On a bonus interview episode of Daily Detroit, our guest is Dennis Archer, Jr. He's the owner of Ignition Media, proprietor of the successful Central Kitchen and Bar, and chair of the upcoming Detroit Policy Conference. We talk on a variety of topics around Detroit's comeback and a vision for 2030 for the city and region. The Daily Detroit team will be at the Detroit Policy Conference on Thursday, February 28, 2019. If you're going, make sure to say hello at our podcast table. If you're interest...
Feb 22, 2019•12 min•Ep. 215
On today’s show, Chase Bank makes a $15 million commitment to neighborhood redevelopment efforts in Detroit. The money — $10 million in long-term, low-cost loans, and $5 million in philanthropy — will go through the city’s Strategic Neighborhood Fund. Elsewhere, Sven speaks with Wayne State University constitutional law professor Robert Sedler about the lawsuit Michigan and 15 other states filed this week against President Trump. The states argue the president’s national emergency declaration ov...
Feb 22, 2019•17 min•Ep. 214
Detroit’s Q*Bert-esque convention center has been named after former Mayor Albert Cobo since it opened in 1960. That’s set to change, with today’s announcement that the authority that runs Cobo awarded naming rights to Chemical Bank for $1.5 million per year for 22 years. Mayor Mike Duggan has said for years that he thinks the convention center should be renamed, and on today’s show, we fill in the why. Jer speaks with local historian and writer Ken Coleman about Cobo’s complicated and divisive ...
Feb 20, 2019•21 min•Ep. 213
On today’s show, Jer tags along with the Salvation Army’s Bed and Bread truck, which delivers 3,800 meals each day to hungry Detroiters. He also speaks with former Detroit radio legend, Dick Purtan, about the upcoming Bed and Bread Club Radiothon, which runs Thursday through Friday on WJR-AM 760. Here’s what else is happening around town: A federal corruption probe could be expanding to Taylor, as FBI agents raided the City Hall and homes of Mayor Rick Sollars. There’s also a tip line set up at ...
Feb 19, 2019•12 min•Ep. 212
On today’s show, we break down the top 10 restaurants in Southeast Michigan as determined by users of Open Table for February . Of note: None of them are in the city proper, while one’s in Flint and another is in Ann Arbor. Elsewhere, we catch up on the news that Amazon has agreed to invest $700 million in startup electric vehicle company Rivian. We talked about the possibility this would happen on an episode last week, and Jer has some more thoughts about what Amazon’s equity stake could mean. ...
Feb 18, 2019•17 min•Ep. 211
The city of Detroit has announced plans to sell Lee Plaza, the hulking and abandoned former apartment tower on West Grand Boulevard near Linden, to a pair of developers for a cool $350,000. The Roxbury Group and Ethos Development Partners plan to convert it to 180 apartments and retail as part of a $50 million redevelopment. It’s good news for an ailing but iconic building in a part of town that could use some love. Also on today’s show, we run down the first partisan fight of Gov. Gretchen Whit...
Feb 14, 2019•20 min•Ep. 210
On today’s pod, we cover a bunch of transportation-related news. First up: Rivian, the electric vehicle startup we’ve covered in a Detroit Public Television segment and on this pod , may get a big investment from Amazon and General Motors. We discuss how that could be a huge boost for the company as it eyes the launch of its first vehicle in fall 2020. But what does it say about GM and Amazon? Next, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan was in Lansing today to talk auto insurance reform. As a reminder, Mich...
Feb 13, 2019•18 min•Ep. 209
Today on the podcast, an eight-and-a-half-mile section of I-75 that has been falling into third-world disrepair lately is set to see reconstruction soon. The Michigan Department of Transportation has announced details of the reconstruction project, which will zero in on the stretch between 13 Mile and Coolidge, including 18 bridges. There’s no word on when exactly work will start, but it will likely have to wait ’til the current icepocalypse is done. Also on today’s show, both the Freep and News...
Feb 13, 2019•10 min•Ep. 208
On today’s show, we cover the funeral arrangements for former U.S. Rep. John Dingell, who died Friday at age 92. Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat, was the longest-serving member of the U.S. House, having served for 59 years when he stepped down at the end of 2014. And he left a huge impression on generations of Detroiters. Elsewhere, we delve into sportsball. Forbes says the Detroit Pistons fall one ranking to No. 26 for most valuable NBA teams (out of 30), despite increasing 15 percent to $1.27 bil...
Feb 11, 2019•21 min•Ep. 207
Paul Riser has played trombone, wrote songs and arranged music with some of the biggest names in popular music. As a member of the fabled “Funk Brothers,” the mostly anonymous house band for Motown Records during its heyday, he worked with the likes of Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, The Supremes and Smokey Robinson. Riser will appear at the Detroit Institute of Music Education on Friday, Feb. 8 from 1-3 p.m., 1265 Griswold, for a “ Paul Riser Masterclass ” on lessons learned from his incredible 50-...
