Sven Gustafson - Daily Detroit (Page 4)

Ford Invests $1.45B, Inside The New Rocket Fiber Pistons Studio, And Lowly Lions Talk

Today we’re discussing the news that Ford will invest $1.45 billion into plants in Wayne and Dearborn to build the new 2020 Bronco and the Ranger small pickup truck. Both are resuscitations of beloved automotive brands that went away for the past couple of decades. Then, Jer tells us about his visit to the new Rocket Fiber broadcast studio at the Detroit Pistons’ new training facility in the New Center Techtown. And staying with sportsball, we check in with our sports corresponde...

Back From Belarus, Just In Time For Turkey Day

Greetings, comrades! I’m back from my week-long visit to Minsk, Belarus, halfway around the globe and a world away, as a guest of the good people at Press Club Belarus and the U.S. Embassy Minsk. (In case you’re wondering, that’s me outside of Niasvizh, a castle that dates to 1583, located to the southwest of Minsk.) It’s good to be back and rolling with the podcast. We’re planning to release an entire episode devoted exclusively to my visit to the former Soviet republic and...

3 Things That Aren't Working In Detroit

Happy snowmageddon, Detroit! Hope you’re all staying nice and warm. On today’s episode, we dig out of the early and record-breaking November snowstorm and dig into a few of the things that aren’t working around town. Specifically, we talk about: * That WXYZ investigation into a Detroit landlord whom the city has forgiven more than $1 million in unpaid taxes, fees and other fines he owes. It was part of the land swap the city orchestrated to pave the way for the new Fiat Chrysler...

EastpointeMadison Heights

Local Election Highlights Plus An Interview With The Founders Of Shout, A New Citizen Democracy App

Despite a steady trickle of leaked recordings of him being horrible, Warren Mayor Jim Fouts was re-elected to a fourth term on Tuesday. On today’s show, we talk about and what it says about Warren. Then, we highlight some other races from around the region and discuss what they say about those cities, from Ferndale to Flint and Eastpointe to Livonia. Finally, we speak with Colleen Martin and Saharsh Hajela, two University of Michigan graduates who co-founded Shout. Tha...

TEDxDETROIT Returns With Ideas Worth Spreading For The 11th Year

Detroit is a city with a lot of ideas worth spreading. The 11th TEDxDETROIT conference looks to highlight those and gather local luminaries from a variety of fields, along with some pretty powerful and superstar guests including Nicole Curtis from HGTV’s Rehab Addict and many others. To talk about the event on November 6, 2019 is Shawn Lee. He’s the Director of Photography for the event and an entrepreneur himself. If you’re interested in learning more about the event o...

Grandmont-Rosedale

The 'Best Crime Of 2019,' Detroit City FC Launches A Women's Team, Plus 3 Things To Know

Hello friends. Today we’re covering StateBudgetPalooza, in which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed all 16 budget bills sent at the 11th hour by Republicans, but only after making 147 line-item vetoes totaling nearly $1 billion, unleashing hilarity on the Great Lakes State. Is this any kind of way to do state budgeting? We discuss. Elsewhere, soccer correspondent Fletcher Sharpe joins us to run down the big news that Detroit City FC will launch a women’s team in 2020 to compete in the...

New Book 'Cheers to Michigan' Explores State's Cocktail Culture, Booze Legacy

Lester Graham is a journalist at Michigan Radio, where he hosts “The Environment Report” and the news magazine “Stateside.” Tammy Coxen is the host of Tammy’s Tastings, a series of food and drink tastings, classes and experiences in Ann Arbor. The two friends been doing a segment on cocktails on Michigan Radio called “Cheers!” for more than three years. Now, they’ve got a new book based on that series. It’s called “Cheers to Michigan: A Celebration of Cocktail Culture and Craft D...

GM Strike, State Budget Impasse Could Tip Michigan Into A Recession

The United Auto Workers strike against GM over a lack of a new contract has dragged on into a second week. Meanwhile, the negotiations over the state budget are going down to the wire ahead of the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, and the prospects of enacting a budget and avoiding a state government shutdown don’t appear bright. The combination of those two storylines isn’t good news for Michigan’s economy. On today’s show, we hear from Charles Ballard, an economics profes...

Eastern Market Brewing Co. Buys Axle's Livernois Tap, Plus 3 Things To Know

The now-defunct Axle Brewing said it hoped to find a like-minded brewer to take over their gleaming Livernois Tap when it announced it was ceasing operations in June, and it appears to have found one in Eastern Market Brewing Co., which announced it will take over the gleaming brewpub and eatery in Ferndale they’re calling the Ferndale Project. According to the Freep, EMBC will rebrand the facility, which will allow them to triple — yes, TRIPLE — their brewing capacity. Also on t...

