Fans from all across the country can soon roll up with their crew to the 2016 Adult Swim Drive-In
They will enjoy a free magical night with Adult Swim, basic cable's #1 network with millennials for over a decade, and get a first look at what's on the programming horizon starting next month.

Each stop of the five-week, 10-city national tour, brings an ultimate exclusive sneak peek at unaired episodes, never-before-seen pilots and specials, and loads of other Adult Swim favorites. Fans will also enjoy food trucks, free popcorn, concessions, games, and prizes. Vouchers for a free meal from one of the food trucks on-site will be handed out, while supplies last. Attendees can also bring their own picnic dinners, see the official site for more details.

The content, which will be shown on a massive 40-foot inflatable screen, will be updated periodically throughout the tour. 

The event is free to fans ages 18+ and RSVPs are required atAdultSwimPresents.com.

The Adult Swim Drive-In tour will include stops in the following cities:

8/18 - Albuquerque, NM @ Balloon Fiesta Park    
8/22 - Austin, TX @ Blue Starlite Drive-In   
8/26 - Indianapolis, IN @ Old National Centre                          
8/29 - Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium
9/1 - Columbus, OH @ South Drive-In Theatre
9/6 - Detroit, MI @ Belle Isle Park
9/8 - Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
9/10 - Denver, CO @ 88Drive-In Theatre
9/15- Seattle, WA @ CenturyLink Field
9/17 - Portland, OR @ Portland Meadows
Rendering: Grey Ghost


Detroit's newest restaurant, Grey Ghost, is opening this Thursday in Brush Park.  According to the Detroit Free Press, the new restaurant takes up roughly 2,500 square feet of the former Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe space on Woodward and Watson. The entrance to the 83-seat restaurant is off Watson. (An additional 24-seat outdoor patio off Watson is in the works.)

Grey Ghost describes itself as a "Neighborhood Steakhouse, Cocktail Bar, with Midwestern Hospitality."

Bonus: They take reservations

Check out their menu HERE! Oh and, this will make you thirsty.....

Team


John Vermiglio -  Chef
Joe Giacomino - Chef
David Vermiglio - Bean Counter
Will Lee - Beverage Director 

47 E. Watson Street
Detroit, MI 48201
http://www.greyghostdetroit.com
Open 4 pm Daily


The NY Times Is Talking About Detroit Again......


Photo: detroitography.com




The entrepreneur Jerry Paffendorf bought a vacant lot in Detroit for $500 back in 2010. And then he did something truly unusual — maybe even unique — with it.

He created a map that parceled the land on East Vernor Highway Street into a grid of 10,000 one-inch squares, and he invited people to be inch-vestors in the property for $1 a square. About 600 people from all over the world bought them all.

“We had a solar panel-powered webcam so owners could monitor their property,” Mr. Paffendorf recalled recently. In the spirit of online games like FarmVille and SimCity, the project was designed as a provocation. You own an inch in Detroit. What do you want to do with it?

The project received a lot of attention, not all of it the kind Mr. Paffendorff had anticipated. Having lived in cities like New York and San Francisco that were “growing, noisy, thriving, where you had to scream to be heard, I didn’t know how different Detroit would be. It’s like a very big small town. I think a lot of people wondered, “‘Who is this crazy person?’” he said.

Mr. Paffendorff, 34, who calls himself an artist and a futurist, studied fine arts at Montclair State University in New Jersey and science in the Studies of the Future program at the University of Houston. He moved to Detroit in 2009 after working at or creating technology start-ups in Los Angeles, Washington, and Brooklyn.

He said the mapping project introduced him and his collaborators to the world of vacant properties, how they are mismanaged and misunderstood, and how the city of Detroit at that time had no capacity to have any information about itself. “To a shocking extent,” he says, “the city had no mechanism for understanding the space of itself.”

