Videos

Learn more about the transformational work being done by the Detroit Lions in partnership with Hatch Detroit on the Avenue of Fashion. Video by DETROIT LIVES! for Model D TV. read on…

Shinola in Midtown isn't just a watch company. They are working to bring manufacturing back to America, from bikes and watches right down to the shopping bags you carry your products home in. Their efforts are the very essence of innovation. Video by DETROIT LIVES!read on…

Each semester, Practice·Space takes on a pre-existing project that is rooted in Detroit for their incubator program. They are pleased to announce that their first project is renovating a store/house in the North End. read on…

Tech Town is reaching out beyond its purview in Midtown to assist aspiring entrepreneurs in other Detroit neighborhoods through the SWOT City program. Video by DETROIT LIVES!read on…

Signal-Return is an old-fashioned letterpress studio, workshop and retail space located in the heart of Eastern Market with a focus on design, entrepreneurship, community, and education. Video by The Paddle.read on…

Khalil Ligon is the project manager of the Lower Eastside Action Plan (LEAP), a grassroots community organization that seeks to address land use issues and development planning on Detroit's lower-east side. Video by DETROIT LIVES!read on…

Urban Innovation Exchange (UIX) and Model D Media photographer Marvin Shaouni put together this fantastic video collection of his portraits highlighting the urban innovators we have profiled in UIX over the last year. read on…

Erik Howard is the co-founder of Young Nation, a non-profit organization that promotes holistic development of youth in urban settings through building relationships, community education, and passion-driven projects. See him and several other UIX innovators on Friday, April 12 starting at 5:30 p.m. at MoCAD as UIX celebrates our one-year anniversary with a special UIX+ArtXDetroit discussion on placemaking. Video by DETROIT LIVES! for Detroit Creative Corridor Center. read on…

Chazz Miller is founder and director of Public Art Workz (P.A.W.S.), an organization in northwest Detroit creating innovative public art projects that inspire and encourage community participation, and the artistic visionary who joined John George and Alicia Marion to create Artist Village, the micro-neighborhood that is headquarters to Motor City Blight Busters. Video by DETROIT LIVES! for Detroit Creative Corridor Center. read on…

Kimo Frederiksen owns True Body Fitness in Corktown, an intimate fitness center that offers one-on-one personal training in a private atmosphere as well as group classes. He has also partnered with the Ruth Ellis Center in Highland Park to mentor one of their youths. In everything he does, Frederiksen is helping to change lives one little bit at a time. Video by DETROIT LIVES!read on…

Kiva Detroit co-founder Rishi Jaitly talks about his work with Kiva Detroit and the Knight Foundation at the Revitalization & Business Initiative's Detroit Shift conference, held at the University of Michigan's School of Business is association with Model D's IdeaLab. Video by RB Conference.read on…

Andy Didorosi is a "social entrepreneur" (not a self-proscribed title, but one he graciously accepts). As the founder of the Paper Street small business incubator in Ferndale and the Detroit Bus Company, a tech-savvy biofuel-powered "transit revolution," Didorosi sees the changes happening in Detroit from multiple perspectives -- slow, humble, and ultimately surprising. Video by DETROIT LIVES!read on…

Dave Mancini, owner of Supino Pizzeria (one of Detroit's most popular and most nationally-recognized eateries), remembers the days when he was first starting out in his little Eastern Market pizza parlor when Jerry Belanger, owner of the Park Bar, would come in and order a dozen pizzas ... just to give them away in his bar. By doing this, Belanger helped Mancini build his loyal customer base, and he has never forgotten that. "Competition is not a problem right now," he says, and he makes those same efforts to help others just getting their start. Video by DETROIT LIVES!read on…

Peggy and Tom Brennan might not know what the long-lasting implications of Green Garage will be for future generations, but they're excited at the prospects. Midtown's Green Garage is a green business incubator, office and workshop space, and community hub for people dedicated to a more sustainable way of living. They consider themselves the grandparents of a movement that they hope will reverberate for generations to come. Video by DETROIT LIVES!read on…

John George, founder of Motor City Blight Busters, says enough with all the talking: "Get off your ass and do something." Which is exactly how Blight Busters came to be. Tired of a house in his neighborhood being used as a crack house, he took it upon himself to board it up. Since then the nonprofit has boarded up, secured, demolished, rebuilt, repainted or otherwise positively impacted some 1,500 houses in the city with 120,000 volunteers logging almost 700,000 hours. You want change? Do it yourself. Video by DETROIT LIVES!read on…