My dad worked for Ford for 34 years, and like many of our parents (and many of us!) we rely on the auto industry for our well-being and livelihood, whether working directly for one of The Big Three, an engineering firm that supports The Big Three (or Toyota or Honda), or one of the many area advertising agencies that promotes the auto industry.

The Big Three have certainly made lots of mistakes and miscalculations, and their past leadership is very much to blame for the sorry state the industry finds itself in today. And certainly, the industry deserved the harsh criticism of the independent filmmakers who produced Who Killed the Electric Car? and Roger and Me, films that justifiably showed how greedy power players and corporate executives have continued to influence the auto industry away from innovation and working 21st-century business models and into the same old ways of doing things.

But while Who Killed the Electric Car? and Roger and Me were important protests against bad auto-industry practices and the executive greed that spawned these practices, there’s a new Hollywood movie coming to theaters that threatens to tarnish the name of our American auto makers without any seeming purpose but to sell tickets at the box office.

In “Flash of Genius,” Greg Kinnear stars as Wayne State professor Robert Kearns, who, in the 1970s, invents the intermittent windshield wiper, a much sought-after technological advance for the auto industry at the time. Instead of giving the man credit, the auto industry (Ford, in particular, is named as the main culprit) steals the invention and denies the good professor–who’s been working hard just to keep his family fed–any monetary reward or credit for the invention. Kearns enters into an intense and long legal battle against Ford, which he wins after years of fighting in the courts. “Flash of Genius” is one of those feel-good movies about how the little guy, with lots of grit, determination, and an unquenchable thirst for justice, is able to win out against the powers that be.

Inspiring stuff. Unless, of course, you live in Michigan, and you can feel in your gut how much this movie will villanize our auto industry in the mind of the American consumer.

Ford is an easy target here–a sitting, and very wounded corporate duck–and I can’t think that this movie will do anything but make people less likely to buy American cars. The movie won’t make Ford any better. It won’t force protests that will make Ford correct bad practices or create greener vehicles–the market is already making that happen. No, the movie will just turn people even more against Ford, solidifying the automaker as a corporate Mr. Potter in consumers’ minds, working only toward keeping all of the George Baileys of this world down and out.

Granted, “Flash of Genius” is based on a true story, and a story that deserves telling. And I’m not trying to stick up for Ford’s past actions. I just question the timing and the intent of this film. Things are already bad enough around here due to the mismanagement of the auto industry over the years. But when the industry (and Michigan) is at its lowest, does it really make sense to kick us when we’re already down? Even though the story is about the industry exploiting one of our own, it’s the kind of PR nightmare that the transitioning American auto companies don’t need.

And let’s not kid ourselves that any other industry could possibly replace the automobile industry if it were to go down. Governor Granholm’s plans to make Michigan a manufacturing hub for green technologies are certainly on the right track for our future economic prosperity, but they could never fill in the hole that a completely broken auto industry would leave.

So grab onto the “Oh Shit! Handles” everybody, because “Flash of Genius” is going to make this recovery an even bumpier ride for the auto industry, and the city and state that rely on it.

More background from The Free Press, and here’s the trailer:

Check out Buildings of Detroit’s Youtube page to see video of the demolition and find images here, and then browse the site itself to check out their great information on the many architectural jewels of Detroit. The site offers great photos and histories of our shared architectural wonders and ruins.

It is both absolutely ridiculous and sadly typical that Detroit has the country’s largest incinerator, and even more ridiculous and typical that the city officials who have the power to move the city in a new, more environmentally sustainable direction are leaning toward keeping this monstrosity (I’m looking right at you, Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams!). Detroit needs a challenge, and reducing our waste by making recycling the law (that’s right, the law) in Detroit is a great start. With a vigorous recycling program and more education regarding environmental and health issues, the choice won’t need to be between an incinerator and landfills. The answer will be a better life for Detroit and the surrounding area–environmentally and economically.

We could utilize the sage advice and experience from the good folks at Recy-clean in this challenge. In fact, you can start by going to see them regularly at 1331 Holden with these items at the following times:

Wednesday 10am-2am
Saturday 9am-3pm

Oh, and that $600-$1200 you’ll be getting from old mother Bush this May, it wouldn’t hurt to make a donation to this and other great Detroit non-profit organizations who do a bunch of great things for you for free.

This coming Sunday, December 16, is the annual Boston Edison Holiday Home Tour. Here’s your chance to take a peek inside some fantastic homes in the neighborhood that once housed all of the freeways in Detroit. Or, at least the people that they were named after. James Couzens, Charles Fisher, and of course Henry Ford once called this neighborhood home. The architecture of these homes is just breathtaking, and, as my gramma would say “they just don’t make ‘em like that anymore”. Tickets are $20 and include transportation around the houses on display and refreshments at the end of the tour. Head to the neighborhood’s website, Boston Edison, for more details.

Palmer Woods, home of the famous Bishop’s Residence isn’t holding it’s annual home tour this year, but is instead hosting a monthly concert series beginning in December.

