Downtown Detroit

Open City starts its third season of advice for small business owners in the city

Open City, Detroit's forum for aspiring retailers and small business owners, started their third season of talks last week with the Model D speaker series.Click here to see photos from the event.Meetings are the third Tuesday of the month at Cliff Bell's. Read more about Open City here.

Second annual Art Detroit Now coming in October

The second annual Art Detroit Now, which buries the city in art openings, exhibitions and demos, is just around the corner.Excerpt:The second annual Art Detroit Now will take place on Friday and Saturday, October 2–3. Over this two day period, 25,000 people are expected to attend contemporary art openings, exhibitions and demonstrations at 75 galleries, museums and non-profit organizations that will showcase metro Detroit ’s great contemporary art and artists. Art Detroit Now, which held its first event in May 2008, is organized by prominent metro Detroit arts organizations and galleries, including College for Creative Studies (CCS), Cranbrook, Detroit Artists Market, Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), Oakland University Art Gallery, Russell Industrial Center, and Wayne State University (WSU) Art Galleries, as well as G.R. N’Namdi Gallery. “Art Detroit Now is an ongoing effort to establish metro Detroit as a major arts center,” said Marc Schwartz, event chairperson. “Virtually every contemporary arts organization in metro Detroit has come together to be part of this event. Our hope is that everyone will enjoy Art Detroit Now by visiting a gallery or museum on October 2–3." Read the entire post here.

Hello? Detroit? Are you there? … Windsor is calling

Windsor's message reminds both cities that they are in this together.Excerpt:Langlois calls the addition of the skyline an intentional choice. The simple silhouette brings us to a subject close to his, and the group's heart: communication with Detroit. Speaking from experience, Langlois is quick to comment on the estranged relationship between the city's residents, an alienation seen in the relative lack of cooperation between artists, community activists, and business leaders, given our physical proximity.  "I think the physical border lends itself to the mental," says Brandon Walley, a local filmmaker. "It's much easier to say 'I'm just going to go to an art opening at the Cass Cafe then undertake this almost monumental journey across the border ... but I'd like to see the relationship change." Further border restrictions, which began this summer, seem to have only exacerbated things.  And while high unemployment rates, home foreclosures, and empty factories continue to plague both cities, Langlois says the need to communicate is desperate. Hence the idea for a large-scale message from Windsor's citizens to Detroit's — a billboard-like communiqué announcing that Windsor is still alive and would even like to have a conversation with its similarly downtrodden cousin. The idea, involving what is essentially a giant light projector, came after the group rejected the idea of using actual billboards, but instead took a cue from the experimental urban art of the Graffiti Research Lab, which pioneered the use of LEDs to produce temporary street art.Read the entire article here.

Time: The Detroit Blog – A speical Time Inc. project

Time Inc.'s interest in Detroit has been well documented so far. But, in case you missed it, the big media machine has bought a house in East English Village and will set up shop there for a year to cover Detroit and all that it brings - both negative and positive. In this week's In The News we have a piece up written by the New York Times, as well as a mention in the Tweet of the Week. However, is a direct link to the Time Inc.'s Detroit blog. Track their work as they track ours.See the blog here.

From Forbes: In defence of Detroit

Finally Forbes prints something positive about Detroit.Excerpt:"My children know that not every person is the same or has the same opportunity, and the reasons these things happen are abundant, historical and very complex," says Jim. "We've had author Toby Barlow over for dinner, walked around Heidelberg with Tyree, visited famous musicians' homes (and dogs), and hosted art events and mini-concerts in our home, enabling our children to chat with a whole range of thoughtful people who do cool things with their lives and time."Jim and his family help with neighborhood clean up, visit the community garden Wednesday nights in the summer, and take car trips to Honey Bee market and cheap eats in Mexican Town.??"The big-picture idea is ... that the soul of the place rubs off on the soul of our people," says Jim. "And Detroit's got plenty of soul."Read the entire article here.

Newsweek: To survive, Detroit needs to right-size

Right-sizing Detroit may be the key to the city's survival. Excerpt:Today, though, more and more people in leadership positions, including Mayor Dave Bing, are starting to acknowledge the need to stop fantasizing about growth and plan for more shrinkage. Growth is as American an ideal as the capitalistic enterprises that fuel it. So by itself, this admission is a step forward. It's way overdue. Detroit has been shrinking for 50 years. The city has lost more than half of the 2 million people it had in the early 1950s, but it remains 138 square miles. Experts estimate that about 40 square miles are empty, and Bing has said that only about half the city's land is being used productively. The next steps are complicated and largely uncharted. Moving residents into more densely populated districts has legal and moral implications; it must be done with care and the input of those who would be moved. And what do you do with the empty space? The city is already dotted with big vegetable gardens, and one entrepreneur has proposed starting a large commercial farm. Some people advocate bike paths, greenways, and other recreation areas. Surrounded by fresh water, and buffeted by nature reasserting itself on land where factories used to be, Detroit could someday be the greenest, most livable urban area in the country. A city can dream, can't it?Read the entire article here.

Tweet of the Week: Crispy hair cuts and cute barbers

Of course a week doesn't go by that at least one tweeter mentions the weather in Detroit. @Sweet_mercy4u: Weather in Detroit is wonderful! Highs get right at 70 - lows in lower 50's -- I'm having a blast seeing my sis and family. :)Yeah, it might be a little generic but the weather over the weekend was top notch. It was a beautiful Detroit weekend and perfect for the 2,000 bikes that hit up the Tour De Troit.And of course a week doesn't go by that at least one tweeter mentions Detroit's $100 house.@Si65: $100 Detroit Home Provides Opportunity to ArtistsIt does provide opportunity to artists, and will fill up your weekend on the repairs you'll need to make.However, it's not very often you see something like this:@Jnabongo: the cut isn't crispy but its cut. gotta find a cute barber in london like i have in detroit.The fact that @Jnabongo referred to the hair cut as "crispy," well, we can't pass posting that. Good luck locating a cuter barber than the one you have here.And finally this last tweet isn't so much a Tweet of the Week but more of a heads up. We're sure you had all read or heard about the Time, Inc. house in Detroit. Well, the coverage has begun.@TheDetroitHouse: New Blog Entry, "Detroit, No Chaser..." - http://tinyurl.com/nglbvpThat's their Twitter account and follow the link to their blog. It appears as if this particular blogger will respond to comments. So, keep up with it.Additionally, keep up with us here. Keep readin', keep tweetin'.

Community Development Advocates of Detroit propose comprehensive land use strategy

NYTimes: Time’s time in Detroit

Time Inc. thinks Detroit has big stories not only in its struggles but in its success as well.Excerpt:But big stories have to have texture, and there has to be the possibility of uplift.“There are individual efforts, amazing stories, and there is a feeling here that things might get better,” said Mr. Tetzeli, who once taught school in the city. “The mayor is a very serious person, the opposite of the one who came before him, and we are coming across people and stories all the time that suggest that things will get better here.”Much of this story has already been told, and told well, by The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, daily newspapers that have reduced home delivery to three times a week, relying on the Web to deliver news the rest of the week.“We’re not here to fill some gap in coverage,” Mr. Tetzeli said. “The Free Press and The Detroit News have done some great work under difficult circumstances, including winning a Pulitzer this year,” he said, sitting at Slows, a barbecue restaurant. “We are here because we think Detroit stories, about recovery and the failure to recover, have resonance nationally because of the recession.”Read the entire article here.