The Matrix Theatre, Bagley Avenue Just one of a catalogue of Detroit's responses to the empty plots of land left behind by destroyed buildings, the Matrix Theatre Company on Bagley Avenue in eastern Mexicantown has created an outdoor stage opposite its main building.
Bagley Avenue The construction of the Fisher Freeway in the late 1970s cut a deep physical impasse through the heart of Mexicantown. Lobbying by the Mexicantown Community Development Corporation made a step towards the righting of this with the 2005 completion of the Bagley Pedestrian Bridge, by Michigan-based architecture practice INform Studio. The landmark $1.2 million structure fills the gap in vibrant Bagley Avenue and reconnects severed sections of the community. While metropolitan Detroit as a whole has continued to lose population over the last decade, dropping by around 1.5%, the south-western enclave of Mexicantown has seen a gain of nearly 7%. At least half the population here is of Mexican heritage and, considering the border situation between the two countries, the likelihood of a considerable undocumented population is high. The result of this seems to be one of the most stable areas of the city, both socially and architecturally, and boasts one the city's few working local commercial strips on Bagley Avenue.
La Gloria Bakery on Bagley Avenue The construction of the Fisher Freeway in the late 1970s cut a deep physical impasse through the heart of Mexicantown. Lobbying by the Mexicantown Community Development Corporation made a step towards the righting of this with the 2005 completion of the Bagley Pedestrian Bridge, by Michigan-based architecture practice INform Studio. The landmark $1.2 million structure fills the gap in vibrant Bagley Avenue and reconnects severed sections of the community. While metropolitan Detroit as a whole has continued to lose population over the last decade, dropping by around 1.5%, the south-western enclave of Mexicantown has seen a gain of nearly 7%. At least half the population here is of Mexican heritage and, considering the border situation between the two countries, the likelihood of a considerable undocumented population is high. The result of this seems to be one of the most stable areas of the city, both socially and architecturally, and boasts one the city's few working local commercial strips on Bagley Avenue.
Vinewood Street The farmland bordering the river southwest of old Detroit was some of the first to be developed for industry when the arrival of the Erie Canal in 1825 began to form a production hub. The mix of manual labourers and middle-class industrialists that settled the newly-formed neighbourhood of Mexicantown and Hubbard Farms left a spread of pleasant residential streets with fine but modest 19th century housing stock. While many of the grander houses in uptown Detroit have seen their owners flee for the suburbs and fallen into disrepair, manageable buildings in self-supporting communities like this have endured.
Fire on Frontage Road Detroit remains a complex place to live and work. If it fails to engage positively with its extreme social and economic issues, it runs the risk of being seen as apathetic in the face of necessity. Simultaneously, idealism is easily shattered by frequent residential fires like this one.
Fire on Frontage Road Detroit remains a complex place to live and work. If it fails to engage positively with its extreme social and economic issues, it runs the risk of being seen as apathetic in the face of necessity. Simultaneously, idealism is easily shattered by frequent residential fires like this one.
Fire on Frontage Road Detroit remains a complex place to live and work. If it fails to engage positively with its extreme social and economic issues, it runs the risk of being seen as apathetic in the face of necessity. Simultaneously, idealism is easily shattered by frequent residential fires like this one.