Downtown Detroit

‘Fault Lines’ does piece on Detroit, combines the city’s reality with the city’s hope

In a recent piece of "Fault Lines" on al Jazeera English, journalist and filmmaker Avi Lewis explores Detroit and does a good job of twisting both the realities of the poor and working class with the feelings of hope and drive of the city's people.View the piece here.

Detroit farming, rehab center planning to join forces

Local rehab center has interest in Detroit farming and is looking to use a large tract of land.Excerpt:The Detroit-based Self-Help Addiction Rehabilitation Inc. (SHAR), a nonprofit drug rehab center funded by the state and others, is proposing that it be given up to 2,000 acres of vacant city-owned land to farm.The project, known as Recovery Park, would have the dual purpose of teaching addicts therapeutic and marketable skills and rehabbing the city itself, said SHAR's chief executive, Dwight Vaughter."We're looking at it as a way to use some of this space in Detroit to make it more purposeful, as well as to provide employment for our residents and people who may be disenfranchised," Vaughter said. "So we thought it was a perfect fit for us to get involved in."Read the entire article here.

Chicago Reader says there is no place in America like Detroit

The Chicago Reader gets Detroit.Excerpt:Yet even as GM closes plants and Chrysler faces Chapter 11, things are sprouting in Detroit. The city made the New York Times in March not for news about the Big Three but for the purchase by a Chicago couple of a house for $100, on a block being taken over by artists with plans for solar-powered art center and a vegetable garden. The city has a booming urban agriculture movement, and in April financier John Hantz, working with Michigan State University and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, proposed building the “world’s largest urban farm” on vacant and abandoned properties, starting with a 70-acre fruit and veggie patch on the east side. Also last month, a group of local businesses began printing their own currency, the Detroit Cheer, in an effort to encourage local spending. “Detroit is the most democratic city in America,” writes Mitch Cope, one of the catalysts of the aforementioned artists’ block, on the blog at powerhouseproject.com. “Not in the political sense or government, but because the neighborhoods are ruled and run and controlled and developed by local citizens. It’s a city where you can do things, both bad and good as you choose without much oversight, enforcement of law, or rules imposed from above. It is up to the residents to decide what it is they want to do, how they govern their particular block or street, and therefore what they want their city to be. Democracy in Detroit has ironically come out of the lack of a functional government/political democracy.”Read the entire article here.

Detroit No. 3 in the nation when it comes to pizza, says GQ

GQ knows what's up when it comes to Detroit and pizza, ranking us in at No. 3. We'd argue for No. 1, but 3rd isn't a bad finish.Excerpt:Detroit is the third-best pizza city in America, GQ writer Alan Richman declared after traveling 20,000 miles, visiting 10 cities and tasting almost 400 pies to name the country's 25 best pizzas for the magazine's June issue.Making the accolade sweeter, Chicago came in fourth.New York and San Francisco were first and second."No city has more consistently satisfying pies than Detroit. No city executes its particular style" -- also called Sicilian or pan pizza -- "as flawlessly as Detroit," Richman wrote in his blog, an online companion to his article and his list of 25 best pizzas.Read the entire article here.

What is Detroit fashion? Bloggers seek city’s style

Fashion bloggers from cement hit the streets with video looking for Detroit street style. Go to Current here.

Detroit Cobras, the Motown (un)cover band

The Detroit Cobras are a cover band, in a way. They cover the songs that, for the most part, have been previously uncovered, doing mostly all B-sides of some of the Motown greats. And they say they couldn't have done it anywhere other than here.Excerpt:By jealously guarding the ploughshares, Nagy and Ramirez have cultivated an impressively focused oeuvre. The production has gotten slightly more exotic since the early days — on the band's most recent album, Tied & True (2007), they get crazy and punish a timpani — but it's still the same source music, the same amped-up, coulda-been classics. "I think my mom put it best when Baby (2005) came out," Nagy remembers. "She said, 'Wow, you guys have really grown up.' It's not like Phil Spector or anything, but there are a lot more layers going on." You see, the Cobras are loyal. Loyal to their influences, loyal to the band's all-but-abandoned city of origin — potentially a rusted-out cradle for a reborn genre, Nagy likes to believe. "That's the beauty of Detroit," she says. "In New York, you have to work five jobs just to pay the rent. Here, you can make music. We'll own this town by the end."Read the entire article here.

Colin Hubbell Memorial Bike Ride set for June 20

Model D named Best Local News Web Site — thank you Real Detroit readers

Thank you Real Detroit Weekly and its readers for voting Model D the best local news web site in Detroit.Excerpt:We don’t know about you, but each and every Monday night, we find ourselves glued to our computers and rifling through Model D’s latest weekly selection of news from Detroit and the surrounding suburbs. From job creation to artistic innovation, stunning, in-depth character profiles and regular speaker series, Model D not only gathers the weekly news that matters for easy digestion, but digs deep into stories that slip through the cracks. “Model D is always one step in front of the rest of their web competition,” says Real Detroit reader Michael S. “Their stories are extremely insightful, cutting edge and well writen.” There is no way that a person can head to the Model D web site and say they are unimpressed with the pleathora of information they will find.See the entire list here.

Community meetings set to help explain curbside drop-off recycling

The City of Detroit's Department of Public Works have started holding meetings to discuss the details of Detroit's pilot curbside recycling program. Here's a list of the remaining meetings:Tuesday, May 19 at 6:30 p.m. Police Department Central District Community Relations Council, 7310 Woodward Ave.Thursday, June 4 at 7 p.m. Police Department 12th Precinct Community Relations Council, 1441 W. Seven RoadTuesday, June 9 at 7 p.m. Police Department Southwestern District Community Relations, 4700 West Fort St.Thursday, June 11 at 7 p.m. (Pilot Area) North Rosedale Park Civic Association, 18445 Scarsdale RoadThursday, June 18 at 6 p.m. (Pilot Area) Brightmoor Alliance Meeting, Leland Missionary Baptist Church, 22420 Fenkell at LamphereFor more information about these meetings read the press release here.