Atwater Beach opening soon, extending Detroit's network of family friendly public spaces

When the new Atwater Beach opens along Detroit's east riverfront in a few weeks, it will create more than the latest new attraction on the popular RiverWalk.

It will also create the latest installment in Detroit's growing network of non-motorized public spaces that includes new parks, greenways, protected bike lanes, and more.

To be sure, Detroit's public space network remains fragmentary in many ways, and the policy of creating more is subject to political dissent, as was seen in the recent 5-4 vote at City Council to make Spirit Plaza in front of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center permanent. Certainly the city's embrace of protected bike lanes and other greening strategies have drawn plenty of criticism from motorists who don't like sharing the road.

But Mayor Mike Duggan's team and its partners, including philanthropic foundations that put up the cash and nonprofits like the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, which builds and operates the RiverWalk, continue to push ahead. And the more venues like Atwater Beach that are added, the more valuable the public space network as a whole becomes.

"I think that once people were able to see what opportunities these kinds of projects presented I think they have embraced them with enthusiasm," Tom Woiwode, the head of greenways initiatives for the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, told me.

"As these projects have come on line, first the riverfront generally and then the Dequindre Cut and many of the other projects that have had a real transformative effect, I think people are really appreciating how they change the landscape, how they change how people relate to and engage in their communities, and what it does in making Detroit and southeast Michigan a much more friendly, warm, receptive and engaging community."

Once Atwater Beach opens in a few weeks, a whole series of family-style venues along the RiverWalk, including Rivard Plaza with its carousel and Mt. Elliott Park with its splash pad for kids, will all be no more than a 10-minute stroll from each other.

"The riverfront gets a lot of its power from the fact that it's a system of public spaces connected by a greenway," said Mark Wallace, the CEO of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.

"The fact that it's not just one major park on the waterfront that's isolated from other places means that families can come down and have a variety of experiences along a variety of geographies at the water's edge," Wallace said.

What Atwater Beach offers

As reminder, Atwater Beach was the site of one of the cement silos that defined Detroit's industrialized east riverfront for decades. Once the city had engineered the removal of those cement silos, the site operated as a storage lot for Coast Guard buoys. Plans to turn it into an upscale housing project died in the Great Recession.

But now,  the 3.2-acre site will pack in several types of amenities:

• A large, sandy beach area for the kids.
• A playscape featuring what looks like colorful lifeguard stations that  kids can climb all over.
• A large shed that will offer a mix of programming, including special events, food and beverage, and retail.
• A colorful barge for food and drink, spanning two boat slips in the water and offering good river views. 

A new park, extension of the RiverWalk

Atwater Beach cost between $3 million and $4 million, with major funding coming from the William Davidson Foundation. 

More big pieces are coming along the RiverWalk. Another major piece, the creation of the 22-acre Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park on the west riverfront, is currently in design. The Riverfront Conservancy also expects to begin construction soon on an extension of the RiverWalk across the long-abandoned and contaminated Uniroyal site, about 40 acres of waterfront land just west of the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle.

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Meanwhile, connections like the popular Dequindre Cut, a north-south greenway that links the RiverWalk to Eastern Market, have added to the recreational value of an ever broader system of greenways, bike paths, food and drink venues, splash pads and playscapes for the kids, and more.

Creating public spaces has its challenges

The occasional political dissent and the debate over protected bike lanes are not the only challenges that must be overcome to create more public spaces in Detroit.

Regrettably, these projects still take a long time to put together, longer than anyone is happy with. Land rights must be secured, environmental damage cleaned up, funds raised and approvals sought from agencies as diverse as the City of Detroit and the Army Corps of Engineers.

That's why the RiverWalk itself, launched with the creation of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy in 2002, is still only part way toward its goal of a five-mile promenade from the Ambassador Bridge to Belle Isle even after more than 15 years.

And even slower to come are the hoped-for new restaurants, riverfront housing and other economic development projects that planners have long envisioned rising in the block to the north of the riverfront parks.

Robin Boyle, a retired professor of urban planning at Wayne State University who has followed the riverfront story for many years, told me that's a big disappointment.

"You can walk from the MacArthur Bridge (to Belle Isle) all the way to the west side of the riverfront and with the exception of a couple of bars at Atwater and the cafe at the carousel (at Rivard Plaza) there's nowhere to sit down and have a beer, cup of coffee, a light meal," Boyle said.

True, plans have been set to build many such retail, commercial and residential offerings. But so far not much has actually happened.

"You go to other cities and you see it and you think to yourself, 'Why not us?' " Boyle said. "it's a problem of attracting sufficient demand down there."

Walkable Detroit central to city's vision

But the good news is that all the many groups engaged in these projects, from the city itself to the nonprofits like the Riverfront Conservancy and the philanthropic backers, have grown increasingly skillful at solving the myriad of challenges each step of the way.

And the even better news is that a vision of a greener, walkable Detroit, which was more dream than reality 15 years ago, has become a central part of the city's planning.

So despite the delays and challenges, look for more public venues like Atwater Beach to come along soon.

As Woiwode puts it, "Now as people see these things, see the Atwater Beach or see the west riverfront being developed, and see these connections, they realize just how incredible these projects can be and what they can mean to our community and each other."

Contact John Gallagher at313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com.Follow him on Twitter@jgallagherfreep. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.