MetaFilter posts tagged with detroit

Son of a Nigerian banker caught with pants on fire leads to suspicion of Nigerians with trouser related problems

Blasdelb — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:29:52 -0800

This last Christmas Day Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23 year old son of a prominent Nigerian banker attempted to bring down a trans-Atlantic Northwest Airlines flight with an explosive mixture containing PETN, a popular addition to amateur explosives. Then this Sunday a young Nigerian gentleman in intestinal distress caused caused the crew of his flight to alert authorities who detained and quickly released him.

Detroit: Worst Test Score Ever

Acromion — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:49:33 -0800

The results of the recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NEAP) tests are in. Detroit students posted the worst math scores ever in the history of the test. "Those scores on the prestigious test are in the same range as would be expected from children who never attended school and simply guessed at the answers," said Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager of Detroit Public Schools, during a press conference Tuesday. Frank Beckmann of the Detroit News says "the time for excuses is over." Daniel Howes: "This is the unraveling of an American city, a haunting parallel to the reckoning that is forcing fundamental change on the Detroit auto industry, its people, unions and communities. The keepers of the city's institutions are desperately fighting to maintain a status quo that is operationally broken, intellectually spent and morally indefensible."

Cash for Clunkers, State by State

jefficator — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:54:26 -0800

Edmunds released data this month on the results of the Cash for Clunkers stimulus. Freakonomics blog commented. Now the Detroit News has offered a state-by-state analysis of how funds were used. Which state was most likely to trade an American car for another American car? You guessed it...

Busy Bee Hardware, Est. 1918

Joe Beese — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:58:45 -0800

Busy Bee Hardware, Est. 1918 (via)

Detroit and the Economy

HP LaserJet P10006 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:50:12 -0800

Last week in Detroit, where unemployment is close to 30%, one third of all households are in poverty, and whole neighborhoods have been abandoned, chaos ensued as an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 people lined up in the hopes of getting federal aid. 65,000 applications were taken for a new program that will fund only 3,500 people (via).

The One and Only Woodward Dream Cruise

brandman — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:18:14 -0800

Tonight ends the 15th annual Woodward Dream Cruise, where tens of thousands of classic cars, muscle cars, hot rods, and more cruise Woodward Avenue in Southeast Michigan. While the cruise celebrates the glory dates of the American automobile (and the culture that developed around it), there’s more to love about Woodward than just this one event. For instance, it just celebrated the 100th anniversary of being the first concrete highway in the world! And with over a million people attending and having a good time, it’s a sign that not all is bad in Detroit at the moment.

The Motor(less) City

netbros — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:59:33 -0800

Detroit is one of the most visually interesting cities in the world, however it is also one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented. Detroit Book of Love is a group of photographs illustrating what contemporary Detroit artists have been doing in regards to developing an understanding and appreciation for this complex and diverse city; from street portraits of the survivors, to the landscapes of wild new growth, to the industrial leftovers. As a group they show Detroit as it is, not what it should be or what it once was. Detroit’s got problems. That’s not new. The question is how to tap into the potential, if any, that remains. How can Detroit, and Michigan, bring out the best in our creative, highly trained and skilled workers, stem the population loss, convince our students to get an education, and make a change from a largely industrial economy, into something else? Detroit’s had a “renaissance” at least twice in the past. One in the late 70’s, hence the Renaissance Center, and again in the late 90’s, when condos and lofts began to pop up all over the city. When will Detroit’s real renaissance occur? How can we make it happen faster? The Motor(less) City: Post-Industrial Detroit

Detroit schools urban exploration & reclamation.

