First off, thanks! The response to our editorial survey that has been running the last few days has been excellent and very useful. We intentionally kept it anonymous we could get honest and constructive feedback, and you delivered with so many responses it’s taking a little time for us to go through it all. We’re going to implement many of the suggestions that we can very quickly as we want to be responsive to our community. We’re also very touched by the very kind comments you all left. It only motivates our little band to work harder for you.
So let’s get into these 5 interesting things to read around the web about Detroit. They’re numbered this week to help you follow (some feedback we got on the survey, so we’re trying it), but the stories are in no particular order.
1. Meet ‘Super Ewan’ – the 8-Year-Old Michigan Kid Who Helps the Homeless (People)
Move over, Superman.
Super Ewan might not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but this 8-year-old from New Haven, Michigan, is still pretty amazing. Twice a month, you can find Ewan Drum and his family helping feed and clothe the homeless in Detroit.
Why does he do it?
“It makes me feel really happy,” the redheaded third-grader tells PEOPLE. “I saw a bunch of people in Detroit and I wanted to go out and help them. I felt sorry for them.” (Read More)
2. Move To Detroit? That’s the message in Brooklyn (CBS Detroit)
Why Detroit? The urban grittiness, the history, the context of hard-working men and women in a real community they built themselves over generations is what appeals.
And there are the opportunities, something he says no longer exists in New York City, where the divide between rich and poor is growing more disparate. (Read More)
3. City Council, Clerk ask for pay raises the same week that retirees see cuts from bankruptcy settlement (Detroit News)
Some things in Detroit have changed. Although things have been better in general, this is reminiscent of the ham-handed leaders of Detroit’s past.
A sense of timing is a wonderful thing, whether in politics or comedy. The timing of the pitch for a pay raise for Detroit’s elected officials is almost funny for its obliviousness.
The lobbying by City Council President Brenda Jones and city clerk Janice Winfrey came on the same week that cuts to retiree pensions kicked in as part of the bankruptcy settlement. Roughly 12,000 city of Detroit retirees saw their monthly benefit checks cut by 4.5 percent. (Read More)
4. Here are the 11 things Detroiters are sick of hearing (Huffington Post)
A lot of us who actually reside inside the borders of the D are pretty tired of hearing these. One of the better lists we’ve seen in awhile.
“There’s a lot that gets trotted out in the media, whether it’s local or national, about what any one part of Detroit is,” Skillman Senior Communications Officer Krista Jahnke told The Huffington Post. “It’s starting to just feel like some of the nuance, and some of the great differences that there are, in all the parts of Detroit, keep getting lost.” (Read More)
5. For Detroit to truly turn around, it needs more jobs, jobs and jobs (AP)
Although there’s a solid point made in this piece, we’d add that there are definitely jobs being added to the city, but they’re not the kind in general that would benefit the person in this story. Some of that is a function of which job creators have moved into the city; the other elephant in the room is that due to technology, automation, and offshoring the kind of work available is changing, and it’s the lower-end jobs that are taking a hit across the country.
There needs to be a major training component implemented, the size of which probably hasn’t been seen before in the U.S., otherwise the mismatch to skills and the job will become almost permanent.
Mayor Mike Duggan has made rebuilding the population and creating jobs and training programs one of Detroit’s priorities now that the city is out of bankruptcy. But those jobs may not materialize quickly enough for Norris and others who’ve found local prospects slim, and the lack of reliable public transit is an obstacle that’s driving even those who’ve stuck it out to consider leaving.
Waiting in 16-degree temperatures for the first of two buses to the tony Somerset Collection mall in Troy where she makes $8.25 an hour as a bistro hostess, Norris, 26, said there are no jobs in Detroit. (Read More)
