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by Bobbert » Thu Mar 30, 2023 12:41 pm
It looks like the turning point was in 1987, when many people in downtown Detroit started speaking against the festivals. After that, it seems like festivals started drifting to suburbs where the descendents of different ethnicities had settled, with festivals like the African World Festival and African-American Festival being the only remaining festivals.
Here's an article from the Detroit Free Press from 3/20/87:
City plans to limit youths at festivals
By TERESA BLOSSOM
Free Press Staff Writer
Unchaperoned young people will be banned from Detroit's ethnic festivals during certain hours this year to make the downtown riverfront events safer for families and adults, city Recreation Director Daniel Krichbaum said Thursday.
"We're going to disperse young people if they're too young to be down there without an adult," Krichbaum told the City Council. "Parents need to police their kids. Thirteen or 14 is not the appropriate age for kids to be downtown alone. There's a time they need to be at home or at a community center."
Krichbaum said details of the youth control plan are being finalized with police, who would have to enforce it.
The council adopted tighter curfews for young people last week, which Mayor Young has until Tuesday to approve or veto.
Krichbaum also said the city plans to install more lights in Hart Plaza and add more police for the weekend festivals, which close at midnight Friday and Saturday and at 10 p.m. Sunday.
Downtown merchants have complained in recent years that the festivals chase away customers, who worry about security and parking. Some renewed those complaints before the council Thursday.
"The ethnic festivals have brought business downtown, but now they keep business away," said Gerri Kelly, owner of Old Detroit tavern. "Some of my customers have told me they won't be back because of the festivals."
Jim Papas of the Greektown Merchants Association and Councilman Nicholas Hood suggested that the popular festivals have outlived their purpose of drawing people downtown.
"Times have changed," said Papas. "They have served a purpose. What was good 15 years ago doesn't have the same effect today."
Jim Richardson, a spokesman for Millender Center, said traffic congestion caused by the festivals made it hard for residents of the downtown complex to come and go last year.
Council members complained that the festivals have lost their ethnic flavor.
"People judge the ethnicity of a festival by the food," said Council-woman Barbara-Rose Collins. "It's all the same now. A festival is a festival. The same vendors are selling the same junk every week. We want ethnic junk."
The festivals are to begin this year on the weekend of April 24 with the Fine Foods Festival.