What's New, What's Next, and What Matters in Metro Detroit

Up To 750 Manufacturing Jobs Are Coming To Edge Of Detroit's Poorest Zip Code

Word came today that Flex ‘N Gate, an Illinois-based supplier of car parts such as bumpers, exterior trim, lighting, chassis assemblies and other OEM parts is going to build a new facility at the I-94 industrial Park in Detroit. The development will be roughly at Helen and Georgia streets, just outside of Hamtramck between Mt. Elliot and Van Dyke and very close to Detroit’s City Airport, as well as freeways and rail. The project location is on the edge of Michigan’s (and Detroit’s) poorest z...

Want The Detroit Symphony Orchestra To Play In Your Community? Here's How

Let there be music. Thanks to a partnership with the DTE Energy Foundation, the DSO will deliver its sixth consecutive free concert series at four venues selected by community members. Throughout May, small ensembles of DSO musicians gave pop-up performances across the region to promote a public nomination process for determining the locations of these free concerts, which will be held September 23-25. Interested parties may nominate a venue in their community at dso.org/DTEpowersDSO. The...

Nearly 3 Million Views For Detroit Police Department's Dance Moves

The Detroit Police Department has made a huge splash with the release of their version of the Running Man Challenge dance off. Since the video was released on the Detroit Police Department Facebook page it has been viewed more than 2.7 million times (and counting) The police department danced to the Ghost Town DJ’s “My Boo” throughout downtown Detroit. Two of the places the DPD danced were along the Riverfront and in front of the Joe Lewis Monument. Police Chief James Craig has challenged Ci...

Grandmont Rosedale Neighborhood To Get Business Brand Accelerator

Some businesses in the Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood of Detroit are getting some branding help through a new program funded by the Knight Foundation. Officially announced Tuesday at Detroit Startup Week, “Rebrand Detroit” is a business brand accelerator put together by BrandCamp University founder Hajj Flemings that will be helping a cohort of businesses – Always Brewing Detroit, Cutz Lounge, and Pages Bookshop – with their digital strategy. Why digital strategy? It’s to help bring more cu...

War Games Exhibition Opens June 2

Los Angeles-based contemporary art gallery Moran Bondaroff is showing its first exhibition in Detroit on Thursday, June 2. The opening reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the former Woods Cathedral at 1945 Webb Avenue. The exhibit is part of the gallery’s yearlong residence in the former Detroit cathedral. War Games gathers works of art, which relate to an emergent practice, that Benjamin Godsill, the curator, conceptualizes as “technological misuse and abuse.” The art in this exhi...

It's Time For The Narrative Of "Two Detroits" To Die

There is a lot of talk about the concept of “Two Detroits,” and has been for awhile. For some, it’s about the haves and have nots. Or black or white. Some might extend to suburb and city. Downtown vs. neighborhoods. There are a million ways you could cut a dividing line, if you so chose. Here’s the thing. “Two Detroits” is such a horribly oversimplified narrative that it should be done. Fin. Over. Dead. There are, as of last estimation, 677,116 people in this city, and to each one of those...

"Anthem Of Us" Is The Most Inspirational Video Of Detroit Yet

Director Stephen McGee, with the words of Big Sean and the support of Bedrock Detroit, the real estate company that handles Gilbert’s properties, made a doozy of an inspirational short “film” that’s been setting the Detroiternet on fire, spreading like crazy. It’s well-shot and visually stunning, and the impromptu words by Big Sean strike a chord. It takes it to the next level. Some might take it as cheesy; but sometimes, we need inspiration. See, living in Detroit, often, isn’t easy. It’s a...

Detroit's Media Revolution Will Not Be Televised, But It Might Be Podcasted

When you drive up, it’s a nondescript building off of 11 Mile Road in Royal Oak. The signs aren’t installed yet. The awning hasn’t been changed in color from red to either the black or green of the network colors. But inside, it’s already a hive of activity. A number of show hosts and Jessica Rangel, who does studio operations, make their way in to check out the in-progress digs, try out the just installed microphones, and chit-chat in the lobby waiting room that still has a stack of art from...

Healing Metro Detroit's Children Through Music

Children are one of our most vulnerable populations, and they’re also our future. It’s critical that we do everything we can to raise strong, confident, considerate kids. However, that’s often easier said than done, especially when the children come from households where there’s been serious abuse and neglect. Enter Love Centers, a non-profit dedicated to reaching Metro Detroit’s hurting children and building lasting relationships with them. The organization uses the creative arts as a platfor...