UAW's Strike Against GM 'Doesn't Look Good For Anyone," Analyst Says

Nearly 50,000 UAW workers have gone on strike at General Motors, the first time the union has gone on strike in 12 years, after the last four-year agreement expired without an agreement over a new one. The strike also comes at a time that federal authorities are widening their investigation into embezzlement by top union leadership past and present, with nine people so far convicted of skimming member dues and money from automakers meant to support job-training programs. On...

Ford's Plan For Its Dearborn Research & Engineering Center Looks Like A Scandinavian Silicon Valley

Ford’s Dearborn campus may be best known today for the so-called Glass House headquarters building or the “Salt and Pepper Shaker” office towers visible from the Southfield Freeway. But the automaker has ambitious plans to redevelop its Research and Engineering Center in Dearborn as a futuristic, walkable campus filled with modernist architecture and technology, and buzzing with pedestrians, electric bikes and scooters and, in the future, autonomous vehicles. Ford today unveile...

Jefferson-Chalmers

Doing Development Differently By Putting The Neighborhood First

The nonprofit Jefferson East Inc. has been working since the 1990s to redevelop Detroit’s hard-bitten Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood and business district, located on the far east end of Jefferson Avenue near the border with Grosse Pointe Park. Recently, the organization and its for-profit real estate development arm East Jefferson Development Corp., held a weeklong community workshop to solicit ideas from residents about what they want to see in their neighborhood. On toda...

How Our Laws Make It So Americans Have To Drive

Today’s episode is all about cars — specifically, about how the law has paved the way for their dominance in our everyday lives and shaping the way we live in fundamental ways. Our guest is Gregory Shill, a Law Professor at the University of Iowa who grew up here in Metro Detroit. Professor Shill recently wrote a piece in the Atlantic headlined, “Americans shouldn’t have to drive, but the law insists on it.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/car-crashes-aren...

What Will Change In Oakland County Under New Executive David Coulter?

Oakland County is under new leadership — and Democratic control — after former Ferndale Mayor David Coulter was sworn in Friday as new county executive. Coulter will serve out the remainder of the term of longtime boss and Republican, L. Brooks Patterson, who died Aug. 4. Coulter is a former member of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners who had been mayor of Ferndale for almost nine years. On this episode, Jer and I talk about Coulter’s track record in Ferndale and what it...

L. Brooks Patterson Was A Complicated Man Who Reflected A Conflicted Region

L. Brooks Patterson, who died Saturday at age 80 at his home in Independence Township, was one of the Detroit area’s most consequential and controversial figures in local politics. To some, he represents the ascendancy of an economic powerhouse, in Oakland County, and the very pinnacle of good governance and fiscal stewardship. But he’s also a key player in the region’s ugly racial divides, through his bitter rivalry with former Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young and his history as a...

What Issues Will Resonate With Michigan Voters? With Matt Grossmann

Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon and the rest of the CNN teevee crew have packed up their new Shinola gifts and “Detroit Vs. Everybody” T-shirts now that the Democratic presidential candidate debates are over. Aside from the economic bumps for the Book Cadillac, Detroit Water Ice and no doubt many swanky downtown eateries, did Detroit learn anything from any of the 20 candidates hoping to end Donald Trump’s presidency after one term? Do we know anything more about how the...

Who Won Day 1 Of The Democratic Debates In Detroit? It Isn't Who You Might Think

This week on Daily Detroit, we’re dusting off our politics hats. The Democratic presidential debates are in town at the Fox Theater, after all, and Round 1 took place last night, with the second debate planned for Wednesday evening. Tuesday night’s debate featured front-runners and progressive-wing standard-bearers Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, plus South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg. And they showed well. Embed from Getty Images But Jer and I argue that former...

North Corktown

Detroit Artist Sheefy McFly Discusses The New Mural He's Unveiling This Weekend At Mo Pop

Happy Friday. On today’s show, Jer speaks with Detroit muralist Sheefy McFly — he’s the one who was arrested while doing a city-commissioned mural on a Detroit viaduct. He’s got a new mural that will be unveiled this weekend at the Mo Pop music festival on Detroit’s riverfront. We also run down a few news stories from the past week: * New affordable housing units are being planned in North Corktown aimed at “middle-income” residents. [Crain’s] * A shooting at a west-si...