Downtown Detroit

DSE @ Grand celebrates one-year anniversary with renovation and expansion of product mix

Council by Districts passes first test, delivers 10,000 more signatures than required

The Council by Districts movement is likely to get a vote in the November election. Though the signatures required still need to be verified, the group turned in nearly 10,000 more than required.Excerpt:A movement to have a Detroit City Council elected by district, instead of the current at-large configuration, appears to be headed for the November general election ballot.Detroiters for Council by Districts delivered boxes containing more than 38,000 voter signatures to the Detroit City Clerk's Office on Tuesday afternoon.With only 29,000 signatures required to place the proposal on the ballot, Mildred Madison, president of the League of Woman Voters Detroit, said the number of signatures collected shows "that the people want representation in their areas."Read the entire article here.Short post about how Detroit is moving toward districts similar to the Boston system in a Boston Blog here.

Recycling, urban farming ideas for Detroit to close its ‘green gap’

Detroit City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. has been leading efforts to close Detroit's "green gap" by putting forth an agenda through the council's Green Task Force, which he leads. Within that agenda are plans for recycling and urban farming.Excerpt:Rick Bowers Jr., who heads up Cockrel's sustainability office, said a green agenda has huge potential. “If it were in the mayor's office, this green agenda could be pushed along more quickly, but it can be just as effective from the City Council standpoint,” Bowers said. “The ultimate future will be determined by whoever is mayor and whether they will adopt it. The value of it is not only helping the environment, but helping the image of the city that is in need of repair and rejuvenation.” Donele Wilkins, executive director of Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group, said a reputation for green investment can be part of a better city. “A greener, cleaner city can bring us out of the ashes and make us a national model,” she said.Read the entire article here.

Arts and politics mag Guernica goes in depth on Detroit’s urban farming movement

Guernica finds Detroit chock full of visionaries and urban farming.Excerpt:There are more visionaries in Detroit than in most Rust-Belt cities, and thus more visions of a community rising from the ashes of a moribund industry to become, if not an urban paradise, something close to it. The most intriguing visionaries in Detroit, at least the ones who drew me to the city, were those who imagine growing food among the ruins—chard and tomatoes on vacant lots (there are over 103,000 in the city, sixty thousand owned by the city), orchards on former school grounds, mushrooms in open basements, fish in abandoned factories, hydroponics in bankrupt department stores, livestock grazing on former golf courses, high-rise farms in old hotels, vermiculture, permaculture, hydroponics, aquaponics, waving wheat where cars were once test-driven, and winter greens sprouting inside the frames of single-story bungalows stripped of their skin and re-sided with Plexiglas—a homemade greenhouse. Those are just a few of the agricultural technologies envisioned for the urban prairie Detroit has become.Read the entire article here.

Jeff Wattrick: Don’t Demo Detroit’s Future

Jeff T. Wattrick, the former project manager of The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, says the long-term cost is too high when the city chooses demolition over preservation. The city needs to take the long tail view and has bigger fish to fry in the short-term, he says.

Tweet of the Week: Wishing and hoping… and voting for a new Detroit

This week tweeters seemed to be reacting to various events with a bit of optimism. For example, the primary election held last week brought out more positive thoughts than may have been expressed beforehand. @Lesnikki hoped for the best as they tweeted: Please Detroit, let's do better this time. To that end, @DeltaGirl6ZP01 seemed to have done her part: I voted for the Future of Detroit MY CITY. And to the potential naysayers and critics of the results of the election, @Vita43 offered this ultimatum: Ok don't complain about the politics in the city of Detroit if U DIDN'T GO VOTE FOR A NEW MAYOR OR CITY COUNCIL!!! All these well wishes seem to have gotten the job done; though turnout may have been low, this election brought about the change in city government wanted by many.  Suffice to say, @rumblestrip, @DougZuba and @Rpsawyer from this week’s edition must be very pleased.  As the city seems to be on it’s way to recovering, many tweeters espoused well-wishes and hopes that it would.  According to @JeffYaniga, the city deserves it, as he muses something we’ve already known: Detroit is an interesting city these days. Met many hard working, family loving people who care about their city and care about their jobs. Thanks, Jeff -- here’s to hoping the rest of the world recognizes that soon. @Sallybemis tried to help by sending the city some positive energy: Been thinking a lot about Detroit today. Sending out good wishes to a struggling town. This week’s TOTW comes courtesy @StevenKhoshaba, who said that Detroit is not only receptive to the love, but needs to react to and rejoice in it: Detroit's heart beat longs for love. Let's take it to the city, let's take it to the streets. With that thought in mind, how can you not have a good week? Until next time, check out Model D’s updates on Twitter; keep readin' and tweetin'.

Aug. 4 primary pointed to further change

The Detroit Free Press believes that city council is turning the corner of change as the Aug. 4 primary revealed top vote-getters in Charles Pugh -- who, if he is elected in November, will become Detroit's first openly-gay councilmember -- The editorial also says voters cast aside two of council's worst in Monica Conyers and Martha Reeves.Excerpt:Together, those five could make up the most exciting council majority in decades. And they would be key to the success of Mayor Dave Bing, who trounced his primary opposition Tuesday and appears headed for easy re-election this fall.Voters also appeared to cast aside two of the old council's worst actors, President Pro Tem Monica Conyers, who awaits sentencing for a federal plea to conspiracy to commit bribery, and Martha Reeves, whose bizarre antics and ramblings are an embarrassment to the whole city.This morning in Detroit is a new, and hopeful one, indeed.Read the entire article here.

Volunteers are giving the city a trim

As city efforts and city works wain due to budget constraints, volunteers are putting on the gloves to help keep the city as clean cut as they can.Excerpt:Knee-high grass, giant weeds and even small trees have overtaken many of these areas, causing eyesores for neighbors and passersby and long faces on kids wanting a place to play.But where the city has left off, the Greening of Detroit is picking up -- literally -- helping to cut grass, pick up debris and put down flowers and mulch.Greening worker Norman Anderson, 20, of Highland Park was busy last month sprucing up a stretch of green space on Conner Avenue, near I-94 and Gratiot. He says it's a way to get some fresh air, and "it's keeping me out of trouble."The Greening of Detroit employs young people, ages 18 to 24, as a part of its youth employment program. The group has hired more than 100 young people to help with this summer's effort.Read the entire article here.Read an article about the cleanup efforts of Detroit ARISE! and its Neighborhood Day here.

‘Detroit. Where just about everything cool originated,’ says Anthony Bourdain in show’s blog

Anthony Bourdain brought his Travel Channel show "No Reservations" to the Rust Belt. He came to Detroit and loved what he found.Excerpt:Detroit. Where just about everything cool originated. As angry as one gets looking at block after block of abandoned row houses in Baltimore and wondering how the hell that happened, it's mind boggling to see how far Detroit has been allowed to fall. But what a truly magnificent breed of crazy-ass hardcase characters have dug in there. Of all three cities we visited, Detroit, oddly enough, even while looking the jaws of death straight in the face, remains closest to being a true culinary wonderland.Read the entire article here.