Downtown Detroit

NY Post does lengthy piece on Michigan, Detroit, pizza

New York Post writer devotes six Internet pages to Michigan, Detroit, and the city's pizzerias. Excerpt: It has now been nearly ten years since I first laid eyes on Detroit, and the one thing I learned almost immediately is that you never know who you are going to meet, where you are going to meet them, how it's all going to play out and how many other people you will be introduced to before the day is over. In other words, don't make a lot of plans. Detroiters, quite simply, are people people. No visitor ever need be a stranger here, unless they want it that way. Stick around and, pretty quickly, you'll be longing for the day when you could just sneak around without being recognized. Most of the time, you don't even need introductions -- simply showing up makes you part of the gang. Everyone wants to know how you got there. At times, you feel like you're in a small town in Japan, except there are fewer schoolgirls pointing at you and giggling. Read the entire article here.

Tweet of the Week: Boats and dinosaurs… sorta

We'll start our list of the week's best Detroit-centric tweet with first-place winner @onslowlovesme, who wowed us with this awesome little cryptic bit: "Detroitosaurus wrecks" Not sure exactly what you meant, but something about it sounds just right. On to the runners up: @JViniece: In recovery mode. Relay for Life detroit was a success. Over $71,000 raised. I stayed up the entire night. It was really great! We're hard pressed to find a better reason to stay up all night than to raise $71,000 to fight cancer. Congratulations and thanks to all Detroiters who participated in this wonderful charity event. @JMoneyRed: Detroiters : we have hella fresh lettuce grown @ TheYesFarm on E Farnsworth St 2 give-away ASAP! Hit me! Free veggies! We can't argue with that. @cassetto: First row of the season at the DETROIT boat club! A-ma-zing! That's awesome! Was T-Pain there? Any chance we can get ON A BOAT with you? @Newwaycorktown: extremely excited about the Roosevelt Park revitalization. This was one of our first targets upon moving to Corktown!!! We're excited about this too, and looking forward to hearing more about all of the ways Detroiter's are making the city's summer more beautiful. Keep us posted! Keep reading. Keep tweeting. And follow us on Twitter here.

Toronto web site talks Detroit’s return to light rail

Detroit's continued push toward light rapid transit seems to be in step with the mindset of the nation. Could a kind of streetcar renaissance begin right here in Detroit? Excerpt: The proposed site for the light rail line along Woodward Avenue was actually the route of Detroit’s last streetcar, which was removed in 1956 only to be replaced by diesel buses.  That ended 93 years of streetcar service that at one point was operating over 2,800 vehicles. Detroit transit hit its peak annual ridership of 492 million rides in 1945. Sixty-five years later, that number is now reduced to less than one hundred million.  In this context, Detroit’s renewed interest in rail-based public transportation follows a nationwide trend that is emblematic of what one American blogger has called ‘America’s Streetcar Renaissance.’ Read the entire article here.

Solar, hydrogen powered train through Detroit may be crazy but why not, says infrastructure blog

The Detroit MagLev train, powered by solar and hydrogen technologies, would connect Lansing, Detroit, and Ann Arbor. The Infrastructurist, an American infrastructure blog, says that on one hand it's a bit of a crazy idea, but on the other, why not.Excerpt:On one hand, it’s a solar- and hydrogen-powered levitating pod train being built to a half empty city. On the other hand… well, who isn’t rooting for stuff to happen Michigan at this point. If they can get someone to cough up $2.3 billion for this mad contraption, more power to them. People do seem to be treating the proposal–which would link Lansing, Detroit, and Ann Arbor–with some degree of seriousness though. The company behind it claims they have enough loot to build a prototype by next year and that if the state will grant easements for the tracks alongside three highway routes, then they can secure the rest of the funding. The plan apparently is to get it done with private capital (as the proposed Desert Xpress linking Vegas to West Coast meth capital Victorville would do).Read the entire article here.

Council by Districts initiative is vital to Detroit, Francis Grunow says in Freep

The Council by Districts initiative is vital to Detroit writes Detroit resident, WSU law student, and occasional Model D writer Francis Grunow in the Detroit Free Press.Excerpt:Which leads me back to the beginning -- we must also take the next clear step to help ensure that districts become reality. A coalition of groups known as Detroiters for City Council by Districts is pushing an important ballot initiative to place this question before voters in November.Passing this initiative is vital. It would serve as an insurance policy for the citizens of Detroit. There is no guarantee that the charter review process will result in council by districts. In fact, when the council-by-districts question was last considered as part of a charter review in 1993, it was turned down. A successful initiative will mean that the charter debate won't be about whether we need council districts, but how best to implement council districts.Read the entire article here.

Home Is More Than Our House: WDET continues its coverage of Detroit’s mortgage crisis

WDET 101.9 FM reporters Rob St. Mary and Zak Rosen continue their coverage this week in their "Home is More Than a House" series on how Detroiters are facing and fighting the foreclosure crisis.Listen to Detroit Today on WDET this week for their stories. The program airs from 1-3 p.m. weekdays on 101.9 FM.This week, Zak will be talking about how simple energy efficiency measures can save homeowners a good chunk of change in these troubled times, with tips from the WARM Training Center.Rob St. Mary offers story is on Moratorium Now!, the activist group that works on foreclosures. The group has been able to save several people from losing their houses.For more on the series, check out their blog: wdetmortgagecrisis.com

Comprehensive planning for E. Jefferson corridor improvements begins

Model D Radio: Coventry-Detroit Connections, Part I

Michigan’s economy is rooted in the last century. So for clues on how to modernize, we travel to an even older industrialized place that's seen the auto industry disappear. Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus reports from the English Midlands.

U-D Mercy professor pens the dictionary of Punk

University of Detroit professor Nick Rombes writes a book on punk rock, sits down with the LA Times to discuss the era. Excerpt: Safety pins and snarly guitar riffs came to embody not just a musical style, but a movement. Nick Rombes seeks to explain the movement, looking back over 30 years through fanzines, newspapers and vinyl. In his creative dictionary, Rombes explains the finer points of punk, giving us both critical analysis and creative writing. The encyclopedic tome is laid out in alphabetical order, so readers can take in everything punk from the Adolescents to the Zeros in a tidy fashion. A professor of English at the University of Detroit Mercy, Rombes took several years to research "A Cultural Dictionary of Punk 1974-1982," and found the intricacies of a historical sound. Read the entire article here.