Bill Laitner

Detroit Free Press

When will Grosse Pointe Park end its traffic blockade on Kercheval Avenue at the Detroit border, blamed by critics as a racist move to exclude Detroiters?

At a contentious City Council meeting Monday night, suburban officials absorbed both barbs and compliments over the 6-month-old emplacement of farmers market sheds and a traffic circle near Alter Road.

There also was a surprise visitor: Craig Fahle, communications director of the Detroit Land Bank Authority, sent by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Fahle told the nearly packed audience of about 75 people.

But Fahle said nothing about the blockade, a subject of months of negotiations between the two cities. Instead he told how Detroit officials were taking rapid action against blighted properties on the Detroit side of the border, something the suburb has tried to discuss for years with Detroit.

“This is fantastic,” Grosse Pointe Park City Councilman James Robson told Fahle.

“You’re a winner,” exclaimed Mayor Palmer Heenan.

“Hey, I grew up in Grosse Pointe Park,” Fahle said with a laugh.

Then back to the blockade. Grosse Pointe Park officials repeated what they’ve said in previous meetings: that despite a promise to remove the blockade by October, they could not say when it would come down.

“We’re in negotiations with Detroit about a comprehensive development on Kercheval,” which is to involve both cities, Grosse Pointe Park City Attorney Dennis Levasseur said.

The blockade will eventually come down or at least change its form, “but it’s not going to be soon,” said City Councilman David Clark.