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Yanko Tsvetkov

A map of stereotypes, by designer Yanko Tsvetkov, via Top Design Magazine

We came across this map today via Top Design Magazine, and we couldn’t resist sharing. It’s from a project called “Mapping Stereotypes” from designer Yanko Tsvetkov. He’s a graphic designer who was “born in a small town in communist Bulgaria,” according to his website.

So, this finally answers the question of how Bulgarian-born graphic designers see us. Phew. Could’ve been worse.

The Winter Classic on New Year’s Day has become a National Hockey League tradition. Now, the 2013 game is going to be played at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, with a barrage of accompanying events in Detroit.

The Comerica Park tiger decked out in a Red Wings jersey

The NHL said Thursday it expects 115,000 tickets to be available for the main event, pitting the Detroit Red Wings against the Toronto Maple Leafs. That would break the previous record for attendance at a hockey game, set when The Big House hosted 104,173 fans at The Big Chill in 2010.

The Winter Classic game will be accompanied by the Hockeytown Festival, to be held in Detroit, about 45 miles away. Another rink will be set up at Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers, which like, the Red Wings, are owned by Michael Ilitch.

“Where’s my skates? I’m all fired up,” Ilitch said at a news conference.

The Detroit rink will host high school, college, junior and minor league games, involving teams from Detroit, Toronto, Grand Rapids and Saginaw, Mich., as well as the University of Michigan, Michigan State and Michigan Tech. There also will be an alumni game between the two NHL teams.

“It’s been difficult to get up and have a smile on my face,” said Detroit mayor Dave Bing, whose city is facing deep financial problems. On Thursday, however, Bing said the event would be the biggest in sports history for his city, exceeding the 2006 Super Bowl.

Detroit has played in the Winter Classic before, at Chicago’s Wrigley Field in 2009, but this is the first time a Canadian team has been involved in the New Year’s Day game. City officials in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit, believe their community will benefit from the festivities, as well.

As we reported last month, outdoor hockey games are turning out to be lucrative opportunities for big city stadiums. Boston estimates it took in $36 million in revenue when it hosted the Winter Classic two years ago.

The most recent such game in our region was on Jan. 15, when Cleveland’s Progressive Field hosted the Frozen Diamond last month, in which Michigan beat Ohio State.

Name: Kelly Nieman Anderson
Midwest Home: Ann Arbor, MI

Kelly and her husband moved to Mexico City in 2008 to keep him working in the auto industry. They returned to Ann Arbor in 2010. She shared her thoughts about what she missed while she was away and some lessons she learned in Mexico.

There were a lot of things we missed about Michigan.  For me, it was my family and community.  Nearly all of our college friends had left the state to find work, so we didn’t have a lot of friends in the area anymore.  But, we missed the food – cherries, apples, squash, and the changing seasons – crunching snow, blooming daffodils, fireflies, falling leaves.  I missed trees.  The Midwest has so many trees, everywhere, and we take them for granted.  I missed roads that made sense.

It was hard on me to be so far away from home when Michigan was struggling so much.  It was hard to realize that in order to keep our home in Michigan, in order to keep working in the auto industry, in order to have enough extra to donate to our charities and churches in Michigan who were doing so much good in the community, we had to live in a different country.  The day that GM went bankrupt, I wrote a blog, and my husband’s grandma thought someone had died I was so sad.

Mexico does not have a lot of cultural diversity, but it directly faces class diversity.  The neighborhoods are very economically diverse – a maid will live next door to her employer. Because of this actual unemployment in the cities was low.

Many people were working under the table, or for less than living wage, which was very unfortunate.  There was a sense of responsibility amongst those who had money to hire as many workers as possible and to pay them as much as you could.  In Mexico, hiring a housekeeper and going out to eat and tipping our security guard was seen as our responsibility.  We traveled locally, shopped locally, ate locally, and tipped locally – all to do our small part to keep our little community going.  Lots of other Mexicans more wealthy than us did the same.  The working class, in the city at least, didn’t resent the richer class. They resented the government’s policies and corruption.  This is very different than here in Michigan.

When you drive across the Great Lakes to Buffalo, you probably go through the town of Tonawanda — one of the most industrial places in our region. Now, a General Motors engine plant there that’s been closed since 2004 is getting some new life.

GM said Wednesday that it will revive Plant 4 at its Tonawanda engine complex for use as a training center and for production logistics. The move comes as GM is investing $900 million in its other three engine plants there.

