Curbed Cup Elite Eight recap: The Final Four has 2 past winners

The Curbed Cup is our annual award for the neighborhood of the year. We’re starting with 16 neighborhoods (with some close ones combined), and we’ll vote over the next few weeks until we’re down to one.

In our tournament to find Detroit’s neighborhood of the year, the Elite Eight saw one close vote, a matchup of last year’s finalists, and another dark horse going for the win.

First, the very centralized New Center, which has seen a lot of development activity lately, easily took down Jefferson-Chalmers, which should see more redevelopment in the coming years. New Center will face Downtown, which first tied with Hamtramck, then won in a two-hour lightning round. Yes, we understand that Hamtramck is not a neighborhood. Thank you again for reminding us.

Grandmont Rosedale, who beat the University District in a tiebreaker lightning round last week, easily defeated what many thought would be a finalist—Boston-Edison. Could the 2012 winner be making another run for the coveted (fake) trophy?

They’ll have to get past last year’s winner, East English Village, in order to make it to the finals. EEV once again took down the Villages and hopes to keep their trophy in the neighborhood.

Voting resumes next Wednesday after a holiday break. Who will make it to the finals this year?