Grandmont Rosedale

Community Development Advocates of Detroit propose comprehensive land use strategy

Time: The Detroit Blog – A speical Time Inc. project

Time Inc.'s interest in Detroit has been well documented so far. But, in case you missed it, the big media machine has bought a house in East English Village and will set up shop there for a year to cover Detroit and all that it brings - both negative and positive. In this week's In The News we have a piece up written by the New York Times, as well as a mention in the Tweet of the Week. However, is a direct link to the Time Inc.'s Detroit blog. Track their work as they track ours.See the blog here.

Detroit’s Home Depot company’s most profitable store

Home Depot in Detroit picks up where some other stores left off and is now the most profitable store in this 100-store region.Excerpt:As other national retailers such as Kmart and Kroger have been pulling out of the city in recent years, Home Depot has been quietly making a tidy profit at its lone Detroit store.Atlanta-based Home Depot Inc. celebrated its fifth anniversary in the city last March at a former Kmart location at 7 Mile and Meyers.The 139,000-square-foot store is the most profitable in its 100-store region that includes Michigan, Toledo and parts of Illinois and Indiana, said Jen King, senior manager of public relations for Home Depot's northern division."The store has adjusted some of its products to help offset some of the other retailers leaving," King said.Three months ago, Home Depot started selling toilet paper and paper towels. The store also expanded its section of cleaning products to two aisles, up from the traditional one, in response to customer requests, said Christopher Gilbert, a district manager for the chain who oversees the Detroit store. "We try to be the neighborhood store that people want to come to, and supply what they want," he said.Read the entire article here.

Tweet of the Week: Do what your mother says

So vacation is behind us and we're back with the Tweet of the Week. So, what do you have to say?You should listen to your mother @miel_dulce, always listen to your mother.@miel_dulce: my mom said to stay in detroit, im totally thinking about it...We don't know where you are, but we wish you were still in Detroit, too. You can always come back.@Bizemisty: I wish I was still in Detroit. I hate this place.Congratulations Earthworks Urban Farm. Keep up the good work. And thanks @AshleySFlintoff for the heads up.@AshleySFlintoff: Congrats to Earthworks Urban Farm - Detroit's 1st Certified Organic Farm! Check out their work at www.cskdetroit.org/earthworksExactly @dlexus2001, don't forget about us, whoever you are.@dlexus2001: dont' forget bout detroitAnd finally, the winner, for our first week back from vacation Tweet of the Week is: @flamingowojack: Just got back from John K. King Used Bookstore in downtown Detroit. I'm there every week, but I find "new" stuff every time I go there...True that, @flamingowojack. True that.Keep reading. Keep tweeting. And see you next week.Follow us on Twitter here.

Listen up: WDET’s ‘Home Is More Than Our House’ series continues through July

WDET 101.9 FM reporters Rob St. Mary and Zak Rosen continue their coverage this week in their "Home is More Than Our 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 the collaborate effort to stabilize Boston-Edison with median-income families, which in turn stabilizes the surrounding areas. Also, check out the great piece he did on Habitat for Hamtramck here. Rob St. Mary offers a story on finding help for the Jewish community in Metro Detroit. For more on the series, check out their blog: wdetmortgagecrisis.com

fDi Magazine names Detroit a city of the future

fDi Magazine, an investment mag produced by the Financial Times, released their cities of the future list and Detroit fell in at No. 10 for the largest cities of the future. Excerpt:fDi Magazine’s North American Cities of the Future 2009/10 shortlists, which took more than six months to research and involved the data collection of nearly 400 North American cities, ranks San Francisco, California, as the top large city of the future, followed closely by Austin, Texas. Of the large cities surveyed, San Luis Potosí in Mexico ranks top for cost effectiveness, while Charlotte, North Carolina, ranks top for FDI strategy according to the judging panel.Read the entire article here.

Microloans Bring Macro-Benefit to Detroit

When the banks won't answer the door, the smallest of small businesses can go knocking on the doors of Detroit's microloan programs, which are changing the face of the city one coffee shop or high tech start up at a time.

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.

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.