News

Excerpt: 

Black History Month may be ending, but black history continues to be made every day. The people who will write the next chapter just keep on striving. And Detroit, in particular, often feels held together by the passionate individuals who wake up every day determined to make it a better place to live.

Read more. 

Excerpt: 

Less than six months ago, I joined Knight Foundation as the Detroit program director after nearly 10 years here serving other nonprofit, public and philanthropic sector organizations. Detroit is one of the original cities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers, so the opportunity to serve a national foundation with deep local roots, an entrepreneurial spirit and a commitment to innovation was a great calling at this point in my career.

Read more. 

Excerpt: 

At a party in the fall of 2012, Casey Gerald, Michael Baker, Amaris Singer and Hicham Mhammedi Alaoui — all first-year students at Harvard Business School — were talking about potential summer jobs. “We thought, ‘What if we ditch the cubicle and spend the next summer on the road learning from and working with entrepreneurs?’ ” Mr. Gerald said.

Read more. 

Excerpt: 

The 2013 version of Detroit may be bankrupt and beginning to rebuild, but the city is drawing from its tremendous wealth of history as it looks ahead. From music and industry to sports and invention, Detroit has led the way since being founded by explorer Antoine Laumet de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac in 1701. The city's geographic location on the Detroit River helped the settlement grow into a thriving fur-trapping and trade hub.

Read more. 

Excerpt: 

On April 26th, 2014 hundreds of filmmakers, non-profit organizations, and inspired citizens will document stories and investigate 10 questions for the future of Detroit as part of a city-wide, participatory media-creation event. The resulting media will be showcased in an interactive geo-tagged archive and a TV series on the future of the American city. In addition, local media partners will showcase the most powerful and inspiring videos created during the one-day filmmaking event.

Read more. 

Excerpt: 

Next City has been hosting its annual Vanguard conference for five years and never before have we seen such a quantity of terrific candidates. (You can read more about the 300 applications we received here.) Indeed, the growing demand for participation in Vanguard suggests that we need to find ways to expand future conferences beyond 40 attendees. As we begin thinking about the 2015 event, you can anticipate that we will broaden the participant pool.

Read more. 

Excerpt:

IN SOME respects, Tom Kartsotis doesn’t take business too seriously. His company, Bedrock Manufacturing, is named for the Flintstone’s home town. Shinola, the most intriguing firm in Bedrock’s portfolio, bought its name from a long-dead brand of shoe polish best known for the insult “You can’t tell shit from Shinola”. Perfect, Mr Kartsotis believes, for a company that aims to become America’s largest manufacturer of high-quality watches—watches it is making in Detroit’s art-deco Argonaut Building, once home to General Motors’ research labs (pictured). “Someday”, claims one tongue-in-cheek Shinola advertisement, “they’ll call Geneva the Detroit of Switzerland”.

Read more. 

Excerpt: 

“Detroit’s full of characters,” says photographer Bruce Weber, who, eight years ago, corralled a sampling of the city’s talented eccentrics for a major photo portfolio for W magazine titled, "Welcome to Motor City." Now he’s shot and filmed an entirely new batch of wonderfully singular personalities from the city for Shinola, the growing watch and leather goods company aiming to revitalize manufacturing in Detroit. “People there have a good sense of humor,” Weber continues. “They were like, ‘What are you doing with all those pictures?’ and ‘Hey, you should be photographing all the cars here, not me.’ ” Not one to miss anything, Weber did get a few made-in-America automobiles on film (as well as Shinola’s bicycles, produced in the former research lab for General Motors). But still, it’s hard to take your eyes off of subjects like ten-year-old rapper Asia Newson or local legend chanteuse Ms. Cubie.

Read more. 

Excerpt: 

After six weeks in office, one thing is clear: Mike Duggan is unlike any mayor Detroit residents have seen in more than a decade.

Duggan has departed from the style-over-substance approach of ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick or the laid-back demeanor of Dave Bing and interim leader Kenneth Cockrel Jr.

Read more. 

Excerpt:

What discussions and conversations should we be having around Michigan that we are veering away from?

What's the price we're paying for not opening up and talking about hot-button issues like racism, poverty, food justice, LGBT rights, and so much more?

Read more. 

Excerpt:

Pre-order a *signed* copy of The Detroit Anthology, edited by Anna Clark, to be published by Rust Belt Chic Press in May, 2014, with contributions by Terry Blackhaw, adrieene mare brown, John Carlisle, Aaron Foley, dream hampton, Steve Hughes, Tyehimba Jess, Jamaal May, Ken Milolowski, Shaun S. Nethercott, Matthew Olzmann and others.

Read more. 

Excerpt:

Memo to Gov. Rick Snyder, Bill Ford, Gerry Anderson, Doug Rothwell and all who have been diligently working to bolster Detroit’s image amid its bankruptcy.

It appears to be working, according to Bill Richardson.

Read more. 

Excerpt:

Preservation Detroit, the city’s largest historic preservation organization, welcomes new Executive Director Claire Nowak-Boyd. She reported to her first day of work on Thursday, Feb. 13.

As executive director of Preservation Detroit, Nowak-Boyd will build the organization’s administrative capacity, strengthen its partnerships in the community, and develop philanthropic support.

Read more. 

Excerpt: 

The city’s proposal to spend more than half-a-billion dollars on blight removal creates a Marshall Plan-style vision that would change the face of Detroit and the fortunes of its residents in just a few years.

Ambitious? Undoubtedly. But without question it would reframe Detroit’s image in the eyes of fans and critics alike.

Read more. 

Excerpt:

As Detroit confronts some of the most intractable challenges of any city in America, with an array of civic leaders and urban planners offering solutions and ideas, it may be helpful to consider Harvey Bender.

Read more.