Existing businesses in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park don't get the attention that startups do, but a new program is set to reward 32 existing businesses with $500,000 in prizes for their ideas for growth.
Our eternally youthful Detroit correspondent revisits his skinny, 25-year-old self, and name checks Dennis Archer and Spike Lee to help sort out what's next for the city. Take it away, Sir James Boyle.
Yes, indeed. Contributor Jim Boyle makes a strong case that garage rock and Detroit techno - social and cultural energy drivers at home, international commodities everywhere else - started the city's revival in the 1990s, maybe even sooner. Let your hair down, people, and read on.
Jim Boyle is an optimist who regularly doses himself with reality. He's not really afflicted with the acute Detroit schizophrenia blues, but a keen observer of the changing cultural landscape. Follow the bouncing ball as he puts the year behind in perspective.
People are not only talking about what to do to move Detroit forward -- they're getting together to create, to build and just do it now. And they're having fun getting their hands -- even soft hands -- dirty, says Jim Boyle. It's an active, doers market with DIY opportunity the name of the game.
In a Sports Illustrated story now making its rounds on the web, bestselling author, TV personality and Freep writer Mitch Albom writes a defense of Detroit. But he didn't get the whole story, says West Village resident Jim Boyle. When it comes to Detroit, we're lovers -- not fighters.
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