Declining Detroit may become undead.
A Detroit entrepreneur has proposed a controversial plan to help inject new life into the struggling city: creating a zombie-themed amusement park in the abandoned streets of downtown Motown.
Marc Siwak garnered media attention this week from as far away as London after he posted an investment proposal on in-dependent fundraising site In diegogo, hoping to build something called Z World Detroit.
"Let's take a big negative, the blight, and flip it into a positive," Siwak, 40, who has lived in the Detroit area most of his life, told The Star this week. "We have big abandoned factories and people seem fascinated by them. You see people crawling around the old Packard Plant on the east side all the time. Why not take advantage of that?"
Siwak has raised more than $3,000 toward his goal of $140,000 to create a full proposal, though he acknowledges the project would cost much more than that.
His zombie plan sprang to life after he heard Mayor Dave Bing's suggestion of cutting services to under-used portions of the city to save costs. The 2010 census shows Detroit's population fell to little more than 700,000, from a peak of almost 1.9 million in 1950. Detroit has been grappling with a $200-million budget deficit and $13.2 billion in long-term debt.
"This idea came directly from the mayor's proposal to essentially abandon parts of the city," said Siwak, a financial adviser who works in Detroit and who lives in Clawson, Mich. "It got me thinking, 'Really, that's the best we can do?'"
Better than abandonment, Siwak thought, is invasion. Specifically, a zombie invasion.
The plan: visitors would pay a fee to enter Z World - with its real Motor City backdrop - only to be chased by hordes of zombies. As the game progressed, more zombies would amass, adding to the post-apocalyptic free-for-all as players searched for supplies and a home base.
Call it Z in the D. Abandoned buildings would have to be rendered safe, of course. Land would have to be bought. Permits approved. Safety standards passed.
But Siwak sees potential in decay.
The idea has been cheered, but also ridiculed.
Curbed Detroit blogger Sarah Cox wrote that the plan "sounds a lot like all that fun we had during the 1960s race riots."
She also said: "It's nice to know Z Land is finally going to capitalize on our love of adrenalin rushes and nostalgia. Now even visitors from the 'burbs can 'wonder if they will make it through the night.'"
City officials have declined to respond to the idea.
But Siwak says his grand plan stems from a love of Detroit.
"I don't want this to be viewed as ripping on Detroit," Siwak said. "This would bring jobs. And interest. I would just like to see Detroit resurrected to its former grandeur."
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