Sven Gustafson - Daily Detroit (Page 5)

Diving In On Ford Problems With The Freep, DCFC Makes Early Playoff Exit

Ford Motor Company introduced its low-priced Focus and Fiesta small cars several years ago equipped with a new dual-clutch transmission that promised improved fuel economy and smooth operation. But the company did so knowing that the transmissions were defective and prone to jerking and stalling outright, even on the highway. And it continued to sell them for years despite thousands of complaints from customers, mounting repair bills and dozens of injuries. That’s the gist of a...

The Ilitches Own Even More Vacant Property Than We Realized — Plus Food, Fun & Detroit City FC Playoff Action

There’s been a ton of scrutiny, including from this podcast, about the Ilitch family’s failure to follow through on its promises to develop the District Detroit. Now, The Detroit News reports that the Ilitches also own 44 vacant lots and eight empty buildings surrounding the MotorCity Casino Hotel complex, where the family now hopes to build a seven-story parking structure. But ya know, yours truly has been doing some thinking about the whole District Detroit thing, and I may hav...

Jefferson-Chalmers

Republicans Want To Borrow Teacher Pension Money To Fix Roads, And Detroit's East Side Is Under Water

Happy Friday, friends! On today’s show, we run down the new proposal by Lansing Republicans to fix the damn roads in Michigan. They want to borrow $10 billion against teacher pensions. What could go wrong? Also, Jer tells us about his recent visit to the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood on Detroit’s east side. Specifically, the flooded streets east of Jefferson, where canals that cut through the neighborhood from the Detroit River have topped their banks. Lastly, what’s u...

Another District Detroit Development Deadline Missed Plus 7 Stories Around Town

Welcome back from the holiday weekend, comrades. Today’s show is Episode 300 of your Daily Detroit, and for that we thank you, our listeners. We also dive into two pieces of Ilitch-related news: * First, that Olympia Development has missed a deadline to submit a development proposal for a parcel on Woodward between the Little Caesars Arena and I-75. After already receiving a one-year extension. [Crain’s] * Secondly, that Chris Ilitch signed Tigers GM Al Avila to a “multi-year”...

Can Detroit's Revival Continue Even If The Population Keeps Dropping?

You can listen to the show in your favorite podcast app of choice, or the player below. New Census estimates are out that show Detroit lost 1,526 residents between 2017 and 2018 to 672,622, yet the city’s tax revenues are up, thanks mostly to more people working in the city and paying the city income tax. So we ask: Can Detroit’s recovery continue even if population losses continue? Mayor Mike Duggan has famously said he should ultimately be judged by whether the city can st...

Eastern Market

Taste Test: Norden Aquavit Is Detroit's Newest — And Only — Scandinavian Spirit

Aquavit is a caraway-flavored spirit long popular in Scandinavia, where it originated (aquavit literally translates to “water of life”). Yet it’s never exactly been a liquor of choice here in the states. But here comes Norden Aquavit, a nearly year-old brand distilled right here in Detroit by longtime bartender and Berkeley, California native Robyn Cleveland. I met Cleveland last weekend at a midsommar Swedish dinner at Frame in Hazel Park put on by chef Jill Vedaa, of Salt i...

Detroit City FC Is Seven Games Unbeaten, Plus 4 Things To Know

On today’s episode, we check in with soccer journalist and The Outer Drive podcast co-host Fletcher Sharpe, who covers Detroit City FC. With five games remaining in the NPSL regular season, Le Rouge are now unbeaten in seven games and have held opponents scoreless in each of those matches. But City has also notched scoreless draws during that stretch with their top divisional rivals in the NPSL Great Lakes Conference — AFC Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids FC. Le Rouge will have rematch...

Detroit-Area Renters Are Eager To Leave. Even For Cleveland

Cleveland. It’s a city that is often compared to Detroit, and not always for their positive attributes. And nothing against our Rust Belt cousin, but it turns out it’s one of the prime destinations for renters around metro Detroit who are looking to get out of town. And apparently there are a lot of people in that category. A new “Renter Migration Report” from Apartment List says the Detroit area is No. 2 among the 25 largest metro areas for the share of renters who are searching...

Mortgages Are On The Rise In Detroit, But They're Increasingly Going To White People As Black People Buy In The 'Burbs

Bridge Magazine has a fascinating new story out that finds that while mortgage activity in Detroit is steadily increasing after bottoming out during the Great Recession, the recovery isn’t mirroring Detroit’s population demographics. What’s more, there are still vast tracts of the city where mortgage activity is virtually nonexistent. Despite making up just 10% of the city’s overall population, white people got almost half of all mortgages in Detroit in 2017, while black people,...

