I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard about what happened at Funk Night at the CAID last Friday, May 30. Apparently, at 2:20am, a SWAT team charged into the monthly dance party and terrorized everyone there, conducted full body searches, verbally and physically abused the patrons, and impounded every single car, issuing exorbitant and seemingly illegal impound fees ($900).

My sympathies go out to every person innocently involved in this ruckus and I sincerely hope that reporters at the Free Press and the Detroit News get to the bottom of this to let us all know what happened, why a SWAT team was issued a warrant to search the CAID, and what legal actions can be taken for wrong-doing by the city of Detroit. This is not a cut-and-dried case–the CAID may very well be culpable for illegal activities. However, this abuse of power and terrorization of non-violent patrons is both ridiculous and outrageous.

For more info and commentary, visit Webvomit and Fivethreedialtone.

Designed to help small business owners and their employees succeed, Comerica Bank’s ‘Managing Your Business’ seminar series is once again on the horizon.

Details of the workshops, which cost $50 for Comerica customers and $75 for non-Comerica customers, are as follows: (more…)

Now that most of the copper has been scraped clean from the numerous abandoned buildings in Detroit, it seems that thieves have moved on to our parked cars.

I’ve spoken to several people who have had the catalytic converters stolen from under their parked cars overnight or in the early morning. My neighbor in the relatively quiet Woodbridge neighborhood had his catalytic converter stolen in the early morning. A turn of the key in the ignition resulted in a loud engine roar that could very well have awakened the rest of the block. Another neighbor reported that she saw a guy in a Crown Victoria get out of his car, get under my neighbor’s car for about 1 minute, and take off with a large metal object seconds later.

That’s all it took: a total of about two minutes to stop, saw, and go. (more…)

This week’s Metro Times cover story by Curt Guyette, “The Big Burn: America’s largest garbage incinerator and the movement to shut it down,” is both a must read and a call-to-arms for all Detroiters, both metro and suburban.

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.

I’m just going to link you to the Free Press’s Home page, since this will be changing throughout the day.

This is how you know it’s really bad: I was listening to the press conference on the radio and after one question when Kim Worthy gave a very hard-line answer, I heard in the background one reporter whistle in that way that denotes “Yikes!” or “Yowza!”

Am I the only one who was really hoping that Worthy would come in and tell us that there won’t be any charges as long as Kwame promises to start being the best mayor ever, and then he goes out actually becomes the best mayor ever? That’s what I was hoping. Guess I was wrong.

I had my book club on Tuesday evening during the mayor’s State of the City address, so I didn’t hear it as it was happening, but I hard plenty about it on the local news when I arrived home that evening. The mayor said a lot during the speech, but the biggest hoopla to come out of the night were his remarks that the media is acting like a lynch mob against him and his blatant use of the N-word. (more…)

Last year I read Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class, an impressive study about how cities and economies grow when they offer rewarding cultural experiences and an open, free, and safe society for a new, creative class who work not for money, but for the meaning they derive from work (Imagine That!). Basically, the companies that will thrive are the information companies where people use their brains, a no-collar workplace where everyone’s friendly and working toward common goals. Google is a good example of the kind of company that springs up in these cities and then becomes monolithically successful.

This whole thing sounds pretty foreign for us in Detroit, but these cities do exist and are thriving. Cities like Raleigh, NC; Portland, OR; Washington, DC; and Minneapolis, MN–to name a few–offer safety, public transportation, culture, and a liberal attitude toward sex, race, and sexuality.

This October, The second Creative Cities Summit will take place in Detroit, a good sign for our city. Some of the most interesting thinkers on Urban re-growth will be in Detroit from October 13-15.

Perhaps these smart and optimistic people can come to Detroit, take a look around, and give us some advice about how to do some much-needed housecleaning and building.

Sure to be on the agenda is public transportation, and there was a spirited (for lack of a better word) convo on the topic yesterday at Webvomit.

Halley Stone, owner of the Amsterdam Café, and Brad Hales, owner of People’s Records, will be guests on Detroit Today this morning, probably anytime between 10:00-11:00am. If you miss it, WDET usually posts an mp3 of the show later in the day and makes it available for a month or so.

As a Detroit resident, I have been waiting since last Wednesday for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to come out of hiding and break his silence about the Free Press text message investigation.

Finally, a week after the story broke, the mayor will finally address the public. It happens this evening at 7:30. The mayor’s address will be televised on local stations and on WWJ, WJR and WDET.

The mayor will be speaking from his church at 7 Mile and Schaeffer. The public will not be allowed in the church while the mayor gives his speech and he will not give any interviews to media. Top aides assure Kilpatrick will not be resign.

The Detroit Free Press began a new editorial series today called “Cities Now and Tomorrow” that will focus on the state of cities today and their future. The series will run regularly through November.

This should be an interesting series for anyone concerned about the future of our city. There are historical, political, economic, and sociological reasons why some cities are better off than Detroit, and why some cities (if you can imagine it) are worse off. It will be interesting to see what insights the writers of this series may discover through their investigations.

The first installment is a comparison between Highland Park, MI, and Highland Park, Ill. Check it out.