What one historian nearly 30 years ago called the "most conspicuous city-suburban contrast in the United States is becoming even more conspicuous.
Steve Neavling reports on Motor Cty Muckraker that a main road from Detroit to Grosse Pointe Park has been closed as crews begin converting a section of Kercheval Avenue into a farmers market.
The market will cut off the decades-long east-west route in what some critics charge is yet another attempt to keep out Detroiters out of the suburban community.
It is the fourth such barrier that Grosse Pointe Park has erected that prevents Detroit traffic from entering the predominately white community. That same location was blocked for months late last year because of what Park officials said were sewer line problems. And this winter, Kercheval at Alter was also blocked off by massive snow piles.
Park officials told Neavling the farmers market will attract residents from both sides of the border and will enhance an area with more walkable space.
Grosse Pointe Park shares a long border with Detroit. It extends roughly up Alter Road than turns east and runs along Mack Avenue. Grosse Pointe City, Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Woods also share a boundary with Detroit.
In his 1984 book, "Crabgrass Frontier," that traced the development of suburbia, Columbia University historian Kenneth T. Jackson addressed the Alter Road boundary as the most sudden contrast between a city and suburb in the entire country, noting that locals called the line the "Berlin Wall," "the barrier" or "the Mason-Dixon Line."
In the three decades since then, the boundary has grown even more stark as the Detroit side has lost homes, businesses and residents, its once-crowded blocks reverting to fields.
