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Dustin Dwyer · Dear People Who Don’t Know Anything About Detroit, Your Jokes Are Dumb.
February 22nd, 2012
flickr user josephleenovak
A Detroit hipster
Hipsters. What with their mustaches, skinny jeans and bicycles, how are they not just the most adorable creatures in the world? But if there’s one thing they love even more than that navy-blue American Apparel hoodie with the white piping, it’s irony. And where do they most love casting their ironic gaze? On themselves, of course.
Which brings us to this fine piece of bloggery that’s been making the rounds. It’s written by none other than “Austin’s Blogger of the Year,” Lauren Modery.
Modery writes:
Sometimes it feels like there is no place more hipster-plentiful than Austin, Texas …But are other cities unscathed by the beast? Smaller, up-and-coming cities that are like how Austin was before ‘we’ showed up?
She then lists three cities that are not in the Midwest, and gently pokes fun at the hipsters there. I’ll be honest, I barely skimmed this part. But then, Modery gets to her final city on the brink of “hipsterfication,” Detroit:
What do young and creative urbanites love most in this world? Being on the forefront of a scene — what better place to do that than Detroit, Michigan, a city that’s slowly bootstrapping itself up from the PITS OF HADES. Within cities that have lost everything, hipsters favorite second thing in this world emerges — ruin porn. Add a frosting layer of adaptive reuse and you got yourself one sweet hipster cupcake.
First off, Ms. Modery (*in my best snob voice*), if you knew anything about Detroit hipsters, you wouldn’t use a cupcake metaphor. Our hipsters eat crepes.
And also, Detroit is nobody’s “small up-and-coming” city. People in Detroit aren’t trying to become Austin. People in Austin are trying to become Detroit.
Sure, maybe you were trying to pay a compliment in your own hipsterific way – acting like Detroit is the next cool place to be. But, hipsters of the world, know this: Detroit doesn’t need your smirky congratulations. And, if you think its comeback is a joke, it doesn’t need you either.
People who live in Detroit, they’re allowed to make fun of Detroit. People who care about the city, who live in the Midwest and know at least something about what Detroiters have been through, we’re allowed to make fun of Detroit a little bit.
If you, as a hipster, want to make fun of other hipsters, fine. That’s what hipsters do best.
But Detroit hipsters are still Detroiters.
If you live in Austin, you don’t get to make fun of Detroiters.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go write an ironic blog post about the hot new up-and-coming cities where people actually make things. Austin could totes make the list!
Dustin Dwyer · Do These Videos About Detroit Inspire You?
February 22nd, 2012
If you share our fascination with all the documentaries made about Detroit, you’ll want to check out this list of the “The 5 Most Inspirational Videos About Detroit,” from BuzzFeed.
The video above is their pick for number one. What about you? What’s the most inspirational video you’ve ever seen about Detroit? Or about your city?
Dustin Dwyer · Do These Videos About Detroit Inspire You?
February 22nd, 2012
If you share our fascination with all the documentaries made about Detroit, you’ll want to check out this list of the “The 5 Most Inspirational Videos About Detroit,” from BuzzFeed.
The video above is their pick for number one. What about you? What’s the most inspirational video you’ve ever seen about Detroit? Or about your city?
Meg Cramer · 35 Years of Letters Within a Midwestern Family
February 22nd, 2012
Jillian Jones Sisko of Michigan writes:
Letter-writing has always been an important part of my family’s legacy.
My mother discovered her family origins through letters written in the early 1900′s that were found in a desk drawer in an attic in Epernay, France. The letter was written by my grandfather and addresses to his brother. When my mother discovered the letters, she started communicating with her family.
When my oldest sister left for college in the 70′s, my father, Wayne Muren, began writing weekly letters just as my great grandfather did many years prior. The letters served as a source of inspiration for my sister and as well as a blanket of comfort.
After all five children grew up and graduated from college, several moved away. Wayne kept writing letters. To this day, 35 years later, I am blessed to still receive a weekly letter filled with newspaper/magazine articles. The no. 10 envelope that was once delivered to my college dormitory is now a large manila envelope packed with news and information.
Maureen Houston/BND.com
Jillian's mother and her father Wayne with a stack of letters
The letters are sent to not only his children, but also to his 11 grandchildren. The letters are now mailed in large envelopes which accompany 10-20 newspaper clippings to keep the family up-to-date with current events as well as comic strips from a local artist.
This gift of communication is one that I hope will never stop arriving at my door for many years to come. This ritual is now our family tradition.
Micki Maynard · Who’s Powerful In Chicago? One Mayor, Two Sports Figures, And Lots of Others
February 22nd, 2012
Who really runs Chicago? According to Chicago Magazine, it is a collection of leaders in politics, business, sports and food.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
Earlier this month, the magazine came out with its list of the city’s 100 most powerful people. It’s a surprisingly diverse list, with some very familiar and not so familiar faces. (Oprah, whose Chicago-based show ended last year, is no longer on it.)
