Detroit in the news

So, Detroit, how was your weekend? What did you do? Did you tweet about it? A few people have a few things to say, so, we won't bore you with any further introduction. Here are this weeks tweets:

First off, there's a new paper coming to Metro Detroit. It's interesting and we're curious to see how it'll pan out (and, more importantly, how long it will last)

@Sliebler: I had to do a triple take on this one: New newspaper hits the streets around T-giving in Detroit.

Triple take indeed.

One of Detroit's infamous political characters Sam Riddle was hangin' out at Eastern Market over the weekend. He had this to say (assuming this tweeter is actually Riddle).

@Samriddle: Veggie Time- Going To Eastern Market -Get A Bite To Eat Over There. Love That Eastern Market ! It's A Detroit Good News Story.

Sam Riddle... is that really you?

The Boss was in town, sort of. He went to Auburn Hills, played at the Palace. However this tweeter, @Segerfile (as in Bob Seger?), had this to say about the show: Springsteen to the Detroit crowd Friday night, after playing Ramblin' Gamblin' Man by crowd request: "We love you Bobby, that was for you!"

We bring this up to point out that the Boss, on numerous occasions, called Detroit "Ohio." Not cool, bro. Not cool.

Speaking of not cool, the Lions and here is the gratuitous tweet from @Callierulesduh about another bleak Sunday: oh detroit. you got beat again???? noooooooooooo! win win win! pleaseee. :D

@Callierulesduh, don't was your exclamation points on the Lions. Please.

Not about the Lions is @bnetAdvertising tweet talking about giving Detroit a shot: http://bit.ly/HRpY Move To Detroit For An Epic Adventure

Of course, we'd like to remind this tweeter that moving to Detroit is just part of the "epic adventure." Once you're here, however, that's when it gets really good.

Now this tweet by @eringavle is an interesting one: where was everyone years ago? the mess in detroit would have been easier to clean up...I wonder how many jobs could have been saved.

It's a decent thought. It would have been nice if there was some foresight to this problem. But there wasn't. And there are people here now doing the best they can to not only help themselves, but Detroit as well. We gotta get over that, "Where were you two years ago," sentiment 'cause none of us have a flying Delorian to change that.

To wrap up on a less serious note, we have two tweets.

One from @bbuff27 that doesn't make sense: I'm a college educated young man but when the music come on, that Detroit radiates thru me

Please, what does that mean?

And one that does coming from @JUUSTINNNN: homeless men shaving in the library bathroom, oh detroit.

We'll leave you with that visual.

Keep reading. Keep tweeting. And follow Model D on Twitter here.

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Changing Detroit one advertisement at a time.

Excerpt:

The initiative to help change what may be the most dire urban image in America is being sponsored by the Time Inc. unit of Time Warner as part of a yearlong project, Assignment Detroit, that involves reporters and editors from Essence, Fortune, Money, Sports Illustrated, Time and related Web sites.

Several advertising agencies with offices in the Detroit area were asked to develop campaigns; five agreed to take part. Their work is to appear in the Dec. 7 issue of Fortune, due Nov. 23, as well as on three Web sites: cnnmoney.com, fortune.com and time.com. (The value of the ad pages that Time Inc. is devoting to the contest in Fortune is estimated at $400,000.)

Visitors to the Web sites will be able to vote, beginning on Monday, for their favorite among the five campaigns. The winner is to be announced on Dec. 2, during an annual awards ceremony in Detroit known as the D Show.

"The whole idea of the contest is that we believe in the renewal of the city," said Mark Ford, president for the news group at Time Inc. in New York. This is to be accomplished partly by people moving to Detroit with their businesses and creativity, and being there "for the long haul."

Read the entire article here.
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Fish farms in Detroit? That's just one idea of reinvention.

Excerpt:

"Many communities come to us because they're searching for some sort of revitalization or rethinking of their communities based on the strengths and assets that still exist in their communities," explains Stanard.

The table at the front of the design center is covered in colorful mock ups and drawings of all the potential projects they want to work on.

They're currently working on a project on Heidelberg Street in Detroit. A lot of children live around there, and it also happens to be one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country. Chandra Moore explains how they're going to take one of the vacant houses on the street "and figure out we can make it an open, urban amphitheater for the area."

The reason they're able to do the project is because they got a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Without the grant, who knows if the project would've happened. A lot of time the fate of a project does come down to money.

Read the entire article here.
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"Days of Our Lives" stars came to the city to help out a bit after seeing Time's project. Looks like "Assignment Detroit" is working. Maybe "General Hospital" is next.

