- [Bryce] Detroit's Riverwalk is one of the city's main attractions.

About 3.5 million people visit the Riverfront every year, according to the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.

It was also voted the best Riverwalk in America three years in a row by "USA Today."

But back in the late 90s, there was a plan that would've completely changed the Riverfront we have now.

This is the story of that plan and the grassroots group that fought to make sure it didn't happen.

- The Riverfront East Alliance, or REAL, was first formed in 1998 as a community response to Mayor Dennis Archer's decision to move casinos to the East Riverfront, and our goal was to save the East Riverfront to make it into something more like a public park, something that was clean, green and accessible for everyone.

- [Bryce] Carol Weisfeld is a longtime resident of the Lafayette Park neighborhood.

We sat down with her at Robert Valade Park on the city's Riverfront east of downtown.

Like others in the area who heard of this plan, Weisfeld wasn't a fan.

- The idea that the Riverfront was going to be a casino district and that the highway to the casinos would go like right near where I lived, right underneath people's, you know, apartment windows was just infuriating.

- [Bryce] Weisfeld said a group of about 200 people met to discuss ways to stop the casino district plan.

- And two leaders emerged from that, Bob Jackman and Evelyn Johnston, both of who have passed away, and they got us organized and mobilized, and within two months, we were the Riverfront East Alliance, getting our 501(c)4 documentation so we could accept donations.

- [Bryce] About a dozen Detroit neighborhoods, mostly east of downtown, got involved in this fight.

Dan Wiest is another longtime Detroit resident and REAL member.

- The big fear back then was it was gonna be like another Atlantic City and the crime that might come with it.

- [Bryce] Steve Wasko also got involved in this grassroots movement early on.

- And the kinds of things that we somewhat take for granted today in terms of that there would be community involvement and there would be the opportunity for the community to literally come and devise what are the community benefits for the community benefits committees and that sort of stuff would've been so far off the radar at that point in time.

- [Bryce] REAL members shared information with each other at a time when tools like social media didn't exist.

- We would print 3,000 newsletters, and we had a list of people who volunteered, and they would just put 'em in people's doors or people's mailboxes, and so the community mobilized in a way that we never even imagined.

They wanted good information.

- [Steve] Just the monthly meeting kept us all to your next deadline and what you needed to do but also was like that focus if you needed to invite other people or a time to invite city representatives.

- We had a database of up to 400 people that we would have to communicate with email, but we had employees of the city, you know, on the down low who were giving us information, but we also within our area had architects and lawyers and planners who knew what to do.

- Eventually, REAL had enough residents pushing back to jeopardize the city's casino plans.

Ultimately, the residents who united won.

The casino district plan had failed, but that wasn't the end of the grassroots group.

A public-private partnership involving the city and General Motors took shape.

Tell me a little bit about how GM got involved and what it meant for REAL going forward.

- We would meet through these design sessions at Stroh River Place at the time, and in the early sessions, you know, there'd be some general conceptions about now that we are not gonna have casinos, what do we do with the river?

Because it's one thing to say we're gonna have public park land.

It's another thing to say how that's gonna take shape.

- Tell me about the Riverfront Conservancy and its role with REAL.

- They were interested in getting our input into things like what should the benches look like?

What should the railings look like?

It just felt like they respected us, you know, and they understood that the city is nothing without the people, you know?

It's the people that make the city.

- REAL dissolved in 2017.

What first led to REAL dissolving?

- One of our mandates was quality of life in the area, and there were the casinos and then the development with the Riverfront Conservancy, and as some issues would come up, we had the infrastructure to deal with that.

We were trying to get more shopping, grocery stores and such in the district, but we got those things and they were taken care of, and so there were fewer issues, I think, or, - Yeah.

- that came up that needed to be dealt with and- - And we just kind of got old and tired, I think, and some of our leaders like Evelyn Johnston and Bob Jackman passed away, and I think we just sort of felt like it was time to say, "Okay, we did her job."

- [Bryce] What does the Riverfront mean to you personally, and why is it important that we preserve spaces like this?

- [Steve] We've learned the Riverwalk and the Riverfront's ability to draw just a incredibly diverse set of individuals, and what we've been able to create here or one of the added benefits to that is something that has been a draw for folks of all ages and colors and backgrounds.

- [Carol] And I also love the fact that they can just go down to the water and sit and just be quiet and just immerse themselves in nature and their own thoughts, and that that is so healthy for the human spirit.

(water laps)