Brewed Fresh Daily

Name: Layton Ehmke
Midwest Home: Dighton, KS
New Home: Chicago, IL

The first chance I got, I took a job as far from the Midwest as I could get and still be in the U.S., which landed me in Homer, Alaska — 3,685 miles west of Dighton, Kansas.

I was a reporter there for about 1,300 days before I really started to miss consistent sunshine and thunderstorms, so I came back to Kansas for a year of farming before heading to the capital of the Midwest, which I’ve recently figured out, is a place I love.

But days before I moved to Chicago, one of my farm chores was to burn a neighboring farm house to the ground. The little house had stood there on the face of the High Plains of western Kansas–empty and weathered, for a generation. Then it was gone. Up in smoke.

There are more of them too, these farmhouses and barns leaning to their ruin–relics that dot the horizon, reminding us that farming doesn’t take the labor force it once did.

In 10 years, 20 percent of the county’s population had fled or died. One in five people I’d known were gone. Today in Lane County, cattle outnumber people forty to one.

I came to Chicago for something that both Homer, Alaska and Dighton, Kansas didn’t have, which was an opportunity to do anything outside of agriculture. I definitely found it on the 16th floor of 680 N. Lake Shore Drive as a researcher at Playboy Magazine.

Does fact-checking the magazine have any resemblance to cleaning a grain bin or driving a tractor for 15 hours a day? Nope. That’s the point.

Meanwhile, I keep in touch with my brother since he actually left Chicago to go back to the farm. Sometimes I wonder if I should join the family business, too, and give up the rest of the world to grow wheat in the wind.

I want to be part of Chicago, because Chicago has just enough. It’s not insane like NYC and LA. It’s Chicago: the great metropolis of moderation.

This is a shorter version of a longer essay originally published in the February, 2012 issue of The Chicagoan.

Yesterday, we told you about a program in Detroit that’s meant to keep homes occupied.

Now we’d like to know how you feel about it. Should cities cut deals in order to keep homes occupied?

We’re especially interested in views from home owners all over the Great Lakes.

Some people have struggled during the to pay their taxes (or have stopped paying them completely). Others dutifully write their checks.

If you don’t own a home, we’d like to hear your views. Would you be inclined to buy a property if you could get it for a super-low price, like Detroit’s $500 deals?

Please weigh in with your thoughts, and we’ll summarize them in a future story.

The State of Steubenville Ohio governor John Kasich delivers his State of the State address tonight. But instead of giving the speech at the state capitol, he’ll be at a public school in Steubenville. Partner station WCPN Ideastream explains why.

Tech jobs Chicago is landing more tech jobs, mostly in the digital advertising sector, reports Crain’s Chicago.

Detroit panel to meet in public A judge says there will be no more secret meetings to determine the fate of Detroit. A state-appointed panel is looking into the city’s finances to determine whether the city should be put under the control of an emergency manager. Now, partner station Michigan Radio reports the panel’s meetings must be held in public.

A pickle of a plant A plant in Detroit that once made auto parts is about to start making pickles.

Here’s hoping you never have to use it A couple of Clevelanders are launching a new startup company: eFunerals.com.

Posted in ArtsBizTechCivic AffairsComedyCultureEatsMusic: PopularNewsSarah ValekTravel

USA Today finds 11 reasons to visit Cleveland. “BIG BUSINESS,” Special Correspondent for USA Today’s Pop Candy section, covers the gamut of cool things in Cle, listing everything from the Beachland Ballroom and Christmas Story House to Chucklefck comedy nights and the Cedar Lee Theatre. And, they even gave a bonus shout-out to Julia Kuo’s [...]

Posted in BenefitBizTechCivic AffairsCleveland HeightsCommentaryDanceDrinksEntrepreneurialismEventsHelpJulie CagijasMusic: PopularNewsPartyPerformancePreview

[ February 14, 2012; 5:00 am; ] A Cleveland Valentine's Day Affair to Remember Local Women’s Empowerment Org Hosts V-day Party with a Purpose   By Julie Cajigas Valentine's Day inspires different feelings for many people. New couples are filled with exhilaration, long-term couples enjoy commemorating their love, some partners worry about surprising their significant other with a romantic date and then there [...]

Posted in ArtsBenefitBizTechCivic AffairsCultureEducationEntrepreneurialismHistoryHotMusic: ClassicalMusic: PopularNewsPreviewScienceTechnologyThomas Mulready

Most clicked Here are the Top 5 most clicked links from last week’s issue, with one more chance for you to click. 1) CitizenGroove New Office Open House & Happy Hour 2) Take a video tour of the new Greater Cleveland Aquarium 3) A visual exploration of Cleveland’s Crooked River at SPACES 4) Seeking Artists To Collaborate [...]

Last night during the Super Bowl, Chrysler ran a follow-up to its much buzzed-about commercial from last year’s big game. The new commercial, dubbed “It’s Halftime in America” ran, appropriately enough, during halftime.

The ad makes it clear that Chrysler is sticking with its strategy to promote the Motor City as a way to promote its vehicles.

After declaring that “it’s halftime in America, the ad’s narrator, Clint Eastwood, says:

People are out of work and they’re hurting. And they’re all wondering what they’re going to do to make a comeback. And we’re all scared because this isn’t a game. The people of Detroit know a little something about this. They almost lost everything. But we all pulled together. Now, Motor City is fighting again.

