Neighborhoods Rising: The Growth, Development Within The City Of Detroit

DETROIT (WWJ) - WWJ Newsradio 950 in partnership with ARISE Detroit presented Neighborhoods Rising - an hour-long feature addressing the growth and ongoing development within the city.

ARISE Detroit Executive Director Luther Keith, Tahirih Ziegler of LISC, Dan Lijana of the M-1 Rail, QLine, and George Swan, chairman of the board of Detroit Future City discuss the current state of Detroit neighborhoods and what the future holds with WWJ's Stephanie Davis.

Luther Keith is the group's executive director - he says that change starts from within:

" ... on the east side of Detroit, she said she kept hearing that 'they should clean that up, they should clean that blight up. They should knock that down.' Who is 'they should' she asked, 'Is that a person?'," Keith telling WWJ.

Keith said the woman took on the challenge herself to organize a blight-fighting effort in her neighborhood.

He says the key is to get organized -- "getting people together to draft a plan -- connect with programs like a Michigan Community Resources"

Dan Lijana with the QLINE project says there is some growth along the Woodward route.

"We envision that this project would bring $3 billion in investment and 10,000 new housing units over 10 years - we are already, we're not even operational yet, and we are at $1.8 billion," says Lijana. "So, it's obviously having a really important effect and you are starting to see that spread from downtown and Midtown even with a lot of announcements with things happening in New Center and now the north end as well."