
In a Detroit Train Station, Ford Looks for the Future - jonbaer
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/06/fords-detroit-investments-are-bigger-than-a-train-station/563048/
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icsllaf
Another related news article would be a "thief" returning an old clock from
the train station back to Ford for them to renovate it[1].

'Thief: "I only have the clock. No other material. I left it leaning against a
burned-out building on Lawton. It is between Warren and Buchanan. The building
is between the train tracks and 4470 Lawton. Please send two men and a truck
immediately. It has been missing for over 20 years and is ready to go home.
Thank you so much."'

Honestly, the changes that Detroit has made in the last 5 years are amazing.
The amount of construction in the city has been growing and it's nice to see
people actually enjoying themselves in the city. Although there might be some
problems with the continuing development of the city, I think for everyday
people and the economy, it's going to get a lot better.

The growing diversification of the city's economy is also a high note, with
Shinola, Quicken, and many other companies moving to Detroit from the
surrounding suburbs, it's good to have your economy not based solely upon the
auto industry.

[1][https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2018/06/18/thief...](https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2018/06/18/thief-
returns-detroit-train-station-stolen-clock/710459002/)

~~~
rmason
That's another only in Detroit story. I am willing to bet that other pieces
stolen from the depot will be returned as well. I am still in awe that they
plan to totally restore that building in just four years, going to take some
big bucks as it's a huge place.

~~~
mc32
It is really a pleasant change from what was once the preeminent ruin-porn
destination for people who are into that sort of thing. What a change!!

~~~
myself248
Speaking as someone who did a little urbex in the 90s, ruin-porn isn't
necessarily inaccurate, but I don't think it captures the whole mindset of why
we were there.

Being born in Detroit and always living in the area, the train station was
more than a burned-out building to me. It was a temple of majestic
architecture every bit as beautiful as the still-occupied Penobscot or
Guardian buildings. Just, one which was off-limits. Forbidden fruit. Bring
your own flashlight to admire the inlay tile work, but admire it just the
same. It also tickled a young engineer's sense of technology, just like the
famous museum a few miles away.

Sneaking in there (no breaking necessary back then, it was just a quick trot
across the tracks from Mexicantown, then the doors were just open caverns)
late one October night was both exhilarating because we might get caught, and
sad because there was nobody who cared to catch us. It felt like a shame that
it was so easy, that this splendid building and all it symbolized should be so
neglected by its owners. Didn't we, as residents, have some stake in this?
Wasn't the rail system a public good? Well, yes and no, for reasons of
ownership that I don't fully comprehend even now. At the time I certainly
didn't understand the motivations its owners had for letting it go to ruin.

Once inside, we found all the architecture and graffiti we expected, and so
much more. There's no need to explain the tile, the columns, even the perfect
echoes as we walked. Others have done that and more. And I'm sure the
spraypainted modifications have been well documented too. But what fascinated
me the most was the elevator equipment in the lower levels. Anything of value,
any copper, any brass, had long since been stripped and scrapped. But the
slate and steel weren't worth hauling away, and rows of Westinghouse control
panels, pedestals and shafts and bearing journals, were aligned in rows
beneath each hoistway. They told the story of an era when elevators were just
becoming commonplace, tall buildings made practical by this new technology.

There were pumps and what I can only presume were the remains of a water
softener tank, a pile of pellets on a raised pedestal, the tank that once
contained them long since having been dissolved by its contents. Which makes
no sense; Detroit water doesn't need softening. This mystery wanders through
my head every once in a while, for the past 20 years.

A sub-basement further down offered only hints of what lay below; the level
was flooded even with the floor on which we walked, such that the ladders down
were scarcely distinguishable from the floor itself. Only a keen eye and
abundant flashlights kept us from discovering that the hard way! Elsewhere,
entire rooms held glassy lakes, mirror-smooth and surreal to inspect until a
tossed pebble made some ripples to resolve the ambiguity. A keen lesson in
water tables and sump pumps, for anyone tuned in to such ideas.

I was also struck by a few oddly-modern elements: Telephone wiring blocks and
fire alarm panels, which I noticed appeared to be of 1980s vintage, while
everything else that remained was original stone and tile from 70 years
earlier. A 3-prong outlet caught my eye. It was a glaring reminder that this
building hadn't been in ruins forever, and was in fact in active use, well
into my childhood, until the plug was simply pulled in 1988. So recent. So
hard to reconcile...

On the upper levels, a few pieces of graffiti stuck out then, and still do in
my mind. One, in particular, scrawled on a marble panel, read:

"SHAME ON YOU,* DETROIT, FOR LETTING THIS BEAUTIFUL BUILDING GO TO RACK AND
RUIN".

It then had "^ OLD WHITE" added at the marked point.

That vandal's anger rings true. It was spectacular but it wasn't a
"spectacle", it was ruined but it wasn't "ruins". It was a shame. A crying
shame. A beautiful thing forsaken for bad reasons, an embarrassment cast on an
entire city that didn't deserve and certainly didn't need another
embarrassment.

I can't tell you how happy I am that the next time I visit, my flashlight will
likely remain in my pocket.

(I realized I should go get the photos from this trip. I just uploaded them to
imgur and reworked some of this post as captions. Here you go:
[https://imgur.com/gallery/b9GkefT](https://imgur.com/gallery/b9GkefT) )

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thomk
I'm a 5th generation Detroiter. My ancestors came here and I guess we just
never left. Many of them are buried within the city limits. We were firemen,
laborers and my great uncle played for the Tigers farm team. We were here
during the automotive boom and the riots and the bankruptcy.

I have seen Detroit through decades of changes and have worked and played down
there since I was a kid. I remember when Charlie LeDuff "played a round of
golf" from one border of the city (8 Mile) all the way to the other border
(the river) to illustrate how vacant it was.

When you are a Detroiter in another city, and people ask you where you are
from, you get some sideways looks. Detroit has always been synonymous with
crime, corruption and murder. Our ex-Mayer is in a federal penitentiary.

When I saw Louis CK at Joe Louis a couple years back and his opening joke was
something like "I've never been to Detroit so I came in early and walked
around downtown on a Tuesday. Was there some type of nuclear accident
recently?"

The city, in the last few years, has made massive improvements but honestly
nothing gives me goosebumps more than thinking about that train station being
renovated and open to the public.

Its such a beautiful building on the outside and my family has relayed stories
of how beautiful it was on the inside when it was operational.

I never vandalized the city when I was a kid but I always wanted to break into
that building and just look around.

Hopefully soon I can go there and see it with my own two eyes. I plan to bring
my son.

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semperdark
To give some local context, this building is iconic in Detroit. The previous
owners let it rot for decades, and Ford's purchase has been a huge PR win in
Michigan.

Part of the reason it has such a high profile around here is just how far it
fell. It's been popular in "ruin porn" profiles of Detroit. Ford will need to
do an enormous amount of work restoring it, as it's been left without even
window panes (or boards!) for a long time.

I've always liked this building, so to me it feels like the Empire State
Building being owned by a slumlord who ignored it for 20 years.

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rmason
I was a frequent visitor to that station as a child in the late fifties and
all through the sixties. Restoring it will be transformative for Detroit and
heal a deep wound for the city.