Help Build Tiny Homes For Homeless Detroiters

If Cass Community Social Services is successful, currently homeless people are going to have the opportunity to own their own tiny home. The organization is campaigning for funds for its Tiny Homes project. Through this project, the non-profit will provide clean, safe, and affordable housing for low-income Detroiters. The Tiny Homes will be located two blocks north of Cass’s campus at Woodrow Wilson and Elmhurst. Such a close location will enable residents of the Tiny Homes to access most of t...

Detroit Beach Life: New Shipping Container Restaurant Opens May 27 In Campus Martius

The 2.5 acre Campus Martius Park is about to level up when it comes to fun. Dropped off Wednesday night, and now under preparation for opening (we snapped some pictures today) is a new restaurant that’s a repurposed shipping container that will go next to the sandy “beach” in the middle of Campus Martius Park. The restaurant will be called The Fountain Detroit, and replaces The Beach Bar and Grill that operated last year. The menu includes tuna tacos, pierogi, charcuterie, salads, panini...

Jolly Pumpkin Adds Flavor To Detroit's Most Vibrant Retail Block

The block of West Canfield Street, in Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood between Cass and Second Avenues, is practically its own zip code at this point. It’s home to a disorientingly vibrant cluster of high-gloss retailers, like Shinola and the new Third Man Records, and a trio of hip eateries. The newest in the latter category is Jolly Pumpkin Pizzeria and Brewery, where I stopped with my family for dinner the other night. This is the local outpost of the Dexter-based brewer of oak-aged sour al...

Gleaming New Football Field Rising From Detroit's Decimated Urban Prairie

Chene Street is one of those places you can go in Detroit if you ever need a reality check and want to experience a neighborhood in true despair. Over decades of abandonment and disinvestment, the crack epidemic and rampant crime, the once-vibrant working class community surrounding a retail and business strip morphed into a burned-out urban prairie, a place defined by poverty, emptiness and decay. So it was something of a shock to see a state-of-the-art football field taking shape on the site...

7 Places Around Detroit With Mob Stories

Walking casually past many of the buildings and sites in Detroit, you’d never know they hold a violent past. However, many of the city’s iconic landmarks and attractions have had their own brush with organized crime. The Mafia and its rivals, notably the Purple Gang, had their favorite haunts and places where they committed terrible crimes. Fortunately, time has largely removed the traces left behind by the criminals, and the collective memory has forgotten the sites’ negative associations. Ho...

Flint Restaurant Week Is Underway

From May 17 to May 21, Flint Restaurant Week offers visitors a chance to find a new favorite restaurant or discover the ever-growing dining scene in the city. Restaurants across the city are participating, so there’s a range of menus, price points, and locations. Even the pickiest eater will find something to love during Flint Restaurant Week. Pop into the Soggy Bottom Bar, Downtown Flint’s neighborhood bar, for classic bar food, craft beer, and fine whiskeys. If you’re more interested in ex...

The First Metro Detroit Home Expo Is This Saturday, May 21

Metro Detroit’s first annual Home Expo Presented by Rehabbed & Ready will be held on Saturday, May 21 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Joe Dumars Fieldhouse (20601 Ralston Street) at the State Fairgrounds on 8 Mile Road. The event will bring the local home improvement and decor industry under one roof to connect with homeowners, building owners, and investors working to improve their houses. However, that’s not all that’s going on at this home expo. The event will also be a place for small businesses...

See R&B Star Usher And Mini Drake Spending Their Day In Detroit

Usher is a big name, and he took to social media today to show off some of Detroit’s best – from Eastern Market murals, to the iconic Motown Museum, to the popular Nojo Kicks downtown. It’s great P.R. for the city. His photos, from his Snapchat story, are a great way to see the city – in fact, you could probably create quite an afternoon for yourself following in his footsteps. May we suggest a drink at Standby around the corner from Nojo? Or a burger at Cutter’s over by the Eastern Market mur...

22 Fewer Dispensaries In Detroit Since March, City Aims To Close 66 Soon

Detroit’s promised marijuana dispensary crackdown seems to be underway, with 22 shops closed since the first of the month. CBS Detroit is reporting that city officials want to see 66 closed in the near-term that the city says are operating in drug-free school zones. The city is filing 5-6 suits per week as almost all of Detroit’s pot shops are currently operating in violation of a recently passed ordinance that not only requires a special business license for medical marijuana dispensaries, bu...

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