“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours” — John Locke, 17th century English philosopher * Propublica says the EPA has a report linking fracking chemicals to an instance of groundwater contamination in Wyoming. This has huge import for the state of Michigan, where hydrofracturing, […]
Detroit
Posted inBusiness Watch
'Shadow Tax Cut' deepens local budget crises
A $900 million cut in property tax revenues since 2007, the “Shadow Tax Cut,” has devastated the budgets of local governments that heavily rely on these taxes to provide police and fire protection — and a host of other services. They’ve laid off hundreds of firefighters, police officers and other employees; cut pay and benefits; […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Report: Michigan is high on price of college degrees
College graduates in Michigan and elsewhere are rightly anxious about their future job prospects — an anxiety only heightened by the piles of debt so many have accumulated while on campus. Erin Dillon, senior policy analyst for Education Sector and co-author of a new report highlighting the relationship between obtaining a college degree and acquiring […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Cuts don't fall evenly across Michigan
A welfare recipient in Flint is four times more likely to be kicked off cash assistance next month than a welfare recipient in bucolic Luce County — even though the Upper Peninsula county has a higher poverty rate. In rural northern Lake County, 36 percent of children lived below the poverty threshold, the highest rate […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Detroit is, indeed, 'rising'
For the longest time, I have opened my morning paper only to find some negative articles about the city of Detroit. Indeed, these bearers of bad news heralded the city as the fattest, the angriest, the most crime-ridden, and, yes, even the city with the most STDs. My morning ritual of reading the negative press […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Restauranteur sees city's future in density, immigrants
Torya Blanchard’s entrepreneurial story is becoming the stuff of legend in Detroit. The Detroit native quit a good job teaching French, cashed out her 401k and took the chance of her life by opening Good Girls Go To Paris Crepes in a former hole-in-the-wall hotdog stand behind the Boll YMCA in downtown Detroit. That was […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Entrepreneur bets on Detroit, urbanism
If you have taken a tour through downtown Detroit, there is a good chance you have walked through Claire Nelson’s shop, Bureau of Urban Living. Bureau, as it’s commonly known, is an Urban Outfitters-style boutique with high-end housewares carrying an urban, Detroit theme. It’s in a small space on the ground floor of the Canfield […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Young activist finds energy, challenges in SW Detroit
Two women painted on the wall of Sean Mann’s historic home sum up the story of present-day Detroit. The murals flanking his dining room window portray the women seen in the city’s official seal. A weeping woman on the left symbolizes despair. To the right of the window, a woman represents hope. Mann, 31, acknowledges […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
TechTown broadens focus from high-tech
Wayne State University’s TechTown was intended to incubate high-tech when it was christened a decade ago. However, a survey of the 63 tenants now operating out of the 84-year-old, 120,000-square-foot former Chevy Creative Services building in central Detroit shows nearly two-thirds are doing things other than high-tech. The survey by Bridge Magazine shows life sciences, […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
How far will Midtown's momentum go?
There are two Detroits in the life of Theo Nicholaidis. The first is a city of cafes and galleries, with his favorite crepe restaurant just down the block from his two-bedroom condo, a newly rehabbed unit with hardwood floors, a fireplace and deck. “We go for walks at night through the neighborhood,” Nicholaidis said. “There […]
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