When Live6 Alliance was founded in 2015, its mission sounded straightforward. Serve as a bridge between institutions, businesses and residents along Detroit’s Livernois and McNichols corridors.

The reality was complex.

Vacant storefronts lined McNichols, which is also known as Six Mile. Historic homes needed repair. Longtime residents, the people who carried Detroit through its hardest times, often felt overlooked as investment skipped past their blocks.

A decade later, progress is visible.

Restaurants, clothing boutiques and art galleries are bringing new life to a stretch of Livernois called the Avenue of Fashion. New streetscapes, updated lighting and bike lanes have reshaped public infrastructure on Livernois and West McNichols. Pocket parks and public art signal pride and momentum. Most importantly, neighbors are showing up and leading.

“When Live6 started, we were a team of one,” says Executive Director Caitlin Murphy. “Our focus was on listening and convening. We were advocates. Today we are stewards of place. We are working closely with block clubs and neighborhood associations to implement projects, manage assets and align partners and dollars so that the entire district moves forward.”

That shift from planning to doing shows up everywhere.

Live6 supports home repairs and tangled title work through its Heirs Property Program. It offers more concerted business support, from retention and attraction to workshops with lenders and local partners, including the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, Small Business Administration, and the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project out of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Businesses. Live6 hosts these workshops, community meetings and programs out of its headquarters, Neighborhood HomeBase, which is located at 7426 W. McNichols. HomeBase is a flexible community space that doubles as the Alliance’s primary office.

“HomeBase serves as one of our key neighborhood gathering spaces,” Murphy says. “On a weekly basis, block clubs meet here free of charge. We host workshops with the local service providers, home repair information sessions, and even art shows from time to time. We are also a tech hub and a Connect313 site so residents can drop in to use computers and Wi-Fi and get support from one of our Digital Navigators or Community Tech Consultants in order to pay bills online, or get help with their websites or social media if they are local entrepreneurs.”

The results include both physical improvements and social fabric. “There has been an uptick in civic life and participation,” Murphy says. “People pop into HomeBase every day to ask what we do because they notice the visual difference on the corridor. New businesses are coming along, and people want to learn more and get involved.”

For Murphy, the proudest moments are in the everyday scenes. “The bike lanes can be controversial, but I smile when I see kids rollerblading in them or an older resident riding to run errands,” she says. “I love driving down Prairie and seeing a full basketball game in action with dozens of teenagers on the sidelines waiting to play. There is real vibrancy in the public realm, and that matters for social connection and mental wellbeing.”

Live6’s anchor partnerships have been foundational. “If it was not for University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) at the beginning, we would not be the healthy organization we are today,” Murphy says. “They provided back-office support and helped us get started. With Marygrove, it has been powerful to see the campus transform into a cradle-to-career community asset. Residents tell us their children just started at the early childhood center or enrolled in the high school. It is becoming the community’s campus.”

Over the years, trust has deepened by putting residents at the center of implementation.

“We are in a moment of planning fatigue,” Murphy says. “To combat this, we started bringing people in weekly to work alongside us. We hire local caterers and lawn crews. We help entrepreneurs form LLCs (limited liability company) so they can be permanent vendors. Most of our staff were born, raised or live here now. We are investing in people as we grow the place.”

Looking ahead, Live6 has clear goals. “Success in the next 10 years looks like more active commercial real estate on the corridor and longer hours for existing businesses,” Murphy says. “We want to complete more home repairs and help more families secure the resources necessary to preserve and build wealth. We were just designated a select-level Michigan Main Street community, a five-year partnership with the MEDC  (Michigan Economic Development Corporation) that will accelerate our stewardship of our commercial corridors. Expect more business crawls, facade improvements and interior supports along with outdoor patios that bring energy and customers to the street.”

The vision is block-by-block, node-by-node. “We started with a micro-district on West McNichols,” Murphy says. “Now we are pursuing a few key sites to activate both sides of the street and create another node of retail closer to Wyoming, directly across from the Marygrove Campus. Retail likes retail across the street. When we do that, the rest can fill in more organically. This is long-game, multi-generational work.”

For many residents the work is generational and personal.

“Everyone seems to have ties to this neighborhood,” Murphy says. “My grandfather had a hair salon on Livernois in the 1960s. My grandma graduated from Immaculata High School. My mom has worked at University of Detroit Mercy for 40 years. I graduated from UDM’s Master of Community Development program and did my capstone project with Live6’s first executive director. I have been part of this from the start, and I am grateful to be afforded the opportunity to lead the organization today.”

If she had to choose one word for the next decade, Murphy does not hesitate. “Catalytic,” she says. “The strategies we are putting in place will spur more growth, more opportunities, and more retention of existing businesses and residents. We are excited to implement and to bring as many people with us as possible and our team is equipped and ready to partner.

Ten years in, Live6 is not just a neighborhood nonprofit. It is a steward of the promise of Detroit’s neighborhoods , showing how residents, anchor institutions, small businesses, and a fully thought out public realm can add up to a place where Detroiters are proud to want to live, work, learn, play and lead.