There are a lot of ideas floating around about how to strengthen Detroit’s neighborhoods beyond downtown and Midtown. Now there’s a newly formed initiative committed to bringing all those ideas together and making them part of an integrated system that will move the neighborhood’s forward. Led by long-time community developer Maggie DeSantis, Building the Engine […]
As United Neighborhood Initiatives (UNI) completes renovation of a historic community building, I hear a familiar question: “Wouldn’t it have been better to tear down the old structure and build a new one?” Those wondering about the reason for UNI’s current work on the original 1923 portion of the Lawndale Center, in Detroit’s Springwells area, […]
Driving down Woodward Avenue through downtown Detroit, the signs of major projects, completed or underway, are obvious. Construction of the QLINE is finished, and the streetcars are ferrying visitors and commuters from downtown to New Center. A few cranes are wrapping up work on the outside of the new Little Caesars Arena, while crews work […]
“Wait,” I remember asking my mom as we drove under the bridge next to the Detroit Zoo, “So we’re a mixed race family?” It took me 17 years to realize that from the outside, we were a family of blended colors, cultures, identities, and histories. I am half Mexican and half white. My mother is […]
In the not too distant past, church was the place where you learned the basics of social grace. Through “Tom Thumb” weddings, fashion shows, “Little Miss & Mister” contests and memorized pageant lines, the youth learned how to walk, talk, sit and generally behave. The Golden Rule governed and it was understood that the mothers […]
How many times have you gotten excited to buy something from a local business when the story behind the Detroit-made product was priceless? There is great energy bubbling around a robust and supportive ecosystem for small manufacturers and producers here in the city. The Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA) launched an exchange here at TechTown in […]
As new local Detroit businesses open and local neighborhood staples expand, the city aims to promote more than 600 retailers and services and is part of a team creating a directory to help. Spearheaded by Grandmont Rosedale Development Corp. and Councilman James Tate, the DI$COVER D1 initiative, designed to support District 1 businesses, is the […]
As an investor in Detroit neighborhoods, I can’t help but notice the vast opportunity for residents to achieve the American Dream of homeownership and financial independence. Whether it’s a family buying their first home or an investor buying property for additional cash flow, there has not been a better time to buy in Detroit. For […]
While advocates and critics alike reacted to the House of Representatives’ passage of the American Health Care Act last week, one local organization has provided Detroit residents with healthcare services since the late 1990’s. Covenant Community Care, Inc. offers medical, dental, behavioral health and a range of other services to thousands of metro Detroiters, both […]
Nearly 10 years ago, some Detroit youth had never received a formal paycheck. That’s changing. In early July, 8,000 Detroit young people, ages 14 to their early 20s, will gain that experience when they are employed by the city through the Grow Detroit’s Young Talent program. Dierk Hall, president and CEO of City Connect Detroit, […]