That was no small matter for a city that owned almost 100,000 properties. Mr. Paffendorf realized no one else was going to map them so, expanding on the original “silly inch-grid” idea, he started injecting real-life parcel information into maps, ultimately mapping every single parcel in Detroit, and Motor City Mapping was born.

Click HERE For The Full Article! 
...

The Project
Wolverine Human Services plans to build a community garden and training site that will be cultivated by the residents of the streets surrounding the Wolverine Center and the John S Vitale Community Center.

It will include the following key components:


  • A community garden with raised beds and paved pathways for growing herbs and vegetables that meets ADA Accessibility regulations.
  • A mixed-use structure that will be used as a neighborhood farmers' market retail space, a garden-training classroom, and for agricultural equipment storage.
  • The site will be well-lit and secured so that community members can work their garden plots in a safe and friendly environment. 

Wolverine Human Services has been an institution in the Jefferson-Mack neighborhood for nearly 30 years and in that time, we have witnessed the deterioration of this neighborhood as residents have vacated the houses and businesses and other community institutions have closed their doors.  

But here at Wolverine Human Services, we are committed to bringing new growth and innovation to this neighborhood by creating opportunities in the areas of education and vocational training to not only the young men in our care at the Wolverine Center, but also to the residents of the neighborhood that we have shared for three decades.

Click HERE To Donate To This Project!  If they hit their goal of $50,000,  the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and Michigan State Housing Development Authority will DOUBLE your donations through their Public Spaces, Community Places grant match program. 




Detroit Is The New Black
Opening: Sunday, July 24

Hours:
Monday - Saturday 11:00 AM- 7:00 PM 
Sunday 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
1426 Woodward Avenue



Be a part of a fun and active twist on happy hour with a playful game of dodgeball while supporting the youth of Detroit on Thursday, July 28,2016 at 5:00 pm in Cadillac Square, just East of Campus Martius, 800 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI!

Last year, Dodge for Detroit raised over $20,000 to provide much needed funding for Scouting’s outreach programs to provide character development, leadership skills, and instill lifelong values in over 4,000 socioeconomically disadvantaged youth within our local council. This year, they are on track to raising nearly $40,000 and they need you and your friends!

Get your friends and coworkers together for an exciting round-robin dodgeball tournament brought to you by Midwest Mobility Solutions! Teams consist of 6-10 players and are guaranteed to play at least three games, but you don’t have to play to show your support. Instead, you can sit back, relax and enjoy some of the best food and drinks Metro Detroit has to offer.

**Must be 18 years old to participate. **

Mojo, from Mojo in the Morning heard on Channel 95.5 is our host for the second year!

For more information, please visit http://www.michiganscouting.org/dodgeball/

View 2015 Dodge for Detroit photos HERE.
The Slow Motion photo booth was AMAZING last year. Click HERE to watch!




It's been a pretty intense month, with an extra dose of political divisiveness. We want to counter this with more connection & love.

Inspired by a story from NYC, DDF creative director Melinda "MeMe" Anderson is dusting off her Connect Four sets and inviting us all to play together this Friday. Over friendly games, they'll also be collecting creative ideas for a more connected city.

Connect Four The City
Friday, July 22, 4-7pm
Urban Consulate
4470 Second Avenue
Detroit, MI 48201

Free & open to the public.
All ages welcome.
No experience necessary :)


Detroit is on its way back from the brink and its revival is being led, in part, by the food and wine industry. Don't let the reputation scare you: It's one of the most vibrant, interesting and delicious places I've visited in years. The largest municipal bankruptcy in American history and the flight of half its population haven't been kind. It can look scary, but the city is now stable, clean and much safer.

It's not just big players like Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert who are working to revive downtown; it's also entrepreneurs with less cash who are buying and creating throughout the city limits. Deals for restaurant spaces, often done with the city, can be negotiated in the $20,000-$35,000 range—or sometimes just in exchange for covering back taxes. Even the city's great skyscrapers are up for grabs.

