Buzz

Cadillac Square getting ready for summer market

Detroit News Tuesday, May 21, 2013

There is more shopping possible in downtown now than in recent memory. We like the pop-up to permanent vibe on Woodward and we like the use of Cadillac Square, just east of Campus Martius, for more retail this summer.

An excerpt from the Detroit News:

The retail market, simply called "The Market," will take place every fourth Friday and Saturday in June, July and August. According to the Campus Martius website, it will "feature an area dedicated to dynamic retailers, artists, designers, crafters, vintage/antique dealers, craft-prepared food products, and distinctive apparel.

Nice. We'll meet you downtown next month. More here.

'Hands on' Model D partner Mode Shift gets Freep's attention

Detroit Free Press Tuesday, November 27, 2012

In a recent story on the impact of foundations on local economics and culture, a number of Model D's partners were mentioned, including Knight and the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan, both of whom lend support to the Mode Shift Move Together blog.

An excerpt from the Detroit Free Press:

The most recent example is Mode Shift, an effort funded by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and the Knight Foundation to promote healthy lifestyles by getting people more active -- bicycling, walking and more.

The Community Foundation this year launched a new website called Wearemodeshift.org, an interactive portal that gradually will offer trail maps for bikers, information about bike-friendly retailers, and a debate forum on all manner of topics related to outdoor activity.

Read more here.

Core77 blogger hits Detroit, swoons over people and place

Core77 Tuesday, July 31, 2012

We were trolling for Detroit media love when we chanced upon this beauty of a blog. Not much more introduction needed.

An excerpt:

True to form, DC3 introduced me to Peggy Brennan, co-founder of the Green Garage. The converted Model T showroom serves as a demonstration of down-to-earth sustainability (no pun intended), as well as a business incubator (everyone incubates these days) and an advisor on integrating sustainable practices for any interested member of the community. Brennan and her husband, along with 200 volunteers, spent two years designing how to best renovate the showroom and looked to the Passivhaus for inspiration. With 19-inches of insulation and triple-glazed windows, the Green Garage only costs $300 to heat for a year.

Read the entire travelog here.

Next step forward for urban ag: soil remediation

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, July 31, 2012

What to do when you want to farm in the city but the ground needs a little help to get well? Soil remediation might be the answer, reports David Sands in HuffPost Detroit.

Ann excerpt:

"This is all very experimental," he said, "We figured it was a decent spot and it was a safe place to practice, he said. "We'll have things like bonesett, like yarrow and goldenrod and perennial sunflowers, which are all dynamic accumulators of different toxins."

Those plants remove hazardous materials such as heavy metals from the ground and hold them in their bodies, making it easy for people to dispose of dangerous substances through incineration or placement in a special landfill.

Read it all here.

'Motion to Makeover' project transforms Southwest park

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Any news about people volunteering to clean up and "makeover" a Detroit city park is good news. All the better is that the project is being headed by some law students.

An excerpt:

The 313 Project, started in 2009 by then first-year law students Aisa Villarosa, Erika Riggs and Juliana Rivera as a community-service student group, offers free legal clinics to underserved groups. But they also spend time each month with their Motion to Makeover project, which took on a major project -- Southwest Detroit's 26-acre Romanowski Park.

What started as a casual idea to work on a park took root when the group decided on Romanowski and approached Home Depot about getting materials, not expecting it to turn into a $16,500 grant from the company's foundation.

Read the rest of the story in HuffPost Detroit here.

Recovery Park goal includes indoor urban ag, horse stables, neighborhood employment

The Hub Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Gary Wozniak sees himself as a food systems developer and a job creator. And no, he's not running for president but rather looking to redevelop a 3-square-mile area on Detroit's East Side into self-sustaining farms with their own production and distribution systems. Ambitious enough, we think.

An excerpt from The Hub:

Recovery Park started as leaders from SHAR (Self Help Addiction Rehabilitation) were looking to create jobs for people with barriers to employment. Looking at the talent pool and the physical resources Detroit abundantly has--land, road infrastructure, access to fresh water--the natural conclusion was urban farming and food system development.

The difference between Recovery Park and other urban farming/ urban redevelopment programs is in both size and scale. While most community farming produces few jobs that are often dependent on grant funding, Recovery Park’s model aims toward something more self-sustainable.

"We’re taking a look more at commercial indoor agriculture so that the jobs are year round," Wozniak says. "We can get three, maybe four, growing seasons working indoors."

Intriguing stuff, yes? Read more here.

MSU invests $1.5 million in Detroit farming project

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, July 10, 2012

It's nice to see Detroit going green. Yes, we're talking about the accelerating urban agriculture scene, but we're also cool with the increased presence by Michigan State University in the city. Sparty and Detroit are collaborating on a massive $1.5 million farming project.