Feb 07, 2019•22 min•Ep. 206
Paul Ajegba, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s nominee to head the Michigan Department of Transportation, faced a grilling in a state Senate committee on Tuesday. And he let slip a rather interesting tidbit, saying that MDOT likely needs another $1.5 billion in funding just to fix state roads. And that doesn’t account for the needs of counties, cities and villages. On today’s show, we break down the particulars, including why that $1.2 billion roads package lawmakers passed back in 2015 won’t cut it. We a...
Feb 06, 2019•12 min•Ep. 205
Busy show for you podcast listeners today. Ford is laying off 1,000 employees at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant, but offering them positions in other Ford plants, with about half expected to take jobs at the Livonia Transmission plant. Meanwhile, GM is adding 1,000 jobs at Flint Assembly to make heavy-duty Chevy and GMC trucks. Those jobs will be offered first to workers affected by the looming closure of four plants in the U.S., including two here in the Detroit area. Elsewhere, Ferndale is doubl...
Feb 05, 2019•13 min•Ep. 204
It was an especially bad start to the week for many salaried employees at General Motors, as the automaker started handing out pink slip in a bid to eliminate 4,000 white-collar employees over the next two weeks. It’s part of plans GM announced in November and discussed on our podcast to slash 14,000 jobs and save $6 billion by 2020. In other news, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer shakes up state government, restructuring and renaming the Department of Environmental Quality as the Department of Environment...
Feb 04, 2019•17 min•Ep. 203
Well, it’s cold out. Anyone noticed? If you’re like us, you no doubt noticed the emergency push alert sent to your mobile device Wednesday night, asking you to dial back your thermostats as the temperatures outside were heading to record subzero lows. On today’s show, we talk about what happened to precipitate that push alert — a fire at a Consumers Energy natural gas storage and compression plant in Macomb County, its largest — and how it illustrates how vulnerable our infrastructure is to clim...
Feb 01, 2019•19 min•Ep. 202
You may have seen that Daily Detroit recently made its Detroit Public Television debut with a profile of Rivian , the electric vehicle maker that caught the automotive world by surprise last fall when it unveiled its high-powered, battery-electric pickup truck and SUV. For today’s episode, we’re following up on our promise to give you more from our visit to Rivian’s Plymouth Township headquarters. We have more from my interview with the company’s founder and CEO, R.J. Scaringe, including how the...
Jan 31, 2019•16 min•Ep. 201
A new polar vortex is bearing down on Michigan and the upper Midwest, forcing widespread school closures, forcing Wayne State University and Michigan State University to cancel classes and the Detroit Zoo to close. On today’s episode, we run down some of the knock-on effects of the dangerously cold weather, which is expected to produce subzero temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills. Jer speaks with Gary Brown, director of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, about the risks to the c...
Jan 29, 2019•13 min•Ep. 200
Greetings, fellow snow-bound Detroiters. We didn’t let the weather interfere with our podcast plans today and delivered this show from the Royal Oak studio of Podcast Detroit . On today’s show, newly Detroit-based Chemical Bank is merging with Minnesota-based TCF Bank in an all-stock merger of equals. The deal will see TCF vacate its suburban Minneapolis headquarters and join Chemical in being based in downtown Detroit, where employee head count will eventually reach 500. The Chemical name will ...
Jan 28, 2019•11 min•Ep. 199
A bonus pod this Friday, January 25, 2018. Despite its new owner’s promises to build a brewery, office space, a hotel and more, Detroit’s infamous Packard Plant is once again subject to foreclosure by Wayne County in 2019 , according to notices published in the Detroit Legal News last month. That’s due, at least in part, to unpaid bills to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. But the amount shows up as tax liability. Although we haven’t been able to confirm the total owed for the water and...
Jan 25, 2019•14 min•Ep. 198
On Wednesday, the Packard Plant’s bridge collapsed onto East Grand Boulevard. On today’s show, we talk about that and what we know about why it happened. And we use it as a jumping-off point to discuss the plant’s colorful past and ambitious — some might say quixotic — future plans. In its heyday, the Packard Plant was the largest automotive factory in the world, built for an automobile company known for its engineering and innovations like the 12-cylinder engine and the modern steering wheel. W...
Jan 25, 2019•23 min•Ep. 197
Greetings from Detroit, which today looks like a snowglobe-turned-dismal outdoor slushie amid a brief thaw. On today’s show, we discuss a new report from the Michigan State University College of Education that finds tht funding for Michigan’s public schools has dropped more severely than in any other state over the past quarter-century. We’re now dead last among states for total education revenue growth. The report deliberately looks at the effects of Proposal A, the 1994 state law that drastica...
