Downtown Detroit : Buzz

Huffington Post's Jason Schmitt visited downtown's Quicken Loans, where founder Dan Gilbert and CEO Bill Emerson are hard at work, he says, creating a brain trust of 4,000 thought leaders. A nice thought, you might say: but taking Quicken's 94% referral rating and ever-increasing profits into account, it's clear Gilbert's version for a different kind of company seems to be working.

Excerpt:

These two executives aren't penny pinching. Together, these leaders spoke for ten hours straight and utilized a staff of over 20 to keep things streamlined -- showing the priority and high expectations that are bestowed upon these new recruits. What other company has top executives that are willing to wipe a day off their calendar for the newbies--and also, what other companies have top executives who have that type of energy to command an audience on the edge of their chairs for that length of time? This isn't normal--but neither is having net revenue exceed net expenditures in 2011. The difference is working.

We at Buzz also thank the author for his introduction, which includes the hypothesis that Dan Gilbert proves Detroiters can actually be successful. That Henry Ford always was kind of a deadbeat.

If you've ever had the opportunity to sit in the 100 section of Comerica Park, there is no way you could miss the singing hot dog guy. His operatic renditions of "Hooooootttttttt Doooooggggggg" will either put a smile on your face or make you send an email to complain. Either way, it's unique to the Tigers experience. Also, he actually has a name: Charley Marcuse.

Excerpt from ESPN:

"They are kind of humorous, I can say that much," Behr said of fans' complaints. "Obviously, fans are here to see the players, not be entertained by us."

Marcuse now limits his singing to after the Tigers have batted and before the opposing team bats at the top of an inning.

"It's been agreed to he's not going to do it when the Tigers are batting," Behr said. "We don't need to distract the home team."

But the restrictions end there.

"Have we told him to shut it down? No," Behr said. "He just has to realize fans are here to see the game."

Marcuse insists he gets it, and just tries to add a little flavor -- literally -- between innings.

"People out there constantly are begging me to sing and asking me to sing, but they're not the ones writing letters," he said. "So, now I don't sing as much as I once did, but I still sing quite a bit. I think it works for everybody."

Read the entire article here.

The Jazz Fest has entered the 21st Century and will send some of the performances and interviews right to your computer.

Excerpt from the Detroit News:

For years, music fans who couldn't make it to downtown Detroit over Labor Day weekend have bemoaned the fact that the Detroit International Jazz Festival was no longer aired live on Detroit TV.

This year, you'll be able to watch some performances and artist interviews at the jazz festival -- via your computer.

The September festival is ramping up its interactive presence with Jazz Planet.tv. Downtown, especially the Campus Martius Jazz Planet stage, will be swarming with video cameras and Skyping video journalists.

The festival will partner with Show Ads Network, Livestream.com and Detroit Public Television to offer live streaming of musical acts performing on the Campus Martius stage, as well as backstage interviews with artists, breaking news and chats with fans and others in and around downtown Detroit.

Read the entire article here.

We're not sure if a coney dog is a dinner so to speak. It's more of a snack, or future heart burn, or drunken decision. Whatever you call it, it's damn tasty. The other thing about a coney dog is that people love to write about it (or sometimes debate about it) when they aren't eating it. So, here's another one, another blog that writes about our beloved coney dog.

Excerpt:

Welcome to Detroit — land and birthplace of the coney island hot dog. The dogs you'll find in Detroit are generally the most authentic in the state with chopped pungent onion, a soupy beef chili, yellow mustard and an encased beef hot dog in bun. I cheat a little by adding cheese to my dog (but never ketchup).

The dog at Lafayette, a vintage and unchanging coney dog venue in the city since around 1930, is my dog of choice. I prefer it to that of its red-white-blue rival next door at American Coney Island.

For one, the dogs at Lafayette have a mean snap to when you bite into it (not rubbery or floppy like most). The chili, is slightly sweet with a dash of cinnamon but mostly it's the cumin that makes the sauce unique to the area. Plus, there's the atmosphere of orders shouted out, a bathroom that feels as if you've entered a submarine and the showmanship of the servers (although our server dropped his arm-load of fries and dogs when we went — something I've never seen in 15 years of going).

Read the entire post here.

Movement is over. We know. And, really, what's the point of posting something that happened nearly a month ago? Well, there really isn't... but some of these images are so candid and pretty great, that they deserve a look. And to remember to mark your calendars next year for another great event.

