Hamtramck

Song, video celebrates all Detroit has to offer

A couple put together a video celebrating the city's gems. It has a country twang, but we're not talking about John Rich's "Shuttin' Detroit Down." That's for the birds.Check the video out here.

‘Home Is More Than Our House’: WDET’s coverage of facing Detroit’s mortgage crisis

WDET and Model D have partnered to focus on Detroit's foreclosure crisis and different ways people and neighborhoods are dealing with the issue. This week WDET reporter Zak Rosen will produce a piece on the citizens on the North End of Detroit are teaming up with the Greening of Detroit to reclaim 134 abandoned lots. Look for his work on the WDET "Home is more than a house" blog here. Next week Model D will take a look at how realtors are selling homes in Detroit to Detroiters.

LISC accepting nominations for CDC of the year

Model D TV: THC in Hamtramck

Hamtramck is not lacking in bars, and this week we visit one of the newer entries into the scene -- THC on Jos. Campau -- in this Model D TV clip.

Michigan Radio drops in on Hamtramck’s Hatch

The Hamtramck Artists Collective may have an HQ in the coming year thanks to the city selling them the old police department for one dollar. Excerpt:Chris Schneider lives in Hamtramck and he is in charge of an artist's collective there called Hatch. The group has been looking for a place to house studios and a gallery for some time. Most of the abandoned places that they looked at were privately owned and really expensive. So instead they decided to team up with the city of Hamtramck, and buy a vacant police station for $1.00."Hamtramck could have said...well if we hang on to it for a few more years we may find a buyer for say, $50,000. But instead of taking that chance, and most likely that building falling apart and becoming a rat den or worse, they said we will give it to the art group and let them turn it around."Listen to the entire piece here.

Yoga Suite stretches into Jos. Campau in Hamtramck

Hamtramck’s Zen Center opens cafe, tea house, co-op

Immigration may be the key to economic growth in SE Michigan

Even though Southwest Detroit and Hamtramck are beacons of diversity, Detroit and Michigan could do a lot better when attracting immigrants, which have proved to be a source of economic growth within communities.Additionally, Wayne State University is hosting a film event playing "Regional Roots" that will discuss Detroit's 300 years of history and how immigrants helped shape what the city is today.Get more information here. A trailer for the film can be found here.Excerpt from the metromode story:"To have a strong Detroit, a strong Southeast Michigan, immigrants are a necessary component," Tobocman says. "We need a welcome mat for these citizens, housing services, and employer services. We're thinking on what some of these out-of-the-box strategies could be for immigration growth."Global Detroit began in March of this year and Tobocman says they've already discussed dozens upon dozens of strategies, some of which have already been implemented in other states. Ideas like welcoming centers for new Michiganders, internship programs to retain foreign students after college graduation, or a regional center that pools foreign investment (of $500k or more) for local development -- which would create American jobs -- in return for a visa (called the EB-5).As Southeast Michigan stands now, and for most of the Rustbelt for that matter, there aren't any honest to goodness strategies in place. Efforts haven't gotten past a welcome center in Detroit's Mexicantown and one recently instituted in Philadelphia. These centers give new immigrants soft landings into communities and urban areas, plugging them in as much as possible.Read the entire article here.

As Hamtramck’s 74-year-old paper dies another is planned in its place

The news void left by the shutting down of Hamtramck's 74-year-old weekly the Citizen two weeks ago isn't expected to last long. It's planned that the Hamtramck Review is starting up this week.Excerpt:So it’s interesting that, despite the black eyes, the paper still had enough goodwill in the community to foster talk of reviving it, either as The Citizen or as something else. When we heard that the paper’s now-unemployed editor Charles Sercombe was meeting with stakeholders at Hamtramck’s Café 1923 Wednesday night, we motored over for the news. There, on the sunny back patio of the coffeehouse, Sercombe announced to a handful of council members, newspaper folk — from reporters to cartoonists — that he had been tentatively retained to head up a new community newspaper, scheduled for publication starting one week from Friday.Tentatively called The Hamtramck Review, it’s backed by Michigan-based publisher Mike Wilcox, whose company publishes two papers in outstate Claire. Wilcox is no stranger to Hamtramck, having bought The Citizen in 2002 and sold it in 2007, and Sercombe says Wilcox’s old sales connections have already lined up advertisers, with competitive ad rates.Read the entire article here.