Southwest Detroit : Buzz

Southwest Detroit's Patton Park just got an upgrade and some famous sod. The grass from the AC Milan and Panathinaikos FC soccer game on Aug. 6 has a new home at this SW Detroit park.

Excerpt from the Detroit News:

A crew of volunteers, soccer players and fans will remove the sod today from the Silverdome that was used for a recent professional soccer game and transplant it to Patton Park in southwest Detroit.

About 30,000 fans saw a match between AC Milan and Panathinaikos FC at the Silverdome on Aug. 6. The sod used for the field will become a third soccer field at Patton Park, which is home to numerous local soccer teams.

"We are very excited about this new field and grateful to everyone who made this possible," said Latino World's Soccer League president Luis Garcia. "Soccer is huge in southwest Detroit and this new field will help our league serve the young people of our community."

Read the entire article here.

Southwest Detroit is arguably the city's strongest neighborhood. The rundown of Detroit's stat sheet may not be exactly sterling, but if you look into Southwest, and Mexicantown, you'll find flourishing small businesses.

Excerpt from NPR:

With a stratospheric unemployment rate and major job loss throughout Detroit, it seems there's no room for small businesses to thrive.

But despite the city's severe economic problems, it appears its Hispanic business community is flourishing.

Detroit's Latino population has more than doubled in the past 10 years. Mexicans came in droves during the 1990s and continue to trickle in. There are roughly 400,000 Latinos in Michigan; half of them live in Detroit. Many work in construction, landscaping and the service industry. But hundreds have opened food-related businesses.

Listen to the broadcast here.

It's been well-documented the benefits of having a healthy immigrant population. They start companies, they diversify the economy, and they put the money back into the community. Just look at Southwest Detroit or Hamtramck's Bangladeshi Avenue, which you may know as Conant. Detroit's immigrant is only at 4.8 percent, while the nationally that number is 12.5. That means there's room to improve... and you know us here in Detroit have space.

Excerpt from the Detroit News:

Bring us your fired-up, your hungry-to-succeed, your Ph.D.s. Bring us your entrepreneurial foreign born, who were 189 percent more likely to start a business in 2008 than those of us born stateside.

For decades, Detroit's ethnic populations have migrated to the suburbs, while new immigrants largely bypass the city.

The trend is national, but it's acute in Detroit, the city that once teemed with immigrants. The region now has an immigrant population of 12.5 percent, which mirrors the national average. Detroit's is about 4.8 percent.

Those are among the findings from a draft of "Global Detroit," a study backed by foundations and industry types and shepherded by former state Rep. Steve Tobocman. The southwest Detroit resident spent a year researching how to unleash new energy in Metro Detroit.

"No American city has had population gains without immigration," says Tobocman, whose grandfather came to Detroit from Poland a century ago.

Read the entire article here.

The Detroit Free Press put together an independent panel of judges to sift through 350 nominees for Michigan's Green Leaders for 2010. There are groups, schools, and activist from across the state represented in the winners. And, a few of which, are from right here in Detroit. Congratulations to the WARM Training Center, Arts & Scraps, and the Green Garage for their recognition.

Check out the entire list of winners here.

Windsor is looking at the Hubbard-Richard neighborhood, just east of the bridge, for models to help with its own area by the bridge.

Excerpt:

But the most powerful tool that Hubbard-Richard now wields is the momentum of a rebuilt community. Houses, apartments, townhouses, a commercial district on Vernor Avenue -- this is investment that is much more expensive and difficult for the bridge to buy up.

People are part of that momentum, said Wendler, "and we've got a vested interest. If the bridge company comes in and starts that crap, we'll push back. We'll organize buyers."

Bagley had some practical advantages. A lot of the land was vacant. The city owned more than the bridge and was happy to sell to Bagley. Ste. Anne Church, the second oldest parish in the U.S. and an anchor in the community, with 800 families, was a formidable obstacle.

Still, this was a poor, crime-ridden wasteland in a city with a lot of problems. What its reinvention really took was commitment.

If this community can wrest its neighbourhood from the bridge, surely Windsor can. The question is the same: Is this neighbourhood worth saving? The means are the same: commitment.

Read the entire article here.

