Rebuilding Detroit through a successful barbecue joint

Phil Cooley is no strangers to press. Whether it's the New York Times or our little rag, he's in the spotlight. All he did was open a barbecue restaurant, but his subsequent actions just might help rebuild the city.

Excerpt from the Detroit News:

In early April, the principal guy behind Detroit's Slows Bar BQ was talking up the city at the Creative Cities summit in Lexington, Ky., a national conference on attracting and retaining urban talent. After that, the 32-year-old flew to Los Angeles on his own dime to meet skateboarding superstar Tony Hawk about a skate park in front of the Michigan Central Depot, a landmark Cooley wants to see reused.

Since launching the perpetually packed Slows five years ago, Cooley has morphed into one of the city's most-visible urban activists -- a grass-roots champion of sustainability, community and treasuring what makes Detroit unique. Up for grabs, however, is whether longtime Detroiters will buy into the progressive agenda of this small-town transplant and his like-minded allies -- mostly young, white and suburban-raised -- and their affection for the city's Rome-like ruins.

"What Detroit needs is 1,000 more Phil Cooleys," said Karla Henderson, director of the city's Buildings & Safety Engineering Department. "And if we get them, I tell you, we're going to be fine."

Read the entire article here.