Buzz

Deadline near to support 'Street Fighting Man' on Kickstarter

Streetfightingman.com Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Among other things, we're impressed that the producers of the documentary, Street Fighting Man, which follows three Detroit men -- each a generation apart -- who seek to define their lives "ended our tenure in Detroit with a bang at Detroit SOUP, a monthly dinner/fundraising event that provides micro-grants for creative projects in the D. We were chosen to present Street Fighting Man and had the opportunity to connect with new fans, network with art lovers, and screen our 8 minute work-in-progress reel for those in attendance. The reaction was incredible."

Check out a clip here, and while you're on the site hit the Kickstarter link and help support the film, if you so choose.

Hotter than June: Curtis Lipscomb brings it as LGBT leader of color

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Just in time for last weekend's PrideFest, HuffPost Detroit's Kate Abbey-Lambertz penned this profile of our friend Curtis Lipscomb, founder of Kick, the one-of-a-kind organization serving African Americans in Detroit's LGBTQ community. Read all about him here.

Henry Ford to develop 300 acres at cusp of Midtown and New Center

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, June 05, 2012

And that's not all. folks. HuffPost Detroit rounds up a few projects (including the $500 million development in the headline above) re-shaping Midtown.

Read about it here.

'Detroit Rising' video series continues on Atlantic Cities

Atlantic Cities Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Thanks, Richard Florida, for tightening the focus on how Detroit is moving forward from the ground up. Here is the third video in the five-part series "Detroit Rising." The links to the other two are here, too.

Check 'em out here.

TechTown's Leslie Smith tackles challenge of building ecosystems for high-growth entrepreneurship

Wayne State University Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Leslie Smith, president and CEO of TechTown, Wayne State University’s business incubator and technology and research park, will join former U.S. President Bill Clinton for the second annual Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America) meeting, June 7-8 in Chicago.

That's mighty impressive. Read the rest of the story here.

Salon: Balancing "rustbelt chic" with pragmatism

Salon Tuesday, May 22, 2012

We saw this being circulated on the web, via various social media, and just had to dig into it.

It puts into perspective starry-eyed optimism with practical realities

From Salon, an excerpt: What struggling cities need are jobs, and not just jobs at coffee roasteries in abandoned railroad terminals that make for great style-section articles. "The only way (a turnaround) will really happen is by reintroducing meaningful, equitably compensated work into these cities," says Catherine Tumber, author of "Small, Gritty and Green: The Promise of America’s Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World. "This longing can be expressed aesthetically, but it can only be satisfied by restoring the workforce."

Read the rest of it here.

Richard Florida kicks off 'How Detroit is rising' video series

Atlantic Cities Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Creative class scholar Richard Florida is dedicating a career to finding out what works to make cities vital and vibrant. This first piece in a series now running in Atlantic Cities jumps on the multiple ways Detroit is shaking off its rust and finding new ways to thrive.

An excerpt: Detroit’s new generation of place makers and city-builders draws deeply on the city and the region’s many assets. Yes, urban renewal devastated parts of the city, and yes, it’s true that there are too many empty lots and abandoned buildings. But a walk through and around the urban core evidences a fabulous urban fabric with fantastic historic buildings of the very sort that Jane Jacobs was talking about when she said that old buildings give rise to new ideas.

Much more here.

Detroit artist creates facade with covers of Rolling Stone mag

Rolling Stone Tuesday, May 22, 2012

You know Rolling Stone, ?the bible of rock 'n' roll journalism for decades, was thrilled to see Detroit artist Jennifer Quigley covering the front of her building with covers of the mag.

An excerpt: Quigley recently covered the facade of a building on Michigan Avenue in Detroit with a collage comprised of Rolling Stone magazine covers. "I've had a Rolling Stone subscription most of my life," says Quigley. "I first began collaging with Rolling Stone thanks to my disdain for the horrible wood paneling that was in my rec room in high school. I covered every inch of that torrential wood paneling with three years' worth of my Rolling Stone subscription collection."