A snapshot of Shelia's Bakery on Springwells in Southwest Detroit and the quaint bakery.

Excerpt:

Many larger Mexican bakeries can be a bit confusing and slightly intimidating when you first enter a warm, fragrant world of unfamiliar sights and smells. But when you go inside Sheila's (which is named for Morales' 7-year-old daughter), take a moment to breathe in all the sweet scents, then grab a pair of tongs and a tray near the entrance and gather up the breads you want to buy. Expect friendly smiles, lots of laughter and a capable staff ready to assist should you have any questions.

The shop bustles with activity morning through night as people from the neighborhood bring their small children to select a birthday cake or to buy a tray of treats to serve their family during merienda.

Merienda is traditionally an Hispanic midday meal served around 5:30 p.m. after a late lunch (2 p.m.), which helps stay hunger until a late dinner is served (usually around 9 p.m). It's a light meal that often consists of a piece of fruit, pan dulce and coffee. Think of it as high tea with coffee and a Spanish influence.

Read the entire article here.

Time Inc. has descended onto Detroit either like a thunderstorm or as liberators, depending on who you talk to. There has been a blitz of blog posts, features stories, and videos from its self anointed "D Shack" portraying the Detroit they've seen so far.

Videos include an interview with K-9 to Five's Liz Blondy, a piece on 85 cent hamburgers, asking Detroiters why they love and hate the city, and another piece about how Detroiters "survive."

Stories have covered entrepreneurs, housing costs, Detroit's decline, and Ernie Harwell.

So, what's your take? How would you grade their assignment so far? Is it the same ol' same ol'? Or is it something different?

Our own media outlets and bloggers have been discussing the coverage as well. Read a piece by Crain's Detroit business here.

Listen to an interview with Daniel Okrent -- writer of Time's Detroit cover story -- on WDET's "Detroit Today" here.

And, last but not least, Dyspathy's "Assignment Detroit: The Drinking Game" will keep you reminded of the Detroit cliche's as well as keep you totally sauced when reading through Time's project.

Let us know what you think about the Time blitz on our Facebook page here.

Check out the Time Inc. coverage here.

Time Inc.'s interest in Detroit has been well documented so far. But, in case you missed it, the big media machine has bought a house in East English Village and will set up shop there for a year to cover Detroit and all that it brings - both negative and positive.

In this week's In The News we have a piece up written by the New York Times, as well as a mention in the Tweet of the Week.

However, is a direct link to the Time Inc.'s Detroit blog. Track their work as they track ours.

See the blog here.

Delray is getting consideration from Detroit's NextEnergy as a possible site for a wind turbine testing center.

Excerpt:

NextEnergy is eyeing Detroit's gritty Delray neighborhood to build a wind turbine testing center that could transform the city's southwest waterfront into a destination for wind energy suppliers testing gearboxes and generators.

The Detroit-based organization and incubator for alternative energy businesses is seeking $45 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop the center on idle industrial land.

Delray is among several sites under consideration in Detroit. The area, just east of Zug Island, is near deep-water ports and the Ambassador Bridge, positioning it close to water, rail and highway transportation.

Read the entire article here.

Jack White, a volunteer, and a coach have kept Clark Park together.

Excerpt:

You want to tell the story of the ball field, you have to mention the famous guy.

He's the one who wrote the checks, nearly $170,000 worth. But until now he wouldn't even let the Clark Park people mention his name, and he won't talk about what he did, because he doesn't want to be the star this time.

He grew up in southwest Detroit and he played ball at Clark Park. He knows who's been holding things together all these years -- the volunteers like Deb Sumner, and of course, Coach Mo. But the kids who scampered all summer across that sweet red clay infield can thank the boy Coach Mo knew as Jack Gillis, and music fans know as Jack White.

Read the entire article here.

So vacation is behind us and we're back with the Tweet of the Week. So, what do you have to say?

You should listen to your mother @miel_dulce, always listen to your mother.

@miel_dulce: my mom said to stay in detroit, im totally thinking about it...


We don't know where you are, but we wish you were still in Detroit, too. You can always come back.

@Bizemisty: I wish I was still in Detroit. I hate this place.