Excerpt:

But this past week, several cast members stepped away from their Hollywood set to reach out to Detroiters. "Days" stars Nadia Bjorlin (Chloe Lane), Bryan Dattilo (Lucas Roberts Horton), James Reynolds (Abe Carver) and Shawn Christian (Dr. Daniel Jonas) stopped by several places in the past week, including the Genesis House III women's shelter to distribute and serve food from the Gleaners Community Food Bank on Thursday. They also presented Gleaners with a $5,000 donation.

Greg Meng, senior vice president of production and development at Corday Productions Inc., and an executive in charge of production of "Days of Our Lives," said the choice to come to Detroit was made after he read a recent Time magazine article about the city.

"According to the article, the glass seemed half empty," Meng says. "Since we've been here, we have been amazingly surprised by the optimism and spirit of the Detroit community. We believe the glass is more than half full."

Read the entire article here.
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Kauffman Foundation's CEO evokes the spirit of Henry Ford and believes that Detroit can do it again -- in terms of entrepreneurial spirit.

Excerpt:

The rise of Detroit in the 20th century was a result of entrepreneurs such as automotive icon Henry Ford taking risks, innovative thinking and start-up companies that provided jobs.

"This city can do it all over again," he said.

One of the Kansas City, Mo.-based foundation's missions is to foster and advance entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship-friendly policies and facilitate the commercialization of new technologies by entrepreneurs. The foundation last week released a study showing that young companies are the main drivers of job creation. Companies less than five years old created nearly two-thirds of net new jobs in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Detroit's greatest assets are the plethora of "human capital" and a new mayor who is well-versed in the business world, Schramm said. Mayor Dave Bing, who founded The Bing Group, an automotive supply company, could be a real boost to the city's economic growth.

"I have a hunch if there's a blessing (for Detroit's business climate), it's Mayor Bing's experience," Schramm said.

Read the entire article here.
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Last week Model D held its "media in Detroit" speaker series. Oneita Jackson, Detroit Free Press blogger and copy editor, was on the panel. She had a few things to say about it.

Excerpt:

"Stop begging people to like you!" I get annoyed when Detroiters complain about how much negative press they receive, dismissing, almost always, the positive press they do get. If people come here and want to write limited-vision stories, I said, let them.

"If you don't like how you're being represented," I said to the crowd of about 200, "stop being the way you are."

Read the entire article here.
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Most of the Model D readers know the "$100 house" story by now. So, there's no need to explain it. However, what Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert are doing in that community (and pushing to do city-wide) is a creative solution to all of the city's empty houses. They don't all have to be demo-ed. There are creative ways out of this mess and Cope and Reichert are exploring them.

Excerpt:

"One of the neighbors asked us if we could hold English lessons there," says Cope, "so the newer Bangladeshi immigrants would have a place to set up for an English class every Sunday. So it's definitely moving in a direction. We haven't held any of that there since it's still under construction. But that's our goal."

Since Cope, O'Geen and some of the other artists are home most of the day working on their houses, they're like an informal neighborhood patrol. It's a lot harder for thieves to steal trash cans and break in to houses when people are home watching.

Reichart says what artists are doing in their tiny neighborhood can easily be replicated in other parts of Detroit. She says the city could designate 10 houses in a neighborhood to be used for artists as live/work spaces.

Read the entire article here.
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Last year Detroit's biggest dance party got a boost in attendance and fame beyond our city limits when it was voted as the "Best Party in America" by Paper Mag. Well, it's that time of year again. The problem is that Funk Night isn't on the list on nominations but you can write in and request it. If you're interested that is.

Click here for the nominations.
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This piece starts off a little gloomily (but not untruthfully) about the state of Detroit. And despite the bit of controversy Dan Gilbert is in right now with the Kwame situation, he has some good thoughts on pushing the city forward.

Excerpt:

"It's the opportunity to get in low and sell high," says Gilbert. "It's an untapped market from an intellectual standpoint, and from a physical standpoint there are great buildings. The idea is to get to the tipping point where companies start believing that they can't afford not to be in Detroit."

His intention is to recruit a flock of innovative, edgy companies into the Campus Martius area. The fact that Gilbert and Karmanos are onto the same notion has created energy, a whiff of hope. "When they move, you start thinking, 'What do they know that I don't know?' " says Rich Homberg, president of Detroit Public Television. The station, which relocated to exurban Wixom, now plans to open a new studio in Detroit.

Read the entire article here.

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Sure, Vice President Joe Biden was here to talk politics, but afterward he found himself at Lafayette Coney Island, scarfing a coney dog. Looks like he's a Lafayette guy, sorry American Coney.

