Live6 Alliance is pleased to announce the completion of “Livernois Outdoors,” designed to make life better in the Livernois McNichols community for businesses, residents and visitors alike. To assist restaurants in expanding their operations safely and to encourage people to dine on the beautifully renovated Avenue of Fashion, Live6 purchased outdoor tables, chairs, umbrellas and planters for seven businesses, which will help ensure a vibrant neighborhood during these challenging times.
Made possible by the generosity of the Kresge and Hudson-Webber Foundations, the Live6 Small Business Outdoor Accommodations and Improvements Project — “Livernois Outdoors” — has provided outdoor seating to Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, Noni’s Sherwood Grill, Good Cakes and Bakes, Kuzzo’s Chicken and Waffles, Narrow Way Cafe, Yoshi Hibachi Grill and Durden’s.
“The goal is to drive customers, residents and folks from all over the region to these eateries,” said Live6 Alliance Executive Director Dr. Geneva Williams, “as well as use the brand new 16-foot-wide sidewalks that were installed last year as part of the City’s Livernois Streetscape Project.”
“Restaurants need to create space to re-open safely and responsibly, expanding outdoors, to welcome more guest,” said Williams. “This project responds to the needs of our partner businesses and we are thrilled with their response, as is evidenced in the attached social media post from our colleagues at Narrow Way Café.
Helping small businesses succeed and flourish is crucial to the Live6 Alliance mission, serving the Fitzgerald, Bagley, University District and Martin Park neighborhoods and beyond.
Antoine M. Garibaldi, Ph.D., president of the University of Detroit Mercy and the chairman of the Live6 Alliance Executive Board, thanked the City of Detroit, the funders, the Live6 team and, most importantly, the local businesses for their collaboration.
“At the Alliance we say ‘Together we thrive’ and this project is another great example of how everyone benefits from working together,” Garibaldi said. “Seeing families and friends enjoying a meal together on Livernois is the epitome of what this neighborhood is about,” he added.
“This is an exciting project, but what is even more exciting is the way efforts in the Livernois McNichols neighborhoods reinforce one another and magnify collective impact,” explained Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of Kresge’s Detroit Program. “Façade improvements, public art, the Reimagining the Civic Commons efforts to tie green walkways to the recently created Fitzgerald Park, the opening of Neighborhood Homebase, and now Livernois Outdoors are celebrating the legacy of this neighborhood and creating new opportunities.
“Kresge is proud to have supported this work since the launch of Live 6 – almost exactly five years ago on August 31, 2015. We look forward to witnessing even more great progress led by this community,” Jackson added.
Recently, Live6 distributed face masks, disinfectant, hand sanitizer and more to area businesses as they emerged from lockdown. The Alliance is also providing grant money via its Business Facade Initiative, as well serving as liaison between the neighborhoods and the newest streetscape project, now under construction along McNichols from Livernois to Wyoming.
“Delivering the means to convene community activity and enrichment — that’s what we do at Live6,” said Williams. “Together, we thrive.”
For more information about the Live6 Alliance, please visit https://live6detroit.org/
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