Item — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 03:49:39 -0800

Urban exploration has been featured here once or twice before, but Jim Griffioen's site photo-documenting his discoveries in and around Detroit deserves a look. Griffioen was recently interviewed [direct mp3 link] on the American Public Media radio program The Story. Jim is most interested in schools. He's taken photos of trees growing through books and other things left behind. Recently Jim has gone beyond documenting what he sees and is reclaiming what he finds. He collects abandoned library books and other school supplies and gives them to community centers. Previously - blog post by Griffioen on Detroit's abandoned Belle Isle Zoo

The people who drive the Motor City

Oriole Adams — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:06:46 -0800

Can Detroit be saved? Its future is in their hands . Meet Detroit city council president Monica Conyers, whose children are chauffered to the pricey Cranbrook Schools in suburban Bloomfield Hills daily by on-duty cops, and who recerntly publicly rebuked a white Teamsters official for daring to speak the name of President Obama during a meeting. She also wasn't interested in the estimated 16,000 jobs that would be created by the proposed Cobo Hall expansion because most of those jobs would be filled by people who "don't look like her." Also on board is Barbara-Rose Collins, a bona fide queen ("with all the responsibilities and privileges afforded to royal family members,” according to her web page) who occasionally bursts into song during council meetings. Let's not forget Martha Reeves, who has a city-paid assistant accompany her after hours to the casino because she's afraid to go out in the city alone. How dire is the state of the city? Sam Riddle, former policital consultant to Conyers, has said that the only difference in terms of corruption between Detroit and a Third World nation is that Detroit doesn't have goats wandering the streets.

100 Abandoned Houses in Detroit

dersins — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:33:51 -0800

100 Abandoned Houses. A photo essay from Detroit-based photographer Kevin Bauman.

Detriot's Beautiful, Horrible Decline

rollbiz — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:26:40 -0800

Detroit's Beatiful, Horrible Decline: Photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre's work in Motor City. More photography capturing abandoned properties in Detroit. (Previously, and more previously)

Always look on the bright side of blight

filthy light thief — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:45:36 -0800

"Ah, the mythical $100 home. We hear about these low-priced “opportunities” in down-on-their-luck cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Cleveland, but we never meet anyone who has taken the plunge. Understandable really, for if they were actually worth anything then they would cost real money, right? Who would do such a preposterous thing?" Amongst others, artists who have hope for the future and money to invest. A local couple, Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert, began this artistic trend. An artist and an architect, they recently became the proud owners of a one-bedroom house in East Detroit for just $1,900. The fact that it was stripped of appliances and wiring wasn't a deterrent, it was room for improvement, because they now had the opportunity to renovate it with solar heating, solar electricity and low-cost, high-efficiency appliances. They bought a few more houses for even less, and put in some work with friends and local youngsters to improve the properties and added a garden. Their efforts were noticed by people at a Dutch museum, who stated that the "collapse of house prices allows for a new way of shaping the urban environment with relatively modest resources." But it's not just about an influx of artist with big ideas. The Heidelberg Project was started in 1986 by area resident Tyree Guyton, who worked with his former wife, Karen Guyton, now-deceased Sam (Grandpa) Mackey, and neighborhood kids. They collected trash from empty lots and vacant homes, and made empty spaces into "lots of art." (wiki link) Some of these links were gleaned from Mark Maynard's blog.

Where the Wild Things Aren't

punkbitch — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 05:15:16 -0800

Detroit's abandoned Belle Isle Zoo, beautiful disaster. I've never been to Detroit, but it sounds like the epicenter of decay.

No Panic in Detroit

cjorgensen — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:49:35 -0800

Man found dead [warning, graphic] in the former Detroit Public Schools Book Depository. I think this question has been answered.

The City Where the Sirens Never Sleep.

chunking express — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:07:02 -0800

"The city is so cash-strapped that firefighters have to purchase their own toilet paper and cleaning supplies. Their aging bunker gear is coated in carbon, 'making them the equivalent of walking matchsticks.' The firehouses' brass poles have been removed and sold off by the city." - The City Where the Sirens Never Sleep by Matt Labash.

Death Lives!

stinkycheese — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:52:08 -0800

Death were a proto-punk trio of black Jehovah's Witnesses based out of Detroit back in 1974. They were almost signed to Columbia, but bailed on the label when Columbia wanted them to change their name. Instead, they self-released a 7" which is now quite a collector's item, influenced as it was by, “Iggy and Stooges, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and The Who”. But the story doesn't end there. Recently, Bobby Hackney, whose father played in Death along with two of his uncles, learned of the band and, lo and behold, his dad found the master tapes for their unreleased full-length in his attic. Is a new chapter in punk rock history about to be written?

"It was kinda like a black American Bandstand..."

