Hopes and fears in Corktown as Ford celebrates train station purchase

Marc Daalder | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Ford's party at Detroit train station Ford Executive Chairman, Bill Ford Jr., invited the public to hear announcements regarding their purchase of the Michigan Central Depot.

Judith Christensen took the time Tuesday morning to haul a heavy wooden chair out of her house and set it on her front lawn. A sign fastened to the chair said, in bold red letters, “No Parking.”

She was, however, too late — parked cars lined both sides of her street as thousands of people traveled to Corktown for Ford Motor Co.’s free and public celebration of its purchase of the Michigan Central Station.

Christensen was one of many Corktown residents who witnessed the sudden influx of people into her neighborhood. Many residents attended the Ford event, but others skipped it, choosing to watch from the comfort of their living rooms or front porches.

Christensen, despite the combative sign placement, is happy overall about the purchase. “Oh, my God, I’m thrilled,” she said. As a retiree from the Wayne State University libraries, Christensen has lived in the area for two decades.

“The whole neighborhood is coming back. There haven’t been young people — with kids! — here for 12 to 15 years and now they’re everywhere.”

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Residents fear downsides to the purchase, however. While she appreciates that Ford is renovating the building and not knocking it down, the same can’t be said for the residential developers looking into the area.

Plenty of her neighbors have received and accepted offers to buy their houses in recent years. Some of them, however, have changed their minds when they discovered that developers intended to bulldoze the houses — the real value, they were told, is in the land. Her family has come up with an innovative solution to the issue.

Christensen owns a few empty lots around the city and uses those to help preserve the historic buildings of Corktown. “My old man hooks up houses to his trailers and moves them to our spare lots so they don’t get demolished,” she said.

She said she is constantly rebuffing developers looking to buy her house for the land —and she isn’t the only one.

A 59-year-old man who would identify himself only as Greg said he has lived in Corktown for 10 years. He didn’t go to the Ford event, but it came to him. He relaxed on his front porch smoking a cigarette and watching as dozens of people streamed by, on their way to the train station.

“They know how to throw a good party, gotta give (Ford) that,” he said. On the purchase itself, it’s “great for the city as long as (Ford) don’t run roughshod over the neighbors.”

He’s worried about the fate of the neighborhood, which is being bought up and redeveloped at a frightening pace. “Big money is gonna change the face of the neighborhood,” he said. Either that, or Ford’s attempt at rejuvenating Corktown will falter and leave all the neighborhood’s hopeful residents in a bind.

Greg gets calls, letters, and in-person offers to buy the house “at least twice a week,” but says it's “about five years too late for that.”

He has settled down here and intends to stay — regardless of whether Ford succeeds.

Contact Marc Daalder: mdaalder@freepress.com.