A Postive Outlook on a Cities Failing Economy
With all the negative energy revolving the city of Detroit, and its controversial river. People tend to be surprised by all Detroit river has to offer now. With the successful boating, trading, fishing, and the beautiful river walk it has helped Detroit cities failing economy immensely.
Boating and Wildlife
As noted before the Detroit River is extremely busy, and is enjoyed by many. In the state of Michigan there are a total of 800,000 boats registered. Half of them are used on the Detroit River, obviously keeping the 31 mile long river relatively busy. More specifically there are total of 12,000 marina slips that are along the river. Recreational boating on the Detroit River is estimated to bring in a total of 1$ billion annually.
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Not only is the wildlife a beautiful aspect of the river and the city, it brings in more income than often realized. Overall in Michigan 192.8$ million is brought in from bird watching, and photography, and much of this comes from the iconic Detroit river. On top of that fishing is also widely done along the river. Now that much of the river is restored and many of the fish and wildlife have recovered, hunting of these species bring in 20$ million annually to the city. More specifically one of the Detroit Rivers most well known qualities is its Walleye fishing. People come from all over and every spring catch 1$ million worth of Walleye. The wildlife leave a huge impression on the river but also a huge amount of wealth to the city of Detroit.
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Trade
As a result of the Detroit River being such a vital waterway, there is a massive amount of trade that is done through the use of the river. First, a lot of travel for the trade is used by crossing the river by boat or bridges that cross over the river. These bridges are extremely important to the functioning of the city. A study done in 2004 states that 150,000 jobs are created yearly based off of river crossings that connect Detroit to its neighboring city of Windsor, Canada. This is a huge amount of jobs that are brought to the city yearly and greatly help many citizens that may be struggling financially with Detroit's sinking economy.
What comes from these bridges is astounding. As noted before trade is a huge part of the Detroit River. The majority is to and from Canada which is straight across the river from Detroit. In a study done in 2004, 113.3 billion dollars worth of trade with Canada crossed the Detroit River alone. Even though this waterway has struggled in the past in other ways, the aspect of trade has never died on the river and always has remained a major aspect of the success of the river as well as the city of Detroit.
Detroit Riverfront
While much of the river is surrounding the city, one part of the river directly connects the city and its major waterway. This being the Detroit Riverwalk. While many people may think of much of the city of Detroit being run down and decayed the Detroit Riverwalk is immensely beautiful. Also called the Detroit Riverfront, a local newspaper described it as “one of the jewels of Detroit. With panoramic views, it provides a breathtaking perspective on the beauty of the city, and the Detroit River”. The beauty of the river brings a large amount of attraction to the riverfront, and it changes people's perspectives of the city and the river.
The Detroit River has been around for many years. And because so many improvement were taking place on the river, the Detroit River Conservancy was launched in 2003. About 1$ billion since has been invested into improving the riverfront. As these improvements have taken place over the last decade or so it has provided 16,700 construction jobs to the city, which is about 1,300 jobs annually. This is a huge accomplishment has helped create many jobs that have been lost in other places.
The restoration efforts done on the Detroit Riverwalk has definitely helped the city in more ways than just construction jobs. The Detroit Riverwalk has become a place for social gathering, and overall a place people want to be in the city. Many events have started to take place on the beautiful riverfront such as fishing fests, exercise classes, food markets, and countless others. From just events alone in 2015, a total of 165,000 people attended them. And if that does not seem like a lot, more than 3 million people visit the riverwalk annually.
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So what does this mean for the economy? The beauty of the Detroit River and its riverwalk have left an astounding impact. As noted by the official Detroit River Conservancy, “annual spending by visitors, residents, employees, and other operations along the riverfront is estimated at $43.7 million”. With so many other parts of Detroit struggling economically, it is very important to note that the Detroit Riverwalk is not failing them. All thanks to the Detroit River.
Sadly, much of the economic history in the past few decades has been horrible to say the least. Even though the Detroit River has had trying times of its own, the river has never truly failed the city economically.