Corktown, the terrific group of coffee shops, restaurants and distillers, rightfully gets most of the press. Here and throughout the city, out-of-the box thinkers are dreaming up wine bars, eateries and breweries. Add access to great ingredients and a palpable sense of good will, and born-again Detroit might just make Copenhagen, Portland and Williamsburg seem staid by comparison.

Top Restaurants

Katoi: On a forlorn stretch of Michigan Avenue is the chicest and possibly the best Thai restaurant in America.

London Chop House: In the heart of downtown, this Old World steak house competes with the best but ultimately wins by having a truly great wine list at fair prices.

Rose's Fine Food: A symbol of the revival. Is it the best diner in America? Yes. It's also one of the best restaurants. Local fish, farm fresh eggs, Michigan asparagus, strawberries and more.

Selden Standard: A foodie's dream. A great industrial space, a cool 'hood and the food, bar scene and garden are spot on.

Click HERE To Read The Full Article! 

The Belle Isle Conservancy is hosting Sunset at the Scott, an event to raise funds for the Scott Fountain Pewabic Tile Fund, in an effort to restore the historic Pewabic tile mosaic that once covered the basin of the James Scott Memorial Fountain.

Sunset at the Scott will take place on Wednesday, August 17 from 6:30PM-8:30PM on the Belle Isle paddock near the Scott Fountain.

The event will feature:

  • El Guapo Fresh Mexican Grill
  • Cool Jacks Handcrafted Ice Cream + Cookies
  • Beer + Wine + Specialty cocktail
  • Live entertainment provided by O N E F R E Q


“This promises to be a lovely evening celebrating the beauty of Belle Isle, and particularly the Scott Fountain,” said Michele Hodges, President of the Belle Isle Conservancy. “Our supporters are committed to the preservation of the original Pewabic tiles, and this event gives them a chance to help make that happen.”

To date, past supporters have helped the Belle Isle Conservancy raise nearly $75,000 towards the Scott Fountain Pewabic Tile Fund’s goal of $300,000 to complete the restoration.

The Belle Isle Conservancy continues to support its partnership with Pewabic Pottery with Pewabic on site at the event with limited edition Belle Isle tiles for sale. A portion of the proceeds from the Belle Isle tile series will be donated to the Scott Fountain Pewabic Tile Fund. The original tile mosaic was designed by Pewabic’s founder Mary Chase Perry Stratton and was removed from the fountain during a repair.

The event had previously been part of Pewabic Pottery’s annual house and garden show, but a scheduling conflict with another Belle Isle Conservancy event this year created the need for the event to take on an identity of its own with a new date and location.

Advance tickets for Sunset at the Scott range from $50-$250 and are available until August 1st. Admission is $65 at the door. Sponsorship opportunities are available. A recreation passport is required for admittance to the island.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.belleisleconservancy.org/sunset2016.  
Photo: Robin Soslow
If you're not turned on by Detroit's new energy, you'd better check your pulse.

Boom and bloom have shattered the Motor City's gloom-and-doom reputation. Super-charged vital signs include a white-hot urban art scene, homegrown jazz, R&B, funk and electronic virtuosos, sensational bargain-priced food, coffee and craft beer, a fresh new riverfront, a greenway where lush foliage competes with street art-splashed concrete slabs, new urban bike and kayak tours, and friendly residents excited to share their cultural riches.

Abandoned buildings are surging back to life. The Aloft hotel opened last year in the David Whitney, a 1915 neo-Renaissance skyscraper with a jaw-dropping atrium. A labyrinth-like brewery now holds Red Bull House of Art's galleries and studios.

Russell Industrial Center, an auto body factory designed by Detroit starchitect Albert Kahn that opened 1925, now holds studios (Bill Poceta's glassworks, Dana Keaton's fashions), Michigan Hot Glass Workshop and galleries. Catch the Robots and Ray-guns exhibition.

