Organizers: Cruisin’ Gratiot is a go

After some initial doubts, popular gearhead event set to take place in June 17-19 along stretch

Organizers of Eastpointe’s popular Cruisin’ Gratiot event voted Wednesday evening to hold the nostalgic automobile cruise in June, rather than September as some city leaders had wanted to do because of possible pandemic restrictions.

Cruisin’ Gratiot will be held June 17-19 along a two-mile stretch of Gratiot Avenue. Organizers also have opted to shorten it to three days this year instead of the usual six days, because of COVID-19 and declining attendance.

The virus crisis forced the cancellation of the event in 2020, according to Harvey Curley, president of the cruise committee.

“Everything we’ve been doing for the last 22 years or so we’re going to unless the state hands down more restrictions on crowd gatherings,” said Curley, who also sits on the Eastpointe City Council.

“What a beautiful thing to open the city to people who have been darn near locked in their homes for a year. It will be so good to be outdoors with the fresh air and experience some community fellowship,” he added.

The cruise’s status was uncertain after the City Council failed to approve a request to change the date from June 17-19 to Sept. 9-11 at its April 6 meeting.

Councilpersons Sarah Lucido and Curley voted in favor of holding the car show and VIP parade in September, contingent on the State of Michigan’s COVID guidelines for parades and outdoor gatherings at that time.

At the council session, city officials learned it was possible the event would happen in June any

way. At its March 16 regular meeting, the council approved the event for June 1719, although no one realized it at the time.

During that meeting, Lucido and Curley voted to approve holding the cruise in June; Cardi DeMonaco voted not to approve it; and Mayor Monique Owens and councilperson Sylvia Moore abstained. While the mayor and council persons thought Cruisin’ Gratiot had been nixed, a review of council bylaws after the meeting showed that the motion to hold it in June actually did pass because with Owens and Moore abstaining, the vote was 2-1 to approve the event.

Now in its 22nd year, Cruisin’ Gratiot is a street party centered around vintage vehicles and car shows at various businesses. A variety of muscle cars, hot rods and other four-wheeled contraptions cruised along a two-mile stretch of Gratiot, between Eight Mile and 10 Mile road. It was Macomb County’s first and possibly best-known cruise which attracted attention from gearheads around the state.

But organizers say they’ve noticed a dip in attendance in 2019, the last year it was held. The cruise typically attracted 100,000 viewers and participants for the Saturday afternoon cruise, but that number was estimated to be around 60,000 for the most recent pre-COVID event.

The decline is attributed to more and more cities hosting cruise events, Eastpointe is no longer the only game in town.

For 2021, the car show will be held in the parking lot of First State Bank on Thursday, June 17. Then it moves over to the parking lot of Eastpointe High School for Friday and Saturday, June 18-19.

If state COVID guidelines at the time did not allow for a parade, that part of the event might be shelved with the rest of the weekend events going forward.

Michigan has become a hot spot for the virus in recent weeks. The state leads the country with a sevenday average of 477 cases per 100,000 according to the Centers for Disease Control. Michigan ranks 22nd with a seven-day average death rate of 1.2 per 100,000.

Cruise organizers also hope to work in a recognition of the Eastpointe Fire Department’s 100th anniversary in the Cruise festivities.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, several residents expressed displeasure with the overall lack of support from council and the mayor for Cruisin’ Gratiot.

“I’m extremely disappointed we are not going to support the Cruise,” said resident Cindy Federle. “We need to be responsible when we are out, but you need to reopen the city for us.”

Resident Mary Hall-Rayford suggested councilpersons who voted against the Cruise purchase a dictionary and look up the word “contingent.”

“You need to be voting according to what the residents want, not your own personal agenda,” HallRayford said when addressing the council during audience participation. “The hope is that everyone will be vaccinated no later than June or July and most people have enough sense to follow whatever guidelines are in place at the time.”

The council did approve a Memorial Day Parade for 2021.

The parade will have a different route than in past years and will not include post-parade events at Kennedy Park. Currently, the state guidelines say that parades are allowed as long as attendance is less than 1,000. Typically the Eastpointe Memorial Day parade draws between 300 and 500 people walking or standing along the 1.5 mile route that traditionally went north on Gratiot from City Hall and then east on Stephens Road to the park.

“We usually have a gathering at Kennedy Park after the parade, but we did not think that was a good idea this year, “Lucido said.

Owens and Moore voted against having the parade.