Martina Guzmán

Cooperatives aren’t common, but they are a way to increase business ownership. In southwest Detroit, six of them are growing and advocates hope dozens follow them.

Brick-and-mortar businesses struggled to adapt during the pandemic, but a self-taught builder in Southwest Detroit carved his niche in custom food truck design. He’s now on track for $1 million a year in sales.

A grassroots effort is underway in Southwest Detroit to reach Latinos still hesitant about getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

Alex Resendez, known to many as El Batman, is the charismatic radio host on La Explosiva 1480-AM, a Mexican radio station based out of Ypsilanti that is a lifeline to immigrants nostalgic for music from back home.

Word-of-mouth referrals and neighborhood work can keep Spanish-speaking builders busy, but many now aim for bigger jobs. An industry-focused group is helping them make business plans and grow.

These times call for transformative change. Business as usual is what got us here. Business as usual serves to perpetuate systems of racial hierarchy and white supremacy, not dismantle them.

In a city devastated by the coronavirus, there will be no eucharist and no fellowship this Easter. But churches say they are persevering and adjusting how they tend to mourning congregations.

The same government orders that closed restaurants also forced soup kitchens to take their missions outside. In Detroit, volunteers pack paper bag lunches and feed the needy from parking lots.

Hoarding has made bottled water a scarce commodity in Michigan, complicating efforts to deliver the bare essentials to thousands of Detroit residents.

The lack of rigorous local reporting has consequences for accountability – without that knowledge, holding developers, officeholders, and corporations to account becomes virtually impossible, the author writes in this Guest Commentary.