You can find more information and history on various media sites, but basically the police raided an after-hours bar, where 80 black patrons were, and soon after police took them out, people on the streets began breaking into storefronts, vandalizing, and looting. Within 48 hours national guard moved in, and restored order eventually.

The riots have had a lasting effect in the minds of Detroiters and the suburbanites outside of the city.

The mayor was spoke at the ceremony held at Virginia Park this afternoon in the city.

There are loads of other cool features, such as the ability to see aerial images of the CBD from as far back as 1949, but rather than regurgitate the post I just wrote about Detroit1976.com, check it out here.

Yesterday was Motown and Detroit music. Today, we give the world our final gift this year: the automobile.

Detroit isn’t called the Motor City for nothing. True, other cities (and countries – notably Europe) had autos before Detroit. But it was Detroit that took the automobile to a whole new level, bringing it to the masses, and changing life for Americans and the rest of the world.

Despite the Big 3’s current uphill battle to hang onto market share in the U.S., Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler are forces to be reckoned with, both domestically and abroad, and Detroit remains the auto capital of the world. Detroit’s domestic automakers are also major contributers to the local, regional, national and global economy: GM is number 3 on the 2006 Fortune 500 list, and Ford is number 5. Auto-related companies Delphi, Lear, Visteon, and Masco are in the top 200, as well. GM is the world’s largest automaker and has been the global industry sales leader for 75 years, and the Big 3’s contributions to the city of Detroit and the area of Southeastern Michigan in everything from funding arts and culture activities to proactive environmental land use is enormous.

The auto industry is more than just cars, though. From the introduction of windshield wipers to the first mile of paved concrete, Detroit and its auto industry have made the world a better place and shaped today’s society. Here’s a brief historic timeline highlighting important dates and happenings in Detroit’s auto industry from the late 1890s through 1971:

1896: Ransom E. Olds becomes first auto-manufacturer in Detroit.
1900: Olds opens the world’s first auto-plant on Jefferson and Concord (destroyed by fire in 1901).
1900: Columbia car introduced in Detroit. It features a left-side steering wheel and an engine in the front of the car, as opposed to under the driver’s seat.
1903: There are 11,000 cars, 1 million bicycles, and 17 million horses in the U.S.
1904: 2,735 Michigan workers produce 9,125 cars.
1908: Ford begins making Model T.
1908: General Motors organized.
1909: First mile of paved concrete in the world on Woodward Avenue between 6 and 7 Mile in Detroit.
1910: GM is first American auto company to offer closed bodies.
1910: There are 202 different makes of cars in the world. (Today, only four of these 202 survive: Buick, Ford, Cadillac and Oldsmobile).
1910: The phrase “traffic jam” coined in Detroit.
1911: Detroit creates the world’s first “center line”.
1914: 67,538 Michigan workers make 442,982 cars and trucks (78% of American’s total vehicle production).
1914: Henry Ford stuns the nation by offering a $5 a day wage. Before this, average per hour wages were 30 cents. The day following the announcement, 10,000 applicants show up at Highland Park Plant.
1918: First three-light traffic signal in the world put up at Michigan and Monroe in Detroit.
1920: First intersection with traffic signals in all directions in the world put up at Woodward and Fort in Detroit.
1924: Chrysler introduces world’s first V-6.
1927: 15 millionth Model T rolls off the line.
1929: Hudson Motor Car Co. in Detroit introduces first mobile home.
1930: Detroit’s population hits 1.6 million, six times what it was in 1900.
1933: “New Center News” newspaper created. Today it is known as “Detroit Auto Scene“; it is the oldest free newspaper in the nation.
1934: GM conducts first-ever vehicle rollover test.
1936: Fisher Body in Detroit introduces windshield wipers.
1937: GM recognizes UAW after first sit-down strikes in Flint, Michigan.
1954: Allison Division introduces auto-transmission for trucks and buses.
1962: GM introduces the first fuel cell car in the world, the Electrovan. Astronauts on Apollo 11 use fuel-cell technology on their – and America’s – first trip to the moon.
1971: GM designs LunarRiver, making Apollo 15 astronauts the first Americans to “drive” on the moon.

First up, a little-known fact about the Detroit Tigers‘ Olde English D.

I’ve always known the Olde English D is the coolest emblem in baseball, but I didn’t know that it is also the oldest.

USA Today’s Mike Dodd wrote an article about this fact last week and that story ran in Saturday’s online edition of the Freep; here’s an excerpt:

Marc Okkonen, baseball historian and author of “Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century,” says the Tigers first placed the distinctive letter on their uniforms in 1904, one year before any interlocking NY appeared on a Yankees shirt.

“It actually goes back to the Western League in the 1890s,” Okkonen says. “The D was a little different and actually was worn on the right breast of the shirt instead of the left.”

So there you have it. Another Detroit trivia tidbit so you can be the envy of all your friends.