! 
and past the Lincoln Street Art Park Sculptures 

To get there car bike or by foot

 Go south on Lincoln

 jog to your left at Marquette 

IF find yourself on Elijah McCoy Drive you have gone too far!! 

Google says the canyon is at 5805 Lincoln

https://goo.gl/maps/sdJ4j3chMvL2

3 rd of 3 Series : Street art in the most gentrified zip code 48208

True North an air BnB and an office center  

In Brooklyn near the edge of Willamsburg and Bushwick an early container house goes up  

 3 rd article  of 3  in the Woodbridge series

Woodbridge- a large chunk of the sprawling zip code 48208 is  done.
Finis.

DDetroit Area  Art minded Hipsters are now   doing things  that require plane tickets.

Why ? Possibly due to the actions of the mayor even though he has  FINALLY  allocated 50K to more public art. No Duggan has not driven anyone out of town, but the $$$ and a firm belief in Broken windows theory has benefited  merchant /art /food districts over residential neighborhoods



As for hipsters and  the artistically inclined

 The latest stadium has killed the scene at Temple Bar (yeah I know its not in Woodbridge(mostly residential)  but  most of the mingling is in Midtown/Downtown due to the proximity to jobs. After work venues as of this post  might be floating between Marble Bar on Holden (Woodbridge) and The Perfect Beat in SW Detroit . That is a trek for anyone- 
maybe we can all decide on creating a new district to hang in that is bikeable?/affordable  See this article(link)


Living Large
You can not afford to buy and fix what is left. 
 Land Is empty, factories Are  available  ...
But unless you have deep pockets to develop them- forget it.

 Exactly how many  Habitable Buildings are left in the 48208 ?  There is a website linking motorcitymapping and loveland that should lend itself to an estimate. I did not find an official site on Woodbridge demolitions, renovations, auctions, etc. But from driving around :All there is left to buy and renovate  or paint legally is the Woodbridge neighborhood west of Grand River.not past 18th

perception vs reality 

•  Metro / Detroiters do not walk more than 1 quarter mile (density) ANYWHERE 
•  It is not as spread out as you think .
• Walking to your car might count if you never go out to lunch...

 I confess !!!

I was born here and lived exactly 1/2 of my life bounded by 8 mile 

Until recently I  spent  exactly the other half of my life in all 5 boros of NY.

 At one point I averaged 100+ miles a week on a bike (spin teacher on call) and it was my custom to walk from Carnegie Hall to Madison Square on the regular. (It sounds far- but its only one mile.) I had  a zillion things to look at and yes, I took a zillion pictures.

 It is easier to document what is going on here - Detroiters have something to look at in 48208  in part 3 of this series. 

This westernmost section   has a lot of wooden houses. Is this why they call it Woodbridge? (actually named after a governor.senator who inherited the area and also lived in Grosse Pointe...)

Ok, this may look like a throwaway tagged spot

 (Recycle ! Here! viaduct on Holden near JC Lodge) but this figure is actually from a genre that has cousins throughout the planet. What ? you never Google images of graffiti in France?

 Character throw up-  here is a cousin in green from Belgium 

Comissioned art 

is now in books 

__so if some of this disappears 

you can easily own coffee table books for Under $10 

titles like Graffiti Planet,Street Art , etc from Abebooks.com

  On Grand River, in Woodbridge ,who paid for this Permitted Art?

The Grand River Creative Corridor. At one point Mayor Duggan fined the GRCC but he has since rescinded the fines because the art was Commissioned /paid  for and written about in Huff Po.

It has  made the Grand River corridor a tourist attraction. 

" It started as a simple set of graffiti murals commissioned by a gallery operator for the building he manages in the Woodbridge area of Detroit, but it didn’t stop there. After Derek Weaver, managing director of the 4731 Gallery and Studios, contracted...." Huff Po quote from article @2012 

That is the magic word -contracted 

 Well done contracted art should last 7 to 10 years. It gets touched up. One could go through Google Maps time machine and see how the area has changed. Lets do that for this one building with the Patch Whiskey sign on the artwork/mural .

 Corner of Grand River /W.Alexandrine

This is a pix by a pro- not me.   I have a Go Pro Clone(scroll down) so the astute might pick up on the curve in some of my pictures. I can isolate  a snap shot from video I take from either my phone or video camera and drop it into the blog. As you can see below, Google Aug 2016

shows the Patch Whiskey mural approaching from Downtown , just like how I first saw it. 