An exerpt from HuffPost Detroit:

As the earth's population continues to concentrate in cities and resources become more scarce, the university believes that the world will become increasingly dependent on urban farming to meet its food needs.

"By 2050, food production will need to double -- using less water and energy than today," MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said in a release. "We see great opportunity to do good locally and connect globally."

More here.

NYT gets a glimpse of Midtown's Green Garage

New York Times Tuesday, June 26, 2012

We know that the Green Garage is a different kind of incubator, as the New York Times headline writer says. But we like this bit even more.

An excerpt:

(Tom) Brennan says he believes that traditional incubator and accelerator programs extrude entrepreneurs through a mechanized, one-size-fits-all process, sometimes spurring founders to charge ahead without first finding clarity on what they want to do, or why. Instead of focusing on acceleration, he’s working to build a start-up culture that’s a rough analogue of the slow-food movement: intimate, deliberate, unhurried. It’s an organic approach he knows won’t be for everyone.

Read on here.

Mode Shift links renderings of expanded D-Cut and Midtown Loop

Mode Shift Move Together Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Some of the best news we heard all last week was about the extention of the Dequindre Cut, from Gratiot to Mack Avenue, and the creation of the Midtown Loop, which will take the trail through the heart of Wayne State University and Brush Park. Also in the plans: a connector that will link Eastern Market with Hamtramck.

Pictures tell even a better story. Take a look at these accessed from the Mode Shift Move Together site.

Hamtown Farms to bear rare fruit trees

Detroit Free Press Tuesday, June 12, 2012

We've been following the progress of this Hamtramck tree planting project for the past month or so, and we're happy to see that the ground-breaking of Hamtown Farms was a success. Check out this excerpt:

Dozens of hands dug, pulled, rolled, shoveled and tamped the rock-hard earth in the hopes of eventually harvesting a pawpaw orchard, hazelnut bushes and vegetables near the flowers and open space of Michigan’s most densely packed city.

Wow, love that description, by Detroit Free Press staff writer Megha Satyanarayana. And the picture of cool Mayor Karen Majewski, ready to dig in. Read more 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.

Detroit, bike city: HuffPost's cycling series shifts into extra gear

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, May 01, 2012

In case you're missing HuffPost Detroit's ongoing series on cycling culture in Detroit, no doubt because you're out riding in the city, don't give it a second thought. There is a lot to dig into and get inspired about.

Like his story about Sarah Sidelko, who founded a bicycle program called Fender Bender, for women and the LGBTQ community.

An excerpt: She's now in the first stages of creating a bicycle lending library for Detroit, fixing up donated, used bikes one at a time. She has 14 finished, with a plan to have 10 to 15 more restored by June for a first, trial fleet.

Check out all of the stories here.

Scripps Park expanding sensory garden experience

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, April 24, 2012

We have always been fond of this park, at the triangular corner of Trumbull, Grand River and Martin L. King Blvd, the gateway to Woodbridge.

This piece in HuffPost Detroit comes just in time for the planting season. An excerpt:

Last summer, a number of community groups working with the adjacent Detroit Public Library Douglass Branch planted a "sensory garden" in a small gravel bed they constructed at the park -- a project they plan to expand this spring.

When the additions are completed, the garden will feature a variety of sense-evocative plants, including black-eyed Susans for color, lavender for its smell, whirling butterflies for their movement, lamb's ears for their soft texture and nasturtiums for their taste.

Read on here.

Plant your vote for Hamtown Farms in Communities Take Root project

Communities Take Root Tuesday, April 24, 2012

We chanced upon this little gem when cruising the interwebs the other night. It's all about green space, public space and density--all near and dear to our hearts.

Best of all it's about a project called Hamtown Farms, which is competing with other worthy projects as part of the nonprofit Communities Take Root program, which aims to plant fruit-bearing trees in parks and low-income neighborhoods.

If you like what looks like a cool reuse of long vacant land on the south end of Hamtramck, vote for Hamtown Farms here.

MSU proposing massive urban agriculture research project

Detroit Free Press Tuesday, April 17, 2012

This project fills the brim with possibilities. The opportunity for Detroit to become the "capital of the experimental" has long been in the forefront of our vision statement. We would heartily welcome Michigan State University, in this case, to put its resources into 100 acres of Detroit land for urban ag research that could match any on a global scale. And of course, we insist it be done inclusively with participation of local groups already working on the fertile ground.

A few tantalizing highlights in this excerpt from the Detroit Free Press:

• Research efforts would include "vertical agriculture," in which food is grown inside multi-story buildings, and innovative ways to produce energy and conserve water in food production.

• If implemented, Detroit would become the key research city in a network that includes Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, Nairobi and others.

• Detroit "could be the research and innovation engine" for urban agriculture around the world. The other cities "look at Detroit as the place where many of the answers will come from."

Read more in the Freep here. With additional "big-ass farm" perspective from Curbed Detroit.

Green : Buzz