Damon Tooles was a successful stock broker and commodities trader in Southfield. Then his life suddenly changed when he connected with a Detroit developer who was working on projects with the late Detroit business leader Don Barden. Suddenly Tooles found himself in the construction business. When the initial projects were complete he decided the nation’s […]
Before Mike Hirst speaks to audiences he reaches for an urn and chokes back emotions. “My son would love to tell you this story that I’m going to tell you, but he can’t because he resides here in this little urn as a pile of ashes,” Hirst says. “These will be some of the most […]
For nearly two years, Kris Wong scoured the market for the best options to buy a house. He looked at single-family homes and researched builders, but after meeting with a local cargo container builder he decided to make the deal to buy one in a week. His new house in Ferndale, slated to be finished […]
On a summer-like evening, Alcides Roman walks down his street just off Vernor Highway, noting obvious changes in daily life in his Southwest Detroit neighborhood, pointing at houses along the way. “You’ve got a Mexican family there, and they don’t come out. You’ve another family there, they’re not coming out, either,” he says. “And that […]
Three years ago, Kinyemi Sims found some free money to help her catch up on her property taxes. She was nearly $12,000 behind and was afraid she wouldn’t be able to prevent a foreclosure on her property. She found the help she needed through Step Forward Michigan, a federally-funded interest and payment-free, forgivable loan program […]
Long before smokestacks from Detroit’s factories became part of the city’s landscape, it was lush with plants and trees. The city was so fertile the French, who settled on the city’s east side and developed ribbon farms, didn’t have to do much to cultivate the land. Now many of the factories have shuttered their doors […]