People Are Awesome: A Detroit Florist Gives Away Bouquets Just for Being Kind

Cord Jefferson
Good


We've told you before that in these times of hardship for so many, others have made it their mission to lighten people's burdens wherever they can. In South Carolina, they're buying each other's coffee. Throughout the Midwest, they paid for one another's gifts around the holidays. Now, one florist is looking to brighten the flagging state of Michigan one bouquet at a time.

Lori Morrison has been selling flowers for three decades in Plymouth, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit whose name it once shared with a brand of automobiles that has since ceased production. The struggling auto industry gave way to a struggling Michigan, where nearly 15 percent of the population now lives below the poverty line. Wanting to give back to the people who have kept her flower shop running in these financially trying times, Morrison came up with something called a "Good Job Bouquet," a simple reminder that someone in the Detroit area still cares.

For the rest of 2012, Morrison will accept nominations for people in Plymouth and the surrounding area who deserve recognition for nourishing their community.

Click HERE to read the rest of this story on Good.is. 

Forbes: What Is Detroit? A City, An Industry, An Idea

Michelle Maynard
Forbes

By now, you’ve probably heard these words, spoken in a famous, raspy voice, during Chrysler’s commercial during half time of the Super Bowl.

“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, the Motor City is fighting again.”

But did Clint Eastwood refer to the city of Detroit — or Detroit, the auto industry? Did he mean the actual residents of Detroit, or everything involved in the imaginary Motor City, which sweeps from Detroit, down through Louisville and on to Dallas?

As a city fights for survival, and car companies fight for revival, it’s very easy for images, metaphors and symbolism about Detroit to become mixed up in a big pot of mythical gumbo. (Not to mention a bubbling political controversy.)

We’ve been trying to discern the different flavors at our public media project, Changing Gears, and it just isn’t easy.

The city of Detroit. Once, it was the industrial Midwest’s version of a gold rush town. From the 1920s to the 1950s, new residents were pouring in every hour, people of every race, ethnic origin, wealth and education level. By 1950, Detroit had 2 million people, making it the size of Houston today.

In that Detroit, one of every two adults worked in a manufacturing job, according to Kevin Boyle, a native Detroiter and historian at Ohio State University. Images of that Detroit are embossed in the American consciousness, the idea of a sprawling city, with prosperous blue and white collar residents, and Motown music rollicking from every transistor radio.

But that Detroit is long gone. The Detroit of today has barely 720,000 people, or less than half the size at its peak. Only 20,000 of those residents, or about 2.7 percent of the people who live there, hold jobs in factories, Boyle calculates. Classic Motown lives on mainly in PBS specials and on satellite radio.

Wealth has been depleted and homes abandoned, schools struggle. Far from being self-sufficient, Detroit could still almost lose everything, writes Dustin Dwyer at Changing Gears. If it can’t fix its finances, it could soon fall under the control of a state appointed emergency manager, the kind that already runs the city’s schools.

Detroit, the auto industry. Now that General Motors and Chrysler are back on their feet, and Ford is successful, the industry seems like a point of national pride. But we didn’t all “pull together” to save it, as Eastwood suggests. Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked efforts at a Congressional bailout in the waning days of the Bush administration.

Click HERE to read the full article on Forbes!

Interview Featuring SuperBowl Breakout Star Clint Eastwood About The MI Film Credits

National Celebs Help Local Charities “Strive To Survive” at Benefit Concert on Feb. 11 at Fillmore Theatre

The “Strive to Survive” concert tour kicks off Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. at the Fillmore Theatre in Detroit. Proceeds from the nationwide tour will benefit the Fire Fighter Cancer Foundation and the Great Lakes Burn Camp.

America’s Got Talent winner and Rochester Hills native, Geechy Guy will be taking a break from his Las Vegas show to help launch the charity tour. American Idol’s Bucky Covington and funny man Billy Ray Bauer are just a few of the acts to light up the stage at the benefit concert, which is being emceed by local comedian Gary Thison. Also appearing is local musical group Fifty Amp Fuse.

