Businesses along Michigan Avenue join to form Corktown Project Green Light commercial corridor

• Michigan Ave in Corktown is city’s 2nd Green Light Corridor
• Detroit PAL offices & 5 restaurants and bars join Green Light, more expected to follow
• Project Green Light now has 425 participating businesses citywide

Several prominent businesses in Detroit’s oldest neighborhood have come together to form the city’s second Project Green Light Commercial Corridor, Mayor Mike Duggan and Police Chief James Craig announced today.  The new cluster marks another expansion of the Detroit Police Department’s popular high-tech crime reduction program, which started just three years ago with 8 gas stations and now has 425 participating businesses across the city.

A half-dozen of Corktown’s most well-known establishments along Michigan Avenue, including the new Detroit Police Athletic League headquarters and McShane’s Irish Pub, have signed on as partners in the innovative and successful public safety program run by the Detroit Police Department.  The other Corktown partners to join the program include Detroit Institute of Bagels, Ottava Via, Brooklyn Street Local and PJ’s Lager House.

Each partnering business in the Corktown Project Green Light Commercial Corridor program has installed exterior cameras that feed live video back to the city’s Real Time Crime Center, which is staffed 24/7 by DPD personnel.  Detroit PAL also has installed an interior camera near the public entrance. 

"The Detroit Police Athletic League is excited to participate in the Green Light Program along with our Corktown neighborhood partners,” said Tim Richey, CEO of Detroit PAL. “We're extremely grateful to Mayor Duggan and the Detroit Police Department for initiating the program, and we're glad to help establish safe and walkable communities for everyone."

Since Project Green Light was launched in January 2016 participating businesses received more than 50,000 special patrol visits from DPD this year alone.  In the nearly three years since its inception, Project Green Light has spread from its initial 8 gas stations to include hundreds of other businesses, including restaurants, party stores, apartment buildings, car washes and more.

“Project Green Light is growing at its fastest pace since we launched it nearly three years ago,” said Mayor Mike Duggan.  “That speaks to the success and popularity of the program in neighborhoods across the city and the positive impact it is having on our community.”

Modeled after successful Greektown corridor

Corktown’s Michigan Avenue corridor is the second for Project Green Light.  In January, 11 Greektown businesses joined to form the first PGL commercial corridor under a similar format.

The Corktown partner businesses have entered into a three-year agreement to receive high-definition cameras (including installation and maintenance), cloud storage of video for up to 30 days and internet connectivity.  Businesses may pay anywhere between $200 and $300 monthly for the services, depending on their size, the number of cameras and their Internet Service Provider.

Rocket Fiber, a Detroit-based fiber-optic internet and technology provider with a Data Center in the Corktown neighborhood, worked with a number of Corktown businesses to facilitate the installation of Green Light Cameras and internet connectivity.  The company will provide ongoing service maintenance for those sites and other existing Rocket Fiber clients on Michigan Avenue.

“Rocket Fiber is honored to partner with the City of Detroit and these Corktown Green Light partners to help provide a safer place for Detroiters and visitors alike in the Corktown neighborhood,” said Marc Hudson, Co-founder and CEO at Rocket Fiber. “We have always sought to create a socially supportive fiber network for everyone. Knowing that our technology is helping to service our community follows the mission of our organization, where we always strive to provide the best possible product to the City we call home.”

Comcast, our largest Green Light provider,  installed cameras and internet connection for the Detroit PAL headquarters and will continue to offer their services to all interested businesses on Michigan Avenue as the company is doing across the city.  

“Project Green Light is an outstanding program that can enhance the safety of all businesses in the city of Detroit, not just those that stay open past dark,” said Tim Collins, senior vice president of Comcast in Michigan. “As a strong supporter of Detroit PAL, we are pleased to see them join this important movement through Comcast to help keep Detroit safe.”

How the Green Light Corridor program works

In order to be considered a Green Light Corridor, at least five closely-situated businesses in a corridor must sign on as partners.  A key incentive for businesses to join Project Green Light as a corridor is that they partner with neighborhing  businesses for greater camera coverage which makes the program financially accessible to more businesses. As with all Green Light partners, video from corridor businesses will be monitored at the Detroit Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center.  They also will receive regular visits from DPD officers. 

“Project Green Light gives our business owners in the city of Detroit a platform to be involved in creating a safer environment for not only their patrons, but for all who live work and play in this city,” said Chief James Craig. “The Green Light Corridor partnership is another great example of how we can work together to  help create a safe community for everyone.”

For Green Light partners across the city, each business has a flashing green light; however, Green Light Corridors will have illuminated signs attached to light poles along the corridor.  Unlike individual Green Light locations, who are required to have high definition cameras inside and outside, businesses along the Green Light Corridor – mostly bars and restaurants – will be required only to have them on the outside.   Along the Michigan Avenue corridor, there are 18 cameras and 5 illuminated corridor signs. Camera placement is determined by DPD.

"We have definitely seen a decrease in automobile break-ins since the inception of our Green Light corridor. It has had an impact,” said McShane’s Irish Pub owner Bob Roberts. “And our neighborhood police officers can't say enough about the importance of the green light cameras as an investigative tool. They are working to make Michigan Avenue safer."

For more information on Project Green Light Detroit, visit greenlightdetroit.org.