~~~
ams6110
Indeed. The station in its current state is _the_ iconic image of the decline
of Detroit.

~~~
rmason
Actually it really hasn't been for the last few years with the rebirth of the
downtown. But it was a huge symbol that made it easy for visiting press to
snap a shot, what the Detroiter's call 'ruin porn' for their story. Now it's
another symbol of the rebirth of the city.

The press is going to have to go out further into the East side neighborhoods
for their ruin porn and that's a place that is a wee bit dangerous. Not as
scary as the South side of Chicago but scary just the same.

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mgoblu3
The station has been abandoned for my entire lifetime. I sent some pictures
from the inside today to my Grandpa who used to take the train from there many
times a year to and from Chicago for school in the 50's and into the 60's, and
he said he could still recognize some of it even from those days despite all
the decay. It's no doubt a large renovation project to get it fixed up, but
it's a day many like him were never really sure would happen ever since it
shuttered.

It really was quite an event today. Employees and media were able to enter for
a look around, some wonderful performances from city students and even Big
Sean showed up for a few songs. The company certainly has a long way to go
especially in a changing industry, but this is a really cool and bold
statement for the company and for the city.

~~~
rmason
Browsing Instagram and Twitter showed me just how savvy the Ford media folks
were for this event. Lots of invites for some of the leading young
entrepreneurs in the city. Lots of people couldn't believe they were onstage
for this event with all the older swells. Great timing with this being day two
of Detroit Startup Week.

~~~
mgoblu3
I was pretty shocked at how much they had set up for it there. There's a big
public event this weekend too, definitely a great local PR moment for the
company.

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ta3632627y
Props to Ford for recognizing that the trends of technology and demography are
slowly going to obsolete the car as we know it. Changing to a downtown
focused, hip, "mobility" company is the right direction. Focusing on electric,
autonomous, and shared vehicles is also probably the correct vision.

What surprises me though is how Ford can see that the future is Urban while
also not stumbling into the niche of building railcars. In the decades since
the streetcar conspiracy, all the US based manufactures of railcars have died.
Bombardier to the North is in dire straits for airplane related reasons. The
Japanese (I forget which company) have had difficulty fulfilling an AmTrack
contract because a requirement that everything be American Made means they
need to reinvent their entire supply line. Also they are having difficulty
meeting the (overly stringent) FRA requirements. Ford has both the US
logistics to pull it off and perhaps even the lobbying clout to make the FRA
more reasonable. They are already in the vehicle business, how hard can it be
to transition from tires to steel? I mean FFS they literally just bought a
train station.

I don't think it cannibalizes their car division to do what I'm suggesting. In
terms of people moved per hour, a city cannot live on personal vehicles alone.
Subways, cars and bikeshares can and should all co-exist.

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schwank
Really wish I could be there this week to check out the festivities. Detroit
born and raised but I relocated after graduating from MSU almost 2 decades
ago, however my immediate family still lives in the 'burbs'.

I took my wife to Slow's BBQ and to see the train station a couple years back,
and it's so great to see some movement here after all these years. Thanks for
the link on the clock as well, really cool to see that getting restored.

I was pulling for Amazon HQ2 to be in Detroit as well, but alas...

~~~
vinay427
> I was pulling for Amazon HQ2 to be in Detroit as well, but alas...

With the amount of tax breaks on the table from the bids in competition,
there's no way Detroit would break even. The last thing the city needs is a
marketing stunt that creates a tax sinkhole.

~~~
forapurpose
Detroit has a lot of inexpensive land. I wonder if they could match the
overall costs of other locations without the tax break.

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karpodiem
Detroiter here (my apartment is off of Grand Circus Park) - huge day for the
city!

This is the biggest thing to happen since Quicken moved its offices to the
city.

~~~
campallison
Way better than when Quicken moved to the city :)

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dataminded
So glad that I bought property in Detroit!

