Sunday, March 2, 2008

"And You thought that urban decay was bad!" Thats the tagline of this blog and it fits quite well. As people move farther and farther away from the big cities in search of whatever it may be, sprawl is choking the life out of once thriving metro area's. Nothing could be more true of the The Detroit Area which is especially dense with over 50 suburbs surronding Detroit makeing what many from here refer to as "The Metro area". Older suburbs closer to Detroit are facing hard times as people spread out to newer ones and the business sectors follow.
In this blog, I will visit malls and large shopping plazas in the burbs of detroit that have been hit hard by sprawl. What happened to make it get this bad? Is there anything being done revitalize? What can be done in the future? I hope to bring fourth fond memories, make people think, and adress some very serious problems.

Enjoy and comment often!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I think that part of the reason why these places have declined is because developers did not (and do not) take the time to think about and build an attractive space. If one has a choice, why would you want to shop in a badly lit place with giant orange octagons on the floor and low ceilings?

Not me...

So, I wonder if newer developments, a la Partridge Creek, will fare any better in the long run.

Eric said...

I do agree with you, but I would like to add that Fairlane Town Center was built in the 70's and they have done a lot to modernize the feel. Sometimes a lil money invested can go a long way to keep a shoppping center or mall thriving.

Unknown said...

Ah...I haven't been to Fairlane in a million years...been living outside of MI for some time...I will check it out soon!

Kristina said...

I think one place you should definitely check out someday is either Northland mall or the area across the street from Northland mall. There were once a few places over there like Farmer Jack to a relatively large home improvement store (for the live of me I cannot remember the name of it but it was huge in the 90's.) Now it just looks horrible over there.