Hey friends,
Jer here. Back from a whirlwind trip in Memphis where Detroit City lost 3-1 to a strong Memphis 901 FC squad.
It was a great season, in my mind.
Excellent progress for a team in their first year in this higher level league. Me and Fletcher Sharpe will unpack it all on a sort of “season wrap-up” DCFC talk episode of the show next week.
I want to share some thoughts of downtown Memphis. There was a lot of design inspiration for me on this trip, including this speaker wall I want to stick a version of in our podcast studio. If you’ve got old speakers (they don’t have to work as this is for art), let me know.
I appreciated how downtown Memphis has kept a lot more of their historic building stock than we have.
I didn’t walk by seas of parking lots, and the size and scale gave small businesses a chance to take hold and go into those areas. Of course, there’s some vacancy, but there’s also a lot of vibrancy.
I’m sure there’s complicated issues behind it (there always are with transit), but the heritage trolley was fun and useful as a tourist. We never had to wait long and it got us everywhere we needed to be along the two mile route. There’s also a section that has no vehicle traffic and is streetcar and pedestrian only.
Riding on streetcars in the style of what used to be in Detroit was neat, and I never had to worry about a schedule because they were so frequent. We did dine very late on Sunday and walked back to the hotel.
Speaking of Sunday, a surprise was the Central Station Hotel (we didn’t stay there, but wish we had). A boutique hotel, restaurant, and podcast listening lounge are in their old train station. But the kicker is there’s still Amtrak passenger service from Chicago and to New Orleans through Memphis, even though the original waiting area has been turned into a ballroom and the lobby a bar and lounge.
Food was great. I highly recommend Charlie Vergo’s Rendezvous for some of the best dry rub BBQ I’ve had, and The Bishop for a finer dining experience.
Finding amazing BBQ in the alley behind your hotel is the kind of thing you never forget.
I’m sure there are more parallels and differences to explore, but that takes more time than the couple of trips I’ve made. I don’t want to get over my skis beyond what I directly experienced.
It was a fun trip, and I hope to see Memphis again soon — with a better result on the pitch for Le Rouge.
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Please consider supporting those who support us. Thanks again to our sponsor, your Metro Detroit Edward Jones Financial Advisors. Without their support, the trip to cover Detroit City FC would not have been possible.
What to know…
» Ford has pulled out of a major autonomous driving investment. Argo AI is folding after both the Blue Oval and the other joint owner, Volkswagen, decided to pull the plug. There’s a local office in Allen Park, and it’s an interesting move as everyone realizes that autonomous vehicles are far further away than the hype train made them out to be. Ford is switching investment priorities from fully autonomous vehicles to advanced driver assist systems and taking a $2.7 billion accounting charge and writing off $500 million in cash to do it. [TechCrunch]
In a separate report, CEO Jim Farley explained why Level 4 Autonomous vehicles won’t work at commercial scale and that the customer base is small. [Engadget]
Ed. Note: Yeah, I’m aware of Tesla. Their cars aren’t actually self-driving. [Road and Track] So I’ll turn it to you. Ford and VW say that there isn’t a big addressable market for autonomous vehicles; what say you?
» A local developer is involved in two lawsuits related to projects in the city.
- Kraemer Design Group is suing Leland Hotel and City Club developer Michael Higgins’s corporate entities for $687,502 for an alleged unpaid balance for architecture and design work. The $125 million renovation project was announced in 2018 and was expected to be done by 2020. The suit says Kraemer Design Group gave Higgins’s project a full year to obtain financing. [Free Press]
- Second up, Michael Higgins, via an affiliate, is claiming in a lawsuit that the now defunct T.H. Marsh Construction Co.’s lien on the Jefferson/Van Dyke Project is hindering his development. [Crain’s Detroit]
My two cents: I’m not saying these projects won’t happen. I hope they do make it over the line. But I am saying I’m skeptical at this point. That Jefferson/Van Dyke development includes what used to be a flower shop when I was a kid; and the Leyland has so much history with it.
» HopCat is returning to Royal Oak, going into the old Noodles & Co. space (as well as take over some others) on Main Street. They’re looking to hire 150 people. [Eater Detroit]
» $500,000 in grants are available to Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtrmack projects through NeighborHUB. We talked about the project between the Detroit Regional Chamber and General Motors on the podcast Monday. Have a listen below, and you can apply here.
» BMC Compuware is leaving its One Campus Martius office space. The Downtown Detroit office building was built by its co-founder Peter Karmanos in 2003. As the company’s presence has shrunk over the years, they were leasing only 58,000 sq. ft. of the 1.3 million in the building. It is not certain where Compuware will move to. [Crain’s Detroit]
» 29 Affordable apartments at the Belnord at John R. and Hendrie are complete, serving a variety of incomes. [Urbanize Detroit]
I used to live two doors down from this one, and I can say that rents on that block even in the time I lived there have increased. One house on the block is currently for sale for nearly half a million bucks.
» America’s first vegan coney island Chili Mustard Onions is closing. Open since 2018, it’s gotten rave reviews and was even featured by Al Roker. [Instagram]
Running a restaurant is hard, and I think some sort of pivot to products is smart as they’d be able to serve vegans and those interested across the country.
» WM announced plans for a $35 million recycling facility in the City of Detroit. This planned facility is expected to make Detroit a regional recycling hub, being able to process up to 40 tons per hour of materials from industrial, commercial, and residential customers. Michigan’s recycling rate is currently 19% and planned to increase to 30% by 2025. [Axios]
That targeted increase in recycling rate would mean we still lag the national average. [Planet Detroit] I’ll mention here that for something like 14 years there’s been a great option in Recycle Here! [Website]
» VIA Motors chooses Auburn Hills as its new headquarters and tech center. They’re currently hiring. [CBS Detroit]
Do you want to see a very awkward me from 10 years ago? Here’s a piece I did covering VIA at the auto show. Heck, the whole video is a time capsule.
» Automotive supplier Magna International is expanding in Highland Park, Shelby Township, and St. Clair. The plan is to create 1,569 jobs and plans to invest $530 million into new and existing plants that build electric vehicle parts. State and local incentives total near $50 million, and were approved by Michigan Economic Develop Corp. this week. [Crain’s Detroit]
» Should the Grosse Pointes be forced to merge? Jason Carr over at WDIV thinks so. Producer Shianne takes issue on our latest podcast.
» A long-time urban farm in North Corktown may finally get the chance to buy some vacant parcels of land. This is big as historically the city of Detroit has resisted selling land to farmers, or wanted to it with big strings attached. [Bridge Detroit]
» The vacant Cooley High School in the city of Detroit is expected to be sold to the nonprofit Life Remodeled. Alumni include notable Detroiters like Mike Ilitch and Jimmy Hoffa. [Chalkbeat Detroit]
» Not sure about one, two or the three Michigan ballot proposals and what they do? The Citizens Research Council of Michigan provides a lot of useful non-partisan information to help sort it out. Their president, Eric Lupher, joined me on the podcast.
» Do you love live soul and Motown music? Detroit A Go Go is this weekend, so go watch some legends. [Website]
This and more than 1,000 episodes of the podcast take a lot of work. They simply can’t happen without financial support and honestly we’d like to expand what we do.
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That’s it for today. Thanks to my podcast production team for their help with this, especially Luciano Marcon - and of course, you for reading.
Remember that you are somebody and I’ll see you around Detroit.
-Jer
