Detroit names 26-mile bike and pedestrian path Joe Louis Greenway

Louis' family says it honors the way the famed boxer connected communities

$50 million loop around city to be finished in 2022

The city of Detroit has named its 26-mile bicycle and pedestrian path through neighborhoods and downtown the Joe Louis Greenway.

Mayor Mike Duggan made the proclamation Friday at a ceremony along the future path in western Detroit. Design of the $50-million loop, previously called the Inner Circle Greenway, is to start in 2019 after a framework study, comments from residents and planning in 2018.

The trail has been named after Joe Louis, the famed heavyweight boxing champion who once called the city home, to recognize his ability to connect communities, Duggan said at the event.

The naming comes as another memorial to the Brown Bomber, the city's Joe Louis Arena, is scheduled to close and then to be razed sometime in the next 18 months, Duggan said.

"I never necessarily thought the hockey arena was the ideal way to remember him, but when the arena went away, we had to do something that was right, something that was permanent," he said. "So what would be the most fitting and permanent memorial?"