Downtown Detroit

24HRS: Detroit — From Next American City and Model D

Next American City asked Model D to map out a Detroiter's day in the city. We tracked community development star, businesswoman and bike enthusiast Karen Gage. Read the story, which also appears in this month's NAC magazine.

Speaker Series 9/15: What are the Business Opportunities in the City?

It's hard to say what people anticipate more as summer comes to a close -- the return of college football or Open City. The choice is obvs, people. So to kick off the season right, we're collaborating on a Model D Speaker Series/Open City night Sept. 15. Sorry, no cornhole.

New York-based public design blog tours Detroit on a bike

Public design blog DesignTrust comes to Detroit, posts its highlights. Excerpt:The Dequindre Cut is a new pedestrian/bike path on an abandoned rail bed. It connects the RiverWalk with the popular Eastern Market (see below). A Metropolis feature on the Dequindre Cut has more information and pictures. Paths like this are planned for over 400 miles around Detroit.Bordering the Dequindre Cut are many concrete walls that once supported overpasses and now only support large-scale graffiti works. An informative video by the Detroit News talks about this graffiti "Hall of Fame" from the artists' point of view.Read the entire article here.

What’s really local? Metro Times runs down what is and isn’t a ‘Detroit’ product

The Metro Times' Curt Guyette looks at some of products known as "Detroit" products... and finds out how "Detroit" they really are.Excerpt of one of the products:Faygo soda The iconic Detroit soda is still bottled here, but in terms of ownership, the company hasn't been a local one for a long time. Founded in 1907 by the Feigenson brothers — Russian immigrants trained as bakers — Faygo was sold to TreeSweet in 1986. A year later it was bought by Florida-based National Beverage Corp., which also includes another formerly homegrown favorite, EverFresh juices, among its labels. By the way, before it became part of a conglomerate, one of the owners of EverFresh was mobster Vito "Billy Jack" Giacalone.Read the entire article here.

Detroit indie rock band plays Gitmo… yeah, that Gitmo

A Detroit-based indie rock band was asked to play an interesting show... the library at Guantanamo Bay. Vanity Fair picked up the story.Excerpt:The High Strung, an indie rock band from Detroit, received an invitation to play a show at the Guantanamo Bay library this summer. This wasn’t that weird. They’ve been playing shows in libraries for years, as part of a national program aimed at luring teenagers into these book-filled repositories. (This American Life did a piece about their first library tour.) What was weird was that they said yes. Made up of a trio of lefty pacifists with a profound distrust of the American Military, not to mention a penchant for florid and literary lyrics, they were a rather unlikely choice for entertaining our nation’s soldiers. “If we’re playing for a whole base full of troops who are used to listening to Kid Rock and Pantera, it’s going to be incredibly uncomfortable,” drummer Derek Berk (who happens to be my extremely talented younger brother) said prior to their departure. “But it seems like our whole career recently has been based on setting ourselves up for strange and uncomfortable situations. And this seemed like it was going to be at or near the top of the list.”Read the entire article here.

Detroit Renaissance goes statewide

Detroit Renaissance is planning on moving from a Southeast Michigan organization to a statewide organization.Excerpt:Detroit Renaissance, which began as council of the CEOs of the 50 largest companies in Southeast Michigan, said it plans to become a statewide organization. The organization's board of directors approved the expansion at its Wednesday board meeting. “Detroit Renaissance has been evolving into a more Michigan-centric organization in recent years as many of the most important issues facing Southeast Michigan are statewide issues,” a prepared statement said. Detroit Renaissance said it will maintain a strong focus on urban areas, including Detroit, and a board committee will continue to be dedicated to that work co-chaired by Anthony Earley, CEO of DTE Energy Co.; and Cynthia Pasky, founder and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions.Read the entire article here.

United Way moves into new Downtown digs that feature open floor plan

German business journal finds Detroit business owners, artists fighting city’s negative cliches

German business journal finds business owners and artists in Detroit that are fighting the negative cliches of the city. (Danke for including Model D co-founder/publisher Brian Boyle.)Excerpt (their translation from German to English is a bit shaky): What can be done for a city like Detroit that was designed for cars and now is half empty? City planners envision converting entire districts into artificial lakes or farmland. The part left over would be a compact structure of vibrant, interlocking neighbourhoods convenient for pedestrians. “We are behind the curve somewhat, but it’s a first step," says designer Claire Nelson, founder of Open City Detroit, an association for young entrepreneurs. Already the first of these vibrant areas is emerging. In the downtown area, stately buildings like the historic Book Cadillac Hotel are awakening to new life. Renovated at a cost of approximately 200 million dollars, since the end of 2008 the hotel has again been an attraction. “That was the start, and now we are making this part of downtown liveable and passable again, building by building,” vows property developer John Ferchill. Read the English version here. If you're up for it, read the German version here.

Bing writes to the Freep: ‘We must change in order to survive’

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing writes into the Freep defending his potential cuts and that Detroit needs to change in order for the city to survive.Excerpt:The reality is we must change in order to survive. The City of Detroit can no longer operate as we have in the past. We must identify core services, doing what we must as a city for our citizens, redefining how we do business and eliminating waste. I look forward to reviewing the recommendations from the Crisis Turnaround Team and merging them with plans already on the table.More important, we must all be willing to work together. This is not an "us vs. them" situation. We must all compromise and endure short-term pain for long-term gain. Together, we can be a leaner, stronger and more efficient Detroit.Read the entire article here.