{"id":13036,"date":"2015-07-13T15:29:52","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T19:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/?p=13036"},"modified":"2015-07-13T15:29:52","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T19:29:52","slug":"clearing-out-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/?p=13036","title":{"rendered":"Clearing out Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, another of Downtown Detroit’s landmark buildings was imploded.<\/p>\n

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The Ilich family<\/a> has a long history in Detroit. Mike Ilich made his fortune from Little Caesar’s Pizza! Pizza! and owns the Detroit Tigers baseball team and the Redwings NHL Hockey team. He is taking the lead in saving Detroit by tearing it down. The family is also involved with the Casino business in Detroit.<\/p>\n

The Park Avenue Hotel (just North of the supermarket icon) was imploded over the weekend. It was located in a desolate wasteland north of I-75. Cass Avenue runs parallel to Woodward Avenue but ends at New Center, the former location of GM’s world headquarters and the Fisher Tower<\/a>, home of WJR-AM, the “Great Voice of the Great Lakes”. The Hotel was built during the Roaring 20s boom, but after WW2 fell into disrepair as it was too far from downtown and eventually cut off by the Freeway. Many have pointed out the irony of the decline of Detroit, the Motor City, was due to the rush to build freeways – splitting apart neighborhoods with impenetrable barriers. Detroit was shedding population long before the 1967 race riots.<\/p>\n

The plan is to build a new modern venue for the Redwings, which currently use Joe Lewis Arena, built in 1979. Joe Lewis Arena will be demolished in 2017<\/a> if things go according to plan. The area will be replaced by high end condominiums and a new convention center. This aspect was one of the final details to conclude the Detroit bankruptcy plan.<\/p>\n

Perhaps “the Joe Lewis fist”<\/a> will also come down. It is viewed by many as an offensive symbol of the Black Nationalist movement. They lost the war in Detroit. Time to be adults, accept reality, let go and move on. Secession from the United States (“a Black Nation within a Nation”) is not an option for Black America. Moving it to a museum would be a big step toward healing Detroit.<\/p>\n