Ferndale : In the News

Strike up the music! The NAMM Foundation has called out the school districts of Berkeley, Bloomfield Hills, Dearborn, Ferndale, and Troy, as being among the best in the nation for music education.

Read the full list here.

This is the best it's been in years for job seekers in Oakland County, economists say. And the jobs pay well above the minimum wage.

Excerpt:

"On the heels of its strongest two-year job growth in almost 20 years, Oakland County's economy will add nearly 42,000 jobs through 2015, say University of Michigan economists...

In their annual forecast of the Oakland County economy, Fulton and colleague Don Grimes of the U-M Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economy say that high-wage industries—with average pay of more than $62,000—accounted for more than half of the new private-sector jobs created during the recovery, a trend that will continue throughout the forecast horizon...

Overall, Fulton and Grimes say that Oakland remains among the better local economies in the nation, ranking 10th among 36 comparable U.S. counties on a series of measures that indicate future economic prosperity."

More here.

In Oakland County's downtowns these days, businesses that want to put a blank face to the street have to keep walking.

Excerpt:

"Last fall, a developer approached West Bloomfield trustees asking for a zoning change in order to place a storage unit business at Orchard Lake and 14 Mile. Then, a business owner approached asking for approval to open a fitness club in a former dealership on Orchard Lake Road.

"The new businesses didn’t conform to our (zoning)," said Supervisor Michele Economou Ureste.

The requests were for properties in the township’s "town center" — defined back in 2007 as Orchard Lake Road between 14 Mile and Maple roads. In the area, zoning rules require active first floors, not blank walls, which was intended to make that area more appealing to people walking...That desire is enthusiastically echoed in communities across Oakland County."

More here.

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.

The DIA belongs to everyone in Metro Detroit and the organization supporting the multi-county tax that will insure its survival has temporarily opened an office in a burb known for its progressive-leaning values.

Excerpt:

"So far there have been over 4,500 phone calls made from the Ferndale office alone.

“Not robo-calls,” Fritz said.  “We’ve got volunteers that come in, and over the next week there will be different groups every evening.”

“Having volunteers is better because they can listen to the people they call and answer any questions.”

The Ferndale office has also sold over 1,000 yard signs at $5 a pop. Former City Councilperson Kate Baker jumped in to help the campaign sell yard signs, raising $415 for the campaign."

Read the rest of the story here.

In a provocative article, the Creative Class guru talks about the distinction between city and suburb today. He compares Motown to Urban-burbs like Ferndale, Royal Oak, Birmingham and Ann Arbor, metro Detrtoit communities that are evolving their urban design to adapt to changing community standards.

Excerpt:

"The old distinctions between "city" and "suburb" do seem to be blurring. Urban neighborhoods are improving safety, upgrading schools, adding parks and bike lanes to their existing urban fabric, while suburban ones are adding density, walkability and mixed-use districts to their existing safe streets and good schools."

Read the rest here.

Metromode has always admired the folks at B. Nektar and this video does a good job of capturing what they're all about.

Give it a look.

Forget baseball, this is where the real competition is. Sixteen teams. 22 minutes. The skills to make an audience laugh so hard they pee their pants. Besides what else are you going to do on a Wednesday night?

Excerpt:

"Bailout Improv Tournament Spectacular (BITS). Sixteen improv teams from across metro Detroit will compete every Wednesday night at 8pm in a single elimination tournament for a $1002 cash prize. Each week, two teams will face off on the Go Comedy! stage with just 22 minutes to impress the audience with their skills. At the end of the hour, the audience will choose by secret ballot the winning team which will continue in the tournament. The audience favorite will be announced each week during the 9pm show that evening."

Read the rest of the story here.

Troy, Berkley, Bloomfield Hills, Fraser, and Ann Arbor all made the list but Ferndale was selected as the bestest. (yes, we know that's not a word).

Excerpt:

"The district's music program includes a vocal music program that begins in kindergarten, instrumental music beginning in fourth grade, band, orchestra and choir programs for middle and high school, and a State Championship marching band.

What Ferndale offers for music education is especially significant considering the district's small size, Jamison said.

"We're still offering basically everything," he said. "We have most everything that schools two, three or four times our size have.""

Read the rest here.

Ferndale's recent food truck rally at the Rustbelt Market was a big success according to organizers. But it looks like our songs of praise for the city's embrace of food truck culture may have been a bit premature.

Though still more welcoming than many metro Detroit communities, push back from local businesses has started to complicate local implementation of a trend that has been enthusiastically welcomed in cities in like Austin, San Francisco, and Portland, OR.

Curbed Detroit examines the situation and has some smart buit pointed thoughts on the subject.

Excerpt:

"But what businesses seem to be missing with all the INF-ing is that there is such a thing as healthy competition, and a food truck – even one with its very own permanent parking space on private property – creates a destination and a little something urban planners like to refer to as “street excitement.” The amount of damage done to a brick-and-mortar business’s business is probably comparable to that of a Subway – and business owners certainly don’t have the option of demanding ordinances changed preventing fast food chains from opening next door.

Bottom line is if a person is seeking a leisurely sit-down dinner with drinks and ambiance, they aren’t going to see a food truck and say, “Nevermind, let’s just go here instead!” (Imagine how THAT first date would end.) Conversely, someone looking to grab a quick bite to eat on the go won’t suddenly be swayed by an attractive façade to stop in for a three-martini Mad Men lunch. The clientele base might be exactly the same, but each concept suits different people at different times."

Read the rest here.

Read about the rally here.

Bagpipe. Kilts. Haggis. Groundskeeper Willy. Most Americans have a limited knowledge of Scottish culture. Troy's St. Andrew's Society of Detroit aims to change that. And they've hired a Ferndale film studio to help them.

Excerpt:

"Though M-1 Studios has developed a strong background in industrial and commercial work since opening in 2008, it's not the production company's first time working with a cultural association. M-1 also produced a series of videos for Heritage Works, a Detroit organization that promotes youth and community development with cultural programming focusing on the arts of Africa and the Diaspora."

Read the rest of the story here.

Metromode has long sung the praises of the food truck movement and it looks like others are catching up. This month Ferndale will host "Street Eats," a celebration of mobile food vendors. The idea is to make it a once-a-month event.

Excerpt:

"The event will be similar to the food truck rally at the Farmer's Market in Royal Oak earlier this month, which at only halfway through the event saw 1,200 customers served by the six food trucks and a cart from Treat Dreams in Ferndale.

The event was sponsored by the Michigan Mobile Food Vendors Association."

Read the rest here.