Buzz

This idea of a small Detroit has been all over the news lately as Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announced plans to demo houses and return large plots of land to fields. It's a contentious issue. On one hand the cash-strapped city is too large to service all of its 140-square-miles, while on the other Detroiters in some of these "outlying" neighborhoods aren't going to give up their houses easily, if at all. It'll be interesting to see out it all plays out in the coming months and years. Let us know where you stand on the issue on our Facebook page, Twitter account, or send us some feedback here.

In the meantime, check out this Associated Press video on the issue:

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Over the last decade Detroit's Midtown are has exploded along Cass Corridor. Most may remember it being vacant, empty, destination-less, but it isn't like that anymore. And with the expected light-rail project coming to Woodward, Midtown will continue to grow, and, more importantly, could grow faster.

Excerpt from the Metro Times:

This area known as Midtown — roughly between downtown and the New Center — has a growing energy and the promise of more if a planned rail project is installed along Woodward. With its independent businesses, continued investment from Wayne State and a new mind-set about walkability, rideability and marketability, the area is a unique and colorful section of Detroit. And the strip along Willis at Cass is becoming one of its most vibrant components.

"What we have now is a lot of bubbling up. It's like a brew," says Harriet Saperstein, a former city of Detroit planner and current chair of the Woodward Avenue Action Association, which works in Wayne and Oakland counties. "With lots of these bubbles, some of them are going to dissipate, but some may have more flavor and staying power."

Read the entire article here.

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The Michigan Central Station, though the Urbanophile guy calls it the Depot, for 20 years has been a question mark. What to do with it? Tear it down, moth ball it, redevelop it? And then where does the money come from? The Urbanophile, and maybe more like him, suggests turning it into an attraction, like the ruins in Europe. Make it safe, make a path, and have a few tours. People are doing it anyway, just illegally. So, why not? Start thinking Detroit, otherwise we might be here for another 20 years asking the same thing about the same building.

Excerpt from the Urbanophile blog:

I realize full well this is the type of suggestion that, when it comes from an outsider, infuriates locals. But hear me out.

Detroit has a vast supply of decayed and vacant buildings, many of them architectural treasures. Even if MCD is somehow restored, it will be one of only a handful saved, while so many others will languish for some time. Many, like the Lafayette Building, may become so damaged that they have to be torn down.

What if instead of spending a huge amount of money to try to save one building, the city found a little bit of money to do basic maintenance to preserve the structural integrity of many buildings – and create a safe path through parts of them that tourists could walk through similar to how ancient ruins are displayed in Europe. Heck, don't even clean the buildings up. That saves money and makes them even more impressive to visitors. This could preserve more structures for the long haul, and create a tourist attraction. The structures can always been renovated later when demand warrants.

Read the entire post here.

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Congratulations to the Hub of Detroit. They have been announced as the first ever gold level Bicycle Friendly Business in Michigan by the League of American Bicyclists. The Hub received the honor because of their push in making changes in transportation policies to promote biking to work as well as setting a community-wide example for a biking environment.

Excerpt from a press release posted on the Hub web site:

"This Bicycle Friendly Business is making a difference for employees, customers, and communities," said Bill Nesper, Director of the Bicycle Friendly America Program. "The Hub of Detroit promotes bicycling as a viable form of transportation and gives their employees choices and options that make biking to work easy and fun."

Read the entire post here.
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SingleBarrel Detroit takes the music and puts it on the street. It's musicians in Detroit's natural environment. It could be a porch, a hallway, or an abandoned building. SingleBarrel takes the concepts of the La Blogotheque series and adds a Detroit flair. Check out one of their latest videos in honor of St. Patty's day.

SingleBarrel Detroit on the Facebook can be found here.

Codgers: Star of The County Down from SINGLE . BARREL . DETROIT on Vimeo.

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We all have our favorites when it comes to coneys here in Detroit. And there is nothing more contentious -- except maybe right-sizing Detroit -- then which coney is better: Lafayette or American. So, which is? Are you a Lafayette kind of a Detroit or do you dabble in the American coney? Travel Channel's Food Wars came here to settle the score once and for all. They held a blind taste test last week at Greektown's Old Shellelagh. And the results? Well, you'll just have to watch the show.

Excerpt from the Detroit Free Press:

They came, they tasted coney island hot dogs and they partied, all in front of television cameras for a new Travel Channel series.

Five hundred rabid coney lovers looked on as American and Lafayette Coney Islands went head to head Friday night in a best-coney showdown in the new "Food Wars" series.

The five judges at the taping at the Old Shellelagh on Monroe included Carmen Harlan of WDIV-TV (Local 4).

Who won? We don't want to spoil it for those who'll watch!

...

