Jer Staes
On today’s Daily Detroit, we start with big news for Detroit City FC fans and the future of Corktown.
We recap our visit to the new Detroit City FC welcome center on Vernor and
Detroit is losing two of its most distinctive nightspots at the end of the month, as Spot Lite on Beaufait and UFO Bar in Corktown prepare to close.
In a statement, owner Roula David says she’s “moving away from nightlife” after a five‑year run that turned Spot Lite’s warehouse space into a gallery, record store, and dance floor that doubled as a creative space on the east side. [Facebook]
Spot Lite earned a loyal following for its stacked DJ lineups, deep love of Detroit music, and the way it blurred lines between bar, arts venue, and community living room.
UFO Bar, which David took over last year, kept the UFO Factory spirit alive with indie shows, hot dogs, and late‑night music. According to the statement, it'll be re-concepted into the Detroit Vinyl Bar, a cocktail bar and record store.
The last day of service is Saturday, June 28 at Spot Lite and Monday, June 30 at UFO Bar, with Cairo Coffee operating temporarily at 2905 Beaufait as it looks for a new permanent home.
In Metro Detroit, it’s not enough to talk about transit plans. There are tons of ideas out there. It's about action.
I sat down with SMART General Manager and CEO Tiffany J. Gunter
Airbnb is betting on Detroit as a destination — and the numbers back it up. On today's Daily Detroit, I'm at the Grand Hotel talking with Vince Frillici, Airbnb's policy lead for the
Did you know Metro Detroit now has five innovation districts?
MICHauto executive director (and new Southwest Detroit pub co‑owner) Glenn Stevens joined us to talk about why Michigan needs a 'moonshot' for innovation.
Plus,
Busy episode today on your Daily Detroit. Here's your rundown of nine stories we talk about today with timestamps:
0:55 - The new New High Société restaurant in Dearborn
05:08 - Revisiting Republica in
Today we talk about how Michigan slipped from a top‑tier state into the bottom 10 on key measures like education, income and population — and why acknowledging the crisis is the first step to fixing
Three stories we talk about today on your Daily Detroit, finished as finalist in Hour Detroit's Best of Detroit (thank you!)
Detroit's Dutch Girl Donuts is back in the headlines, and we start
This episode of Daily Detroit (audio embedded above) was recorded at the Mackinac Policy Conference, and Jer and Devon have a wide‑ranging conversation about Michigan's political future and Detroit's urgency problem.
From
Transit in Metro Detroit is at an inflection point.
We talk with Transportation Riders United executive director Megan Owens about the new Wayne County‑wide transit millage, what an extra eight bucks a month could
On today’s Daily Detroit, we start the week with a conversation with State Senator — and Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful — Mallory McMorrow.
It’s the third in our series of Democratic Senate candidate interviews,
Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has abruptly ended his independent run for governor, blowing up Michigan's 2026 race less than six months before voters head to the polls.
In this emergency episode of Daily
Detroit’s parks, rivers, and wild pockets are far richer and more active than many people realize, and Ian “Ian Outside” John Solomon is on a mission to show Detroiters what they’ve been missing.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas Tucker on Tuesday afternoon granted the city’s request for a final decree, ending federal court oversight of Detroit’s finances.
The move signals the city is meeting the terms of its post-bankruptcy plan, including keeping up with pension obligations.
Fiscal year 2027 will mark the fourth consecutive year Detroit has made its required pension contributions, supported in part by the Grand Bargain and the city’s Retiree Protection Fund.
“Our team remains focused on the rigorous, long-term fiscal management necessary to protect our retirees and ensure our residents never face this kind of financial uncertainty again,” said City CFO Tanya Stoudemire in a press release.
The move wraps up one of the most consequential chapters in Detroit’s modern history and shifts full responsibility for maintaining fiscal discipline back to City Hall.
On Thursday, crews put in place the final steel beam on the new $2.2 billion, 20-story Henry Ford Health Patient Tower.v
When it opens in 2029, the hospital will add 432 all‑private, high‑tech rooms, five floors of specialized ICU care, and a vastly expanded 75,000‑square‑foot ER with 100 private treatment spaces, roughly doubling the current emergency department.
The tower is a centerpiece of Henry Ford’s ‘Destination: Grand” expansion, which also includes a new 1,500‑space parking garage, a shared services building, and a central energy hub that will help make it one of the largest all‑electric hospitals in the country.
In pure scale, it’s in the same conversation as the Hudson’s tower and the Gordie Howe International Bridge. And although the University of Michigan Center for Innovation gets a lot of press because it's visible downtown, the investment on this project is multiple times larger.
If you want to see it for yourself, look for it just off the Lodge at West Grand Boulevard.
Spring 2026 is here and it's time to hunt for a deal, with neighborhood and citywide yard sales in and around Detroit.
Here are four I know about, and I'm sure I'll be at a couple of them:
- Historic Indian Village Yard Sale (Detroit) – The historic east side neighborhood hosts its spring yard sale Saturday–Sunday, May 16–17, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., with homes across Indian Village setting up on porches, lawns, and garages. [Facebook]
- University District “Hidden Treasures” Yard Sale (Detroit) – Just west of Woodward and between 6 and 7 Mile, the University District Community Association’s “Hidden Treasures” sale runs Saturday, May 16, 9 a.m.–3 p.m., with more than 60 homes. [UDCA]
- Huntington Woods City‑Wide Garage Sale – Just north of 696, the suburb is holding its annual city‑wide sale Friday–Sunday, May 15–17, 9 a.m.–7 p.m., with permitted sales throughout the city. [City]
- Wyandotte Spring City‑Wide Garage Sale – Downriver, Wyandotte is running its Spring City‑Wide Garage Sale May 15–17, with residents all over the city participating. Some proceeds go to support their local museums. You can pick up a map behind the Ford-MacNichol Home at 2610 Biddle. [Event]
Detroit has posted population gains for the third consecutive year, adding more than 5,000 residents and leading the entire state in growth.
Two city residents and a former resident discuss the Census Bureau data
A black bear near Flat Rock, a massive water main break in northern Oakland County, and one of Detroit's most talked‑about restaurants changing course all add up to a busy epsiode of the
Ferndale Pride executive director Julia Music joins us to preview this year's mile-long joyous celebration on West Nine Mile – from a new creamsicle Pride beer to drag, street waffles, stages, and a sensory-
The Detroit Bird Alliance is kicking off the first-ever Great Detroit Bird Off this May, a friendly contest to see which of Detroit’s four big parks — Belle Isle, Rouge, Palmer, or Eliza Howell — racks up the most bird species on the eBird app during peak migration.
Anyone can jump in, from hardcore birders to curious beginners, with reps from the Alliance on-site select Saturdays to help you log sightings and learn the ropes.
It’s fun, it’s community science, and it highlights just how wild Detroit’s parks really are.
Here's the schedule:
- Saturday, May 2 Belle Isle from 8-10a
- Saturday, May 9: Belle Isle from 8-10a
- Saturday, May 16: Eliza Howell Park from 8-10a
- Saturday, May 23: Palmer Park from 8-10a
- Saturday, May 30: Rouge Park from 6-8p
We're back at in the studio, kicking things off with Devon's recent trip to Pittsburgh and what Detroit can learn from its dense, walkable core, lively riverfront, and reuse of historic buildings.
Then
Today on Daily Detroit, we're back into our series of candidate discussions as Dr. Abdul El‑Sayed, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Michigan joins me.
We get into why he's getting
Detroit is having a week full of newness — and we've got all of it. PWHL Detroit is officially happening: the city's new Professional Women's Hockey League franchise will play at Little Caesar'