The company is hoping the move eventually will lead to several hundred new jobs, according to the Buffalo News. The announcement came at the start of the Buffalo Auto Show.

Plant 4 first came to life during World War II, when it was used to assemble aircraft engines for Pratt and Whitney. Later, the 1.1 million square foot facility assembled big 3.1 liter and 3.4 liter engines, before it was shut down. Since then, it’s been used as a warehouse and for some shop work.

Under GM’s plan, the plant will be put back into use to train workers in the rest of the Tonawanda complex, and also as what’s called a “Logistical Optimization Center” or LOC.

Starting in April, workers will put together kits of the parts needed on the engine assembly line. Pre-assembling the kits means that employees on the engine lines won’t have to pick out the parts themselves. That should speed up production, and clear out space near the assembly line where individual bins of parts are kept now.

Toyota uses a process like this at its Tsutsumi plant, near its Toyota City complex in Japan, and it’s also implementing the LOC idea at its new plant in Blue Springs, Miss.

Robert Coleman, shop chairman for Local 774 of the United Auto Workers told the newspaper that between 100 and 200 people will be hired to staff the LOC over the next two years as it ramps up to three shifts.

The work will be handled by Tier II employees, who are paid a  lower rate than veteran union members. (Read Changing Gears’ coverage of two-tier employees.)

At some GM plants, the LOCs are run by vendors who sometimes do the work off site. But Coleman said the UAW negotiated to do the work at the plant, by its members.

An expensive building The Wall Street Journal reports that the historic Chicago Board of Trade building has found a buyer. The price tag? Between $150 and $180 million, according to the paper (subscription required).

Growing pains for Groupon Chicago-based Groupon reported quarterly earnings for the first time since becoming a public company, and Wall Street was not impressed.

The price of news Crain’s Chicago says the Chicago Tribune is considering a “creative way” to charge for its content online.

A Fund without its founder The Cleveland International Fund has helped get a number of revitalization projects done in the city in recent years. Now, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports the group is trying to carry on despite the indictment of its founder and leader.

Taking a bite out of crime Michigan governor Rick Snyder unveils his budget proposals today. Partner station Michigan Radio has a look at what’s expected to be in the budget, including an extra $45 million to fight crime. The Wall Street Journal says the new spending is meant to take on the state’s “deadly cities.”

Struggling schools A new report says Michigan schools face “alarming and persistent” problems, and it’s falling behind other states in education, according to MLive.

A dining destination reborn The Detroit Free Press has a great writeup of the history and rebirth of the city’s London Chop House, which was once considered among the top restaurants in the country.

Say it ain’t so Organizers have canceled a sled dog race in northern Michigan because of a lack of snow.

courtesy of Cliffs Natural Resources

Cliff's Empire Mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

If you’ve been following our coverage of iron mining in the region, this might interest you.  Cliffs Natural Resources, North America’s biggest iron ore supplier, is scrapping plans to build an iron nugget plant in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

A nugget is just a little clump of very pure iron.  Big deal?  Well, here’s why the new nugget technology matters … and why Cliffs spent years studying it in cooperation with Kobe Steel of Japan.

Remember, the iron-rich regions of Michigan and Minnesota:

1) provided the iron ore

2) that made the steel

3) that helped the industrial Midwest become the industrial Midwest.

However, miners extracted so much high-grade ore, for so long, that mostly low-grade ore remains today.  Companies like Cliffs spend a lot of time and money processing that ore — essentially upgrading it into a product that contains more iron.  That product, called a pellet, is what they ship to steelmakers.

Nuggets have a far higher iron content than the pellets typically produced in the region.  They look like Junior Mints, but they’re almost 100% iron.  Very pure.  Which could make them very valuable to the next generation of steelmakers.

Check out our recent piece on a groundbreaking nugget plant in Minnesota.  Mesabi Nugget hasn’t reached full capacity yet, but it has produced more than 200,000 tons of iron nuggets.

As for Cliffs Natural Resources, the company decided a nugget plant in Michigan would not be commercially viable.  However, spokesman Dale Hemmila says that won’t prevent Cliffs from investing $60 million to extend the life of its Empire Mine to 2015.

The Empire and Tilden open pit mines are essential to the economy of the UP.  We reported earlier on one “company town” that relies on the economic oxygen of the mines.  If you’ve never been to Ishpeming, now’s your chance.

Toyota said Wednesday it plans to move production of the Highlander, a mid-sized SUV, out of Japan next year and into its plant in Princeton, Ind.

