For our first Challenge, Fellows partnered with MACC Development. For an introduction to Year 5 Fellows, read the first in our three part blog series here.

Close your eyes, and imagine what you see when you see Mack Avenue in the future. Ezekiel Harris, Challenge Detroit Alumni Fellow and Executive Director of MACC Development, does the opposite as his eyes widen and face tightens, his calm, relaxed demeanor interrupted. He pauses. His eyes close, his face contorts for just a moment as he grasps for that place of familiarity… and then, finds tranquility:

“The bell for the door from The Commons just went off. I’m walking outside and I see a couple enjoying their lunch, right on the sidewalk. Some of the other businesses are open, even one’s playing some music, as people are just hanging out. The children are playing in the park and from far away you can almost hear their laughter. And as I look up, at the street pole, it says “Mack Avenue”.

This is MACC Development’s collective vision for its community’s not so far off future. Harris, just a few months into his stint as MACC’s Executive Director, speaks with wide eyed fervor and certainty that’s contagious. And why not be? Founded in 2010, what started as one Church’s community outreach efforts rapidly emerges as an entire area code’s call for unified change. MACC’s mission?  “seeking the holistic revitalization of Detroit’s 48214 community, block by block, neighbor by neighbor”.

MACC offers a wide swath of services, including Legal, Housing, Tutoring, and Sports programming for the area code’s youth. But this isn’t just another non-profit trying to provide basic community services. The organization, along with Harris, wants to strive for something much bigger. The community’s primary divide is a physical staple ingrained within infrastructural roots – the street itself. “Mack Avenue serves as a divide between two communities that don’t really know one another.” Zeke explains. Ultimately, MACC (and Zeke) ask one vital question:

One concept introduced by fellows as MACC’s new logo

“How do we create an experience around bringing these two different groups together?”

After all, Zeke acknowledges with an air of knowing, “My community is Pingree Park, my community is Indian Village, my community is West Village. And organizationally that helps me care for everyone in those communities, and personally that lets me go through these streets and feel safe there”.

MACC Residents sit around a fire at CD’s “Real Talk on MACC” event.

Unity. Shared Experiences. Diversity…all coming together block by block, neighbor by neighbor.

This is where Mack’s most ambitious and promising project to date comes in  – the one that Zeke envisions ever so clearly as becoming a staple of his community. The Commons, a Coffee Shop/Laundromat, invites all members of the diverse area code in, whether to grab a high quality coffee, study in the soon to be completed space’s upstairs lounge, or complete a quick load of laundry while you wait for a child to get out of a morning tutoring session hosted by MACC Lit in the classrooms downstairs.

Pictured: 7900 Mack, soon to be The Commons

The Commons,  a $1.25 million dollar project, opens within the next year, marking what will undoubtedly be the game changing year that Zeke claims he can practically feel coming.

“I think, over the next year, maybe year and a half, there’s going to be a lot of change that comes to this area. That’s what excites me the most, the knowing – not just thinking, or believing, but knowing that things are about to change”.

Not sure about the future of Detroit? Just go talk with Ezekiel Harris. Soon, you’ll know.