What Do You Want in Mack Avenue Streetscape?

Mack Avenue will undergo a complete street redesign in the near future. Image courtesy of Google Street View

The Eastside Community Network (ECN) and the project team have been working with staff from the City of Detroit, the Grosse Pointes, and community organizations to develop preliminary design concepts for the Mack Avenue Streetscape Project. The first phase of the project kicked off in June 2022 to understand the walking, driving, and infrastructure conditions along Mack Avenue. To read the project summary provided for the January 2023 MorningSider issue, click here.

Since December 2022, the project team has been facilitating community engagement to hear thoughts and ideas from residents, business owners, and local leaders about the future of the corridor. Numerous groups have been represented in community meetings thus far, including:

• Neighborhood Associations of Cornerstone Village, East English Village, and Morningside

• ECN Youth Council and SAG Committee

• City of Grosse Pointe

• Grosse Pointe Farms

• Grosse Pointe Rotary

Several key themes were heard from the community through the engagement phase so far:

• Desire for a consistent look and feel on both sides of the street

• Address the infrastructure needs first – lighting, sidewalks, crosswalks, overgrown areas, etc.

• Improve safety along the corridor in two ways: traffic and mobility safety conditions, business and property safety

• Desire for Mack to feel like a main street rather than a commercial street

• Mack is a major vehicle connector and traffic needs to flow

• Strong desire for no bike lanes

• Desire for additional public art and beautification projects

• Low maintenance landscaping to reduce the amount of concrete, with special attention to not block views of businesses or their signage.

Each community meeting has included these style mood boards for attendees to respond to. The community engagement thus far shows a preference for the classic charm design style for the future Mack Avenue. If you haven’t been able to attend a meeting yet, you can expect another round of community engagement coming soon in Spring 2023. Read on to learn how you can be involved!

Take the Survey! To share your thoughts on the future of Mack Avenue, take the survey: https://ohmplanning.typeform.com/to/fIGaWOYo

Traditional charming elements features decorative iron work, deep colors and historic styles.

Sustainable green elements such as art and wood accents are featured.

Creative colorful aspects are highlighted.