Excerpt:

Vice President Joe Biden came to Detroit today to raise money for a pair of Michigan Democrats in Congress, issue a progress report from the Obama administration and visit a landmark coney island restaurant.

The money and the hot dog were the easy part -- Biden raised an estimated $318,000 for freshman U.S. Reps. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township and Mark Schauer of Battle Creek at back-to-back receptions at the MGM Grand Casino Hotel, and, with Gov. Jennifer Granholm, made quick work of a chili dog at the Lafayette Coney Island in downtown Detroit afterward.

Read the entire article here.
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Whenever the Lions play you can expect the Twitter universe to blow up with how bad they are, how bad they were, and how bad they'll always be. Last Sunday was no different. So, we'll spare you the torture -- unless you watched the game -- and get down to something that really matters to the city: The election.

The Detroit elections are over. And there was change and stability in place. We won't have to have another election for another four more years. Winners included Charles Pugh, Detroit's first openly gay elected official, who took City Council President. Gary Brown came in second making him City Council President Pro Tem. And the mayor's office will settle down for four years with Dave Bing at its helm. Tweeters were pretty hyped about the results. Here are a few of them:

@SimplyTress chimes in on Pugh as a winner: I'm so glad Charles Pugh won his campaign and is now Detroit's City Council President! He really L0VES our city!

@Johnmoz rounds up the results in 140 characters with enough space to give his two cents on paying taxes (pun intended): Sanity reigns in Detroit elections: Good Mayor, council. School bond and council-by-districts. Won't mind city taxes as much.

And to sum up the election tweeters' language this week is @1stclassct: just excited about some great changes that was made in Detroit this week. and looking forward to a new Detroit.

Short and sweet this week's tweets. But their importance is big. Thanks to all those who got out to vote.

Keep reading. Keep tweeting.

Follow Model D on Twitter here.

Compiled by Model D Intern Ryan Kelly

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Charles Pugh won the most votes in Tuesdays election for City Council. This makes him the City Council President and also the first openly-gay elected official in the city's history.

Excerpt:

Pugh's election, however, may signal a shift in sentiment, one with national implications. Once Pugh reached a critical mass of public support, those who might otherwise have attacked him for being gay feared that such criticism would trigger a backlash. And while a whisper campaign against Pugh was anticipated, none developed. Pugh's cascading popularity led to the endorsement of several church groups, including the local Council of Baptist Pastors, lending credence to the hope that his election heralds an era of more open discussion about gays in Detroit. Once the dam of silence has been broken, more and more residents can openly voice their support for LGBT issues.

Read the entire article here.
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Thanks to volunteers and a generous donation, nearly 500 trees are slated to go up along Jefferson

Excerpt:

Armed with shovels, rakes and pick axes, about 100 volunteers on Saturday made good on a pledge from a Grosse Pointe family to spruce up Jefferson Avenue.

The family of Jon Cotton, a businessman and Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce member, donated $275,000 to line Jefferson from Alter Road to Interstate 375 with 485 trees. The Greening of Detroit -- a local group dedicated to the reforestation of the city -- is handling the donation and will spend the next four Saturdays busting cement and planting several different species of trees to create a canopy along Jefferson.

"It is going to be beautiful. This area needs the trees," Greening of Detroit board member Sheila O'Hara said Saturday as she helped volunteers plant 62 trees.

Read the entire article here.
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Detroit's "Creative Corridor," which follows Woodward from New Center to the river, is to be the city's hub for all things creative. The success of this idea, however, requires strong relationships not only in the creative community but also the business community.

Excerpt:

"I needed a lot of support because it's so hard to be creative and deal with learning how to run a business," he said.

But no matter how much support is given to the creative class, they will still need affordable space and a place to display their work.

"If we are going to start treating artists as entrepreneurs, we will need to create a place for artists and their audience to meet," said Oliver Ragsdale Jr., president of the Arts League of Michigan.

Read the entire article here.
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The growing Muslim population in Hamtramck will have more representation in city government now that three Muslims were elected to a six-person City Council.

Excerpt:

After Tuesday's election, Muslims are to make up half of the city council members in Hamtramck, a percentage believed by advocates to be the highest Muslim representation in a municipality in the United States.

Two Muslim candidates, Kazi Miah and Mohammed Hassan, were elected Tuesday to the six-member Hamtramck City Council, joining incumbent Shahab Ahmed, whose seat was not up for re-election. All three have roots in the Muslim-majority country of Bangladesh, reflecting the growing Bangladeshi-American population in a city that was once known for its Polish Catholic community. Hamtramck also has Muslim residents from Bosnia and Yemen.

Read the entire article here.
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