Representatives from the "Food Wars" said the Detroit coney island battle between Lafayette and American will air in April. For more information and broadcast times, go to the Travel Channel's Web site.

Read the entire article here.
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There's a story here in Detroit behind all the headlines of the newspapers. There is something going on that we here at Model D try to convey, while other news organizations focus on the more low hanging fruits. Time came in here with good intentions, we think, but have seemed to miss the ball a bit. With all that said, Detroit's story is too important to be left to us, or Time, or the newspapers. And an event on March 18 wants journalists and non-journalists alike to discuss what the story really is. The event is closed, but you can participate via live blogging and online discussions: http://ourdetroitstory.com/

Excerpt from the Huffington Post:

The past, present and future of the Detroit community--of any community--is too important and too complex a story to be left to Time magazine or to any single group. Especially now, when technology has given virtually everyone the ability to publish to large audiences, we have an obligation to use that ability to find and tell stories that advance our common understanding of the truth as well as our common welfare as community members, whether that community is Detroit or Chicago or America.

The object is not to exclude or minimize the role of professional journalists. To the contrary, I think we all want very much to activate communities to provide mainstream journalists with more and better sources of information and ways of finding important stories.

But I also believe the news does not belongs exclusively to any specialized group of information workers. As the media business continues to fragment under the enormous pressure of changing technology and culture, it is critical to focus on how to include as many voices as possible in telling the stories that matter most to us all as individuals, interest groups, neighborhoods, cities, states, nations and world citizens.

Read the entire article here.
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Oh, Detroit, you're so crafty. And here's another reason why: Craft blog writer finds herself at Foran's, er, the Grand Trunk Pub (they've changed their name and expanded next door), ordering a Faygo Diet Red Pop from the silversmith bartender. He makes Old English D rings, among other things. If you want one, go in and ask for Pauly.

Excerpt from Craftzine's blog:

Pauly is a silversmith and has been for about 15 years. From designing a piece to the wax work and adding precious stones, Pauly does it all. He learned his craft from his father, also an expert. His father owned a shop and it didn't take long for Pauly to develop a love of the craft.

The Old English D rings are also a tradition from his father. His dad had seen a similar ring and created a modified mold to make his own version. Pauly took on making them as well. Whenever he would wear one out, someone would ask him where he got it, just like I did. A great story of crafty word of mouth.

Just like me, Pauly believes that Detroit is packed with crafters and DIY folks. Many of his friends are also artists and inspiration flows throughout their groups.

Read the entire article here.

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Detroit Girls About Town, a web site that's aimed at keeping Detroit girls in the know, had a great idea: a guide to graffiti. So, the enlisted artist Shades to list some of the best spots in the city to peep some damn good graffiti. The list, taking you from the Dequindre Cut to MCS, could make a nice little afternoon tour on a lazy sunday.

Excerpt from Detroit Girls About Town:

1) Dequindre Cut.
The best place in the city to see graffiti and get into the feeling of what we [graffiti artists] experience would be the Dequindre Cut. It's an old, shut down train line that ran south to the warehouses on the river and north towards the major lines that would lead the trains out for industry. The two-mile area is now, for your pleasure, a bike/jogging trail from the river to eastern market.

Read the entire article here.
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The Center for American Progress is a think-tank dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through thoughts and ideas, which will hopefully spur action. They released a top five list of cities to go for the green jobs. Detroit was one of them.

Excerpt from the Center for American Progress:

There's good news for Detroit despite Michigan's 15.3 percent unemployment rate. Department of Energy green technology grants to fund factories and create green jobs will tap into the Motor City's skilled automotive workforce to bring hybrid and electric technology to the forefront of the American auto industry. Michigan had already created more than 22,000 clean-tech jobs by 2007, and the new federal grants will make those numbers grow. Automotive companies not based in Detroit have recently opened hubs in the city, and a mechanical engineer working on plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles in Detroit can expect to make $63,600 median pay with a bachelor's degree, reports Clean Edge.

Read the entire article here.
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More national media discussions of Detroit's land use issues.

First, Kurt Metzger, director of Data Driven Detroit, talked with NPR about the survey his firm conducted and how it will play into Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's plan for downsizing Detroit. There are a lot of questions and not many answers. But the good news is that these questions are now being raised from the top, not just the bottom.

Excerpt from the NPR transcript:

NORRIS: How do you compensate people who have to move? Because as I understand it, they're entitled to 125 percent of taxable value for their property. But their property values have plummeted; have deteriorating along with the surrounding property, so how do you make them whole?

Mr. METZGER: That's a great question and that's one of those questions that I don't know that we have the answer for. I mean, I think we just can't give money and say: Good luck. Go find a place to live.

