Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Forest Arms Fire Update on Detroit Today

Halley Stone, owner of the Amsterdam CafĂ©, 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.

Finally - Mayor to break silence this evening

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.

Cities Now and Tomorrow - New Freep Editorial Series

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.

NY Times names Detroit as “A place to go in 2008″

Citing our new casinos, hotels, and renovated art museum, the New York Times’ Travel Section named Detroit as a destination for travel in 2008. The Times ranked Detroit 40 in its list of 53 great places to visit next year, which means that after folks make their visits to Laos, Lisbon, Tunisia, Mauritius, Mid-Beach Miami, South Beach Miami, Maldives, Death Valley, Courchevel, Libya, Hvar, Puerto Vallarta, Sylt, Prague, Quito, Liverpool, Munich, Iran, Tuscany, Anguilla, Bogota, Playa Blanca Panama, Alexandria, Mazatlan, St. Lucia, Oslo, Buenos Aires, Rimini Italy, Malawi, Roatan, Mozambique, Kuwait City, Verbier, Lombok, Northwest Passage, Easter Island, Virgin Gorda, Namibia, and San Francisco, we can expect swarms of tourists flying into Metro for their Detroit dream vacations.

The Metro Times takes on the Environment

The MetroTimes‘ News Editor Curt Guyette has been on top of Environmental Issues in Michigan all summer long and as a result, The Metro Times is becoming the best outlet for learning about Michigan’s role and responsibilities in the Climate Crisis currently facing the planet.

Lately, nearly every issue of The Metro Times has offered an investigative report on Global Warming, energy
of them have been Michigan-based experts, giving this world problem a local treatment that hits home for us Michiganders. I’d like to commend Guyette and the staff of The Metro Times for taking on one of the most important issues of our age with verve, depth, and fairness.

I’ve supplied here links to some of the best of these reports from the Metro Times website. Together, they serve as a short primer for learning about what Michigan is and isn’t doing to make the world a better place to live.

Power in Play: The Struggle is on to Shape Michigan’s Electric Future
The Heat is On: What Global Warming Could Mean for Michigan
Glow Job
Corn Hole: Opposition to Alcohol Growing

New maps of metro Detroit

I was happy to see that Map Detroit now offers maps of additional spots in metro Detroit, including Detroit’s New Center area, Royal Oak and Birmingham.

I like Map Detroit’s interface, but what I really like most about the site and the maps are the filters, which can be used to find everything from parking to shopping to entertainment venues.

aparently there is something wacky going on in the U.P. these days, eh? there’s an official Bigfoot research crew heading up there to investigate some new clues. get ready to see some grainy, out of focus, fifteen seconds worth of “solid evidence” to surface soon after. this is going to be a short post because i’ve got to track down a gorilla suit and make hotel reservations in Manistique. look for me on YouTube!

hey, who’s the new guy?

it’s me…i’m the new guy and they call me Max. to get the ball rolling i’ll introduce myself by telling you what i’m all about so here goes something: i’m about 50% rock & 50% roll. wether the wheels i’m rolling on are attached to an SE Floval Flyer, a Dogtown longboard or a ‘31 chopped & channeled Ford Coupe it’s fine with me. i’m about driving fast and listening to Van Halen; i’m about driving slow and listening to Loretta Lynn. i’m about chicks in guys pants instead of the other way around. i’m about not feeling guilty about guilty pleasures. i’m about waffle soled Vans. i’m about getting a tattoo that you’ll still think is cool twenty years from the day you got it. i’m about an un-restored Vespa scooter. i’m about Generation X…the band, not the pop culture label. i’m about the search for Animal Chin. i’m about the sexiest girl you’ve ever seen who can’t go out with you tonight because she has to change her oil…but she tells you to stop by her place later if you want to, she’s got a sixer of High Life and she’s willing to share and most importantly i’m about not being bought & not being sold which means that greedy, corporate, fat-cat, blowhards will always have more time and money than i do but i believe that ultimately i’ll end each day not looking over my shoulder as i lay down for a good nights sleep. i understand that only one out of ten of you will get this so you other nine can either skip my posts or learn to deal with it. i’ll try not to ruffle any feathers here but don’t quote me on that, sometimes i get all worked up and let the un-checked facts, half truths, lies, slander and non-sense hit the ol’ Air King. so to quote the mighty Steve Perry, “i come to you with open arms”.

Seat belt safety zones?

A few weeks ago, I started noticing “seat belt safety zones” around the city. If you’re not familiar with them, they are areas of local roads where state troopers or local police can pull people over for not wearing their safety belts. I’ve seen three separate zones so far: one on Woodward Avenue around 7 Mile, and two different ones on East Jefferson Avenue.

Here are my two thoughts on this:

(more after the jump …)
(more…)

GM Serious about Reducing Greenhouse Gases?

Yesterday GM, Dow Chemical, and twelve other major corporations joined the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), an alliance whose goal is to pressure the US Government to enact laws to cut greenhouse gas emissions levels significantly over the next forty years. GM’s entrance into the alliance has drawn praise by some environmental groups and leery suspicion at best by others, including the Sierra Club and its President Dan Becker, who believes GM to be smokescreening their poor environmental record thus far.

I take GM’s announcement to be a good sign and hope that Ford and Chrysler follow suit soon. However, Becker’s skepticism is well-founded. It will be interesting to see how serious GM will be about taking real action toward reducing the carbon emissions of its cars and trucks and developing new vehicles that will provide better gas mileage. Hopefully this will happen sooner, not later. Please comment to let us know what you think. Are GM’s intentions really as sincere as they claim?

Terms of use | Privacy Policy | Content: Creative Commons | Site and Design © 2008 | Metroblogging ® and Metblogs ® are registered trademarks of Bode Media, Inc.