Happy Monday, and welcome to a new week of your Daily Detroit. Today, Jer talks about an eventful past week spent at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island, filling us in on some of the things he came away with beyond just the headlines about no-fault auto insurance reform. Specifically, it’s becoming clear that Detroit’s comeback needs a lot more juice (read: money — and residents) just to come up to par with the competition. He also does the math on the so-called 7.2, the informal n...
Jun 04, 2019•19 min•Ep. 275
Eastern Market is going through a lot of change. Shops are closing or moving. New land owners are moving in. Companies who have been in the market a long time need to expand. And at the center of it all is the Eastern Market Corporation (now the Eastern Market Partnership. Their CEO, Dan Carmody, saw these changes coming and has a plan. We talk about the changing neighborhood, the future vision, and how he defines the soul and authenticity of Eastern Market they’re looking to protect. It’s an in...
May 30, 2019•17 min•Ep. 274
Just in time for the Mackinac Policy Conference, the Center for Michigan and its Bridge Magazine have a new report out all about Michigan’s abysmal roads. It’s titled Fixing Michigan’s Road Mess: The Unclear Path Ahead . The report is the result of convening more than 3,200 residents across the state to talk about the state of our roads. It found broad agreement, unsurprisingly, that our roads are in terrible shape. But it found no consensus whatsoever on the issue of how to pay for repairing th...
May 29, 2019•20 min•Ep. 273
Spring is here! It’s the time of year where more people start to get out and about. Because of that, bar and restaurant concepts are starting to get into swing and get some attention. For today’s episode, our man about town Devon O’Reilly stops by the studio to talk about what’s hot around Detroit. Whether it’s a new bar on Bagley, a Mexican place named Peso, or winery that uses Detroit-grown grapes called Detroit Vineyards (or a variety of other stops), we get into what’s worth going out to now...
May 25, 2019•26 min•Ep. 272
The Detroit Grand Prix is an annual event that brings nearly a hundred thousand people to the island, national television coverage and some charity dollars through their Grand Prixmere fundraiser. But there's a group of concerned citizens and park goers who say that the price paid in damage to the park and restricted access is too high. Today on the show, we talk about this with three members of Belle Isle Concern - Angela Lugo-Thomas, Sandra Novacek and Michael Betzold. What do you think? Get i...
May 23, 2019•19 min•Ep. 271
Welcome to the Hump Day edition of your Daily Detroit, in which we run down the news that businessman Roger Penske is pouring $5 million into the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood on Detroit’s east side. It’s part of the city’s Strategic Neighborhood Fund. Jer also has a conversation today with Rob Sadow, the co-founder and head of Scoop Technologies. It’s a carpooling app that connects drivers, riders and designs routes. They’ve teamed up with the Bedrock family of companies to help employees eas...
May 22, 2019•18 min•Ep. 270
Baker’s Keyboard Lounge and, more recently, the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe in Grosse Pointe Farms are famed venues for jazz in Detroit. But another venue played a huge role in that scene for decades: the Blue Bird Inn. Located at 5021 Tireman on the city’s west side, the Blue Bird Inn was a major nexus of Detroit’s swinging post-war, pre-Motown jazz scene, a black-owned business that hosted the likes of Charlie Parker, Donald Byrd, John Coltrane and Miles Davis and playing a role in developing local ta...
May 22, 2019•28 min•Ep. 269
Welcome to a Car-a-Palooza edition of your Daily Detroit. Today, we dive into the news that Dan “Dantroit” Gilbert is lining up a petition drive effort to force the issue of reforming Michigan’s no-fault auto insurance system. If successful, it could allow Republican lawmakers, who already have passed essentially the same proposal, to approve it with simple majority votes. Will this ratchet up pressure on Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and lawmakers to cut a deal? Staying with cars, Ford emplo...
May 21, 2019•16 min•Ep. 268
Detroit’s had a long journey since it was founded as a frontier outpost by the French. There’s been a lot of books about more recent Detroit history. Think 1900 forward. But not so many that look at the first years of Detroit, ones that were formative to the city we know today. R.J. King — an award-winning journalist, author and editor of dBusiness — joined me in the studio today to talk about his new book, “Detroit: Engine of America.” From the description: As the populace sputtered and grew, t...
May 16, 2019•14 min•Ep. 267
On today’s episode, we speak with Casper van Alfen and Joanna van der Leun of the Motown Movement . That’s the organization founded by architecture students from the Netherlands that bought an abandoned home in Detroit for $1,000 and have been fixing it up with the help of local nonprofits and with the goal of making it into a model of accessible and affordable environmental sustainability. Van Alfen and Van der Leun are students at Delft University of Technology in Delft, which is about halfway...
