Community Corner

Patch of History: Can We Really Have Too Many Restaurants?

A "Patch of History" is a weekly feature that looks at Royal Oak's rich and amazing history.

Downtown Royal Oak has become a destination for diners in Metro Detroit due to an abundance and variety of food options but some residents are hungry for something more. Specifically, there are those that say restaurants and bars are cannibalizing retail options in the city's downtown area.

Four decades ago, Royal Oakers were also fed up with restaurants, bellyaching that 43 restaurants along the city's four-mile Woodward Avenue strip was enough.

In 1971, city officials halted restaurant construction by passing an emergency measure that barred authorizing a building permit for a restaurant unless 60 percent of homeowners within 500 feet of the site approved. The passed ordinance only held for 90 days.

Not only do the restaurants cause "noxious odors of steak, fried potatoes and garbage," Royal Oak Mayor James Cline told the Daily Tribune at the time, "but there are so many that three already have failed from the stiff competition and now are boarded up."

Cline contended in the early 1970s there were more eating places per mile along Royal Oak's stretch of Woodward than any other road in the county.

"There's one place that's full 24 hours a day and the lot is so small the people practically have to back into traffic to get out," Cline told the Tribune.

In 1965, the city had to pass a "no cruising ordinance" to stop motorists from lining up on Woodward just to drive through restaurant parking lots, according to the Tribune report.

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