NORTHVILLE, Mich. (WXYZ) — Northville's Social District has returned for the season, partially closing off two downtown streets to drivers and opening the space for pedestrians.
The closure, which began as a pandemic measure, has evolved into a seasonal tradition that divides the community.
Watch Christiana Ford's report below:
Retractable bollards now block portions of Center and Main streets in downtown Northville and will remain in place until Nov. 1.
As spring arrives, downtown Northville is transforming its streets into pedestrian spaces.
"This is a pergola. It's going to be part of our bar that we are doing outside in the summer time," said Phil Zacharias, co-owner of Center Street Grill.
For Zacharias, the social district's street closures coincide with their busiest season.
"People in the summer time, they want to do whatever they can to be outside. So for us, this is like a game changer," Zacharias said.
The six-month closure was initially created to keep downtown Northville vibrant during the pandemic but has evolved into an annual seasonal closure the community has grown to expect.
"Being able to listen to live music, walk around with drinks, you just always run into people that you know. It's awesome," Northville resident Craig Conrad said.
"I enjoy it. It can be an inconvenience when you want to go to Plymouth or something, but it's only for a short time, so it's not bad," said Jenny Mortenson, Northville resident.
But not everyone supports the street closures.
Prudence Kauffman, owner of Dear Prudence and Blackbird, says the lack of traffic is diminishing sales.
"When we signed our leases, we pay rates based on 36,000 cars a week passing by our doors and when the streets are closed, we have zero," Kauffman said. "When you take volume down by that amount, it really does hurt your bottom line."
Watch our extended interview with Prudence Kauffman below:
Kauffman is considering relocating to another city because of the impact.
"I mean, we don't get a discount from our landlord. We're paying the same high rent," she said.
Frustrations over the closure and questions about its legality sparked a lawsuit against the city in 2023 by group Let's Open Northville.
While the city won't comment on ongoing legal matters, Mayor Brian Turnbull says he's listening to concerns.
"The opportunity is traffic. We're looking at that. We're trying to be flexible. We put bollards in last year so maybe sometime, we'll open up one street or we'll go on weekends," Turnbull said.
Hear more from Turnbull in the video below:
He says the bollards allows them to be more flexible.
"We're looking at what it is, monitoring what the businesses want, what our citizens and the whole community. It's pretty important. If you don't have a strong downtown business sector, you won't have a strong community. So we're looking at all the data. We do a lot of surveys. We're doing that right now," Turnbull said.
Kauffman is hoping for compromise.
"We're looking forward to just some resolution because I feel like it's just been really unhealthy for the town as a whole to have so many people on one side or the other, and it's just caused a lot of animosity. So I think I'll just be glad to have some kind of a decision," she said.
Frank Gonda, who lives at the intersection, has seen how heated the topic has become in the community.
"The way things are right now, problems are being made problems when they aren't really. It's just a simple matter of perspective. If you're looking at it a certain way and you're not open to anything else, that's going to be a problem for ya," Gonda said.
A trial on the future of the bollards is set for June.
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