Featured Stories

Green City Diaries: Conserving water, improving neighborhood life

Matthew Piper Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Detroit residents are finding ways to go blue -- meaning, they are learning about the practical environmental benefits of freshwater infrastructure by creating rain gardens and other water-based landscapes. Matthew Piper dives in to get the story.

Blue/Green Infrastructure, Detroit, Sustainability

Recycling in Detroit: You made it happen

Matthew Naimi Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Recycle Here! is packed every Saturday and there is curbside recycling in Rosedale Park, East English Village and Palmer Woods/University District, servicing nearly 50,000 households. Matthew Naimi says that's only the beginning of the Bee Green movement.

Detroit, Green, Sustainability

Grandmont Rosedale, University Commons - Palmer Park

Talking revolution and reinvention with John Gallagher

Walter Wasacz Tuesday, April 09, 2013

John Gallagher's stories in the Detroit Free Press are required reading for all who are fascinated in the greater Detroit narrative: how a once dominant global industrial powerhouse retools itself for the future. Walter Wasacz brings the questions.

Building Communities, Detroit, Entrepreneurs, Redevelopment, Sense of Place, Social innovation, Sustainability

Modeshift: Edible hut comes to Osborn neighborhood

MJ Galbraith Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Part of Friday's UIX+ArtXDetroit: the Art of Neighborhood Innovation speaker series event is devoted to this project, which our media partners at Modeshift SE-MI Move Together wrote about in this week's newsletter. Click and dig in.

Building Communities, Detroit, Food and Drink, Sustainability

Green City Diaries: Paradise found

Matthew Piper Tuesday, April 02, 2013

A few weeks into spring has lightened our hearts and brightened our spirits, helping us turn our attention to the city's natural environment hiding in plain sight. Matthew Piper finds Detroiters who know the landscape inside and outside.

Detroit, Sustainability

East Riverfront, The Villages

Model D TV: Detroit's ghost waters

Oren Goldenberg and Matthew Lewis Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Detroit abounds with largely unknown waterways: Baby Creek in Delray, May Creek running parallel to train tracks connecting the U.S and Canada, Savoyard Creek that snakes beneath downtown's skyscrapers. Matthew Lewis and Oren Goldenberg team up for this video report.

Blue/Green Infrastructure, Detroit, Sustainability

Green City Diaries: Shear Innovation, Part 2

Matthew Piper Tuesday, March 05, 2013

In this second installment of his journey into the green potential of hair salons, Matthew Piper visits Jen Willemsen at Midtown's Curl Up & Dye, who started making her own products when she couldn't find comparable non-toxic brands.

Detroit, Sustainability

Midtown

UIX: Michael Davis and Hamtown Farms

Tunde Wey Tuesday, February 26, 2013

He started Hamtown Farms, a plot of land nestled between Kowalski Sausage, Lumpkin St. and an alley, after eating a strange-tasting fruit with the equally strange name of paw-paw. Tunde Wey introduces us to Michael Davis.

Green, Sense of Place, Sustainability

Hamtramck

Green City Diaries: Investing in sustainability

Matthew Piper Tuesday, January 29, 2013

When President Obama visited Detroit in December, he stopped at Detroit Diesel to announce a new $100 million investment in advanced, environmentally sound, manufacturing. Matthew Piper reports from the far West Side.

Advanced Manufacturing, Detroit, Sustainability, Workforce/Talent development

Urban Exchange: Trading Ideas with Toronto

Claire Nelson Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Model D's Claire Nelson and Hopscotch Detroit social innovator Ajooni Sethi go north to share the power of play as a tool for civic engagement with our Canadian comrades at Yonge St. Sounds like some serious fun was had in the Queen City.

Building Communities, Detroit, Sustainability

Liquid assets: We begin a series on the water that sustains us all

Matthew Lewis Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Did you know we all live in a watershed, are surrounded by over a fifth of the world's freshwater supply and interact, one way or another, with the Great Lakes basin every day? Matthew Lewis shares those factoids and more in our new blue-green infrastructure series.

Blue/Green Infrastructure, Detroit, Sustainability

Green City Diaries: Best of the year that was

Matthew Piper Tuesday, December 18, 2012

'Tis the season for reflection, among everything else. As the first year of the Green City Diaries comes to a close and a second year starts taking shape, writer Matthew Piper deviates from his formula to write a diary entry of his own.

Detroit, Sustainability

Talking energy and environment with the State's Valerie Brader

Veronica Gracia-Wing Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Affordable energy, reliable energy, and protecting our environment were part of the governor's recent 'Ensuring our future' message. Veronica Gracia-Wing digs into the details with the governor's deputy legal council and senior policy advisor.

Alternative Energy, Green, Sustainability

Green City Diaries: Good food, the new frontier

Matthew Piper Tuesday, November 27, 2012

In this month's entry, Matt Piper gets people thinking about the empowering simplicity of health, quality, freshness and convenience when it comes to the food we eat. Not to mention advocacy for a better way of life.

Detroit, Green, Sustainability

Better Buildings: Preserving Midtown residential gem with green energy

Amelia Kanan Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Erik Nordin, who partnered with his brother on design work at the Madison Building and 24 Grille, has made a century old building his project made from passion. Amelia Kanan tells us how renewable resources play a part in the story of the Charles.

Alternative Energy, Detroit, Green, Sustainability, Transformational change

Midtown

Sustainability : Featured Stories