An abandoned warehouse has revived as Ponyride, a business accelerator and home to Anthology, a new slow/ethical/heavenly coffee purveyor where you should savor it black.

Neglected storefronts now hold hip joints like Northern Lights Lounge, a retro outpost with no cover, even when Motown veterans take the stage.

As a stunning new hockey arena rises downtown, entrepreneurs are racing in from New York to snap up cheap big digs with character. Homegrown innovators are launching dream ventures. The 100 restaurants that have opened in the last two years include wildly popular Selden Standard, Republic and Katoi. New brewpubs include Batch Brewing and HopCat.

Click HERE For The Full Article! 
Photo: Andres Ortiz



Inspired by the origins of sushi (fast food), Detroit artist and chef Mike Han has developed a sustainable sushi concept called ITADAKU that will serve high quality sushi fast. This fine-casual sushi shop will feature Daku Maki (large format hand rolls), salads, and rice bowls along with traditionally made nigiri and sashimi.

ITADAKU is the intersection of Han’s two greatest passions, art and sushi. This concept is as much about art and storytelling as it is about eating for pleasure and sustenance. Itadaku is a Japanese word that means “to enjoy [food and life] with gratitude.” It is an honorific word that shows deep appreciation for the plants, animals and natural resources needed to nourish our bodies, and for the people who work the land and sea tirelessly to bring us nature’s bounty.

ITADAKU’s mission is to make delicious sustainable sushi accessible to all. Our broader goal is to positively impact people and our planet by cultivating grateful hearts. Like the city of Detroit, ITADAKU is founded in 1701 [Trumbull Ave], and with Detroit spirit and hustle, we will work to revolutionize the sushi industry by demonstrating a powerful demand for responsibly sourced seafood in the US and around the world.



Mike Han is the owner, chef and artist behind ITADAKU. Han was formerly the Head Sushi Chef of Roka Akor in River North Chicago, a Michelin recommended restaurant and ranked as one of the "Top 10 Sushi Spots in the US" by Bon Appetit Magazine. Han has also worked under Master Sushi Chef Katsu Uechi, one of four Master Sushi Chefs in LA at his restaurants Katsuya by Starck, and Katsu-ya, a perennial Top 10 Restaurant in SoCal rated by Zagat.

As an artist, Mike works under the name “icon” (say "Mike Han" really fast a few times and you'll get it) and has painted murals for vitaminwater, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy on the Dequindre Cut, the Woodward Windows Project, Derrick May's Transmat Gallery, for several Metro Detroit businesses and even has painted a mural in Japan. Han has exhibited his artwork throughout Metro Detroit and in Seoul, South Korea, and has had artwork purchased for use in a feature film by Paramount Pictures.

ITADAKU is a singular Detroit experience coming to Corktown in late 2016.

Follow @itadakusushi on facebook and instagram for news and access to pre-opening pop ups and check out Daku’s Story on our website itadakusushi.com.

By Rick Merritt, Silicon Valley Bureau Chief, EE Times

Detroit's progress in diversity is a lesson it can give Silicon Valley in exchange for its example of passion for startups.

Just before the Fourth of July holiday, I got an email pitching a story about progress with the turnaround in Detroit, the city where I was born. I was especially intrigued because the email hit my iPhone just as I was heading to the San Jose airport for a flight to see family in Kalamazoo.

I recently got more details from Pam Lewis, director of the New Economy Initiative, a project of a nonprofit working on the turnaround in southeastern Michigan. Lewis said after the 2008 financial crisis, unemployment rose in Detroit to nearly 25% and poverty peaked at 40%. Even worse, 60% of residents of the Motor City don't own a vehicle, she said.

I’ve heard from friends and relatives for years about the down economy in Michigan generally. I witnessed it first hand the last two years trying to sell my aunt’s Kalamazoo home. Walking around my old neighborhood, I saw several houses shuttered, some badly in need of repair and selling under foreclosure for less than $40,000.