Steve Edwards at our partner station WBEZ recently talked about the list with Chicago Magazine editors David Bernstein and Marcia Froelke Coburn.
We broke down the Top 10 into four categories.
Politics: In a city where politics is in everyone’s DNA, it’s no surprise that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is the most powerful person in Chicago. He’s joined in the top 10 by three other politicians: U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, and President Obama’s campaign strategist, David Axelrod.
Business: Even though McDonald’s is one of the biggest companies in the Midwest, and global powerhouse, you might not know its low-keyCEO, Jim Skinner. A much more recognizable name in Chicago is Penny Pritzker, the founder and CEO of Pritzker Realty, and a major philanthropist.
The top 10 list also includes Eric Lefkofsky, a Southfield, Mich., native who is co-founder and chairman of GroupOn (its CEO, Andrew Mason, comes in at No 11).
Sports: In a sports-mad city, it’s no surprise to see two people associated with Chicago’s teams on the list. They are Rocky Wirtz, chairman of the Chicago Blackhawks, and Derrick Rose, the star point guard with the Chicago Bulls.
Food: Chef Grant Achatz, whose restaurant Alinea is considered to be one of the best in America, is the leading chef on the list. He’s another native of Michigan whose family is in the pie business back home.
Read the complete Chicago Magazine list here. Did they leave anybody off that you feel should have been included?
Micki Maynard · Michigan’s Primary Race Tightens As Romney Talks Right To Work
February 22nd, 2012
A new poll by NBC News shows Mitt Romney taking a narrow lead over Rick Santorum in the race to win Michigan’s Republican primary next Tuesday. 
The NBC poll, out Wednesday, showed 37 percent of likely voters support the former Massachusetts governor, while 35 percent support the former Pennsylvania senator. To statisticians, that’s within the margin of error, meaning a statistical tie.
“Michigan is neck and neck,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the NBC survey.
That’s a big change from last week, when Santorum led Romney in two Michigan polls.
When it comes to the November election, President Barack Obama would defeat Romney by nearly 20 percentage points in Michigan, the poll found. He would defeat Santorum by 22 points.
Meanwhile, the Santorum campaign said a daily tracking poll by the Gallup Organization showed the former senator maintaining a national lead of 36 percent to 26 percent among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
On Wednesday, Romney won the endorsement of the Detroit News, which said he had a “refreshing free market vision for restoring the nation’s prosperity.”
Romney, meanwhile, touched on one of the most-discussed issues in Midwest politics on Tuesday. He told an audience in Shelby Township, Mich., that he supports a Right to Work law for Michigan, according to our partner station Michigan Radio.
He hasn’t made any secret of his support for the legislation, which would prevent unions from charging mandatory dues if workers chose not to join. Indiana recently became the first Great Lakes state to enact Right to Work legislation, and the first in the U.S. to adopt it in a decade.
But his support of Right to Work puts him at odds with Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who endorsed him last week. Snyder has said Right to Work is not a priority for his administration, and thinks the measure could distract from the state’s economic agenda.
You can read all of Changing Gears’ coverage of the Michigan primary here.
Dustin Dwyer · Yes, Newt, You Can Put A Gun Rack In A Chevy Volt
February 22nd, 2012
At a campaign rally in Georgia on Monday, Newt Gingrich tore into President Obama’s plan to provide subsidies for electric vehicles. He also decided to take a swipe at the Chevy Volt.
“Here’s my point, folks,” Gingrich said. “You can’t put a gun-rack in a Volt.”
That turned out to be a falsehood that YouTube user jtmcdole couldn’t abide.
Here’s his video response:
Dustin Dwyer · Midwest Memo: Lighting Up The Economy, Speedy Job Training And A Compromise In Wisconsin
February 22nd, 2012
The big question A blog post at the Harvard Business Review asks, “Just How Important Is Manufacturing?”
Bright future The National Resources Defense Council says Ohio has become a leader in making high efficiency light bulbs. It says the industry has created 1,500 jobs in the state. The Columbus Dispatch has the story.
The long (distance) con European investors who thought they were helping Detroit’s struggling housing may have actually been victims of a scam. The Detroit News reports that at least a dozen overseas investors say they bought homes in Detroit, but the homes were never repaired, and tenants were never found.
Faster ed Why are community colleges so important to manufacturers? Speed.
Final resort After much debate and disagreement over a controversial plan to open up mining in northern Wisconsin, lawmakers are trying a new approach: compromise.
Niala Boodhoo · What Midwest Leaders Are Doing To Lay Out The Welcome Mat For Immigrants
February 22nd, 2012
Last year, Alabama enacted the country’s most restrictive laws against illegal immigration. One week later, Dayton, Ohio, set out a welcome mat for immigrants. And it’s not alone.
