After a year of community engagement, the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department will present its recommendations for improving the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood.

Neighbors in Jefferson Chalmers say their top priorities for improving the neighborhood were creating a vibrant business district along Jefferson Avenue, improvements to local parks and recreation centers, increased safety, stabilizing residential areas and blight removal.

The pink lights on the corner of East Jefferson Ave. and Chalmers are what caught my attention first.

They glowed rosily in the evening darkness; a welcoming, cheerful shade of pink that looked warm and inviting. This was Busted Bra Shop’s newest location in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood.

It’s a time of mourning for Sears, the iconic department store that announced its bankruptcy filing Monday morning. And though Sears didn’t have its origins or footprint in Detroit (we had Kresge’s, Crowley’s, and, of course, Hudson’s), the chain from which so much of modern Americana was purchased has links all over this city. 

A community meeting related to Detroit’s ongoing Strategic Neighborhood Fund efforts will be held Tuesday, October 9, in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood.

Public discussion will be encouraged at the meeting to discuss the area’s neighborhood framework plan. The meeting is hosted by the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department.

The meeting will be held from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. at the Salvation Army, 3000 Conner Street in Detroit.

For more information, visit detroitmi.gov/pdd.

It’s been a big month for development news in Detroit. With Chemical Bank announcing it is moving its headquarters to a soon-to-be-constructed skyscraper downtown, the groundbreaking of the Gordie Howe International Bridge Crossing and other projects, we’re getting ready to see a lot more cranes in the sky. 

But here’s one development that’s not happening: Anything new regarding the public Maheras Gentry park in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood.

A community meeting will be held on July 17 for residents in and around the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood to discuss improvements to the area.

The meeting is hosted by the City of Detroit’s Planning and Development Department and will gather resident feedback on proposed development in the area.

The meeting will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the East Lake Baptist Church on 12400 E. Jefferson Ave.

For more information, visit www.detroitmi.gov/PDD.

On a chilly day in April, Brian Peterson is wearing canvas sneakers speckled with gold-painted bumbleees. At just the right angle — it was fairly cloudy that day, but just enough of the sun broke through — the shiny gold reflects light. 

The word of the hour here in Jefferson-Chalmers on the east side is potential.

There was potential five years ago when Tammy Black moved to Manistique Street from Airport Sub, potential when Gail Beasley moved here 35 years ago and potential when Betty Mills moved here in 1970.

Each of the women here say they all saw the potential to raise their families here, and they did. Now they’re looking to see what potential other children in the neighborhood have.

Thirty-five years ago, Gail Beasley says she went to Cobo Center and bought a home for a dollar. She didn’t know where the house was.

“I had no idea where Lakewood was. Never heard of it. And when they drove me out here, I said where in the world are we going, to the end of the world?” she says.

It was an athletic feat. At Cobo, pictures were hung on a wall, and “they said whoever wants this house, you’ll have to get the picture off the wall. You had to to do the 100-yard-dash, and well, you know, I beat everybody.”