Buzz

The linguistic, social and ethnic diversity of Hamtrmack never fails to charm us here at Model D HQ. It's great to hear that the realities of the community have inspired what looks like a nice piece of theatrical art at Planet Ant.

An excerpt: (Writer) Edwartowski’s blend of quirky characters and realistic dialogue might lead one to believe she penned much of her script by eavesdropping on Hamtramck citizens as they came and went from any of Hamtramck’s dining establishments -- it’s that natural.

Good stuff. Read more about the production here.

On Wednesday, project partners, Invest Detroit, Midtown Detroit, Inc. and The Roxbury Group will give the first construction tour and preview of the Auburn, a $12 million, 56,000 square foot residential and retail project at Cass Avenue and Canfield Street in Midtown, Detroit. The five commercial tenants, which are scheduled to open by the end of the year, will also be announced.
 
The tour will give us a first look at the Auburn’s model units and common spaces, including two expansive porches and a year-round social room. The tour will also mark the official start of leasing for the 58 apartments. The preview is Oct. 3, 11 a.m. at the main entrance, 4240 Cass Avenue.
 
The Auburn will hold open houses for the community and potential residents on Friday, Oct. 5, noon-9 p.m.; and Saturday, Oct. 6, 4-9 p.m.
 
The Auburn has 54 one-bedroom and four studio apartments. The one bedroom units range from $920 to $995 and the studios from $780 to $830. For leasing information, contact Michael Martorelli, leasing manager for the Auburn, by sending an email here.

Here's something we'd LOVE to see happen on the lower Woodward corridor: pompous and unfunny Comedy Central show host Stephen Colbert in Detroit, a city that he slaps around with oft-frequency. What we LOVE even more is this challenge from D:hive founder Josh McManus: "Satire is a good awareness vehicle for social change," McManus said in issuing his challenge. "Mr. Colbert, when are you going to put your ass where your mouth is?"

Well said, Josh. Read the rest of the Freep story here.

There is a nice show on right now at Hamtramck's Public Pool, where neighborhood artist George Rahme is sitting daily tinkering with his huge, multi-colored collages and planning some good tunes (Rahme is an accomplished DJ as well). The Knight Arts blog takes favorable notice.

Read the whole story here.

This is the kind of phrase, from the HuffPost Detroit, we consider music to our ears: A coalition of local business and nonprofit groups is now pursuing a study to see if this type of program, which already exists in places like Denver and Minneapolis, has a future in Motown. Wayne State University and other heavyweight institution and funders are involved in talks to get it done.

Read all about it here.

Last week we found this series of "the Urbanist" podcasts about Detroit living on the UK-based Monocle site; this week, it's Detroit video content we find hosted by our British friends. 

Just click here and enjoy.

We've written plenty, and so have others in Detroit, about Dan Gilbert's voracious appetite for vertical downtown properties. It's nice when others notice, like MedCity News, based in Cleveland (he has several holdings there as well, including the Cavaliers NBA franchise).

Read the Q&A here.

Nearly 700 young workers have already taken advantage of the Live Downtown and Live Midtown program. That's a good number for an initiative that was launched just last year. But more would jump at the incentive to move into greater downtown if there were more living units available, says Sue Mosey of Midtown Inc. in this story in MLive.

An excerpt:

The effort was launched in "partnership with Henry Ford Health System, Wayne State University and Detroit Medical Center as a way to get young workers to live in the Midtown area, by offering $2,500 in annual rent assistance or a $20,000 down payment on a home purchase. The effort's initial $5 million was matched by the Hudson River Foundation, the Michigan Housing Development Authority and the Kresge Foundation.

Large employers in the downtown area took note of the program, and soon Compuware, Quicken Loans, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Strategic Staffing and DTE Energy added another $5 million to the effort to draw their young workers downtown.
About $2 million has been spent so far, Mosey said, and the program plans to continue to spend $2 million each year for the next four years.

Sounds good, let's keep it going. Read more here.

Any piece about Detroit that leads with a quote from Sci-fi scion Bruce Sterling passes our cultural literacy test. Not to mention some other juicy wordsmithing by philosopher-superstar-entrepreneur Josh Linkner, who tells Atlantic Cities: "I'll put a Detroit entrepreneur up against anyone from the coasts and I think we'd kick their ass." Yeah, man. We like that kind of real talk. He also takes on the city's notorious lack of density, saying:  "Things tend to be spread out," he said. "Something on one block and something else four blocks later. We don't have a place you can stroll around for eight square blocks."

Right again, Josh. Read the entire story, largely about the national buzz being generated by the M@dison Building, here.

Yes, we have a lot of coverage of the Detroit Design Festival this week. But too much is never enough when you have a series of happenings this good. Here's one to clip and save from Kate Abbey-Lambertz in HuffPost Detroit.

Start reading here.

We love British media culture (Doctor Who? Downton Abbey? Big fans over here at Model D HQ). And for print, and, increasingly, on the web, it's Monocle that catches our myriad eyes. Especially when we start finding Detroit content. Like what we found in this series of the Urbanist.

Listen up here.

We don't care what anyone says we love seeing Curbed Detroit breaking stories no one else does, like this piece that includes a few juicy teasers about what is happening and when in Corktown (or is that Corktown Shores?):

Take a look here.

May the best women and men win Hatch Detroit's $50,000 in seed money to support business startups in Detroit. And read all about how four finalists will be selected this Wednesday in Jon Zemke's news story here.

HuffPost Detroit has a tasty profile on one of the contenders, Vegan Soul. Read about them here.

One of the things we love about Josh Linkner is he's never afraid to punctuate his thoughts in a way everyone can understand -- like comparing Detroit real estate to precious metals, gold in particular.

It's all here in a piece Linkner penned for Forbes, no less.

An excerpt:

Within a five-block radius from the downtown Detroit epicenter, you can buy a vacant building. Yes, building. My business partner Dan Gilbert has purchased approximately 3 million square feet of commercial property in the heart of downtown Detroit over the last few years through his firm, Bedrock Real Estate Services.

Read on here.

If you haven't had a chance to check out some of the colorful, edgy street art popping up around Detroit and Hamtramck, then get out there and see it now. It's splendid.

Curbed Detroit knows what it's all about. Go here and enjoy.