In the second part of our look at immigrants and the Midwest, we’ve found many local governments are trying to attract immigrants as an economic development strategy.
Tom Wahlrab from Welcome Dayton speaks to Global Detroit.
Dayton got attention from all over the world last fall when its city commission unanimously approved a plan called Welcome Dayton to make it an “immigrant-friendly city.” Since then, the town has been inundated.
“We have people calling us from South Africa that read about us in the local paper,” Tom Wahlrab, one of the plan’s architects, said recently in Detroit. “We have people from North China that want to immigrate here, they thought we could help them.”
All that attention so far is just for a plan. It’s a rebranding campaign for Dayton, as well as a framework for helping local government make it easier to integrate immigrants into life there, whether that’s buying a house, starting a business or learning English.
Wahlrab spoke at the invitation of Global Detroit, a network of organizations and individuals that describes itself as promoting immigration as an economic development strategy.
Dayton’s attention might have made a few other Midwestern cities a little envious. Global Detroit’s Steve Tobocman was quick to point out that Dayton isn’t the only one trying to get immigrants to relocate.
“We’ve been at it a lot longer, we’ve attracted a lot more money,” he said at the event. “But I believe there is a certain elegance and opportunity in the plan that Dayton has put together. They’ve done certain things so profoundly right that I think we have a lot to learn from it.”
Global Detroit recently received a $2.6 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation that it will use in part to fund small businesses in two predominantly Arab and Hispanic immigrant neighborhoods in Detroit. The money will also go to further fund its Detroit Welcome Mat initiative, which involves 75 local social service agencies that work with immigrants.
Audrey Singer, who studies immigration for the Brookings Institution in Washington, said modern waves of migrants into the U.S. have mostly gone to Chicago, the South or Southwestern United States. Those who relocate to the Midwest are different.
The Midwest attracts “a very strong, small group of immigrants who have higher education levels much higher than other parts of the country,” she said. Her research shows that in Cleveland, there are 169 immigrants with at least a bachelor’s degree for every 100 immigrants with a high school diploma or less. Pittsburgh has the highest ratio of any metropolitan area in the country – 391 high skilled immigrants for every 100 low-skilled immigrants.
In the U.S., those concentrations of high skilled immigrants are found only along the East Coast – and across the Great Lakes states.
Singer thinks that’s one reason why governments in this region tend to be more welcoming to immigrants.
Addison's Mayor, Larry Hartwig (Niala Boodhoo)
One such place is Addison, Illinois, about 20 miles west of Chicago. It’s a small town – technically, a village – and the type of place where the Mayor has his home phone listed on the town’s website. In the past fifteen years, the number of immigrants living in Addison has grown to almost half the town’s 40,000 residents.
Addison’s Mayor, Larry Hartwig, told me that 34 percent of the community is also foreign-born. While most of the immigrant population is Mexican, there’s also a growing Polish, Albanian and Southeast Asian population. A Hindu temple was recently built nearby.
I spoke with Hartwig at the Henry Hyde Community Resource Center. It was deliberately built in what used to be a tough neighborhood, in hopes of turning it into a more hospitable place.
Now, about one hundred local kids come here after school. There are 750 adults who use it in the morning and evenings for ESL classes – so many, in fact, that the center has a waiting list.
Hartwig says that integrating immigrants, some of whom have come directly from small towns in Mexico, has required adjustments for everyone. It’s something the town has worked hard at for the past 15 years. A few years ago, the village hired consultants who provided cross cultural training for key people in town. Those people, in turn, have trained others – even the local PTA groups at Addison’s schools.
Kids exercising in the afterschool program at Addison's neighborhood resource center (Niala Boodhoo)
“From village halls to the schools to the park district everyone’s making a concerted effort to see what can be done to integrate the community,” said Kiki Deluna, a first generation Mexican-American who is the executive director of the Resource Center.
Unlike Dayton or Detroit, Addison never promoted itself as a place for immigrants to move to – they came on their own. But Mayor Hartwig said that now the town realizes “the essential role immigrants play in our economic development”.
Hartwig wants to be clear that he doesn’t think Addison is doing things perfectly. But he knows that Addison has to be successful at integrating the entire community.
“Immigrants are going to be an important part of our workforce,” he said. “If we are out in front welcoming and integrating and making it work I think it’s going to give us a great competitive advantage, over other areas of the country, and probably other areas of the world.”
CoolCleveland Blog » biztech · Cleveland’s Cash Mobs Spreading Nationwide on CNN
February 22nd, 2012
Posted in BizTechCivic AffairsEntrepreneurialismNewNewsSarah ValekShopLOCALVideo
Cleveland has started a trend — cash mobs. Watch the CNN interview with Andrew Samtoy, organizer of the first Cleveland cash mob, and catch footage of mobs at Visible Voice and Big Fun. http://CNN.com/video WIN $500 by using the free Cool Cleveland app now available for your iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch by clicking here, and [...]powered by
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