Using the magic of Google  =Street view in June 2011 below:

Below,  my go pro clone (spherical)

Needed a sun filter on this too

SO , there  are artists in Woodbridge. Makes sense that by putting up installations and murals the reputation of the neighborhood would be improved. 
 There is a website  for the artists in Woodbridge showing the  latest public art. The masthead reads 
Art in Woodbridge. Detroit's Public Art Destination__

It is all very professional- you can tell somebody paid for it- 
(it is always good when artists get paid...)

Walk around .Its safe. Get some exercise!

As noted earlier, Duggan, the mayor, had a problem with paint. Here is an excerpt from the article discussing his turnaround .

..."On one side are the graffiti writers — an unrelenting, thrill-seeking cohort willing to risk catching felonies to leave a mark that says, "I'm here." On the other is the buff man, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan — on a mission to make a long-neglected city look like a safe place where people want to live.

Few would argue with the buff man's goal, but his path to attaining it has riled many. "

This antipathy could have been avoided. Pay the graffiti artists!

As a NewYork Detroiter  (or is it a Detroit New Yorker?) I have seen the if we cannot beat them join them approach  used effectively by the communities that were the most devastated (Bushwick, Brooklyn NY post riot) 

Bushwick has a group of artists called the 

Bushwick Collective  who have done such amazing work that the restaurant scene,  the boutiques, and  even the indigenous party stores (bodegas) serving coffee and burritos or arepas (Central America / South America)  are making $$$. 

Here is an excerpt from  the NYT May 3 2013 article (pix too )

 Bushwick gets a Fresh Coat__

 "When you ask him today if he has any good memories of the neighborhood, where he lived just up the block, Mr. Ficalora comes up empty.

Joseph’s father, Ignazio Ficalora, was murdered on these streets in 1991. He was knifed for his wallet and a worthless chain around his neck when his son was only 12.

Most people want to hold onto their past as it was, but Mr. Ficalora has found greater comfort in obliterating it, bathing the neighborhood in paint."

In other parts of NYC  the communities have hired OG graffiti artists  Lady Pink, Traci 168, etc.  to paint underpasses and construction fences. The graffiti is amazing. SO-- while some new building is rising from the ashes , the locals  who probably will not be able to afford the new buildings, or the products, or the new business that will certainly follow-  WHAT: it is a  cycle of tighter and tighter requirements... 

 Residents  are at least entertained with some Old School graphics?? Maybe.  
Should we be entertained or enlightened or made happier by all the art around us? Should we care if it is a Graf or a Mural ? 

Detail of Lady Pink

 with students of Frank Sinatra School of the Arts  NYC__

Legendary Train /Subway Car painter Tracey 168 for the construction fence at Arion Place , Bushwick/ Bed StuyyNYC__ 

Graffiti or Mural ? 

At least the buildings are being put to good use before they get torn down.  



Looks like Swoon  on the Speech &
 Languages Bldg Wayne State facing Warren

 Good to see Swoon here!  Below is her work in the Bronx NY
"Swoon did not begin to tag her art under that name until later into her career; she at first worked anonymously. It was not until her then-boyfriend had a dream about the two of them doing graffiti and running from the police that she got the name Swoon. In his dream, she was writing Swoon on the walls of buildings Thinking that it was pretty, Curry(her real name) started tagging her art with Swoon"

The Accusing Eye, Bronx NY
  I am a wheatpaste fan  because of the effects of weathering.

In good weather it is walkable, but this being Detroit , 
you must have wheels( 2 or 4 wheels) Back in the day I rode from Hamilton and McNichols to Wayne State no problem. But my bike is in storage in Brooklyn. It is almost a mile to Architecture Salvage Ware House on the corner of West Warren and 16th street. Another crazy street grid lends itself to graffiti due to the diagonal caused by Grand River and a cul de sac of 15th street off Warren
There are also big  heads at Grand River and Forest Ave(paid art)

Google Images captured Street View June 2011

Grand River is the border of Woodbridge in terms of Mansions. 

The cheaper wooden houses that lead into the next area - Core City are long gone. But there is a artsy housing experiment at 4703 16th street - 4719 16th street  still in 48208 

(its all rented except for The Nest , an airBnB) 

v   1 min         

<

Yes. the area was empty 

But - it was not due to the Bankruptcy.

