On a gray, blustery November afternoon in Detroit, John Kish watches vigilantly as his four-year-old grandson, also named John, frolics on a towering play slide. If the day was sunny, there might be a line to use it, but given the weather, they have it to themselves.
“It’s a long climb, but it gives them something to do,” Kish says, laughing, as the youngster carefully crosses a bridge within the structure.
The playground sits at the West Warren Avenue stop on the Joe Louis Greenway, a network of bike paths, walking paths, playgrounds, and activity centers that’s planned to connect 23 Detroit neighborhoods. Once its 27.5 mile length is complete, it also will pass through Dearborn, Hamtramck, and Highland Park, Mich. and conclude at the Detroit riverfront.
Under construction since 2021, this greenway, named for the champion boxer, is part of a growing urban trend. From Atlanta and Boston to Dallas and Long Island, cities are reclaiming previously industrial or abandoned land and transforming it into recreational areas.
The best known is the High Line in New York City. Built atop a long-abandoned freight rail line, it opened in four stages from 2009 to 2019. It has become a popular attraction, with an estimated 8 million visitors a year, about one-third of them city residents.
Along with walkers, cyclists, diners and concert-goers, the High Line has given birth to gardens and spurred economic development along its 1.45 mile path, with apartment buildings facing the pathway and the Hudson River.
That bucolic scene has yet to be replicated in Detroit, but it’s one city officials hope may occur.
“This is our starting point,” says Crystal Perkins, director of City of Detroit General Services, gesturing to the plaza near West Warren Avenue. She expects the greenway will result in “health benefits, connectivity, and the ability to move safely and easily throughout the city.”
The Joe Louis greenway is being built in sections, with a total cost of…