See what it looks like here.

Importance of neighborhood name game

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Giving neighborhoods a distinct name by identifying historically important characteristics or assets is done in cities the world over. Sometimes the names stick simply because of how often they are used in repeated. This piece, from HuffPost Detroit, is all about it.

An excerpt: Detroit, for its part, never standardized its neighborhood names. Most simply they reflect common usage, even if some of them are more well-known than others. Some are inherited from defunct towns, which ceased to exist when their land was annexed by the growing city of Detroit -- Delray, Springwells Village, Five Points, Old Redford, Nortown. Others come from nearby landmarks, such as Osborn (a high school) and Palmer Park, while many, such as Lafayette Park, Grandmont-Rosedale and Boston-Edison, come from urban renewal plans, subdivision developers or the names of designated historic districts.

Good stuff. Read on here.

Under-30 political hopefuls start-up Detroit's future with vision

Detroit Free Press Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Word that a new generation of Detroit leadership might be bubbling underneath the status quo is sweet music to our ears. This column by the Freep's Rochelle Riley introduces us to a few of the best and the brightest.

An excerpt: Adam Hollier is a doer. He has ideas. And like other young candidates, he hasn't been around long enough to get mired in political machinery that isn't working anymore.

Detroit's next generation is stepping up.

We like what we read here.

Yo! Bum rush this show. Public Enemy headlines Movement

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Yes, Movement is more than just a techno fest. The hip hop nation has been represented by Slum Village, Mos Def and others. Next week Public Enemy -- you heard that right -- takes the Main Stage. Kelly Frazier gives us a preview in HuffPost Detroit.

An excerpt: Back in the 1940s, Chuck D's grandfather drove trucks for Ford, and the fruits of his labor would afford him a Cadillac in the 1950s. As a result, police on 7 Mile Road in Detroit regularly stopped his grandfather. It was one of many bold lessons about Detroit and the world that Chuck D got to learn.

Read on here.

Freep: Options for Detroit Works includes "green residential"

Detroit Free Press Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Yes, we know Detroit Works planning and discussion has been underwhelming at times. But we still believe the only solution to addressing a shrinking population within a 140-square mile area is smart decision-making about how to use land rapidly "going back to nature."

First read this excerpt from a piece by the very busy John Gallagher and then get on with the rest of the story.

What the Detroit Works planners call building blocks and other planners have called neighborhood types include districts devoted mostly to retail or industry, districts with a mix of homes and urban farms, and districts devoted to a blue-green landscape used for storm-water retention or natural wetlands.

We can't hide our love for the concept of "green residential," by the way. Read about that and more here.

Roasting Plant offering "world's freshest coffee," coming to downtown's First National

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, May 15, 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/09/the-roasting-plant-opens-detroit-location-new-york-city-coffee-shop-first-national-building_n_1504237.html?ref=detroit

Vote for project finalists in Let's Save Michigan placemaking contest

Let's Save Michigan Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Click on the thumbnails to view the project details, read any comments, and cast your vote. Check out all the finalists and feel free to vote for multiple projects. You may only vote for the same project once a day, and all voting is subject to verification. For more on the contest details and rules -- and to vote -- go here.

Commissioned murals transform Hamtramck streets

Metro Times Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Metro Times associate editor and ace blogger Michael Jackman nails this illustrative report on all the visually exciting stuff going on in Hamtown (the author himself lives a half block from the city limits) and how some locals are debating the very definition of art. An excerpt:

The murals in Hamtramck were done with the cooperation of individual building owners and the city’s department of community development, with Contra Project’s Thewes taking a lead role in that city within a city. Many of the works there are what Thewes calls effective "gateway pieces," especially a piece -- by the artists Reyes -- that sprawls all over the western wall of PAVA Post 113 at 2238 Holbrook, greeting motorists arriving from I-75.

We love that one, in particular, but they're all plenty awesome. Check out the story here.