 You cannot blame Gentrification 

But you can blame 1967 (map at beginning of post also)

Across from Scripps Park on Trumbull was the  site of a long gone mansion  (you can still see the gate posts)    This at  the very southern edge of Woodbridge-  Trumbull& Grand River       . Contrast this to                                        

3814 Vinewood 48208 The very edge.of the zipcode -
 Next street is West Grand Blvd and the Rail Road Tracks
Woodbridge 48208 zip code sits on top of   Southwest Detroit's North Eastern edge. The zipcode also crosses into Southwest Detroit. (This is important because the foodie section called Mexican Town  needs  artwork/picnic tables /re-definition)

  

  Map: Andrew Jameson for wikipedia

 (small print in map = another article -see digital links here ) 

Woodbridge we named for a governor. 

There is no stream or a wood bridge.

The area has an historical district too.

by  Jennifer Quigley

                                                                                                                                                                                         

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Street art /gentrified zip code 48208 Part 2 of 3

How did this area get to be an art magnet both legal and illegal? 

Other art magnets in the US  here https://thelandbehind.com/

The most gentrified and art centric zip code 48208, was the  suburbs!! (animated Time Lapse link)

In  the  Victorian Era of Robber Barons and Fat Cats ,people built huge houses here.

Click on map image to enlarge

The bankruptcy of 2008 made it easier for the city planning commission to

build new low income housing with streets named after Motown singers and Groups. It used to be called the Jeffries Projects. It took real nerve to walk into them. I did so only if I was with a resident...

 Jobs & money go in cycles but  By 2008  (TheBankruptcy) there were no careers (that did not require college) NO  jobs at all - People moved out - so they tore down the old projects. The brownstones stayed. The Victorian mansions were bulldozed  near Motown., but others were maintained.

 Lofts showed up where they used to make Studebakers and Model T Fords.

Then  Henry Ford Hospital built up Athletic Sports Rehab  Medicine . Pistons  Basketball promised an AthleticTraining  center by 2020 . Wayne State is building a biomedical center to connect the two.

 The Bad News

what was left of Motown  Records (the studios)  stayed put.  However United Sound studios ,where almost everybody else recorded

 including John Lee Hooker 

That studio is   under a demolition threat for a highway expansion  in 2017 !! 
Detroit has more freeway than Los Angeles. Freeways speed up  suburban living- you can get  out of Detroit quickly, and be in horse country on 5 mile, Olympic Hockey center...Out of Dodge in less than an hour  Obviously there is S---P---A---C---E

In between are spaces to put up art- 

Video is only  1/2 mile (10 Blocks) from the Motown

Museum/studio from part 1of this series

 Map for more graffiti  at  

Recycle ! Here! 

imagine Victorians  houses here...click on map to enlarge

Now  Motown is at one end of Holden street-  that crazy grid lends itself to art projects legal or not

the blog visited the area in the video  in part 1

There is so much here...and it is political too..

So let's walk around ...

  On the top of Wayne State University is this studio where college students from WSU came  to hear a session  or do homework if they were music majors

 John Lee Hooker  was in the Blues Brothers Movie   and he recorded here.

The era I remember is Rockwell aka Kennedy Gordy  - he had classes nearby and hung out here.                                                                         

                                                                               

These houses, similar to the one in the above picture,  were post WW1.

The Victorians and Brownstones long gone, which is why so much got built here in the 1920s. If you are into skyscrapers, one of the finest Albert Kahn examples is near here.

Art Deco temple to commerce is Detroit's version of  NYC Chrysler Bldg (it was the General Motors Bldg)

The city exploded and grew from West Grand Blvd the  "border" in the Victorian era 
This area is where  the street art is  now.  

ART The commissioned 

an overpass next to the new Henry Ford  Athletic Medicine Bldg
 2 blocks from that Art Deco temple  to commerce

the  non commissioned (unpaid)see 

Andrew Jameson for Wikipedia 

 private video - click here 

Music on video Fair use 

Biggie Smalls/Notorious B.I.G  30 sec 

The day I was there, the city was installing streetlights.
The map section in green  
 detroitography.com 
contains 1 or 2 of the  remaining Mansions that were built after WW1.
One real estate company owns them.
 Henry Ford Hospital ,Cole  Funeral homes and Motown  own everything that the University did not buy. Map below  shows the area of design----  there is more to come . Part 3 of this series looks at the other side of  the big boulevard called Grand in -between the  red /green on this map .

Imagine horse drawn carriages on 
 East &  West Grand Boulevard which formed the suburban  border of this city, and now is home to the most spectacular  freely painted art on both sides. All because the center did not hold. Too many wooden houses and cinder block  service buildings.
 click on image to enlarge  Original map (no colors) detroitography.com


after part 3 of 48208  the next topic :a hint 

  The world's biggest abandoned factories are here, and one of them  is the most ambitious postwar 

housing and art rehab  project outside of Germany.  

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