Blogs

In a sign that the Great Lakes State is riding the wave of its young talent, a group of interns came to exchange ideas with state powerbrokers at the recent Mackinac Policy Conference. Jennifer Guracech, Chris Ando, and Christian Bielski offer up their takeaways from this gathering of Michigan's intelligentsia.

Chris Ramos decided to buy a bus. He wanted to get people from the suburbs into Detroit. Then he got the idea to run the bus on biodiesel; might as well help save the planet, right? So he quit his job, hired Jennifer Harlan and started The Night Move. It wasn't as simple as it sounds. Chris and Jennifer will be blogging about starting a business in a recession, the obstacles they face and what they've learned so far.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Polish that business plan and sit down with Chris Rizik, the CEO of Detroit's new Renaissance Venture Capital Fund. He will be discussing the flow of venture capital in Michigan and its essential role in financing the state's high-growth, knowledge economy.

Fusion, a networking and leadership group for young Detroit professionals, has a spot at the table at the upcoming Mackinac Policy Conference. Its director, Christianne Sims, will be discussing the group's goals for this important gathering of the state's business, civic, and political leaders.

Christopher Schneider is a photographic artist who teaches at Lawrence Tech and OCC. He is also the Program Manager at the Cranbrook Summer Art Institute and a founder of the Hatch arts collective. A native Nebraskan, Chris moved to Detroit in 2001 and has never looked back.

Model D managing editor Clare Pfeiffer Ramsey reports in this week from the publication's  Motor City headquarters on why Metro Detroit needs to rethink their relationship with the city and why summer is the perfect time to do it. She'll be giving metromode readers the skinny on what Detroit has to offer the region that you simply can't find anywhere else.

New urbanists are salting cities with temporary-to-permanent gathering places. Courtney Piotrowski, a founder of Detroit landscape architecture firm livingLab, drills chair bombing and other gorilla placement tactics into our heads.

Dan Gilmartin is our guest blogger this week. He is the youngest executive director in the 108 year history of the Michigan Municipal League. Dan previously served as the League's deputy director and as an advocate in Lansing and in Washington, where he concentrated on transportation, land use and urban redevelopment. Check back here each week day to read Dan's thoughts on regionalism and how we can build the kind of community that attracts knowledge-based workers.

The labor laws for Michigan's workforce are decidedly DIY now. Here to speak to this is Dan Izzo, training leader at Bizdom U, a tuition-free academy for entrepreneurs in Detroit. This week Dan writes on avoiding broad stroke metaphors for the region, and how thinking like an individual and an entrepreneur will get us out of our current funk.

In the comics, as in life, actions speak louder than words. From toughing out road construction projects to the digitizing of print, Green Brain Comics co-owner Dan Merritt covers the survival of the superhero of American art forms, the comic book.

Detroit is proudly pegged on world maps as the motherland of techno. Lest we forget, author and Organic, Inc. Creative Director Dan Sicko has released a new edition of his book, Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk. This week Dan writes about sound waves and why he kept his feet planted in the Motor City.

Danialle Karmanos is our guest blogger this week. Danialle is Chairman of the Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), a boardmember of the Detroit Opera House and video producer. Her husband, Peter, is the chairman and CEO of Compuware Corporation. Check back here each weekday to read Danialle's thoughts on the importance of arts and culture in shaping Detroit's identity. 

The Detroit Free Press recently voted Supino's Pizzeria tops in Metro Detroit (no small feat, given the competition; GQ ranks Detroit as third-best pizza city in the U.S.). Dave Mancini, Supino's chef and owner, gives the Kitchen Confidential tour of his Eastern Market gourmet pizza place and dishes on his favorite local businesses.

David Knapp is not only an architectural designer with Albert Kahn Associates, he's an accredited LEED professional who understands the ins and outs of sustainable development. An active community leader, David will be writing about  sustainability and urban housing trends in Metro Detroit.