Macomb County May Seek Tax For New Jail Plus 7 Things To Know

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel wants to build a new jail, because the current one is a squalid death trap. On June 19, he plans to ask a special meeting of the county board of commissioners’ Records and Public Safety panel for approval of the $375 million project, plus the OK of ballot language for a tax to pay for the bonds that would pay for it. It’s not clear how much the tax millage would be or whether this would constitute a tax increase for residents. But for a general...

A Garden By A World-Class Designer Is Coming To Belle Isle

Over on Belle Isle today, boosters broke ground on the Piet Oudolf garden, the unofficial name for the landscape installation planned for 2.5 acres at the Nancy Brown Peace Carillon. Oudolf is a legendary Dutch garden designer and author who’s perhaps best known for his work on New York City’s High Line, a linear park on a former elevated rail track, and the Lurie Garden in Chicago’s Millennium Park. You can watch a PBS NewsHour segment with him below; in it, he talks specificall...

Madison Heights

Imaginative 'Detroit Square' Project Would Transform Midtown's Cultural Center

Midtown Detroit, Inc. and the Detroit Institute of Arts have announced the winner of its DIA Plaza | Midtown Cultural Connections international design competition, first launched in 2017. Detroit Square is a proposal from an international consortium led by Paris-based Agence Ter and including Detroit-based Akoaki, rootoftwo, and Harley Etienne. The proposal reimagines the 83-acre Cultural Center in Midtown and its 12 educational and cultural institutions, highlighted by the D...

Oak ParkErik Tungate MoGo

A New Leaf For Oak Park As A Bikeable, Urbanist Suburb

Oak Park is a diverse inner-ring suburb of more than 29,000 people nestled between Ferndale, Detroit, Berkley and Southfield. It’s in a great location, minutes from a variety of job centers. It’s seeing a lot more action as nearby cities like Ferndale grow (yes, there are lofts going for $5,000 a month in downtown Ferndale now and housing prices are racing up). And the added cost of living in nearby Detroit is burdensome for many families. Recent changes — including allowing...

Grosse Pointe Park

Axle Brewing Falls Prey To Daunting Craft Beer Economics, Plus 7 Things To Know

Welcome to a bonus Friday edition of your Daily Detroit. Today, we discuss the sad news that Axle Brewing will shutter its Livernois Taproom June 30th, barely two years after it first opened. Dave Phillips, one-half of Podcast Detroit and the IT in the D podcast, and himself a former partner in a failed craft brewery, joins us to discuss how difficult it is to succeed in an uber-competitive sector, where even established brands have to fight for shelf space, and drinkers lik...

Collapse Of Merger With Renault Not Dire For Fiat Chrysler, Analyst Says

Fiat Chrysler essentially said “NVM, LOL” this week in regards to its own proposal to merge with French automaker Renault, withdrawing its proposal 10 days after first shocking the automotive world by submitting it. But it isn’t a crushing setback for the Italian-American automaker, says Kristin Dziczek, vice president of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. That’s because Fiat Chrysler, though still small by global automaker standards, is much healthier than it was...

Fiat Chrysler Scuttles A Merger With Renault, And Mexico Tariffs Loom Large For The Auto Industry

Welcome to a very Motor City-centric edition of your Daily Detroit. Today, we’re running down a pair of big stories from the auto industry, speaking with Kristin Dziczek, vice president of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. First up: Fiat Chrysler has withdrawn its $35 billion proposal to merge with French automaker Renault just 10 days after FCA first announced the proposal. It comes after the Renault board on Wednesday failed to reach a decision on the proposal, c...

Tax Incentives And The Future Industries Of Detroit With DEGC President Kevin Johnson

Are tax incentives as a tool to lure large-scale corporate investment and jobs here to stay? That’s the question at the heart of this interview today with Kevin Johnson, the president and CEO of the Detroit Economic Development Corp. It’s particularly timely in the midst of Chrysler’s planned $2.5 billion investment to create 5,000 new jobs on Detroit’s east side, where workers will build the next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee and an all-new three-row full-size Jeep SUV. The dea...

What To Expect At The 2019 Arts, Beats & Eats Festival

Welcome to an al fresco edition of your Daily Detroit, recorded au natural in a park near downtown Royal Oak. We were there to cover a press event to discuss some of the things in store for Arts, Beats & Eats, which returns for its 22nd edition with a new sponsor Aug. 30-Sept. 2. We also cover the details of the newest historic building rehab in Detroit. It’s called the Assembly, a mixed-use office and retail building in Corktown with 32 apartments from Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock real...