Re: Packard Plant Demolition Begins
Posted by Leeedy On 2022/10/10 14:51:42
"Residents complaining..."????? "...growth and beauty..."????? " BEAUTY??????????? ...safety on the Boulevard..."?????
What "residents"? What planet is this quoted person from????? How much did they pay someone to say this ridiculous stuff????? Who is "turning cartwheels" when trash and old mattresses, used drug needles and junk cars are dumped in the OPEN LOTS off of Concord and East Grand Blvd.??? (I have taken PHOTOS). And in the old abandoned A&P supermarket parking lot (site of the former Packard power plant) off of the train tracks on East Grand? Beauty and safety indeed. And what does THAT stuff have to do with the Packard Plant? OR Palenzuela?
I am certainly not a fan of Mr. Palenzuela and was always skeptical that he could turn the plant into something positive. But at least he tried. Bad-mouthing this guy for trying to do the impossible and failing does not run the city government and politicians through a morality car wash!
"Eyesore." The Packard Plant on Detroit's East Grand Boulevard didn't get to be an "eyesore" because Palenzuela owned PART OF IT. The plant had already been that way when Palenzuela bought it! It got to the condition it was because of the City of Detroit's greed. NOT because of Palenzuela.
What was City of Detroit doing to preserve and protect the plant during all the years of their legal wrangling went on? NADDA. If anything, Palenzuela did numerous things to make the "eyesore' look better! He paid the dough to have the Packard Bridge wrapped in graphics to make it LOOK as it once did. He did have some expensive and laborious clean-up and remediation done. What did Detroit and its bragging politicians do?
There is zero falling on East Grand Boulevard. The Packard Bridge (which the City of Detroit allowed to be vandalized and stripped of its guts) FELL and was hauled away years ago. At least Palenzuela put up the money to have the bridge–a world-famous landmark– wrapped to make it LOOK better. What did City of Detroit do?
The structures remaining on East Grand Blvd. sit well back from the street. I'd be far more concerned about the possibility of being jacked than I would about something falling on me from the Packard plant.
East Grand Boulevard ceased to be anything except a sparsely-traveled ghost decades ago. The City even removed all of the traffic lights and signs decades ago. DECADES AGO. There IS no stream of traffic, much less residents. Anyone who grew up in Detroit during the era of Packard or even up to the 1970s could easily tell you this fact instead of ridiculous fiction.
Know how many INHABITED houses are on Concord Avenue along the Packard Plant (between East Grand Blvd. and Harper Avenue or I-94)????? LOOK on a Google map and use your fingers to count even the burned-out, abandoned hulks remaining. Count the vacant lots. And KNOW that in the real world, Concord Avenue along this strip never had many houses. Furthermore, Concord is not driveable and has not had through-traffic on it in decades. DECADES. Why do newspaper accounts and write-ups today parrot such nonsense?
By the way, it was Palenzuela (to his credit) who got concrete K-barriers erected AT Concord's intersection of East Grand Blvd. (photo of the bridge and Concord intersection I show here I took in 2018). Those concrete barriers stopped traffic from even entering Concord Avenue. All while the City of Detroit had been sitting back doing ZERO to stop vandals, strippers, scrappers and trucks from hauling IN trash and hauling AWAY tons of steel and other components FROM this section of the Packard Plant. Now the city amazingly paints itself a hero while sticking pins in their Fernando dolls!!!!! Wow. Why is it that nobody wants to say anything about Detroit's roll in this nightmare mess?????
And... has anyone here ever seen this area and Concord Avenue next to the plant, let's say in the past 25 years?
There is a walled compound right off of Concord (tangental) that is what? Does anybody know what is IN that compound? Does anybody ask? Do you know what (who) is housed there and in the iron-gated former Packard Motel?
The mayor was born on Grand Blvd. and this makes HIS mom sad about the Packard Plant?
I was born on Grand Blvd.... West Grand Blvd. to be exact. I was born in the original Providence Hospital (now on 9 Mile Road). I am including as evidence a photo my mother took of Providence Hospital on West Grand Boulevard, not far from the Packard Plant. The window circled on the right of the photo is the room where I was born.
This said, I'm certain that when the mayor was born years later (it says 1958 in the newspaper) that the Packard Plant was not the least bit derelict or run down. It got the way it is by the City of Detroit fighting with the owner to grab it. All while the paying tenants and small companies were evicted and the property left to rot, un-guarded, un-loved and totally open to theft and vandalism. Palenzuela (convenient scapegoat that he is today) had nothing to do with this mess.
AND these newspaper reports are telling silly stories about mothers worried about their "children playing" around the plant (WOW– they actually printed this stuff). Why aren't these mothers worried about the muggers, addicts and heroin needles on the ground all over the area? And until the Packard Motel was turned into some kind of iron-gated facility to keep people IN (what's up with THAT?), it was a known "hot-bunk" motel with rooms rented to you-know-who for you-know-what.