May 15, 2019•19 min•Ep. 266
Gerrymandering — the practice of drawing state legislative and congressional districts to favor one political party over another — is back in the news. Republican state lawmakers are proposing measures to weaken efforts to overhaul the process by which these maps are drawn. That’s despite a recent judicial order to design new district maps for 2020 and voters’ approval last fall of Proposal 2, which transfers the process to a redistricting commission. But old habits die hard, as they say. So Jer...
May 15, 2019•11 min•Ep. 265
Welcome back to the week! There's a lot in our latest episode. Let's dive in. - The Ilitch organization will receive another $74 million dollars in taxpayer subsidies for the District Detroit. - John Beilein is leaving his job as coach of the University of Michigan Men’s basketball team to take over as head coach of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. - Hazel Park is set to get a new mixed-use mid-rise development on the site of a former CVS and Movie M ania store on John R as part of a vision to cre...
May 14, 2019•16 min•Ep. 264
Today we’re taking a look at a company that’s making high-end leather goods right here in the city of Detroit, putting Detroiters and veterans to work. We’re talking about Pingree Detroit, based just about a block away from the well-known Shinola. Pingree is a worker-owned company formed as an L3C — a special type of company that puts both the bottom line and the social mission of the company first. And when there’s profits, 77 cents of every dollar is shared with the workers. Pingree founder Ja...
May 11, 2019•21 min•Ep. 263
Como's, a longtime mainstay of downtown Ferndale, has been reimagined by Chef Zack Sklar. The chef is doing something really cool in elevating pizza and having some creative takes on some old favorites. But, really, how good is it out of the gate? Join us on the podcast for an unbiased first look at the place with one of our contributors, Randy Walker. Please don't treat this conversation as a full review as places need some time to get their legs under them, but it is one of the hottest tickets...
May 10, 2019•11 min•Ep. 262
Good Wednesday afternoon, and welcome to a super Detroit-y edition of your Daily Detroit. Today, we walked over to the Avenue of Fashion, where Mayor Mike Duggan came to speak about the streetscape redevelopment of a roughly 1-mile section of Livernois to calm traffic and make the commercial district more attractive to pedestrians and, hopefully, prosperous to business owners. Construction crews were already at work demolishing the 13-year-old median added by now-imprisoned former Mayor Kwame Ki...
May 08, 2019•19 min•Ep. 261
Detroit: A great bike city, or the best bike city? We dive into that superwonky argument in the wake of Detroit’s abysmal showing in PeopleForBike’s annual rankings of the Best Cities For Bikes in 2019 . Detroit scored a lowly 1.6 out of 5 stars, the same as 2018, despite all the work that’s been done to install protected bike lanes, bike traffic counters and other bike-friendly infrastructure improvements. Ferndale and Ann Arbor both scored higher, at 3.0 stars each. But the organization’s meth...
May 07, 2019•15 min•Ep. 260
What is it with Greektown and the rise in shootings lately? We talk about that in the wake of another shooting late Sunday that injured two, though not critically. For years, the retail district was an example of safety and vibrancy in an otherwise dead downtown, but even though it’s still technically a vibrant neighborhood — albeit much less Greek than it used to be — it’s increasingly a scene of violent crime. Here’s what else we’re talking about on today’s show: Longtime Red Wings GM Ken Holl...
May 07, 2019•21 min•Ep. 259
Between hiring a new head coach to replacing the turf surface at Keyworth, and preparing to embark on its first-ever season of professional soccer, 2019 promises to be the biggest, most important season yet for Detroit City FC, which plays its final preseason friendly on Saturday at the Flint City Bucks. On today’s episode, we talk with soccer journalist, Outer Drive podcast co-host and Daily Detroit contributor Fletcher Sharpe about the Rouge’s roster moves to date, the new coach, Trevor James,...
May 03, 2019•14 min•Ep. 258
The HBO show “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” last week turned its lens on the District Detroit, the Ilitch family’s mostly unrealized plan to redevelop 50 blocks as a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood between downtown and Midtown. Predictably, it did not go well for the Ilitches, who received $324 million in taxpayer assistance in exchange for what so far is the Little Caesars Arena, a Kid Rock restaurant and a couple dozen parking lots. Being opinionated on the subject, we talk about the episode,...
May 01, 2019•15 min•Ep. 257
Today is a conversation with Howard Hertz, previewing the Detroit Music Awards that are happening this Friday . The annual event has been a lynchpin of the Detroit music scene for years. Hertz is not only the president of the foundation that puts on the event, he’s an entertainment lawyer with a roster of clients that’s a who’s who of Detroit music. Here’s that conversation with Sven Gustafson.
