Highland Park

Highland Park: The movie and the city

Highland Park is not only getting a movie production filming in the city, but a movie about the city and resurrecting the abandoned McGregor Library on Woondward.Excerpt:A school teacher living in this enclave suburb wins the lottery. No, he doesn’t move out, he spends his money to get the shuttered McGregor Library renovated and reopened after nearly a decade of neglect.Sound like Hollywood? It is, sort of. It’s Michigan’s focus on film making as economic development at work. With state tax incentives backing them, the Highland Park Productions LLC, will begin shooting Sept. 28 on a $5 million movie to be set in Highland Park. Danny Glover stars as the lucky, lotto-winning teacher.Read the entire article here.

Community Development Advocates of Detroit propose comprehensive land use strategy

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The bottom-up process is the key to renewal, revival, Richard Florida says

Richard Florida is that creative class guy. Some agree with him, some don't. Wherever you fall on Florida, he does make some good points in his piece in the Atlantic that Detroit should pay attention to.Excerpt:The most successful shrinking strategies, like Pittsburgh's, are not top-down affairs driven by all-knowing governments, but organic, bottom-up, community-based efforts. While Pittsburgh government and business leadership pressed for large-scale urban renewal - stadium-building, convention centers, and more far-fetched schemes for local mag-lev trains - its real  turnaround was driven by organic, bottom-up initiatives. Community groups, local foundations, and non-profits - not city hall or business-led economic development groups -  were the driving forces behind neighborhood stabilization and redevelopment, university-based economic development, water-front revitalization, park improvements, and green building among others.  This kind of bottom-up process takes considerable time and perseverance. In Pittsburgh's case, it took the better part of a generation to achieve stability and the potential for longer-term revival. All of which brings us back to a big question: What about people versus place strategies? I agree with Glaeser: people must be the priority. Especially in tough economic times, public investment should flow toward people. Early childhood investments, as James Heckman has shown, are the most important, longest-running and highest-paying investments we make.Read the entire article here.