And WHO and WHEN is tearing down the huge portion of the Packard Plant owned by the City of Detroit? And why aren't the newspapers and politicians talking about that? Most of what is south of East Grand Blvd. (yessss, including along Concord Avenue) is owned by guess who????? CITY OF DETROIT– NOT PALENZUELA.
Clearly there are two levels of reality that exist here. The one described in the newspapers and by politicians... and then the REAL reality. Incredible stuff going on here.
For anyone who wants to understand how ridiculously cartoonish today's stories of the Packard Plant and Mr. Palenzuela are, take a look at the history of Detroit's main train station. Where were all of these mothers wringing hands and concerned politicians when the incredibly beautiful, multi-storied train station was being horribly vandalized, stripped and destroyed? WHERE? No where. City of Detroit sat back and did what it usually has done while beautiful buildings, landmarks like this and like the headquarters Creative Industries of Detroit are gutted by vandals and barbarians. The city and all of the politicians and concerned mothers did ZERO. NOTHING.
Creative Industries of Detroit on East Outer Drive– a beautiful building and historically, automotively and Packard-related landmark was simply allowed to be gutted and sat that way for years until leveled. Today it is a trash-strewn vacant lot. This, despite Creative's incredible contribution to Detroit, the automotive industry, the aircraft industry and World War II. Anybody wringing their hands over this? Who cries for the loss of Creative Industries of Detroit headquarters building? Who even remembers when Packards sat in the driveway there regularly?
The giant train station in Detroit was allowed (just like the Packard Plant) to sit un-guarded, un-loved for decades. It was turned into a disgusting nightmare and it is said that not one window in the entire building remained unbroken. All manners of horrors went on in that building for decades. Dead bodies were found there! And where were the politicians and concerned mothers during all those years?
The only difference between the train station as a so-called "eyesore" and the Packard Plant was that the train station finally acquired a savior angel– Ford Motor Company. Ford had the millions to bail out the train station and save it from oblivion and the barbaric destruction it had suffered. Palenzuela didn't have Ford's money. Period.
Beautiful and safe? Wow. And the emperor is wearing new clothes.
Attach file:
RecoveryCenter copyWM.jpeg (489.86 KB)
PackardNotMaintained&Maintained.jpeg (445.32 KB)
ResidentialStreetLookingTowardConcordWM.jpeg (415.32 KB)
PackardBridgeLongVU copyWM.jpeg (443.94 KB)
ProvidenceHospitalDetroit2WM.jpeg (664.69 KB)
What "residents"? What planet is this quoted person from????? How much did they pay someone to say this ridiculous stuff????? Who is "turning cartwheels" when trash and old mattresses, used drug needles and junk cars are dumped in the OPEN LOTS off of Concord and East Grand Blvd.??? (I have taken PHOTOS). And in the old abandoned A&P supermarket parking lot (site of the former Packard power plant) off of the train tracks on East Grand? Beauty and safety indeed. And what does THAT stuff have to do with the Packard Plant? OR Palenzuela?
I am certainly not a fan of Mr. Palenzuela and was always skeptical that he could turn the plant into something positive. But at least he tried. Bad-mouthing this guy for trying to do the impossible and failing does not run the city government and politicians through a morality car wash!
"Eyesore." The Packard Plant on Detroit's East Grand Boulevard didn't get to be an "eyesore" because Palenzuela owned PART OF IT. The plant had already been that way when Palenzuela bought it! It got to the condition it was because of the City of Detroit's greed. NOT because of Palenzuela.
What was City of Detroit doing to preserve and protect the plant during all the years of their legal wrangling went on? NADDA. If anything, Palenzuela did numerous things to make the "eyesore' look better! He paid the dough to have the Packard Bridge wrapped in graphics to make it LOOK as it once did. He did have some expensive and laborious clean-up and remediation done. What did Detroit and its bragging politicians do?
There is zero falling on East Grand Boulevard. The Packard Bridge (which the City of Detroit allowed to be vandalized and stripped of its guts) FELL and was hauled away years ago. At least Palenzuela put up the money to have the bridge–a world-famous landmark– wrapped to make it LOOK better. What did City of Detroit do?
The structures remaining on East Grand Blvd. sit well back from the street. I'd be far more concerned about the possibility of being jacked than I would about something falling on me from the Packard plant.
East Grand Boulevard ceased to be anything except a sparsely-traveled ghost decades ago. The City even removed all of the traffic lights and signs decades ago. DECADES AGO. There IS no stream of traffic, much less residents. Anyone who grew up in Detroit during the era of Packard or even up to the 1970s could easily tell you this fact instead of ridiculous fiction.
