Women’s culture zine creates city guide to find Motown’s ‘real beat’

Venus Zine, a women's culture site, does a city guide to Detroit and captured it quite well.Excerpt:Detroit’s culture and cadence have long been defined, respectively, by its now infamous car industry and its prodigious music legacy. Nearly every American genre shares its roots with Detroit’s musical traditions. From J Dilla and Marvin Gaye to MC5 and Derrick May, Detroit’s creative footprint spreads far and wide.A city whose reputation often precedes it, Detroit seems to be in a constant process of revitalization. In recent years, the city has poured funding into the downtown neighborhood to bring residents back within city limits. The money went, in part, to new baseball and football stadiums and three new casinos. However, these places do not house the essence of this shrinking city. It is within the neighborhoods, music venues, and markets that you’ll find the real beat of Motown.Read the entire guide here.

Wall Street Journal looks at artists migrating to economically challenged areas

Artists love cheap spaces and some of the nation's economically challenged areas offer exactly that. An influx of creatives are moving into places like Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit looking for deals and space.Excerpt:Drawn by available spaces and cheap rents, artists are filling in some of the neighborhoods being emptied by foreclosures. City officials and community groups seeking ways to stop the rash of vacancies are offering them incentives to move in, from low rents and mortgages to creative control over renovation projects. "Artists have become the occupiers of last resort," said Robert McNulty, president of Partners for Livable Communities, a Washington-based nonprofit organization. "The worse things get, the more creative you have to become." Artists and architects are buying foreclosed homes in Detroit for as little as $100. In St. Louis, artists are moving into vacant retail spaces in a shopping mall, turning stores that stood empty for more than a year into studios and event spaces for rents of $100 a month. Artspace Projects Inc., a national nonprofit development corporation, plans to create 35 live/work spaces for artists on vacant property in Hamilton, Ohio, after converting an empty car factory and an adjacent lot in Buffalo, N.Y., into 60 artists' lofts last year.Read the entire article here.

Living Life Out Loud: Writer/Musician/Promoter Melody Baetens

She's rocked in Argentina, Scandinavia and Serbia with several Detroit-based bands, writes for the News and now is an owner of Small's Bar in Hamtramck. Musical multitasker Melody Baetens does it all at a rapid pace and non-stop. Zoom! We caught up to her for a quick Q&A.

Model D TV: Green Drinks in Detroit

A new monthly event is bringing people together for green thinking and drinking. Model D TV visited the inaugural Green Drinks night last week at the Majestic.

Walkable City: Get On Your Feet, Detroit

If there's a cocktail to make true walkability, Detroit is low on some ingredients. But new projects and initiatives directed at transit, streetscaping and nonmotorized pathways are aimed at getting more people on their feet in the city.

Green Alley project kicks off behind Motor City Brewing Works

State land bank going green, offering vacant lots up as community gardens

$8.5M Department of Human Services building to be built in Hamtramck

U-SNAP-BAC completes renovations on 4 East Side homes