Wyandotte : In the News

In a good comeback story, Metro Detroit is no. 14 in the country in terms of percentage job growth from 2011 to 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More here.

Detroit's economy is facing forward. Now it just needs some new verbiage.

Excerpt:

"Former heavy manufacturing hubs around the Great Lakes like Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, and Milwaukee often get roped together under the heading of "post-industrial" (when, that is, we're not otherwise identifying them by their prevalence of rust). The term poses at least two problems, though: Industry still exists in many of these places, and the very notion of defining them by their relationship to the past can hamstring us from planning more thoughtfully for their future.

"You've got the 'post-war,' you've got 'post-modern,' you've got 'post-9/11,'" says Paul Kapp, an associate professor in the school of architecture at the University of Illinois and an editor of the book SynergiCity: Reinventing the Postindustrial City. He was speaking Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Planning Association (hosted in what's often considered the post-industrial city of Chicago). "You get to a point," Kapp says, "where you've got to say, 'When does post-something end and you do something new?' I think with 'post-industrial,' we're at that opportunity now. I think it's now time to come up with a new term."

More here.

A great, comprehensive article on how the 7.2-square-mile greater downtown Detroit is growing posher by the minute, it seems, and how and why its deindustrialized metros (and certain Detroit neighborhoods) are landing the creative class.

Excerpt:

"Two of the top 10 creative class tracts are in Birmingham; two are in Bloomfield Township, and another is in Bloomfield Hills, home to some of the priciest real estate in the U.S. and the Cranbrook educational community. Designed by Finnish architect  Eliel Saarinen, the architecture critic  Paul Goldberger  called Cranbrook "one of the greatest campuses ever created anywhere in the world." University of Michigan's  Little  points out in an email to me: "Cranbrook graduates have added to the cutting edge design and creative communities of Detroit and the nation for decades."

Another top creative class tract is in nearby Troy, a sprawling middle-class suburb with excellent public schools, and the site of a high-end mall, the Somerset Collection. Two are in Huntington Woods, a leafy neighborhood that boasts such notable amenities as the public golf course  Rackham and the Detroit Zoo. Two more are in the "Grosse Pointes" — Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Park — the communities of choice for many of Detroit's old industrial magnates, whose lakeshores are lined with sprawling Gilded Age mansions."

More here.

Sesame Street is now 40 years old. And, in honor of the great children's program, here is a shout-out to cooperation. A bill designed to allow the Detroit and Wayne County land banks to work together was announced with bipartisan support this week.

See, we do learn things from television.

Excerpt:

Bills that would allow land banks operated by Detroit and Wayne County to merge into a redevelopment entity with expanded powers were announced Monday, with bipartisan support.

The legislation would provide for a Detroit/Wayne County Redevelopment Authority that would "enable the city and county to have a cohesive strategy for stabilizing and redeveloping tax-reverted properties," said Sen. Tom George, R-Kalamazoo, in a news release.

Read the entire article here.

As they wont to do each year, the Metro Times has released its annual "Best of Detroit" awards.

Check them out here.

The Metrotimes annual restaurant guide runs the gamut: from coneys to caviar, from haute to simply hot.

Categories include eggs, buffets, steaks and vegetarian-friendly. Check it out here.

Wyandotte's 46th annual Street Art Fair runs through Sunday. For one of metro Detroit's premier art fairs, bucolic Wyandotte rolls out the red carpet for artists and art-lovers. Check out the Detroit River views -- and the sculptures, paintings, jewelry and music.

Find out more here.

Thursday, June 21 is the second annual "Dump the Pump" day that calls for the parking of cars and the riding of public transit as a way of calling attention to the environmental and economic benefits of using public transit.

A transit fact:

From 1995 through 2006, public transportation ridership increased by 30 percent, a growth rate higher than the 12 percent increase in US population and higher than the 24 percent growth in use of the nation's highways over the same period.

Find out more here.

AT&T has announced an IP-based TV, voice and data service to launch in the Detroit area, the first of its kind.

Excerpt:

"It's an IP network for the home, and on that IP network wlll be a variety of applications, one of which is television," said Jennifer Jones, AT&T vice president and general manager for Michigan.

Jones also assured GLITR that the service will provide local cable access channels to schools and communities -- although those schools and communities must take the initiative to send their content to AT&T for display on TV channels.

Read the entire article here.

Michigan's tourism website, Michigan.org, was the busiest in the nation in April, according to web trackers at Hitwise.

Excerpt:

"We view this as a clear and important signal that people are looking to Michigan for their leisure travel," said George Zimmermann, vice president of Travel Michigan. "We know from independent research that 65 percent of consumers who use Michigan.org for tourism information, then travel to and within Michigan. So more web traffic means more business at Michigan destinations. We believe our efforts inside and outside of Michigan are making a substantial difference."

Read the entire article here.

The Michigan Department of Transportation has released a draft version of its long-range transportation plan for the state and is requesting public input.

A link to the plan and to the questionnaire can be found here.

 

Environmentalists are calling for an expansion of Michigan's bottle deposit law to account for water and juice containers.

Excerpt:

By most measurements, Michigan's law has been an unqualified success. Folks return more than 97 percent of the 4.3 billion bottles and cans of carbonated beverages sold here each year, according to state records. That tops the return rate of all other states and ranks Michigan's as America's No. 1 bottle recycling program.

Read the entire article here.

A team working on behalf of the 9,000 businesses, attractions and groups that comprise Michigan's tourism industry have devised a strategic plan.

Excerpt:

The plan's recommendations include:

• Marketing the state nationally with a $30 million tourism promotion budget.
  
  
• Boosting relationships with policymakers.
  
  
• Promoting collaboration.
  
  
• Expanding tourism-related research.
  
  
• Improving hospitality training.

Read the entire article here.

Immigrants to the area are positively contributing to Metro Detroit's economy.

Excerpt:

A study [director of research for the United Way of Southeastern Michigan Kurt] Metzger conducted in 2000 showed that about three-quarters of Asian Indians had graduated from college. More than 60 percent of Chinese and Japanese had received four-year degrees, and almost 50 percent of those of Korean descent had.

“We are getting this educated, young immigrant group that can provide that base that businesses are looking for,” he said. “They’re educated and talented enough to start new businesses.”

And they are coming at a time when Detroit’s native-born are leaving.

Read the entire article here.

Wayne County residents can drop-off household hazardous goods on March 31 from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Sumpter County DPS located at 23501 Sumpter Road.

Acceptable items include:

Household paints, stains, dyes

Floor wax, floor care products, carpet cleaner

Furniture polish, bathroom cleaners, stain removers

Medicine, nail polish, glue

Fertilizer, law and garden chemicals, pesticides
 
Antifreeze, motor oil, gasoline

Automotive batteries and dry cell batteries

Mercury-containing thermometers and other devices. Note that a special thermometer exchange program will be offered: bring a mercury thermometer and exchange it for a safe digital thermometer (limit one per car).
 
These electronic items will also be accepted for recycling: computer monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, mouse, cell phones, fax machines, VCRs, cable boxes and televisions.
 
Passenger vehicle tires will also be accepted. Limit 10 per vehicle.

The following items cannot be accepted: commercial waste, industrial waste, smoke detectors, radioactive material, explosives, ammunition, 55-gallon drums, unknown/unlabeled wastes, shock sensitive materials, household trash, refrigerators, microwaves or other appliances and concrete.

For more information, call the Wayne County Resource Recovery Coordinator at 734.326.3936.