Downtown Detroit

Quicken’s scaled down move to bring 1,700 workers downtown to Compuware

By Newsroom

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July 14, 2009

It's official, Quicken Loans will be moving their operation from Livonia to Detroit, into the Compuware Building.Excerpt:Livonia-based Quicken Loans Inc. is finishing the final details of a five-year lease and hopes to move about 1,700 employees early next year into 240,000 square feet of space on four floors of the Compuware Corp. building at Campus Martius in downtown Detroit. That move of the on-line mortgage company's headquarters, in the face of an economy in recession, comes instead of the new building that Quicken Chairman Dan Gilbert said two years ago he would build downtown to house 4,000 Quicken employees.Read the entire article here.

Coalition planning solution to Detroit’s shortage of grocery stores

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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July 14, 2009

Detroit groups are coming together to bring healthy grocery options to Detroiters.Excerpt:A broad coalition devoted to improving Detroit’s food security is working with underserved communities and state legislators to bring fresh food options to several neighborhoods.The M.O.S.E.S. Supermarket Task Force is a partnership anchored by M.O.S.E.S. (Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength), a group of around 60 area congregations, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 876. The diverse group hopes to rally around the opening of several planned grocery outlets throughout Detroit."We believe that quality markets are critical to good health and neighborhood security," M.O.S.E.S. President Reverend Kevin Turman says. "It's a moral issue -- and so it’s also a religious one."Read the entire article here.

Soaking up Detroit from a bike seat

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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July 14, 2009

Could Detroit be a bicycle utopia... or is it one already?Excerpt:A bike gives you the chance to soak up what’s left, hidden neighborhoods like Indian Village with its dappled lanes and old eclectic mansions. Out near the fabled Eight Mile Road you can cruise past an almost forgotten but now happily restored Frank Lloyd Wright house. Downtown, you can circle the ruins of the old Michigan Central Depot. Our abandoned landscape suggests an opportunity that alternative-transportation proponents should consider: instead of raging against their cities’ internal combustion machines, they might consider a tactical retreat to the city that cars have pretty much abandoned. Despite the press, survival here isn’t so hard. Businesses like the Wheelhouse and the Hub have already shown how well Detroit can work as a new business hothouse. With the legendarily affordable real estate and without needing to pay for car payments, gas or insurance, bicyclists could rebuild Detroit into a model of a two-wheeled economy. They could pass laws promoting bikes over cars and designate entire avenues motor-free zones, which, given the state of many of them now, wouldn’t be so much of a stretch.Read the entire article here.

Tweet of the Week: Do what your mother says

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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July 14, 2009

So vacation is behind us and we're back with the Tweet of the Week. So, what do you have to say?You should listen to your mother @miel_dulce, always listen to your mother.@miel_dulce: my mom said to stay in detroit, im totally thinking about it...We don't know where you are, but we wish you were still in Detroit, too. You can always come back.@Bizemisty: I wish I was still in Detroit. I hate this place.Congratulations Earthworks Urban Farm. Keep up the good work. And thanks @AshleySFlintoff for the heads up.@AshleySFlintoff: Congrats to Earthworks Urban Farm - Detroit's 1st Certified Organic Farm! Check out their work at www.cskdetroit.org/earthworksExactly @dlexus2001, don't forget about us, whoever you are.@dlexus2001: dont' forget bout detroitAnd finally, the winner, for our first week back from vacation Tweet of the Week is: @flamingowojack: Just got back from John K. King Used Bookstore in downtown Detroit. I'm there every week, but I find "new" stuff every time I go there...True that, @flamingowojack. True that.Keep reading. Keep tweeting. And see you next week.Follow us on Twitter here.

Bloggers look at social innovation and urban farming in Detroit

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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June 30, 2009

The two students from the Grinnell Detroit Social Innovation Project blog a bit about Detroit's urban farming and social innovation.Excerpt:Many suggest that the best way that Detroiters can access healthier foods, live healthier lives, and reduce the number of vacant buildings is through urban farming.Since coming to Detroit, I have learned to some degree what urban farming entails. In its simplest definition, it is growing and harvesting crops in an urban community. However, urban agriculture includes much more than this basic definition. It allows for job creation, access to fresh and healthy foods, beautification of the city, and a greener environment.Read the entire article here.

Grocery store may fill empty Borders location

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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June 30, 2009

The Eastern Market Corp. may fill the empty Borders location in the Compuware Building with a grocery store.Excerpt:Downtown Detroit workers and residents may soon have a new place to shop for fresh groceries in the heart of downtown.The Eastern Market Corp., the nonprofit entity that operates the city-owned Eastern Market, is exploring the idea of opening a small grocery store offering fresh fruits and vegetables and prepared foods in the space previously occupied by a Borders Books in the Compuware Building.Dan Carmody, president of the Eastern Market Corp., said a decision will be made by mid-July or so whether to go ahead with the plan.Read the entire article here.

DPS student’s portrait of President Barack Obama gets her to D.C. for a second time

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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June 30, 2009

Detroit Public School student Tangela Frazier gets a second trip to Washington D.C. because of the portrait of President Barack Obama she painted.Excerpt:A Detroit student's portrait of President Barack Obama has earned her a second trip to Washington, D.C. The Detroit Public Schools district says Tangela Frazier's portrait is a winner in the 2009 Congressional Artistic Discovery Competition. The 17-year-old Pershing High School 11th grader and other winners will spend Wednesday in Washington. Their work will be judged again at a reception, with the winner receiving a scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.Read the entire article here.

The political spirit of Detroit seems to be shifting

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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June 30, 2009

Detroit's political atmosphere is on a shift.Excerpt:There is a different atmosphere in Detroit these days, a city that not long ago seemed to be on another planet. Four years ago, the city was led by a "hip-hop" mayor famous for extravagant living, wild parties, and behaviour so outrageous that one out-of-town police force said it would no longer take responsibility for protecting him.Today, there is a new spirit of something like sobriety. After Kwame Kilpatrick went off to prison in October, there seemed to be a collective sign of relief. Suddenly, Detroiters seemed to want sane, competent, grown-up leadership. Dave Bing, a sports hero turned successful businessman, was elected to replace Kilpatrick.When he won a special election in May, most of the other major candidates bowed out of challenging the new mayor for the full four-year term that will be decided this November.Read the entire article here.

fDi Magazine names Detroit a city of the future

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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June 30, 2009

fDi Magazine, an investment mag produced by the Financial Times, released their cities of the future list and Detroit fell in at No. 10 for the largest cities of the future. Excerpt:fDi Magazine’s North American Cities of the Future 2009/10 shortlists, which took more than six months to research and involved the data collection of nearly 400 North American cities, ranks San Francisco, California, as the top large city of the future, followed closely by Austin, Texas. Of the large cities surveyed, San Luis Potosí in Mexico ranks top for cost effectiveness, while Charlotte, North Carolina, ranks top for FDI strategy according to the judging panel.Read the entire article here.

While Model D is Away, Get Out and Play

By Walter Wasacz

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General

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June 30, 2009

Summer's here in the city. We're taking some time off to get out there in the heat and play in Detroit. Check in with FilterD for hot tips on what to do in the D during the next two weeks. We'll be back refreshed and ready to roll July 14. See you then.