Downtown Detroit

Women’s culture zine creates city guide to find Motown’s ‘real beat’

Venus Zine, a women's culture site, does a city guide to Detroit and captured it quite well.Excerpt:Detroit’s culture and cadence have long been defined, respectively, by its now infamous car industry and its prodigious music legacy. Nearly every American genre shares its roots with Detroit’s musical traditions. From J Dilla and Marvin Gaye to MC5 and Derrick May, Detroit’s creative footprint spreads far and wide.A city whose reputation often precedes it, Detroit seems to be in a constant process of revitalization. In recent years, the city has poured funding into the downtown neighborhood to bring residents back within city limits. The money went, in part, to new baseball and football stadiums and three new casinos. However, these places do not house the essence of this shrinking city. It is within the neighborhoods, music venues, and markets that you’ll find the real beat of Motown.Read the entire guide here.

Wall Street Journal looks at artists migrating to economically challenged areas

Artists love cheap spaces and some of the nation's economically challenged areas offer exactly that. An influx of creatives are moving into places like Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit looking for deals and space.Excerpt:Drawn by available spaces and cheap rents, artists are filling in some of the neighborhoods being emptied by foreclosures. City officials and community groups seeking ways to stop the rash of vacancies are offering them incentives to move in, from low rents and mortgages to creative control over renovation projects. "Artists have become the occupiers of last resort," said Robert McNulty, president of Partners for Livable Communities, a Washington-based nonprofit organization. "The worse things get, the more creative you have to become." Artists and architects are buying foreclosed homes in Detroit for as little as $100. In St. Louis, artists are moving into vacant retail spaces in a shopping mall, turning stores that stood empty for more than a year into studios and event spaces for rents of $100 a month. Artspace Projects Inc., a national nonprofit development corporation, plans to create 35 live/work spaces for artists on vacant property in Hamilton, Ohio, after converting an empty car factory and an adjacent lot in Buffalo, N.Y., into 60 artists' lofts last year.Read the entire article here.

Walkable City: Get On Your Feet, Detroit

If there's a cocktail to make true walkability, Detroit is low on some ingredients. But new projects and initiatives directed at transit, streetscaping and nonmotorized pathways are aimed at getting more people on their feet in the city.

Reminder: Open City April 21 at Cliff Bell’s

Come out to Cliff Bell's for the monthly Open City meeting tonight -- April 21. Mingle with people doing cool stuff in the city, and possibly learn a thing or two. Read on for the deets.

Model D TV: 24 Grille in the Book Cadillac

Check out the new 24 Grille -- one of the new restaurants in the Book Cadillac and the subject of this weeks video clip.

Earth Day Roundup: Detroit’s Green Stuff

No, it's not St. Patrick's Day. It's a completely different kind of green. Wednesday is Earth Day and Detroit will have its fair share of happenings. From Green Drinks at the Majestic to a presentation from award-winning scientist, broadcaster, and sustainable ecology expert David Suzuki, the city will be a-buzz with all things green.

State land bank going green, offering vacant lots up as community gardens

U of M program puts students in Detroit for a semester

University program brings students to the city to discover Detroit for a semester.Excerpt:People in coffee shops and restaurants will treat you like royalty — they will start to remember your name and your favorite items as you become a regular, as I have at Avalon International Breads. I’m Carolina, sweet cream butter scone and large "meaning of life" coffee blend. Strangers on the streets will say good morning, hello or start a conversation with you, and they will open the doors for you as you pass. In the eight years that I've been in the United States, I’ve never encountered people friendlier than those in Detroit. I’ve had some very interesting conversations with strangers in this city — people sitting next to me at Avalon while I devour my sweet cream butter scone or people sitting at the bar at Cass Cafe ordering the same local beer I’ve grown to love (Ghettoblaster, on draft). And it doesn’t take long to learn that Detroit is a city of communities. As the city tries to recover, communities and personal relationships thrive. Population loss to the suburbs and to other states is no secret here, and as a result, there are too many empty lots and less than a million people living in a city designed for two times that many. But on the bright side, those who live here know and help each other, because most of them cannot rely on anyone but themselves and the people around them.Read the entire article here.

Detroit’s techno artist Omar S on his way up

Detroit techno artist is starting inch into the spotlight.Excerpt:Get him talking about what inspired him to create his own personal sound factory in a modest house on Detroit’s far north side and he gushes like a little kid. Smith grew up in nearby Conant Gardens, an extraordinary square-mile area that produced such talents as Amp Fiddler, Slum Village, Frank-n-Dank, and Platinum Pied Pipers. As a youth, he was thrilled to the marrow by Detroit’s rich musical legacy. “Man, it was Motown and Levi Stubbs—may he rest in peace—the greatest voice ever produced in Detroit,” says Smith about the Four Tops’ singer. “It was P-Funk and Prince … then Inner City, ‘Big Fun.’ Before Basic Channel it was Kevin Saunderson and [late mastering engineer] Ron Murphy that started all that dub [techno] shit.”Read the entire article here.