Gigante Prince Valley Supermercado on Michigan Avenue is being graced with a large — 18-1/2 by 138 feet — mural on its east face as part of the community+public arts:DETROIT […]
Detroit's big running events -- and even those that have participants braving chilly weather -- are growing. But organizers say success isn't just in the numbers.
A Freep writer says the city doesn't need a big population to be a world-class city; it needs the right population to be a world-class city.Excerpt: I remember all the hype a decade ago about staying above 1 million. That nice round number really didn’t mean scratch, even in terms of federal aid, except as a symbolic benchmark. Bigger is not necessarily better. But there’s no question that many of the people bailing are working- and middle-class families, who help hold up the city’s tax base and glue together its neighborhoods.Even Detroit’s historically strong and stable neighborhoods, like East English Village and Boston Edison, are feeling the creep of blight and abandonment. Once that happens, property values and median incomes start to fall. It becomes a downward spiral. To preserve its tax base, the city must find ways to keep these strong neighborhoods stable.Longterm, though, Detroit needs to start planning now for a smaller city. Let's start looking at vacant land as an opportunity, a resource we can convert to parks or urban garden, or assemble for green economic development. "Detroit should become the greenest city in the nation,'' Deborah Younger, executive director of LISC, told me. Let's keep the swag but get a new identity -- and a suit that fits.Read the entire article here.
So David Bryne, of Talking Heads fame, penned a book about bicycling through cities. One of the cities he two-wheeled around in was Detroit. Awesome. Did anyone see him? Tell us on our Facebook page.Excerpt:“Bicycle Diaries” contains accounts of his travels in distant cities like London, Berlin, Buenos Aires and Manila, as well as some closer to home — New Orleans, San Francisco and Detroit. His description of riding in Detroit is especially good: “I bike from the center of town out to the suburbs. It’s an amazing ride — a time line through a city’s history, its glory and betrayal.” For Byrne bicycling is partly a means, partly an end. It helps him get places, makes him feel more connected to life on the streets, and also serves as a “form of meditation” that keeps him sane.Read the entire article here.
The Boblo Boat was a summer treat for a lot of Detroiters. By next summer, that treat might be attainable once again as volunteers have been working to restore the 100-year-old boat. Excerpt:Kattoo plans to wrap the Ste. Claire in coming weeks so that work can continue this winter. By next summer, he hopes to have rebuilt the stern, which he has dismantled down to its structural ribs, and to have restored the first and possibly second decks.That'll be enough to bring the Ste. Claire back downtown for dockside tours next summer, he said. Kattoo plans to offer those tours for a couple of years as a way to raise some cash and reacquaint Detroiters with the boat."For next year, I'll be more than happy with that," he said. "The public will be really happy to see that the boat is semi-restored and on its way."In four or five years, he hopes to have the Ste. Claire sailing again, offering a full range of moonlight cruises, day sails, and rentals for weddings and other special events.Read the entire article here.
The fight to save the Lafayette is over; demolition started last month. So, take a last look at one of Detroit's great treasures now going the way of the buffalo. Wherever you stand on the subject, demolition or preservation, one thing can't be argued: the beauty of the Lafayette. Excerpt:After the Book Cadillac reopened, its out-of-town guests saw blight outside their windows. "People point to it and ask, ‘What is that?' and ‘What are the plans for it?'" says Scott Stinebaugh, director of sales and marketing for the hotel. "For a long time we couldn't give a definite answer. So now there's closure. People like us, in a historic building, are huge fans of saving a building, but once all avenues are exhausted, we're fans of it going away." So now the Lafayette's coming down, another subtraction from the skyline. A little park is planned in its place. City officials say an empty parcel is easier to market, though preservationists counter that the Hudson's lot has been empty, aside from an underground garage, for a decade, as has the Tuller Hotel lot across downtown, and no talked-about projects are set for those plots. Add the sites for the now-demolished Statler and Madison Lenox hotels, and the Motown Building, and there are already quite a few empty downtown lots awaiting development. The Lafayette's appearance isn't as stunning as other city skyscrapers from the same era, yet it still has understated touches of beauty, especially the terra cotta fleurs de lis along the rooftop. They're like the frosting on the cake, delicate ornamentation put in place for aesthetic flavor and loveliness. They speak of a time when architects added charm and artistry to buildings, even if only those few people with offices high enough would see them. Read the entire post here.For more information on the Lafayette visit the Buildings Of Detroit here.Do you want to see a video about the tree that is growing on the Lafayette? Check out Charlie LeDuff's piece in the Detroit News here.
From NPR, On The Media sits down with a Vice reporter who wrote the piece passed around the world about "lazy" journalists coming to Detroit and making ruin porn.If you thought it was a genius piece or just as lazy as everything else, listen to more "ruin porn" talk with On The Media.Listen to the interview here.
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