Buzz

'Detroit Je t'aime' filmmaker tells all about love for the city

Detroit News Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Stop the digital presses: we're pleased to report that the Kickstarter campaign to fund Detroit Je t'aime ended successfully on Monday. This story by one of the filmmakers gives a nice account of how passionate this French team feels about the city. And only one moronic comment (near the end) out of 30 or so responses in the Detroit News. Well done!

An excerpt:

Meeting with people such as the legendary Grace Lee Boggs (97-year-old activist and philosopher), Malik Yakini (from D-Town, the largest urban farm in Detroit) and Olayami Dabls (from MBAD's African Bead Museum), among many others, was definitely life-changing. Thanks to this Detroit crash course, I quickly stopped calling Detroit a "blank canvas."

Read the rest of the story here.

Slows' Yardbird to face off for best U.S. sandwich in August

Detroit Free Press Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Here what Adam Richman said on his Travel Channel food show last week about what is now one of America's most talked about sandwiches:

"(It's) a sandwich to be savored. It's unlike any sandwich found anywhere," Richman said during the episode, adding that the Yardbird will be moving on because of the "depth of flavor and special blend of seasoning."

The Travel Channel series, which airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays, has scheduled the finals -- a national battle where the Yardbird will face nine other regional winners -- for Aug. 15.

We'll get some carryout from Slows and be tuning in.

Check out the rest of the story here.

DC3 announces second design festival for September

Detroit Creative Corridor Center Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The second annual Detroit Design Festival (DDF), presented by the Detroit Creative Corridor Center (DC3), is coming to Detroit’s Woodward Corridor Sept. 19-23. The festival, which had 85 Design Happenings featuring 300 designers in its first year, connects designers and creative practitioners, exposing them to new markets and consumers.

We had a ton of fun last year. Read more here and stay tuned for more info closer to the dates.

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.

Next American City looks at impact of Midtown Inc.

Salon Tuesday, July 24, 2012

We were happy to find this little validation of the great work done by Midtown Inc.

A descriptive excerpt:

Founded in 1976 by community activists rooted in the affordable housing movement of the 1960s, Midtown Inc. evolved along with the city. In the last two decades, the scrappy non-profit’s tactical collaborations with major anchor institutions in Detroit -- including City Hall -- have elevated it from the anti-establishment fringe and into the establishment itself.

Read on here.

Hotter than July kicks off at multiple locations

Kick Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Who's going? Events include an interfaith candlelight vigil, a three hour cruise on the Detroit River, the Gathering, a day of education and advocacy with an array of interactive and informative workshops covering issues of importance to women, men, transgender and youth, the Palmer Park picnic and much more.

See the entire schedule here.

Vice: Phil Cooley one of "most interesting men" in U.S.

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, July 24, 2012

We love Vice, we love Phil Cooley. It makes sense the two would get along so famously.

An exceprt:

"We always felt that in order to have a healthy, long-term sustainable buisness we need a healthy community surrounding us," Cooley said. "So I was able to then use the monies we made from Slows, to hopefully help others in the community. We started working in public spaces, helping other small businesses get open, just because I could."

Read on and watch the video here.

Curbed Detroit says financing, construction coming soon for Whitney Building

Curbed Detroit Tuesday, July 24, 2012

We've been waiting to hear that the Whitney Building was ready to start redevelopment work ever since last October, when we held our Next Big Thing event there. We'll be waiting to get the official word and will bring that to you as soon as we have it.

In the meantime, check this out:

The Roxbury Group is the project developer; these are the same people behind The Auburn in Midtown. They have told Curbed that they are currently almost done gathering all the finances together and construction will begin immediately after.

Read more here.

RiverWalk's $44 million in upgrades to include improvements to Mt. Elliott, Gabriel Richard parks

Detroit News Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Wonderful news from the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy: more funding is headed Detroit's way for upgrades to the RiverWalk. An announcement Monday morning by heavyweight government officials zeroed in on improvements to two significant parks east of downtown. More work is planned on that stretch of the walk, plus an extension that will take pedestrian and non-motorized traffic west to the Ambassodor Bridge.

An excerpt from the Detroit News:

The state's Department of Natural Resources awarded the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy a $15 million check at the groundbreaking ceremony. The conversancy has also received a $29 million federal highway appropriation, which U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, helped secure and the state's Department of Transportation gave to the river project.

Officials from the conservancy, MDOT, DNR and others applauded the partnership that will transform the river. Read the rest of the story here.

ACLU sues on behalf of Highland Park students with low literacy rates

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, July 17, 2012

On Thursday the Michigan branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) -- with offices on Woodward Avenue in Brush Park -- filed a class-action lawsuit, the first of its kind, against the state of Michigan, state agencies overseeing public education and the Highland Park school system. They did so on behalf of eight students representing the roughly 1,000 children who attend the K-12 public school district.

Read the rest of the story here.

Workshops, other activities heating up at Signal-Return

Signal Return Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Signal-Return, the self-described "hive for dynamic visual production" in Eastern Market that is "a multi-use center for fine art, design, craft and literary arts" is zooming forward with workshops and other special events this summer and fall.

Go here to get more info on what's happening at Signal-Return.

'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.

Canadian investor creates bicycle manufacturing center

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, July 17, 2012

There are a lot of bikes out there, but how many are "Made in Detroit?" Not many, probably. Not yet, anyway.

But here they come, thanks to Zak Pashak, who moved down here to cycling utopia from Western Canada to open a bicycle manufacturing center.

An excerpt from HuffPost Detroit:

His target customers are people who aren't hardcore cyclists but are still interested in bikes.The model he plans on producing in Detroit will be a lightweight steel three-speed with a tire that's thicker than those used for racing bikes. The bike will come in one color -- black-- and sell for a little under $500.

Black, yes. We'll take (at least) one. See the rest of the story here.

Hygienic Dress League gets plastered on walls of Berlin

Trendbuch Stadt. Tuesday, July 17, 2012

This German blog says a pair of Detroit artists are at the intersection of street art and commercial branding. They got that absolutely right. That's exactly what we think about the public art created by Steve and Dorota Coy, known around the world as the Hygienic Dress League.

Read all about it here.