Congratulations Earthworks Urban Farm. Keep up the good work. And thanks @AshleySFlintoff for the heads up.

@AshleySFlintoff: Congrats to Earthworks Urban Farm - Detroit's 1st Certified Organic Farm! Check out their work at www.cskdetroit.org/earthworks


Exactly @dlexus2001, don't forget about us, whoever you are.

@dlexus2001: dont' forget bout detroit

And finally, the winner, for our first week back from vacation Tweet of the Week is:

@flamingowojack: Just got back from John K. King Used Bookstore in downtown Detroit. I'm there every week, but I find "new" stuff every time I go there...

True that, @flamingowojack. True that.

Keep reading. Keep tweeting. And see you next week.

Follow us on Twitter here.

WDET 101.9 FM reporters Rob St. Mary and Zak Rosen continue their coverage this week in their "Home is More Than Our House" series on how Detroiters are facing and fighting the foreclosure crisis.

Listen to Detroit Today on WDET this week for their stories. The program airs from 1-3 p.m. weekdays on 101.9 FM.

This week, Zak will be talking about the collaborate effort to stabilize Boston-Edison with median-income families, which in turn stabilizes the surrounding areas. Also, check out the great piece he did on Habitat for Hamtramck here.

Rob St. Mary offers a story on finding help for the Jewish community in Metro Detroit.

For more on the series, check out their blog: wdetmortgagecrisis.com

fDi Magazine, an investment mag produced by the Financial Times, released their cities of the future list and Detroit fell in at No. 10 for the largest cities of the future.

Excerpt:

fDi Magazine’s North American Cities of the Future 2009/10 shortlists, which took more than six months to research and involved the data collection of nearly 400 North American cities, ranks San Francisco, California, as the top large city of the future, followed closely by Austin, Texas. Of the large cities surveyed, San Luis Potosí in Mexico ranks top for cost effectiveness, while Charlotte, North Carolina, ranks top for FDI strategy according to the judging panel.

Read the entire article here.

We'll start our list of the week's best Detroit-centric tweet with first-place winner @onslowlovesme, who wowed us with this awesome little cryptic bit: "Detroitosaurus wrecks"

Not sure exactly what you meant, but something about it sounds just right.

On to the runners up:

@JViniece: In recovery mode. Relay for Life detroit was a success. Over $71,000 raised. I stayed up the entire night. It was really great!

We're hard pressed to find a better reason to stay up all night than to raise $71,000 to fight cancer. Congratulations and thanks to all Detroiters who participated in this wonderful charity event. Free veggies! We can't argue with that.

@cassetto: First row of the season at the DETROIT boat club! A-ma-zing!

That's awesome! Was T-Pain there? Any chance we can get ON A BOAT with you?

@Newwaycorktown: extremely excited about the Roosevelt Park revitalization. This was one of our first targets upon moving to Corktown!!!

We're excited about this too, and looking forward to hearing more about all of the ways Detroiter's are making the city's summer more beautiful. Keep us posted!

Keep reading. Keep tweeting. And follow us on Twitter here.

Richard Florida is that creative class guy. Some agree with him, some don't. Wherever you fall on Florida, he does make some good points in his piece in the Atlantic that Detroit should pay attention to.

Excerpt:

The most successful shrinking strategies, like Pittsburgh's, are not top-down affairs driven by all-knowing governments, but organic, bottom-up, community-based efforts. While Pittsburgh government and business leadership pressed for large-scale urban renewal - stadium-building, convention centers, and more far-fetched schemes for local mag-lev trains - its real  turnaround was driven by organic, bottom-up initiatives. Community groups, local foundations, and non-profits - not city hall or business-led economic development groups -  were the driving forces behind neighborhood stabilization and redevelopment, university-based economic development, water-front revitalization, park improvements, and green building among others.  This kind of bottom-up process takes considerable time and perseverance. In Pittsburgh's case, it took the better part of a generation to achieve stability and the potential for longer-term revival.

All of which brings us back to a big question: What about people versus place strategies? I agree with Glaeser: people must be the priority. Especially in tough economic times, public investment should flow toward people. Early childhood investments, as James Heckman has shown, are the most important, longest-running and highest-paying investments we make.

Read the entire article here.