It will spend $400 million to expand its operations there, and once that’s completed, the plant will supply Russia and Australia along with North America. Toyota also builds the Highlander in China for the Chinese market only, but it says Highlander will no longer be built in Japan after 2013.

The investment will add 400 new jobs at the Princeton plant, which employs 4,800 people. The factory, which is southern Indiana, builds the Highlander, Sequoia SUV and the Sienna minivan. Toyota says it plans to build about 50,000 more Highlanders a year there.

“That’s great news for this region, for our American customers, and for the U.S economy,” Yoshi Inaba, Toyota’s North American chief executive, said in a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago. Every new auto job, he said, creates three and a half “spin off” jobs to support those workers.

In a Michael Jackson music video, or an episode of Soul Train, Michigan governor Rick Snyder and Indiana’s Mitch Daniels might challenge each other to a dance off over Right to Work.

Michael Jackson in "Bad"

Instead, we have Snyder’s latest interview, in which he says Indiana ought to be worrying more about Michigan’s comeback.

Some context: Indiana and Michigan have been competing for years to land factories and convince businesses to locate in each state.

One of the biggest reasons why Snyder sought reform of Michigan’s business taxes in 2011 was so that the state could be on a more level playing field. It didn’t help that Indiana won a corporate headquarters formerly located in Michigan right after the state’s tax package was signed.

Now, Daniels has upped the ante by signing Right to Work legislation, which prevents unions from charging mandatory dues even if they represent a workforce. Many experts have said Michigan could be the next state to get such a law.

But Daniels, in an interview with Stateline.org, continues to oppose Right to Work for Michigan — and gives his neighboring state an elbow.

Asked if he’s worried about the new Indiana law, Snyder replies,

“If anything, Indiana was probably getting more concerned that Michigan’s back. We’re doing a lot of good things for our employers, with workers comp reform, unemployment insurance reform, having a balanced budget, education reform.”

Snyder goes on to say that he’d like everyone in the region to get along. “I think a lot of the Midwest should all want to come back together, so that it’s not one state versus another state. In many respects, the Midwest was treated as flyover territory and we’re a great place to be, for quality of life and everything else.”

As for the Right to Work fight, the Michigan governor says, “…I view it as a divisive issue. If you look at what’s gone on in the states, you have to ask the question, now what’s going to get done in Indiana for the next year or two? The fight isn’t truly over. It creates an environment where people are not working together.”

Read the Stateline.org interview with Snyder here. And enjoy some classic Jackson moves.

Name: Sarah Wells
Midwest Home: Van Wert, OH
New Home: Hollywood, CA

I left my small town in Ohio to become a working actor. It seemed to me the only way to do this was to be in a city where the entertainment industry is in national shape. Four years later, I can see that I was wrong, and I would give anything to have never left at all.

I think everyone who has left the Midwest ought to go home where they belong. We as a nation have created cities where no one knows anyone else outside of their little created circles.

The ideal small town, the one of our collective American dream, is one in which the dentist sings in your church choir and the grocer is the brother of your doctor, and we all work together to help each other out, spending our money amongst ourselves and enriching each other instead of outside, unnamed, faceless corporations. This is what we have in Los Angeles, it’s accidentally been created by people who left what was left of a functioning community.

And now, it’s Michigan’s turn.

The political spotlight, which many people thought might have been flipped off by now, is about to shine brightly on the state as its Republican presidential primary approaches on Feb. 28.

People in the state can expect to bump into a candidate on a regular basis, whether in television ads, on local news programs, or in person.

The highest-profile appearance thus far is set to be Mitt Romney’s address to the Economic Club of Detroit on Feb. 24. Rick Santorum, who scored three wins on Tuesday, is expected at a fundraising event in Novi next week. There’s no word yet on whether Newt Gingrich or Ron Paul will be be in the state.

No matter the candidate, Michigan’s economy is likely to be front and center, and with it, discussion of the bailout for General Motors and Chrysler.

Romney, who won Michigan’s Republican primary in 2008, might normally be expected to take the state in a runaway. After all, he was born in Detroit, is the son of a Michigan governor, and grew up in a northern suburb.

But he has been under scrutiny for his opposition to the Obama Administration’s managed bankruptcies at General Motors and Chrysler.

He has said he preferred that the pair go through a conventional Chapter 11 process, which could have taken years longer than the quick restructuring that both companies experienced.

Our partner Michigan Radio will be covering the most news-worthy aspects of the candidates’ visits. Be sure to check out their reports.