The ad got us thinking: When people say Detroit, oftentimes what they mean is “the auto industry” or “metro-Detroit.” So, what exactly are we talking about when we talk about Detroit?

Clearly, when Dirty Harry himself says Detroit “almost lost everything,” he’s not talking about the City of Detroit. Because, if the city doesn’t get its finances in order, it could still lose “everything” and fall under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. And he’s not talking about Detroit schools, which are already under the control of an emergency manager.

It’s arguable whether he could even be talking about Chrysler, since the company’s headquarters are a half-hour drive from the city’s borders, and the company is majority-owned by Italy’s Fiat. Also, unless you’re talking about the Jeep Wrangler or Dodge Durango, none of Chrysler’s cars are actually made in the Motor City.

These might seem like minor details. After all, few of us are confused when people use “Detroit” to mean “the auto industry.” But the distinction does matter, certainly to Detroiters. And it helps explain why the city is still struggling, even though the car companies seem to have bounced back.

As Changing Gears wrote last year, there are only two auto assembly plants left in Detroit (although Chrysler is re-opening a third this year). And GM is the only car company whose headquarters is within the city limits.

When the car companies left the city, they took with them their property tax obligations, their employee income tax obligations and a whole lot of money that the actual city of Detroit could use right about now. It’s not like we can expect these decisions to be reversed, nor would it necessarily be a good thing for the region.

But we should be aware that when a company, or a person talks about rebuilding Detroit, sometimes they’re not talking about Detroit at all. Sometimes they’re talking about a suburb (where things were never as bad as they are right now in Detroit). Sometimes, as is the case with a recent Chrysler announcement, they’re talking about Belvidere, Ill.

So how is it you can hear about the rebirth of Detroit, and a minute later hear about how the city’s finances are crumbling?

Because when people say Detroit, often what they mean is something completely different.

When you use the word Detroit, what does it mean to you?

On Friday, Caterpillar’s Progress Rail Services said it was closing its 62-year-old Electro-Motive Canada operation in London, Ontario, the subject of a union lock out since the beginning of the year. Now, it looks like some of the plant’s 475 jobs could be headed for Indiana, reports the Globe and Mail in Toronto.

Caterpillar held a jobs fair in Muncie, Ind., over the weekend, that drew thousands of applicants. Some job seekers showed up at 4 a.m., five hours before the company began letting people in the door. In all, about 3,000 people turned out, according to the Muncie Free Press.

The Muncie plant, which assembles locomotives, underwent a $50 million renovation last year and became the first new locomotive plant in the United States in years.

The New Year’s lock out of the Canadian Auto Workers union came after the CAW refused to accept deep concessions that would have cut hourly pay in half.

The move comes just as Indiana is implementing its new Right to Work law, signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels last week. The law prevents unions from charging mandatory dues, even if they represent a workforce.

In explaining the shutdown, Billy Ainsworth, the CEO of Progress Rail, said in a letter to employees that all the company’s facilities “must achieve competitive costs, quality and operating flexibility to compete and win in the global marketplace, and expectations at the London plant were no different.”

Name: Esperanza Rubio Torres
Midwest Home: Lansing, MI
New Home: San Luis Potosi, Mexico

I was making ends meet by working a couple waitressing jobs, the winter was coming, and I think I had gotten depressed and sort of refused to recognize it. My life was in an ugly rut. After much thought, I threw all my cares to the wind. I sold my car and I quit my jobs and got out of Michigan. It was really freeing and scary and amazing.

I can’t give any real reason why I left, exactly, but I just felt like I was done with Michigan and Michigan was done with me. I ended up moving to Mexico with my parents who had decided to retire there.

Is it better here in Mexico than in Michigan? I think it is unfair to compare, it’s apples and oranges. I am happier and healthier than I was in Michigan.

I have no plans to move back to the Midwest, but I miss my friends and the family I left there. I still recall with great joy the beautiful moments I spent there, and the warmness of the people in the city I was born in. Lansing really is a gem, and anyone who thinks otherwise doesn’t really know Lansing. That said, I do not miss the winter–so many grey months where I felt sad and depressed, shoveling, expensive produce, and driving everywhere. I really love where I am now, and the challenges I’m facing. In the event that I did return, I know the Midwest, and Lansing in particular, would welcome me back with arms wide open.

The day after The Super Bowl is over, and now the cleanup process begins for Indianapolis.

Opportunity knocked Reuters looks into what happened to all those clients of MF Global, after the firm collapsed. Turns out two Chicago firms were the biggest winners, bringing in $1.2 billion in new funds.

More ‘Free’ beds The Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich. is planning a $48 million expansion. The expansion will double the hospital’s size.

Gasification fight Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson wants to turn the city’s trash into energy. But environmentalists have raised concerns about emissions from the “gasification” process. And the city council is not sold on the idea.

Going once, going twice, oh never mind … Detroit residents who had their homes taken away because of a failure to pay taxes are getting an opportunity to buy those homes back. The Detroit News reports that thousands of city-owned properties failed to sell at auction. So officials now say they’ll offer to sell the property back to the original owner, or whoever is squatting in the home, for as little as $500.

Not really ‘Made In Detroit’ Last week, we put together a list of all the companies making t-shirts to show your local pride in the Midwest. Today, Susan Tompor looks at one of those companies and asks “Where are those ‘Made In Detroit’ shirts actually made?”