News

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A group of five women are putting a Detroit spin on an international recipe for vodka.

Our/Detroit is to open at the end of the summer in Southwest Detroit as part of a global network of vodka distilleries called Our/Vodka. Our/Vodka is produced in urban microdistilleries around the world and branded with the city name – hence, Our/Detroit.

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A 66,000-square-foot Quicken Loans Technology Center will occupy the site of a 38,000-square-foot industrial building in Corktown that was demolished earlier this year.

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Detroit is getting a new street festival this summer called Crash Detroit.

According to the festival's Facebook page, "Crash Detroit invites the community to come together by providing free access to music and the arts while encouraging joyous human connection. The festival will connect bands from across the country and build upon the rich culture of music in Detroit. The festival is a celebration of place that aims to give life to underused spaces in Detroit and promote local business."

Crash Detroit is currently scheduled for The event is scheduled for Saturday, July 19 in Roosevelt Park. It is all ages and free to the public.

Follow Crash Detroit's Facebook page for updates.

Are you a computer programmer or app developer interested in giving back? We have the perfect opportunity for you to do so! Join fellow coders downtown at Grand Circus for a 24-hour hackathon and help build an app for the Detroit Public Library. A cash prize will be available for the winning app.

Automation Alley is committed to being a partner in Detroit. So when an IT challenge was discovered at the Detroit Public Library, Automation Alley built a team, including members of Grand Circus, to host "#hackDPL" in an effort to fix a technology problem and improve one of Detroit's cultural gems. Come eat pizza, network and hack away!

Participants may submit resumes to [email protected] to be shared with event sponsors. 

Requirements will be released one week prior to the event.

Agenda:
7 p.m. Registration, Networking 
8 p.m. Begin hacking
12 a.m. 5-hour energy BOOST
12:15 a.m. Continue hacking 
8 a.m. Breakfast
1:30 p.m. Lunch
6 p.m. Apps reviewed
6:30 p.m. Winner announced and awarded
7 p.m. Hackathon concluded

Cost: Members and Non-Members - $15

Seating is limited to 100 people. Registration closes July 9.

Please park in the Detroit Opera House parking structure.

When: July 11-12, 7 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Where: Automation Alley Detroit Office
1570 Woodward Ave. 4th Floor
Detroit, MI 48226
 

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In 2011, more than 19,000 homeless individuals were living in Detroit, according to the Homeless Action Network of Detroit. Of those, 40 percent were women and 85 percent were unemployed. Two women are taking advantage of the city’s own overlooked resources to help change that.

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When you see pictures of Detroit you’re usually bombarded with images of broken-down houses and abandoned buildings.

But it’s not all like that. There are good things happening and buildings are being repurposed, built, and re-used.

Here’s some examples of that thanks to Google Maps and Detroit Urbex. Detroit Urbex currently has an amazing feature up about the rise, fall, and restoration of Detroit. Check it out here.


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Utility work for the $140 million M-1 Rail project has already begun, and Rock Ventures President and CEO Matt Cullen said he expects to officially break ground for the lightrail track this summer. Once that work begins, the project will be finished in about two years, Cullen said Wednesday at a Detroit Economic Club lunch panel.

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Meet Crain's 2014 class of 20 in their 20s. They may not have made their first million, but their creativity and entrepreneurial spirit is already contributing to a new energy in Southeast Michigan.

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Grand Rapids-based retailer Meijer is breaking ground on a second Detroit location at the corner of Grand River and McNichols roads on May 15, a district representative for Mayor Mike Duggan's office has confirmed.

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One of the most unusual resources the Detroit offers artists is itself — as a canvas. Canvas Detroit, out this week on Wayne State University Press, takes a closer look at some of the more intriguing ways artists have used Detroit as their medium. Read our interview with authors Julie Pincus and Nichole Christian here.

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It’s a great time to be a bicyclist in Detroit. Local cyclists and national sources alike tout the city’s biking charms, from unused road space to a growing number of bike lanes, while organized rides — both weekly and monthly — offer multiple opportunities to tour the city with an enthusiastic crowd.

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"Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.”  — Charles Lamb 

Driving past no fewer than eight images of her likeness, advertisements on buses and billboards, we arrive at the residence of Joumana Kayrouz. Located in Bloomfield Hills, the house is opulent without being gaudy, tasteful in its hugeness. Pastel Easter decorations pepper the topiaries outside the sheet-glass entrance, multicolored eggs and hot-pink muslin flamboyant against the slate and marble palace. Ms. Kayrouz has just arrived home from meeting the president of the United States, her third or fourth meeting, she cannot quite remember. She stands in her driveway and asks the reporter to meet her at the front door as she poses for a photograph with two people, likely one of dozens she has smiled for during her day, which as usual, began before dawn. 

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As the editor here at Hemmings charged with putting together the monthly Speedobilia department in Muscle Machines magazine, I’m always on the lookout for interesting people who create automotive-themed products and works of art. While doing research for the June 2014 issue, I struck gold when I discovered Bethany Shorb, founder-owner of Cyberoptix Tie Lab, which, as I wrote for the June 2014 issue of HMM, tends to focus on automotive or technical themes. 

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Detroit’s rebirth is not just growing new businesses, new buildings and new possibilities. It is growing new leaders.

The people behind the multitude of exciting and complex efforts underway are true assets. Recently, Knight Foundation and Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan created a program to leverage that. 

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“The car industry aside, Detroit is one of the historic hotbeds of design in America,” says New York–based event producer and installation artist David Stark, in anticipation of Culture Lab Detroit (April 24–26), a program designed to inspire collaboration between leading international talent and their local counterparts. “We often don’t remember that Detroit was once one of the most affluent cities in America, but go there now—you feel how much important design history abounds.”

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