I think we have to come up with those housing alternatives and work with them both to relocate them into a home that's better - whatever that means. And I think that's something that still has to be worked out. I think we're going to have to really work with individuals, work with the neighborhood groups and other providers in the area and try to really understand how best to move them, keep them whole where they still are more or less with people that they've been around or that they feel comfortable with.

Listen to the report here.

And then we have this from Fast Company, examining the proposed Hantz farm and other urban farming ideas. Will farms exacerbate Detroit's problem of too much unused land, destroying hopes for rebuilding density.

Excerpt from the Fast Company story:

Together, Bing's and Hantz's plans must sound like a model city for locavores, urban farmsteaders (although Detroit's are actually suspicious of Hantz) and anyone concerned about the fate of sprawl in the era of peak oil. And that might have been so, were it not for the fact that Detroit doesn't fall away to the real prairie at 8 Mile Road. The city of Detroit may be a shadow of its former self, but metropolitan "Detroit" and its suburbs still contain 4.4 million people, more than metropolitan Phoenix, San Francisco or Seattle. And while Detroit may be shrinking in area, "Detroit" is doing anything but.

This fact, which is so often absent from reports about the city's plight, fatally undermines Bing's best intentions. His plan won't make Detroit any denser, but the opposite.

Read the full story here.

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If you follow us on Twitter, then surely you know that at the annual Downtown Detroit Partnership, May Dave Bing said that the M-1 Rail line was a go and should be "shovel ready" by the end of 2010.

That's great news for Detroit and Detroiters. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it'll actually happen then. However, if the words of the mayor aren't enough, check out the M-1 rail line website. Nothing says "commitment" like a website.

Find the M-1 rail line site here.

Read a Detroit News article about the M-1 rail line and Bing's words here.
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What should we do with the Michigan Central Station? A lot of ideas have slipped through Detroit's hands since the behemoth building went vacant more than 20 years ago. Everything from extreme games park to aquarium has been suggested. And, still, behind it all is an owner with an iron grip. There are a lot of hurdles to jump when it comes to the MCS, but maybe some of the more recent suggestions -- Michigan State Police HQ -- might have legs.

Excerpt from the New York Times:

Mr. Blashfield said his company was not interested in demolition, but needed an anchor tenant or at least "a critical mass" of businesses or government agencies before it could pay for any renovation. And that is the hard part; grand and varied plans have been proposed over the years, with none coming to fruition.

But there is new hope that momentum is building for Michigan Central to become a hub for some government security functions, like the Detroit headquarters of the Michigan State Police, some state and federal Homeland Security offices and, given Detroit's location close to the Canadian border, a center for trade inspections, Mr. Blashfield said.

Plans are preliminary, but they offer the most promise of anything proposed lately, especially if federal stimulus money can be used.

"I think this window of opportunity is very narrow, and if we don't seize the moment, we may lose it," said Cameron S. Brown, a Republican state senator who supports having security agencies use the building. "The clock is ticking."

Read the entire article here.
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Midtown is Detroit's shining example of density. There are shops and cafes and bars and stores one can pop in and out of along and off of Cass Avenue. Dave Mancini, owner of Eastern Market's Supino Pizzeria, blogs for Metromode about just that. Read further and you'll learn a little bit about opening a business in Detroit and why he puts an egg on one of his signature pizzas.

Excerpt from the blog on Metromode:

A couple of months ago on an unseasonably lovely Monday, I wandered into Curl Up & Dye on Cass north of Willis in Midtown (helping Detroiters look like Detroiters – awesome tagline from this fantastic little salon's Myspace page) for my semiannual haircut without an appointment (because that's sort of how I operate). I was told I would have a 45 minute wait. So how to entertain myself for a bit?

Then it occurred to me that this is one section in Detroit that has newly established the sort of 'walkable neighborhood – retail density' that we all get geeked about. Just around the block on Canfield I went to grab a beer at Motor City Brewing Works. On my way there, I passed two stores that, like my business, are closed on Mondays. But most days of the week, you can check out beautiful, locally crafted art and gifts and vintage clothes at City Bird, or fantastic design elements for your home, curated by the eminently tasteful Claire at the Bureau of Urban Living next door. I finished my beer and cruised around the block, past the Avalon Bakery (their bear claw pastries are the greatest) on to Goodwell's, a natural foods store par-excellence, and home to one of the tastiest avocado sandwiches you'll ever sink your teeth into. Now I'm a carnivore, but this is one vegan meal that can satisfy my people. I still had four minutes left as I walked by another anchor of this neighborhood, the Spiral Collective, and got back just in time to get a great haircut while listening to the owner drop the occasional f-bomb, one of the particular charms of this place.

Read the entire blog post here.



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