Excerpt from 'Sup Magazine:

Movement, or the Detroit Electronic Musc Festival, is always AWESOME. I have great memories of driving to Detroit for the festival as a young teen from the suburbs. I had a few schedule-free days before the festival began so during that time I sat in a driveway for a whole day, got a $5 pizza from a Little Caesar's drive-thru (Drive. Thru. Pizza.), saw a crackhead in a lime green T-shirt stumble out of a purple minivan taxi in a neighborhood of burned-down houses, mistakenly ordered the "braised potatoes" at a Chicken Shack, heard "Alleys of Your Mind" on the radio one day driving to my favorite record shop where I picked up a bunch of records that would cost like $50 (each) in New York, and since I hadn't been back in a few years, I decided to really try to relax and take in the scenery and chill vibes.

The electronic music festival is located in the middle of downtown Detroit and is always filled with characters from all walks of life. Detroit Techno isn't really about (or, shouldn't be about) the DJ; it's about the party. So on that note, welcome to Detroit's electronic music festival, where 'SUP's coverage is completely out of chronological order, scattered like the brains of all the sleepless attendees.

Read the entire article here.

We'd ride it. Windsor is like Detroit's little brother, and every 19-year-old American's playground.

Excerpt from the Associated Press (via BusinessWeek):

A public-private coalition has been formed to lead the effort to raise money and build a new rail-only tunnel under the Detroit River.

The Continental Rail Gateway group seeks to replace a century-old tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. The new $400 million tunnel also would be built to accommodate double-stacked containers and multilevel rail cars used by shippers and automakers.

The coalition was formed when the Windsor Port Authority joined Canadian Pacific Railway and Borealis Infrastructure, part of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.

Read the entire article here.

The old Detroit Free Press building, which the paper moved out of in 1998, has a plan in place that will turn it into residential units.

Excerpt from the Detroit Free Press:

A $70-million plan to remake the old Detroit Free Press building downtown into residential apartments, office and retail space inched forward Wednesday as the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority approved incentive financing for the deal.

The project still needs to overcome hurdles, including finding market-rate financing in a tight credit market. But Wednesday's action shows that the deal is moving ahead.

The building, at 321 W. Lafayette, is owned by Free Press Holdings, a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based real estate partnership headed by investor Emre Uralli. The partnership bought the building in late 2008 from a local partnership that included the Farbman Group real estate firm.

Read the entire article here.

Maybe downtown won't turn into the happening night spot we all would like it to be... but, maybe, it'll be a hub for technology companies or IT firms. That'd be fine, just as long as it's relevant.

Excerpt from the Detroit Free Press:

Downtown Detroit has spent years trying to reinvent itself as a housing and entertainment district. But now another identity seems to be emerging -- downtown as a hub of software and technology firms.

With software giant Compuware firmly established and Internet mortgage firm Quicken Loans moving downtown soon, the Campus Martius area is welcoming another new technology firm -- GalaxE Solutions, a New Jersey-based software firm catering to the health care industry.

GalaxE is leasing space in the 1001 Woodward office tower that once housed the First Federal savings and loan. In recent years, developers had planned to convert the mostly empty office tower to condominiums. But those plans were scrapped as the housing market tanked, and now GalaxE plans to post some 500 employees there within five years.

GalaxE Chairman and CEO Timothy Bryan said he expects other firms to follow GalaxE's lead.

"There's got to be other companies like ours out there," Bryan said. "As a businessman, you look for the next opportunity. The workforce is here. The infrastructure is here."

Read the entire article here.

Sarah Lapinski from WOUND Menswear briefly discusses her line and the importance of BravoBravo.

There's agri-tourism and people who followed around the Grateful Dead, so, of course there is such a thing called techno tourism. And thanks to Movement, Detroit is part of that. This piece by the New York Times isn't specifically about Detroit or Movement, but it's part of it.

Excerpt from the New York Times:

But by late on the second day, as the crowd boogied to the Latin house beat of the D.J. Little Louie Vega, I had become a convert. For the next few years I found myself a regular on the techno-tourist circuit, traveling from Detroit to Berlin to Tokyo. I'm years beyond sleeping in a car, but there's still a special magic in meeting up with old friends on the dance floor, especially in an unfamiliar city.

Today the circuit has a thriving subculture based on techno, a catchall for a variety of electronic music genres like dubstep, electro-pop and minimal techno. Techno tourists travel around the United States and beyond to an informal network of festivals, following their favorite performers — Carl Craig, Ricardo Villalobos and Richie Hawtin, to name a few — many of whom are mainstays on the circuit.

Techno has grown up, and so have its fans. Many, when not bogged down by their day jobs or family responsibilities, still grab ear plugs and comfy shoes and hit the road. Others even take their children along, paving the way for the next generation. And there's more fresh blood in the scene from jam-band fans, who groove to techno's extended loops and intricate beat patterns.

David Day, 35, is such a regular that he recently started his own techno festival, Together, in Boston. "I go to these festivals to be with like-minded people who also live and breathe electronic music," he said. "This year, I immediately went onto Orbitz after hearing that Villalobos was playing at Movement." (The Movement festival, in Detroit, unofficially kicks off the summer festival circuit over Memorial Day weekend.)