Apr 25, 2019•13 min•Ep. 256
Because of disinvestment, changing demographics and the construction of the new bridge to Canada, the Detroit neighborhood of Delray is disappearing. Local author Karen Dybis is working to preserve that history. If she’s successful, she could create a template for how the memories and stories of our entire city and region can live on for future generations. In this episode of the Daily Detroit podcast, we talk about her project and the importance of saving Detroit’s memories. If you’re motivated...
Apr 24, 2019•13 min•Ep. 255
Farmington Hills-based homebuilder Hunter Pasteur Homes says it plans to build 81 new housing units in Lafayette Park on five acres near St. Aubin and East Lafayette Street, right beside the Dequindre Cut. Called Pullman Parc , the units will be a mix of townhomes, park homes and corner flats, and they’ll range from 620 to 3,500 square feet and run between $250,000 and $750,000. Hunter Pasteur has worked on the City Modern development currently under construction in Brush Park. They’ve teamed on...
Apr 23, 2019•11 min•Ep. 254
On your Daily Detroit for Monday, April 22, we dig into a proposal to develop part of Palmer Park as “Palmer Square,” a mixed-use development featuring luxury condominium towers, “experiential retail” and futuristic architecture. We recently aired an episode looking into the city’s nascent Detroit Exploration and Nature Center , which is being run out of the former golf course headquarters. The closed golf course figures to be ground zero for a lot of redevelopment proposals, but any such propos...
Apr 22, 2019•22 min•Ep. 253
The news on Good Friday in Detroit was that Steve Yzerman is returning to the Detroit Red Wings as General Manager. As we do, we like to bring someone who's really knowledgable and passionate about the sport we're talking about when we cover it on the Daily Detroit podcast. For hockey, that's Walt Barnes. He's a co-host of the In The Box podcast, a seasonal show focused on hockey also on the Podcast Detroit network. I hope you enjoy our conversation. -Jer Of course, if you love the show, don't f...
Apr 20, 2019•14 min•Ep. 252
There’s a new real estate development team in town and they have grand designs for a big chunk of property in Detroit’s historic Milwaukee Junction. Today we’re sharing with you that story. Who are they? And what are their plans for this building in an area that’s gaining steam very quickly? Amelia Patt Zamir and Rakesh “Rocky” Lala envision a $20 million redevelopment plan for five vacant buildings totaling more than 100,000 square feet. Sven Gustafson met them at the property and has the story...
Apr 18, 2019•14 min•Ep. 251
On our edition of the Daily Detroit podcast for April 17, 2019: Finally, at long last, there will be one united bus fare card in Metro Detroit. It’s going to be called DART and will work on both Detroit’s DDOT and the suburban system, SMART. Could a high-speed rail service be viable between Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Toledo? The 110-mile-per-hour service could be. [ Toledo Blade ] A wild video of an incident with a tow truck, a bunch of cars and a woman bashing out the driver’s side window of the t...
Apr 17, 2019•9 min•Ep. 250
Remember that beautiful old house on the TV show Rehab Addict? The one with Nicole Curtis? If you remember from that show, there was a lot of space around it. Open fields between it and some of the other fortunate old structures to survive. That’s not the case anymore. City Modern is rising around it. It’s more than 400 units and 24 buildings. The first part of it to open is The Lofts at 124 Alfred. On the podcast, we go to the grand opening and tell you the story of this affordable senior build...
Apr 16, 2019•7 min•Ep. 249
Tim Robinson, one half of the duo behind the recently canceled Comedy Central series “Detroiters,” has a new Netflix show coming out. “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson” debuts April 23 — that’s a week from Tuesday — and will feature Sam Richardson, Robinson’s sidekick in the sadly discontinued sketch comedy series, plus SNL vets Cecily Strong, Vanessa Bayer and Will Forte. The trailer, which you can watch below, looks bananas. Also on today’s show: Part of the long-idled Michigan State...
Apr 15, 2019•11 min•Ep. 248
In Detroit, we live surrounded by legends. The musical history of our city is deep, and it’s in multiple genres. Today’s guest is helping people keep dancing to this amazing music. Dan Austin is the voice behind the indispensable Historic Detroit , a well-connected man about town and a music fanatic who appears regularly on Ann Delisi’s “Essential Music” show on WDET-FM. Today, he dropped by the Detroit Shipping Company studio of Podcast Detroit to talk all about his passion project. The Motor C...
Apr 11, 2019•23 min•Ep. 247
The car is synonymous with Detroit. It is, after all, the Motor City. You might even be listening to this in your car. But what if there was a different way forward than a vehicle for every man, woman and even sometimes, child? What if instead of a half hour at the gym then a half hour in your car, you could bike or walk and get to where you’re going? Or, like here in Michigan, get around without paying the highest car insurance in the nation? It seems like crazy talk, I know. But it’s a growing...
Apr 10, 2019•17 min•Ep. 246
