For years, Oak Park was seen as an unassuming and tired inner-ring Detroit suburb. Its biggest claim to fame was its peculiar status as a dry city where, thanks largely to its population of Orthodox Jews, restaurants were prohibited from selling alcohol.
That’s changing, fast. After voters in 2015 approved liquor sales at restaurants, the city now has some two dozen liquor licenses to offer to businesses. The nano-brewery Rouge River Brewing plans a location there, as do two new restaurants, including one that hasn’t yet been announced. The city recently broke ground on a big new streetscaping project that will bring new pocket parks, bike lanes and a road diet to Nine Mile Road, and some longtime Ferndale residents are moving to the neighboring community for more affordable housing (I know several people who fit this bill).
On this episode of the Daily Detroit podcast, I speak with Oak Park City Manager Erik Tungate. We talk about the city’s more urbanist vision for the future, the coming of MoGo bike-share stations, the importance of mass transit to inner-ring suburbs like Oak Park, the status of the long-stalled 8MK restaurant in the former WWJ building on Eight Mile, and even those sunflowers you see lining the I-696 service drive. Give it a listen above.
Recent Comments