Read the entire article here.

Strategic Staffing Solutions has opened up a new IT center downtown and is bringing 53 jobs with it.

Excerpt from Metromode:

Strategic Staffing Solutions has established a new IT center in downtown Detroit, creating 53 new jobs immediately with a further promise of expanding employment to 150 by year's end.

"We have people who are starting in the facility every day," says Cynthia J Pasky, president and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions. "Our goal is to pass that number."

The Detroit Development Center is located in the Penobscot Building, which is also Strategic Staffing Solutions headquarters. It will handle IT work for Blue Cross Blue Shield in house in Detroit instead of offshoring that work.

Read the entire article here.

The Movement just got a little bit bigger. The annual electronic and dance festival in Detroit's Hart Plaza has added a fifth stage for your viewing and listening enjoyment. This fifth stage will bring an additional 32 more acts to the already giant, worldly event. DJ Marco Carola, Detroit techno star Derrick May, and the Italian DJ Mauro Picotto.

For more info on Movement and a full lineup list go here.

Campus Martius, in Detroit's downtown, just got serious. It was always serious to Detroiters, but outside validation just feels so damn good. The Urban Land Institute named Campus Martius the first ever recipient of the Amanda Burden Urban Open Space Award, which recognizes outstanding examples of public open spaces that ... well ... just read the clip below. It's worth noting that our park beat out places like Boston, New York, and Seattle.

Excerpt from the Detroit Free Press:

Detroit's Campus Martius Park was named today the first-ever winner of the Urban Land Institute's Amanda Burden Urban Open Space Award, given in a national competition to recognize an outstanding example of a public open space that has catalyzed the transformation of the surrounding community.

The announcement was made this morning at ULI's Real Estate Summit in Boston. Detroit's park was chosen over park finalists in Boston, New York, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Greenville, S.C., for the top honor. The finalists were chosen from among 88 initial entries.

ULI is a global nonprofit research and advocacy organization devoted to good urban planning and responsible land use. Amanda Burden, chair of the New York City Planning Commission, created the award to honor creatively designed, successful urban gathering spaces.

In giving the award, Burden noted that Campus Martius had replaced the former Kennedy Square plaza, long deemed a failure of urban design and rarely used by anyone.

In contrast, she said of Campus Martius, "This park has far exceeded all expectations, in terms of the lift it has provided to Detroit's social and economic well-being."

Read the entire article here.

This may be the third or fourth time Jimmy Fallon has been in this section of Model D. He talked with Michael Cera about Slows, he talked with Michael Moore about how much he loved his time here in Detroit, he even tweeted about riding a bicycle through downtown Detroit and loving it. Now, he's talking Detroit up to potential second round pick for the Detroit Lions Ndamukong Suh. We should try to get him to emcee one of our Speaker Series. Would you like to see that?

Excerpt from the Detroit Free Press:

Not that Ndamukong Suh will have any say in the decision, but NBC funnyman Jimmy Fallon is all for him going to the Lions.
"Weatherwise, I'd love to go to Tampa," Fallon told Suh, Friday night. "St. Louis is a really fun place.

"But Detroit is awesome. Detroit is so cool. I love Detroit. We had Matthew Stafford on our show last time ... and I'm sure he's having a great time. He's a great dude."

Well, that's a whole lot better than Detroit usually fares on the late-night talk shows, isn't it?

And Suh made a good guest, too, soft-spoken, well-spoken and smart. He said he had no inside info on who will draft him. (Martin Mayhew will love that.)

Read the entire article here.

This post from the RustWire isn't specifically about Detroit, but the sentiment is. Even though we are the 11th largest city in the nation, which might soon change after the census, the stigma on the outside, and by outside that could even mean the suburbs, is that there is nothing going on in Detroit. That it's a ghost town. We all know that is untrue. And so does this writer. However, he's removed the word Detroit and put in Cleveland.

Excerpt from the RustWire:

In a discussion of urban development, one economist (originally from upstate NY) asserted, "Detroit and Cleveland no longer have an economic reason for being." When I told people in Chicago that I planned to return to Cleveland, most looked dejected and some said, "I'm sorry."

Having spent a year now in Cleveland, I realize that it is not a small city with nothing going on. It is truly a major city with sufficient scale for most things you find in major cities. We have finance and legal industries. We have designers and publishers. We have bicycle messengers. We have at least a half dozen companies that do nothing but walk dogs for busy professionals. We have a sand volley ball league, a dozen ski clubs, and thirty-some yoga studios. We have immigrants from all over the world in our universities and running ethnic groceries. We have commuter trains, valets, and loft condos with concierges. Life in Cleveland is much more like life in Chicago than people there, here, or elsewhere recognize.

Read the entire article here.