Chris Illich's Burden

In the fall of 2014, at the groundbreaking of the Red Wings new arena, the usual dignitaries showed up. The mayor, Mike Duggan, Detroit’s first non-African-American mayor since 1973, elected the year before, following the circus and embarrassment of Kwame Kilpatrick and friends, spoke of the arena as a development to add jobs, new businesses and housing to the desolate area of the Cass Corridor long populated by low-income residents, prostitutes, homeless veterans, drug pushers and transients.

Mike and Marion Illich, owners of the Red Wings, Tigers and founders of Little Caesar's pizza…