Detroit officials are using federal funds renovate alleyways into community spaces. It’s part of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s plan to turn "blight into beauty" and cleanup 2,000 alleys.
Five of those community alley projects will begin construction this summer. The other four are getting assigned to a design firm this spring.
Victoria Thomas and her neighbors in Jefferson Chalmers are behind The Yellow Brick Road Alley, where a young boy died after a car accident.
"This has been a ten year dream for the safety of our kids. It's sad that it had to come to a close; and really two kids cause a child that lost a life was nine years old and the driver was 16 years old. So from that moment on, the dream was to make a bike trail in the alley," she said.
That alley will have murals, panels about the area's Black history and will sit beside a community library.
Rochelle Riley is directs the city’s Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship.
"We chose alleys where the residents were already working. They were already creating spaces. They were already looking towards their alleys for something like this. And we hope to do more," she said.
The city’s arts office says they have over $5 million dollars available for these renovations.
The nine alley renovations will be in Old Redford, Schulze, Jefferson Chalmers, Northwest Goldberg, McDougall-Hunt, Grand River, Southwest and the Northeast of Detroit.
According to city plans, some of the alleys will get new murals, a farmer’s market, parks, a museum, and an art gallery.