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs consider that a good down payment on a Tesla. The average San Jose home sells for twenty times that amount.

NEI provides some impressive figures of what it has helped achieve, especially in diversity, an area where Silicon Valley is more of a follower.

In recent years, NEI helped create 1,600 companies, 39% of them minority-owned, compared to a national average of 21%. In high-tech, 28% of the companies are minority and women owned, compared to 3-4% nationally.

In the last nine years, the number of startup accelerators and incubators in Detroit has risen to 50 from less than ten. And the amount of venture capital investment has nearly tripled in five years while the national numbers have declined, the NEI said.

Click HERE For The Full Article! 
A video posted by Wes Borland (@thewesborland) on

‘Sight Unseen’

DIY Network

10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Wednesday EST

Click HERE For More Information! 
Photo: David Gilkey/NPR
What does it mean to be middle class in America? Nearly a century ago, in Detroit — which was then the burning core of the country's middle class — the answer might have looked like a hot dog: a Detroit Coney, to be precise.

At its most basic, a Detroit Coney is a kind of chili dog — "a steamed bun, with a natural-casing hot dog, beef and pork," explains Joe Grimm, author of the book Coney Detroit. "And on top of that hot dog — which should be grilled, not boiled, not deep-fried — goes the sauce, the most important part."

All along the streets of Detroit, you see big neon signs advertising Coneys — a word that refers not just to the hot dogs but to the hundreds of eateries that sell them. Eateries like Red Hots Coney Island, which has been serving up Coneys since 1921.

Owner Rich Harlan has been working there for 48 years. He says his great-aunt and -uncle started the restaurant after immigrating to Michigan from Greece. "We are a block away from the first assembly plant that was made by Ford Motor Co.," Harlan says. "That's how they got started."

Indeed, the story of how the Coney became Detroit's signature dish is deeply entwined with the history of the city's auto industry.

In the 1920s and '30s, Detroit teemed with workers drawn there by Henry Ford's promise of a $5-a-day wage. "People came here from around the world to get that money," Grimm says. As a result, "the [city's] occupancy rate went over 100 percent." Housing became so tight that rooms were sometimes rented for eight-hour stints — long enough for one renter to sleep while another occupant was working a shift at the Ford factory, Grimm says.

Click HERE For The Full Article! 

The World Peace Mural Tour is coming to Detroit to create a "World Peace Mural" and is seeking volunteers who are willing to help with preparing the wall for the mural. 

VOLUNTEERS are needed on July 17th at 2:00pm
LOCATION: 4103 Grand River Ave., Detroit, MI 48208
The work to be done is fairly simple.
We are painting the whole building white.
Shouldn't take more than 4-5 hours
Maybe less, if we have more volunteers

Paint and supplies will be provided

If you have any of your own supplies, and are willing to bring them, that is greatly appreciated
(ladders, paint rollers, paint roller covers, paint pans, drop cloths)

Renda Writer is an artist from MiamiFlorida, and he is coming to Detroit July 17-21st, 2016 as part of his World Peace Mural Tour.

The plan is to finish the preparation of the wall on July 17th, with the help of the volunteers, so that installation of the mural can begin on July 18th.

The World Peace Mural Tour is a peace campaign, art tour, and an effort to enact change through the energy of the written word, the power repetition, and the influence and interaction of public art.

More Info:
www.WorldPeaceMuralTour.com
www.Facebook.com/WorldPeaceMuralTour
Photo: Amanda Demme
Erykah Badu is supporting an effort to help get old rape kits tested.

The Detroit Free Press reports the singer partnered with The Right Productions to donate money from her Aug. 12 Detroit concert to the African American 490 Challenge.

The effort last year started urging black women to raise multiples of $490 — the cost of processing a single rape kit. The 490 Challenge is working with Enough SAID.

Shahida Mausi, president and CEO of The Right Productions, said the 490 Challenge would get $5 from each ticket and proceeds from two receptions with Badu.