Jan 23, 2019•13 min•Ep. 196
On today’s episode, we speak with Diane Cross, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Transportation, about the still-unfolding transportation apocalypse on northbound I-75 in Oakland County. There, potholes have proliferated since Monday, damaging cars, forcing the closure of the freeway and creating massive traffic snarls. Cross says it’s a textbook example of Michigan’s chronic under-investment in its road infrastructure, and emergency road repairs are likely to continue until a planned...
Jan 23, 2019•16 min•Ep. 195
We thought when we went into the office today, it'd be a short day. We were wrong. Here's what to know around town: I-75 is crumbling. Both the Northbound and Southbound lanes have major emergency repairs underway. A highly dispiriting for Martin Luther King Jr. Day - The Detroit News reports that a former political aide to Warren Mayor Jim Fouts says the mayor called former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick the N-word on election night in 2007. More: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/ma...
Jan 22, 2019•17 min•Ep. 194
Questions? Comments? Email us at dailydetroit@gmail.com Former Governor John Engler is indeed out as interim president of Michigan State University. Replacing him will be Satish Udpa. The United Auto Workers says it plans to stage a candlelight vigil outside the North American International Auto Show tomorrow night during the Charity Preview event. A giant golden ring has been installed in Sterling Heights on Hall Road near Schoenherr as part of a beautification project. Detroit’s oldest drinkin...
Jan 17, 2019•8 min•Ep. 193
First, huge news from East Lansing, where former Gov. John Engler is expected to resign as interim president of Michigan State University in the wake of comments he made about victims of the Larry Nassar sexual-assault scandal. Engler, you’ll recall, was brought in to clean up the mess after former President Lou Ann Simon resigned over her handling of the Nassar affair. But Engler last week told The Detroit News that some victims were “enjoying the spotlight.” It was the latest in a long line of...
Jan 16, 2019•12 min•Ep. 192
For today's Daily Detroit, we talk everything North American International Auto Show with our Sven Gustafson who spent a couple days on the floor at Cobo Center. Topics covered include the general feel of the show, plans for next year's show that will be held in June, the Toyota Supra reveal, the new Ford Explorer, the power of the Mustang brand, the Kia Telluride, a new Ram Heavy Duty pickup with insane torque numbers, Cadillac vs. Lincoln and Ford's new partnership with Volkswagen. We also sha...
Jan 15, 2019•18 min•Ep. 191
A major water main break in Detroit is causing havoc for residents, nearly a hundred thousand downtown Detroit office workers…. and auto show attendees staying at hotels. Then, a local ice cream shop is getting a new flavor when it comes to their decor. Hopcat has a new name for their fries. And finally, I went out to Dearborn to check out historic artifacts from Michigan Central Station and give you the details on how you’ll be able to see them for yourself.
Jan 15, 2019•9 min•Ep. 190
On today’s show we focus on everyone’s favorite suburb, Funky/Fabulous/Fashionable Ferndale. There, the city is preparing to break ground on a $28 million mixed-use parking structure adorably named “the dot” — short for “development on Troy” Street. It’s a major development for the city, nearly tripling parking capacity on the site, adding four stories plus one underground level of parking, adding more than 11,000 square feet of new retail space and, possibly, new office space and housing. But i...
Jan 10, 2019•19 min•Ep. 189
A single-family home, leaning to the one side, swallowed up by the ground on Christmas Eve. It’s a visual people won’t forget. And it made national news. Today on Daily Detroit, we’re digging into what officials now believe caused a major sinkhole in the Macomb County suburb of Fraser back in 2016. Then we look into the wider topic of Southeast Michigan’s infrastructure, both above and below ground. Like much of the country, it’s been mostly neglected for decades. And the bill is coming due. By ...
Jan 09, 2019•11 min•Ep. 188
Happy Tuesday, automatons! Today your Daily Detroit gets wonky and talks all about bike lanes and trail projects with Todd Scott of the Detroit Greenways Coalition. He put together an interesting (and lengthy!) list of bike and trail projects due to see action in 2019 . They include groundbreaking at the long-delayed Uniroyal site near the bridge to Belle Isle, movement on the long-planned Joe Louis Greenway (formerly known as the Inner Circle Greenway) and new protected bike lanes on Grand Rive...
Jan 08, 2019•21 min•Ep. 187
On today’s episode, we check in with soccer correspondent Fletcher Sharpe about Detroit City FC’s new coach, Trevor James , and what it means for the club as it prepares for its first (semi) season of professional soccer. Elsewhere, I-696 has now been almost fully reopened after the long delay following a labor dispute and problems encountered by cold and wet winter weather. In Warren, construction has apparently loosed a plague of rats on Jim Fouts’ fair city. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer traveled to ...
Jan 07, 2019•18 min•Ep. 186
