Detroit gussies up before Final Four

Though city's trying to mask blight, business owners, residents want bigger cleanup effort

The Detroit News
March 24, 2009

Francis X. Donnelly

DETROIT -- When the city hosts college basketball's premier championship in two weeks, some downtown blemishes will be covered up. Eyesores will be hidden behind mesh fences. The windows of vacant buildings will be decorated with displays. The homeless will be lured to shelters.

But residents and businesses want the city to go further in preparing for the slew of fans and media from around the country. They would like to see a repeat of the Herculean effort that preceded the Super Bowl in 2006. The $12 million redevelopment project beautified three major streets, repaired building facades and spurred the opening of new condos, shops and restaurants.

"There's a lot that can be done," said Willye Simmons, 46, a carpenter who lives downtown. "We have too many buildings that need to be torn down."

For the Final Four basketball series, the city's goals are much more modest: replacing street lights, filling potholes, cleaning buildings and picking up trash. The crippled economy has left both public and private coffers with less money than organizers would like for gussying up the city, they said. It has limited the amount of money local companies can donate for the event.

"We've had to make some adjustments downward because of the economy," said Bill Ryan, executive director of the Detroit Local Organizing Committee. Still, Detroit wants to put its best face forward when all those visitors descend upon the city. And part of that will be showing its good side and hiding the bad.

Food left over from all the tournament-related parties will be donated to homeless shelters, Ryan said. That way, the parties can help the dispossessed and give them an incentive not to bother visitors, he said.

Other eyesores, such as the site of the razed Statler Hotel on Grand Circus Park, will be surrounded by high mesh fences decorated with the images of Detroit landmarks. Ann Lang, president of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, said she wasn't sure how many sites would be covered by the fences. But the number would be less than 20, she said. "So people can look at that (Detroit landmark images) rather than an unattractive construction site," she said.

Woodward Avenue downtown is festooned by vacant buildings but some of the emptiness will be alleviated with festive window displays, officials said. The 25 empty storefronts will feature displays that have been concocted by architects and interior designers consulted by the downtown agency, said Kate Beebe, an economic development consultant working with the agency. Beebe wasn't sure what the displays will show. The material is being donated by local vendors. "It's something interesting and attractive to look at and will enliven the whole street," she said.

The safety of all those visitors is paramount to event organizers so a major part of the preparation involves the repairing of street lights. Six months ago, organizers identified the spots where visitors most likely would gather and inventoried every street light that wasn't working in those areas, said Ryan, the organizing committee director. He said he was satisfied with the progress of all the preparation. "It's a pretty significant effort," he said. "We think we're on track."

As for the sprucing up, the downtown agency will be bringing out their cleanup crews a little earlier this year, said Lang. The 60 workers travel throughout downtown, sweeping streets and power-washing buildings. Also, Goodwill workers will be picking up litter along many streets, she said.

Because of the tight budget, state and city transportation departments will be helping the cleanup effort by using their own workers to pick up trash on local streets.

In other preparations, the city will be mending downtown streets and sidewalks, said George Jackson, president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. The work is mundane maintenance that won't be visible to visitors but is important to the impression the city has on them, he said. "It's not as grand a plan as the Super Bowl but definitely gives us a chance to do some sprucing up," he said.

Several temporary shops and eateries will pop up downtown just before the Final Four, just as they had before the Super Bowl. Local residents would like to see such businesses become permanent. "We need more businesses, more restaurants, more places to go," said resident Renee Flowers.

You can reach Francis X. Donnelly at (313) 223-4186 or fdonnelly@detnews.com.

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