04/18/2026
As someone planting roots in the neighborhood just south of here, this before-and-after makes me sick. I understand that times were tough when some of these decisions were made, but it's hard to imagine ever deciding to carve a massive highway through a walkable community, spend hundreds of millions to implode an entire neighborhood and sell it to GM for next to nothing, and isolate a historic cemetery to visits just twice per year. To this day, Factory ZERO (the Poletown Plant) creates a dead zone that makes it harder for Detroiters and Hamtramck citizens to get around. It might not happen in my lifetime, but I don't know that the wound can heal until the plant is gone.
What sticks out to you on this map?
Check out my video on Beth Olem, which is where this map came from: https://youtu.be/NgztjJIOvuY