David Josar / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- This city, well known for its grit and love of cars, is making a push to become a mecca for gay living.
On Sunday, the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender) & Friends Detroit Home Tour will kick off an effort by the city to showcase five neighborhoods, all just south of Eight Mile, that will be touted as an alternative to living in Ferndale, Royal Oak or other areas considered gay-friendly.
"This is the up-and-coming place," said Dale Morgan, chairman of the event, who is moving with partner Norm Silk from a Palmer Woods mansion to a West Seven Mile home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. "As a gay person going into the suburbs, I am very guarded. I have a business in Birmingham but I don't appreciate having people shout obscenities at me ... I don't have that in Detroit."
The inaugural tour is a collaborative effort between the city and neighborhood groups. Officials hope the city's tolerance, housing stock and artistic community will be selling points -- and negatives such as the city's struggling school system will be less of a deterrent than for traditional families.
"We can offer you a quality of life that is very different than in suburban communities," said Kim Tandy, a Detroit homeowner and program manager for University Commons. "There are interesting people. There are interesting homes."
Still, even to those who embrace the idea, like Ferndale Mayor Craig Covey, wonder if the city missed its window of opportunity. Many left the city for southern Oakland County in the 1980s because of crime.
"It's a great idea, but maybe it's too late," said Covey, who added Detroit is the only major U.S. city he knows without a "gay section" of any sort.
The tour will start at the Detroit Golf Club near Palmer Woods, and minibuses will take people to tour five homes in five neighborhoods. Then in each area, agents will host open houses for properties that are currently on the market. A cocktail hour with open bar at the golf club will follow. More than 300 are expected.
"The idea is like a fraternity, sorority rush, where you go through a rush a neighborhood and get to meet your neighbors," said Brad Dick, Detroit's deputy director of general services and one of the organizers. "A lot of gay folk may not have necessarily close family ties or families of their own, so the idea it to create a family atmosphere."
It's unclear whether more gays and lesbians are returning to Detroit since no group tracks such populations.
But "Between The Lines," a free-distribution weekly newspaper for the gay community, has seen an uptick in Detroit circulation as well as more advertising from Detroit-based businesses, said co-publisher Jan Stevenson.
At Menjo's, a gay dance club near Palmer Woods, the economy has hurt business, but the number of new patrons is increasing, said Jared Doyle, a bartender.
"I don't know why, but there's a change going on," Doyle said.
The move comes months after the City Council amended its human rights ordinance to protect "gender identity or expression," and downtown Detroit hosted 2,000 people for a national conference by the National Task Force on Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Equality.
Still, some say Detroit's crime remains an obstacle to attracting residents of all orientations. A report by the Detroit-based Triangle Foundation, a nonprofit that combats violence and discrimination against the gay community, found that anti-gay hate crimes in Michigan jumped from 97 in 2006 to 226 in 2007, a 133 percent increase.
Although the number wasn't broken down by city -- they will be for the 2008 tallies -- Melissa Pope, the director of victim services for the group, said "it's hard to tell" if Detroit is becoming more tolerant of people who lead alternative lifestyles.
"I think it's still a pretty mixed bag," she said.
Pope pointed to several violent crimes in the past 21 months that could be hate crimes.
In one case, 72-year-old gay activist Andrew Anthos died in February 2007 after he was allegedly assaulted after leaving a city bus. In February, a transgender woman who worked as a prostitute was killed. In June, Detroit Police found the body of a well-known gay hairdresser dumped in the east side after being brutally beaten. His car was also stolen.
"Why is violence up? When the economy is bad, crime increases," said Pope of the Triangle Foundation.
Covey, Ferndale's mayor, said Detroit has a strong gay population in the '70s and '80s, said "gay folks like older Victorian homes, they'll put up with some crime."
But a number of violent beatings and homicides in Palmer Park, which had been a gay enclave in the Detroit more than two decades ago, drove people out.
Many other cities, Morgan said, have had success in marketing themselves as gay-friendly communities. "Leadership can make a difference," he said.
For example, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley spent $3.9 million on public art, such as elaborate rainbows and other improvements, in 1999 to spur transformation of one neighborhood into what is now known as "Boystown," considered the nation's first gay neighborhood.
Given the national economy and record number of foreclosures, organizers aren't expecting a flood of home purchases after the sale but want to simply plant the seed of an idea.
"I don't expect us to sell 50 homes, but a couple would be great," said Dick. "But if there's a cocktail party and Joe and Bob say 'Hey, do you remember that nice neighborhood with all the nice people? ... let's think about moving there.' That's what we want to see happen."
You can reach David Josar at (313) 222-2073 or djosar@detnews.com.