"This is a huge day for Enough SAID/AA490,” said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy in a statement. “Everyone knows that Erykah Badu is a major, major talent in the music and song-writing industry. For her to lend her name, talent and time to this work is nothing short of a miracle. Justice for these forgotten sexual assault victims has been given a phenomenal assist.”

Michigan and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office tested more than 10,000 kits dating back decades that were found in Detroit in 2009.

For information, call 313-393-0292 or go to www.CheneParkDetroit.com. Tickets for the Erykah Badu concert are available through Ticketmaster or via the Chene Park mobile app.

To donate to the AA490 Challenge, go to www.aa490challenge.org.



This Monday, The Children’s Center of Wayne County is teaming up with Slow Roll Detroit to bring awareness to the urgent need for Foster Parents in metro Detroit. 

Locally, more than 2,500 children are in the foster system. In Michigan, more than 14,000 children are in foster care each year. 

The July 11 Slow Roll will kick off from The Children’s Center campus in Midtown. For the second year in a row, this special ride will help bring awareness and attention to the thousands of Detroit children in foster care, and the need for loving foster parents. 

Riders will receive a blue Slow Roll for Foster Care Awareness t-shirt, and hear from TCC’s Community Outreach Specialist, Shereen Allen-Youngblood, as well Slow Roll as co-founder Jason Hall. 


How This Jewelry Brand Is Truly Helping Detroit



A good number of fashion brands based in Detroit, touting the myriad ways they’re bettering the beleaguered city, have cropped up in recent years. Shinola is likely the most famous name heralding its “Made In Detroit” authenticity and its impact on the Midwestern metropolis (though that claim got thoroughly criticized, among other things, by The New York Times back in 2013). But there are some far smaller players doing big things in Motor City — like jewelry line Rebel Nell, founded three years ago by lawyer Amy Peterson, the Detroit Tigers' associate counsel.

Peterson came to Detroit to pursue a career in sports in 2007; getting involved with the local community led her inadvertently into the bauble business as a second job (a third job, really, counting motherhood, as Peterson puts it). Rebel Nell's cofounder and creative director, Diana Russell, had a design and retail background, but it wasn't a fashion project with a do-good element later tacked on. The cause — combatting joblessness for women in Detroit — truly begat the products.

Beautiful as the slightly circuitboard-esque, marble-effect pieces are, it’s the company’s triple-pronged impact that really stands out. Firstly, Rebel Nell employs underemployed, impoverished women, and provides financial-literacy training, among offering other essential "getting through life" resources. The pieces these women create are basically wearable works of urban renewal, crafted from graffiti found around the city. Rebel Nell's offerings, priced at $60 to $175 per piece, bring further attention to the city itself and how revitalization efforts can (and should) take shape via fashion. (Last week, Peterson and Russell were named Social Entrepreneurs of the Year for their impactful work by Ernst & Young.) It’s the kind of altruistic project refreshingly devoid of bullshit; you can’t help but be inspired. We rang up Peterson to get the full story.



How did the concept for Rebel Nell come about? 

"I wanted to find my little way of giving back, and it kind of happened accidentally: Right next door to where I lived, there's a well-known shelter, COTS [Coalition On Temporary Shelter]. I'd walk my dog and have conversations with the residents, primarily the women. I heard their stories about the really challenging situations they left in search of better opportunity; even if that meant going to a shelter, they needed to leave whatever situation they were in. These were very courageous, motivated women, and I wanted to give them the tools needed to never be back in a shelter, ever again.

"A lot of what I heard was not only physical and emotional abuse, but they were escaping financial abuse as well. So I thought if I could give a financial-literacy component — understanding their bills, where their money was going — I could possibly help them. At that time, I didn't really know about social-enterprise work, but I wanted to find a way to support COTS with my friend and now business partner, Diana."

Click HERE For The Full Article! 
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