By Bill Kubota and Nicole Macdonald

Residents in Detroit’s Core City neighborhood didn’t want a concrete crusher operating near their homes.

They were concerned concrete dust and truck traffic would damage their quality of life and impede residential redevelopment in the area that borders North Corktown, just west of the Woodbridge neighborhood.

Residents mobilized against the proposed crusher. This is the story of how they stopped it. 

One Detroit Senior Producer Bill Kubota and One Detroit Contributor Nicole Macdonald produced a documentary — shot over two years from late 2022 to 2024 — showing how residents and activists worked together to keep the concrete crusher out and prevent heavy industry from coming into the neighborhood in the future.

Health and environmental concerns

Core City is within eyeshot view of downtown Detroit, not far from The Station at Michigan Central, the iconic railroad depot recently restored by Ford Motor Company in Corktown.

There are many open fields on empty streets where houses used to be as well as urban farms, homes occupied by longtime residents and new homes with owners moving into the area.

In late 2022, residents were concerned about the environmental impact a crusher could have so they started a campaign to stop it from coming to Core City. Concrete crushing facilities are important for recycling materials that can be used to build new roads. Crushers in other neighborhoods have emitted dust, causing health concerns for nearby residents.

Kenneth Rosenman, MD, a professor of Occupational Medicine at Michigan State University, said being near facilities like concrete crushers could exacerbate health conditions such as asthma and emphysema.

“These should not be by schools, they should not be … in residential neighborhoods,” he said.

Other people nearby could also be impacted. Emissions from concrete facilities can travel one to two miles, BridgeDetroit reporter Jena Brooker said.

“It’s not just going to affect whatever neighborhood it’s going to go into,” she said. “It’s going to affect multiple neighborhoods.”

Campaign against the crusher underway

Vanessa Serna, a native of Toronto, Canada, moved to the Core City neighborhood in 2022.

“People like me move here,” Serna said. “And then this happens.”

She, like many others, didn’t want to live near a concrete crushing operation. Serna was instrumental in the fight to stop the crusher from coming to the neighborhood.

Core City residents got help from people in Detroit’s Grandmont Rosedale neighborhoods who successfully stopped an asphalt plant from operating there in 2021.

Pam Weinstein, a Grandmont Rosedale resident, said she contacted Serna when she learned about the proposed crusher in Core City.

“I wanted to share with her as many of the lessons that we had learned,” she said. “And as many of the strategies that worked for us.”

Stakeholders make their case

Others invested in the Core City community like urban farmer Andy Chae were also involved in the effort to keep to the crusher out.

Chae grows crops in Core City that he delivers to Detroit area restaurants.

“People always ask us: ‘Is the soil safe? What about the air pollution?’” Chae recounted. “These are all valid questions.”

Eleanor Parnell has been a Core City resident all her life. She lives about 600 feet away from the proposed crusher site and worried about noise and increased traffic.

Speaking at a rally in April 2023, Parnell said there are other things the neighborhood needed.

“We’re still attempting to get new housing and new stores and new businesses that are going to be beneficial for our neighborhood,” she said.

City officials respond

In July 2023, residents and activists boarded a bus headed for city hall. They appeared before Detroit’s Board of Zoning Appeals, arguing officials should deny an operating permit for the proposed concrete crusher.

“I’m happy you all showed up,” said Board of Zoning Appeals member Robert Thomas. “Typically, when people do not engage and they don’t show up, it could go the other way.”

While many Core City residents testified, nobody appeared in support of the crusher.

The board denied the permit, but the fight wasn’t over. Residents wanted to end any possibility the crusher could operate near them – now or in the future.

They campaigned to get their neighborhood rezoned. The change they pushed for, called downzoning, would permit light industry and residential properties and prohibit all heavy industry, including concrete crushers.

Ultimately, their strategy worked.

In April 2024, the Detroit City Planning Commission voted in favor of downzoning Core City. Five months later, in September 2024, Detroit City Council also approved the change, making it official.

People associated with the proposed crusher didn’t return messages left by One Detroit.

Reporter Jena Brooker, who has covered environmental issues for One Detroit’s media partner BridgeDetroit, said she has noticed residents are fighting back more lately against heavy industry.

“I do think that residents are becoming less tolerant of living so close to industry,” she said.

Core City moves forward

Since the zoning change, Core City has seen new development, including the opening of the acclaimed restaurant, Puma.

Chef Javier Bardauil, a native of Argentina and now a Core City resident, runs it and another restaurant nearby.

“I think it’s crazy to have a concrete crusher in the neighborhood,” he said.

Serna, who helped organize a campaign against the crusher, has since moved from Detroit. She said she’s not someone who likes to stay in one place too long.

Before leaving for the west coast in 2024, she talked about the fight to keep heavy industry out of Core City and said she hopes it sets a precedent.

“If you want to attract more people to come live here … then this is a no brainer,” she said.

Sandy Hopkins still lives nearby, proud of the campaign she was part of that Serna helped lead.

“Sometimes all it takes is one voice to inspire a community to give them confidence to fight for their own lives,” she said.

This documentary was produced by Bill Kubota and Nicole Macdonald with support from BridgeDetroit reporter Jenna Brooker.