With the same spirit of reinvention that flipped East Detroit into Eastpointe and the Cass Corridor into Midtown, a slice of Southwest Detroit is reborn as Springwells Village.
Some neighborhood traditionalists see a troubling motive behind that type of aspirational striving, Lee DeVito reports in a wide-ranging Metro Times cover article. Springwells Village, the headline says, is a "neighborhood most of its own residents have never heard of."
Part of this week's Metro Times cover.
He quotes an artist and community activist who calls himself Sacramento Knoxx:
"What's going on with this? Where's this coming from? . . . To see that [sign] pop up — it wasn't on my radar, and I'm pretty tied in with people."
In addition to a hand-painted sign near the corner of Springwells and Chamberlain streets, a new website run by the nonprofit Urban Neighborhood Initiatives says:
Whether you are a first-time visitor or one of the 17,000 residents who call this community HOME, there is something for everyone in Springwells Village. This site highlights the unique cuisine, artistic flavor, and countless other assets that make this area one of the most culturally rich and vibrant communities of Southwest Detroit.
There's more going on here than slapping a new label on part of a historic area near Mexicantown, and DeVito dives deeply -- at nearly 5,000 words -- into the push and pull at play.
Knoxx and others formed a committee called Enclave that advocates development without displacement.
Displacement, other members of Enclave will tell me, doesn't necessarily refer to physical displacement — it can be cultural too. And that's why the "Springwells Village" moniker has some Enclave members up in arms.
"My perspective is more broad than just the name change," Antonio Cosme, another member of Enclave, tells us later. "I think what we're seeing in Detroit is, I would call it a neocolonial moment, honestly."
In Cosme's view, post-bankruptcy Detroit is in the process of being "cantonized" by various entities, which will see investment in certain communities and divestment in others. Cosme sees it as all part of the think tank Detroit Future City's 50-year framework for restructuring the city by moving people from less-populated areas into denser ones.
"Springwells is slated to become one of those enclaves that gets the investment, whereas the other communities around it don't," he says. . . .
"Everybody's interested in Detroit as a thing, but not the people in it."
DeVito also talks with Dennis Nordmoe, an Illinois native who moved to Huntington Woods in 1998 from northwest Detroit and now is executive director of the Urban Neighborhood Initiatives group on Longworth Street, a half-block off Springwells.
Comments from him and others, including Midtown Detroit, Inc. president Sue Mosey, are at the red link below.
