7.10.2008

Wow Detroit, nice one (not sarcastic, I swear)

Dan sent me a link to an article about how Detroit is demolishing the old Tiger Stadium. My knee-jerk reaction was first "wow, Detroit actually demolishes things?" and then "sad, I have memories of that place and it'll be a shame to lose it."

Then I read on to discover that what they're doing with the park and the space is actually really cool. The infield will be left intact, and the foul and flag poles will be placed where they formerly were once demolition is completed. Instead of turning a great stadium into a parking lot, as was the fate for old Comiskey (and what I've grown to recognize as sort of a necessary evil), they will be creating both green space and a (I'm assuming) usable playing field for various purposes. I can see great potential here for tying in inner city youth baseball leagues, or even old time baseball reenactment games and other touristy events that can generate some income from a spot that was really only generating mold and dust. So, good move Detroit - I hope many good years are still left in that field.

3 comments:

Tracy said...

That's a nice idea, but the cynic in me is eyeing this sentence: "An Aug. 1 deadline has been set for a nonprofit group to raise enough money to preserve part of the stadium." I read that as "cough up some dough or the muggafugga's go to go...".

I, too was surprised to read that they've actually started to demolish it. The train station down the street from Tiger Stadium has been looming in ruins for years. But there's beauty in the blight somehow...

Tracy said...

P.S. Hope you don't mind that I've trolled your blogger. I'm not a stalker or anything, I swear.

yeahdog said...

I don't mind at all. I know the train station you're talking about; it's an amazing building. I guess it's pointless to spend a massive amount on demolition when nobody is rushing to use the real estate. At any rate, it makes amazing camera fodder.

As for the skeptic, it's there in me as well, but one can always leave room for a bit of hope. Unless there's another use planned for the site, I don't see any point in not letting things remain roughly as-is (especially if there's a non-profit that may be willing to assume the time and labor involved in custodianship of a field). We shall see!

In the meantime, please feel free to troll all you want.