Know how many INHABITED houses are on Concord Avenue along the Packard Plant (between East Grand Blvd. and Harper Avenue or I-94)????? LOOK on a Google map and use your fingers to count even the burned-out, abandoned hulks remaining. Count the vacant lots. And KNOW that in the real world, Concord Avenue along this strip never had many houses. Furthermore, Concord is not driveable and has not had through-traffic on it in decades. DECADES. Why do newspaper accounts and write-ups today parrot such nonsense?
By the way, it was Palenzuela (to his credit) who got concrete K-barriers erected AT Concord's intersection of East Grand Blvd. (photo of the bridge and Concord intersection I show here I took in 2018). Those concrete barriers stopped traffic from even entering Concord Avenue. All while the City of Detroit had been sitting back doing ZERO to stop vandals, strippers, scrappers and trucks from hauling IN trash and hauling AWAY tons of steel and other components FROM this section of the Packard Plant. Now the city amazingly paints itself a hero while sticking pins in their Fernando dolls!!!!! Wow. Why is it that nobody wants to say anything about Detroit's roll in this nightmare mess?????
And... has anyone here ever seen this area and Concord Avenue next to the plant, let's say in the past 25 years?
There is a walled compound right off of Concord (tangental) that is what? Does anybody know what is IN that compound? Does anybody ask? Do you know what (who) is housed there and in the iron-gated former Packard Motel?
The mayor was born on Grand Blvd. and this makes HIS mom sad about the Packard Plant?
I was born on Grand Blvd.... West Grand Blvd. to be exact. I was born in the original Providence Hospital (now on 9 Mile Road). I am including as evidence a photo my mother took of Providence Hospital on West Grand Boulevard, not far from the Packard Plant. The window circled on the right of the photo is the room where I was born.
This said, I'm certain that when the mayor was born years later (it says 1958 in the newspaper) that the Packard Plant was not the least bit derelict or run down. It got the way it is by the City of Detroit fighting with the owner to grab it. All while the paying tenants and small companies were evicted and the property left to rot, un-guarded, un-loved and totally open to theft and vandalism. Palenzuela (convenient scapegoat that he is today) had nothing to do with this mess.
AND these newspaper reports are telling silly stories about mothers worried about their "children playing" around the plant (WOW– they actually printed this stuff). Why aren't these mothers worried about the muggers, addicts and heroin needles on the ground all over the area? And until the Packard Motel was turned into some kind of iron-gated facility to keep people IN (what's up with THAT?), it was a known "hot-bunk" motel with rooms rented to you-know-who for you-know-what.
And WHO and WHEN is tearing down the huge portion of the Packard Plant owned by the City of Detroit? And why aren't the newspapers and politicians talking about that? Most of what is south of East Grand Blvd. (yessss, including along Concord Avenue) is owned by guess who????? CITY OF DETROIT– NOT PALENZUELA.
Clearly there are two levels of reality that exist here. The one described in the newspapers and by politicians... and then the REAL reality. Incredible stuff going on here.
For anyone who wants to understand how ridiculously cartoonish today's stories of the Packard Plant and Mr. Palenzuela are, take a look at the history of Detroit's main train station. Where were all of these mothers wringing hands and concerned politicians when the incredibly beautiful, multi-storied train station was being horribly vandalized, stripped and destroyed? WHERE? No where. City of Detroit sat back and did what it usually has done while beautiful buildings, landmarks like this and like the headquarters Creative Industries of Detroit are gutted by vandals and barbarians. The city and all of the politicians and concerned mothers did ZERO. NOTHING.
Creative Industries of Detroit on East Outer Drive– a beautiful building and historically, automotively and Packard-related landmark was simply allowed to be gutted and sat that way for years until leveled. Today it is a trash-strewn vacant lot. This, despite Creative's incredible contribution to Detroit, the automotive industry, the aircraft industry and World War II. Anybody wringing their hands over this? Who cries for the loss of Creative Industries of Detroit headquarters building? Who even remembers when Packards sat in the driveway there regularly?
The giant train station in Detroit was allowed (just like the Packard Plant) to sit un-guarded, un-loved for decades. It was turned into a disgusting nightmare and it is said that not one window in the entire building remained unbroken. All manners of horrors went on in that building for decades. Dead bodies were found there! And where were the politicians and concerned mothers during all those years?
The only difference between the train station as a so-called "eyesore" and the Packard Plant was that the train station finally acquired a savior angel– Ford Motor Company. Ford had the millions to bail out the train station and save it from oblivion and the barbaric destruction it had suffered. Palenzuela didn't have Ford's money. Period.
Beautiful and safe? Wow. And the emperor is wearing new clothes.
Attach file:
RecoveryCenter copyWM.jpeg (489.86 KB)
PackardNotMaintained&Maintained.jpeg (445.32 KB)
ResidentialStreetLookingTowardConcordWM.jpeg (415.32 KB)
PackardBridgeLongVU copyWM.jpeg (443.94 KB)
ProvidenceHospitalDetroit2WM.jpeg (664.69 KB)
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