Co-Host - Former Oakland Press, AP and MLive reporter who also worked in corporate communications. Before that, he poured drinks. Listens to podcasts mostly when he runs.
On Thursday’s Daily Detroit Podcast, host Sven Gustafson talked with Detroit artist Olayami Dabls about his new exhibit in the Fisher Building lobby that examines the Civil Rights era. Everard Findlay, the exhibit’s curator, also joins us....
Michigan breweries took home nine medals including one gold from the 32nd annual Great American Beer Festival last weekend in Denver. Grand Rapids-based Mitten Brewing Company won gold for its West Coast Swing Amber in the American-Style Amber/Red Ale category. Founders Brewing Company from Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor-based Wolverine State Brewing Company each won two medals. Founders won a silver for its Breakfast Stout and Porter. Wolverine State, a lager-only brewery, won for its NZ Pils...
Crews have been spotted installing plexiglass windows at Lee Plaza. That’s the 15-story Art Deco former luxury apartment building on West Grand Boulevard that dates to 1927. The news comes from the Historical Detroit Area Architecture Facebook group. It’s not immediately clear who is doing the work, or why. Earlier this year, three groups submitted proposals to the city to redevelop the building for mixed-income residential and ground-floor commercial. Rod Liggons, the director of community...
The struggling Eastland Center shopping mall is hitting the auction block. Current owners CW Capital will auction off about 640,000 square feet of the mall’s 1.4 million square feet of space in an auction on October 11th. They’ll go through Southfield-based real estate brokerage Farbman Group. The auction covers most of the enclosed portion of the mall. It doesn’t include the spaces formerly occupied by Macy’s and Target and those currently leased by Lowe’s and Home Depot. The mall h...
The Detroit Institute of Arts says a record 73,239 students visited the museum on field trips last school year. That’s an increase of almost 6,000 students from the previous year. Of these, about 29,124 were from Wayne County, 19,288 from Oakland County and 13,714 from Macomb County. The DIA provides free bus transportation and admission for residents of those counties, thanks to a tri-county millage passed in 2012. The museum offers both guided field trips with gallery teachers that util...
Voters on November 6 will be asked to decide the fate of Proposal 2, which takes aim at how legislative districts are drawn in Michigan. It might sound like a wonky topic — and, well, it is. But gerrymandering is the name given to the practice as it’s practiced in Michigan, which is currently to give whichever party has majority rule in the state Legislature full rein to draw legislative districts. It’s become a fiercely contested, partisan practice that has major ramifications for our elec...
Eric Thomas made waves two years ago when he published a blog post on LinkedIn headlined “Why I hate Detroit.” This week, he penned an op-ed in the Financial Times that serves as a kind of sequel. Both pieces bring a dose of reality to the narrative of Detroit as a “comeback city” and a city on the rise. We caught up with him Thursday at the Digital Summit, where he was a presenter on the topic of making your brand human and developing your voice for digital. He talked about what he sees...
Could Detroit Red Wings legend Stevie Yzerman be heading back to the Motor City? Maybe. Yzerman stepped down from his job as General Manager of the Tampa Bay Lighting Tuesday, a position he’s held since 2010. According to The Athletic’s Joe Smith, Yzerman told players in Tampa that he’s heading back to Detroit. It’s unclear if he meant to go home — he has family here — or to pick up a new job. A CBS Anchor in Tampa, Justin Granit, said on Twitter that Yzerman is coming home to join the Wi...
True crime is hot. The genre dominates the top 10 shows on Apple Podcasts, with podcasts like Serial and My Favorite Murder drawing millions of fans and downloads. Here in the Detroit area, we’ve got our own true crime podcast that is attracting a growing following, with its 100th episode dropping Wednesday. It promises to change the way you look at Oakland Mall. Nina Innsted is the researcher, writer, producer and voice behind the popular local podcast “Already Gone,” which focuses on tr...
A key deadline in the granting of licenses to medical marijuana facilities looks set to be extended, meaning some facilities will be able to keep operating during the licensing process. It’s not clear which businesses will qualify and for how long. The Detroit News reports the emergency rules to ensure patients still had access to medical marijuana through the licensing period are set to expire Friday, but the state should have details about an extension on Tuesday. The Medical Marijuana...
One of the city’s “must see” pieces of street art has come down, along with the abandoned and badly blighted building it was on. “The African Amalgamation of Ubiquity” was painted in 1985 by Curtis Lewis on an old bank building at 9980 Gratiot, just west of the Better Made Potato Chip Plant. It was the former home of the neighborhood nonprofit “Operation Get Down,” which moved across the street to a new location some time ago. While demolition signs reportedly abound in the neighborhood...
The popular Union Woodshop barbecue restaurant in Clarkston is getting an outdoor mural courtesy of the Detroit Institute of Arts. The 16-by-12-foot mural is titled “The Village of Clarkston” and is dominated by a mill wheel in homage to the area’s agricultural roots. It will depict buildings in Clarkston’s historic district, themes such as home, education, commerce and spirituality, and a millpond on the lower half with native plants and animals. The mural is being led by DIA artists Ale...
An Ann Arbor favorite, Frita Batidos, is coming to Detroit. The Cuban restaurant will open a 2,400 square foot location on Columbia street just west of Woodward. The Detroit menu will be the same as its Ann Arbor location, but with a twist: an express menu for game days. If you’re not familiar, Frita Batidos serves salads, Cuban inspired pressed sandwiches, churros and, of course, there’s booze, including seasonal cocktails. Frita Batidos opened back in 2010, a year after owner and chef...
Detroit is losing one of its most beloved bike shops. Motorless City Bicycle Company says it plans to permanently close its doors at the end of September after four seasons in business in Eastern Market. The store was closely involved with Slow Roll and announced the news on Facebook, saying the team had decided it was time to move on to new endeavors. Motorless City sells bike products, full bicycles, repairs and has a custom fabrication shop to build custom bikes. All the store’s produc...
The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, was scheduled to be laid to rest Friday. A little piece of news out of the funeral is that Chene Park is to be renamed in her honor. At the service at Greater Grace Temple, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said that he and members of the City Council had agreed to change the name of Chene Park to Aretha Franklin Park. Franklin sang there for its 30th Anniversary, and the riverfront park was the site of her tribute concert Thursday night. It’s a big week for...
Headaches for drivers due to road projects in Michigan could go on longer, thanks to a dispute between road construction companies and one union. The Detroit News reports a number of projects could be delayed due to a lockout by companies that are members of the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association. They’re locking out members of the Operating Engineers Local 324 beginning at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. These are workers that operate backhoes, bulldozers, cranes and excavators....
Ford Motor Company is planning to get rid of most of its cars for the American market in favor of more trucks, crossovers and SUVs. But the automaker on Friday said it’s canceling one of the only remaining cars it did plan to offer due to costs associated with President Trump’s trade war. Ford says it’s scrapping plans to import the Focus Active from China because of he 25-percent tariffs the president has placed on automobiles, steel and aluminum from that country. The Focus Active was in...
Hometown hip-hop star Eminem has dropped a new 13-track album at an unexpected time, titled “Kamikaze.” In it, he takes no prisoners, with verbal shots at Charlamagne Tha God, Harvey Weinstein; Tyler, the Creator; Lil Pump; Machine Gun Kelly and Donald Trump. It includes collaborators like Joyner Lucas, Jessie Reyez, Royce da 5’9, and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. The album art honors the Beastie Boys’ “Licensed to Ill,” depicting the tail of a jet plane in a similar art style. “Kamikaze...