The Card Cheat — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:29:05 -0800

The Scene. Detroit. Channel 62. One of the hottest TV shows in Detroit between 1975 and 1987. "Here for us with The Scene, you got to see people you knew from school or there was a chance you'd run into them at the mall." "It had a lot of impact on me as far as being a deejay and being exposed to music that I wouldn't ordinarily be exposed to." "I got two left feet; I'd just make a fool out of myself. And you'd have some people down there that would do that, but the energy was - you didn't care." [Previously on MeFi.]

Detroit Public Schools Book Depository

ottereroticist — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:54:09 -0800

"This is a building where our deeply-troubled public school system once stored its supplies, and then one day apparently walked away from it all, allowing everything to go to waste...All that's left is an overwhelming sense of knowledge unlearned and untapped potential." (Via Making Light.)

Boy Howdy, what a mess

Scram — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 08:12:05 -0800

You'd think news of a Creem Magazine retrospective book would be greeted with cries of glee. You'd be wrong. Occasional staff shutterbug Bob Matheu licensed rights to use the name of the beloved, iconoclastic Detroit rock zine years after it ceased to be relevant, but despite occasional "Creem is back" announcements, only produced a website. But now a Creem book is on the stands, and surviving contributors like Dave Marsh, Sue Whitall, Jaan Uhelszki and publisher's widow Connie Kramer are none too pleased with the contents. Even less happy, the guys who invested most of the money needed to re-secure the rights. But a dust up at a book signing? Lester would approve. More discussion here.

Is This Utopia? Are Ruins Beautiful?

salvia — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:56:46 -0800

Shrinking Cities (virtual and real): Analysis and Interventions. Don't miss the map of shrinking cities around the globe [PDF] or their description of urban decline in Second Life and a contest about what interventions to apply there (stay tuned). The title is from this quirky image in their press kit. Previously: 1, 2, 3.

Dancing "rave style": from beginner to geriatric, you're covered

Unicorn on the cob — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:50:12 -0800

How to dance at a rave. People dancing to house music. The Detroit Jit vs. Chicago Juke. The history of the Detroit Jit on popular dance show The Scene from the 80's. 80's legends the Funkateers doing their thing to Wordy Rappinghood. Compare them to the New York City Breakers. But let's take it back, way back... The Nicholas Brothers vs. Benny Benassi. Think they look like they're raving? What about when you throw Kanye West in the mix? Have we always danced with such abandon? In South Africa, we have. More dancing from Ethiopia that looks like a lot of rave dancing to me. Masai tribespeople raving it up. Think raving is for young people? You're wrong. I saw this woman driving her scooter into tents at the DEMF in 2006 and getting up to dance... then found her again on YouTube. Think she was a one-time fluke? Wrong again. Here she is raving it up in 2007. Previously. Now everybody get out there and dance a little!

"Outside of being a clown, I'm very low-key."

ice_cream_motor — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:22:12 -0800

Though there are many who bemoan the current state of Detroit, one man is trying to make a difference- Smiley, the Hip Hop Clown. Artist DeMarcus Hughes assumes the persona of Smiley, producing his own brand of hip-hop and taking his message whereever it can help. Want to see him in action? Here's Smiley's MySpace page, with videos and music.

1967 Detroit Riot Remembered

The Deej — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 23:32:12 -0800

It's been 40 years since the 1967 Detroit riot. The Detroit News remembers. Where we stand, four decades after that fateful summer. Extensive coverage including galleries, video, audio, and articles.

Breezecab - A Bicycle Taxi, Motown Style!

The Deej — Sat, 19 May 2007 09:05:00 -0800

Pedicabs are a common sight all over. In the pedicab business, there can be success, personal enlightment, and failure. Pedicabs come in countless styles. This style is sleek and modern, and this man is trying to bring them to Detroit (warning, only the sparse main page is finished). Here is the mandatory YouTube video.

Will The Last Person To Leave Detroit Please Turn Out The Lights?

fancypants — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:59:47 -0800

The city of Detroit is in a bad way. House are cheaper than cars. The city's neighborhoods are in decay. Families are leaving. Even "revived" areas are struggling. Entire portions of the city are starting to revert to prarie and ruins. Can the city be saved or is it time to give up on the Arsenal of Democracy?