Shri Thanedar's Sham Community Center Is a Broken Promise
No events happen there, and it's only real purpose is that it provides a spot for a great baked potato food truck to conduct business
Detroit — The Shri Thanedar Community Center isn’t open to the community at all these days. In fact, calling it a community center is a misnomer. It seems more accurate to call it the Shri Thanedar Center for Shri Thanedar.
There are no cars in the parking lot. The lights are off and the doors are locked shut. The inside is empty except for a podium, some art on the walls, and a tall stack of folding chairs.
The mailbox hangs open, full of bills addressed to Thanedar. A mural of Rosa Parks stares out at the overflowing dumpster. The mural was added after someone vandalized the building in 2024.
“In this case, a place designed to bring our community together was vandalized in a way that seeks to drive it apart,” Thanedar said in a statement at the time.
But it’s incorrect to say that the place was designed to bring the community together. Notably absent is anything in or on the building that would welcome in the community. There is no calendar of events on the door.
The last ones I could find online were from last fall: a financial literacy workshop and a small business fair. There was also a cider and donuts meet-and-greet with Rep. Shri Thanedar.
At least there are no beagles in cages—or none I can see.
On the other side of the building, peering out toward Livernois, are murals of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. with Thanedar’s face floating alongside them.
He’s smiling like a stoic at the drivers and passersby even though he lost the primary election and won’t be on the ballot this fall. He stares out over The Golden Root baked potato food truck.
Smoke pours from the grill and the generator roars so loud I can barely hear from the guys in the trailer that no one comes in or out of the community center, and that it’s not really used at all.
One of the cooks and co-founders of the enterprise said they got permission from Thanedar’s campaign manager to set up in front of the building in April, and they are grateful.
But he also said the community doesn’t go into the building. He said he’s inquired about using it. If they set up shop inside, they could probably sell even more baked potatoes and become a real center for the community.
In contrast to the graffiti and murals and portrait on the Shri Thanedar Center, the Golden Root is offering something of value to the community instead of simply residing in it like another empty storefront.
The entrepreneurs are working toward opening up another truck next year. I’m certain they’ll do it because of their success on social media and the quality of the roasted spuds, which were ripping hot, perfectly salted, and flavorfully garnished.
But who knows what will happen to the building now that Shri Thanedar has lost his primary? If he sells it now, it’ll prove it was just a handy event space for press releases and townhalls.
In the meantime, he could lease it to the entrepreneurs who are on the premises every day, who live and work in this neighborhood, feeding them and getting to know them.
Every minute it’s empty and the doors are locked shut, it’s a billboard of broken promises to the community.