"I'm really looking forward to coming home to perform at the Fillmore," said Guy. "Not only will I see some old friends and make some new ones, but we'll all be helping a very worthwhile charity."

Proceeds from the Strive to Survive concert benefit two amazing organizations – The Great Lakes Burn Camp and the Fire Fighter Cancer Foundation.

The Great Lakes Burn Camp in Jackson, Mich. serves as a place of solace and acceptance where burn survivors ages 6 to 17 can heal, grow and support one another. It was established in 1995. The Fire Fighter Cancer Foundation provides international outreach, support and resource assistance programs for firefighters stricken by cancer. The Foundation creates state of the programs for cancer education, awareness and prevention, ensuring the quality of life for firefighters around the world.

Tickets can be purchased for $25, $35 and $75 online through Livenation.com and Ticketmaster.com. For more information visit StrivetoSurviveTour.com.

The “Strive to Survive” concert tour’s Detroit stop is being sponsored by Adamo Group, Detroit Fire Fighters Association Local 344, LPL Financial and 1-800-Board-Up.

3700+ People Walked Through The Belle Isle Aquarium on Sat. Video of What The Rest of Us Missed

Click HERE to help open the Belle Isle Aquarium!


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Let Dirty Harry Make Your Day, He Certainly Made Mine (video)

Chrysler's Latest Import From Detroit: Profits

John Rosevear, The Motley Fool
Daily Finance

Chrysler Group, the most diminished of the (once-) Big Three and the automaker marked "Most Likely to Be Liquidated for Three Sticks of Gum and a Roll of Pennies" for much of the past decade, reported its first full-year profit since 2009 on Wednesday.

Chrysler's $225 million fourth-quarter profit was enough to put all of 2011 in the black for America's No. 3 automaker, giving it a net income for the full year of $183 million.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said on Wednesday that "all of" parent Fiat's (OTC: FIATY) 2011 net income came from Chrysler, as the Italian side of the firm has struggled with rough economic conditions in Europe. Maybe this "Imported From Detroit" thing is working out for them after all.

A surprising turnaround gathers steam

The story of Chrysler's return from the (nearly) dead is simple and good: Its products got a lot better, and more people have been buying them. Meanwhile, costs have come down sharply.

But the story behind the story is a good one, too, a rare case of merger partners finding profitable synergies and realizing them at high speed. Marchionne's dramatic initial vision of "one company in two houses" -- the two houses being Turin and Auburn Hills, the Detroit suburb Chrysler calls home -- became a reality very quickly, as Fiat and Chrysler managers worked together to cut costs out of Chrysler's battered operation and overhaul its product line on the fly.

That product overhaul has been remarkable, and is the key to Chrysler's current success. The bare bones of the sad line of cars and trucks that the company was (mostly not) selling in 2008 are still recognizable in its current products, but they've been given extensive makeovers and fine-tuning that have made them much more competitive.

The results have been gratifying, with month after month of hefty sales gains in the U.S., and for the first time, the beginnings of traction for Chrysler's brands overseas. Chrysler posted an eye-popping 43% increase in retail sales in the U.S. in 2011, enough to power it to a 10.5% market share and fourth place in the domestic sales standings.

But in some ways, those were the easy pickings -- making the most of what Chrysler already had. Now comes the hard part.

Click HERE to read the full article from DailyFinance!

Madonna Tells NFL Network "I Want My Daughter To Go To UofM"

Mmmm Yummy! Metro Detroit's Street Eats Wed, Feb 8th!

Eight food trucks and carts will serve up their best and freshest street fare Feb. 8 at the Royal Oak Farmers Market.

Organized by the newly formed Michigan Mobile Food Vendors Association, the 5-9 p.m. event will be held indoors with live entertainment by the Reefermen.

Participants are Treat Dreams gourmet ice cream; Jacques Tacos, El Guapo Fresh Mexican Grill, Taco Mama, Concrete Cuisine, Frank’s Anatra and Ned’s Travelburger.

Admission is free, and tips will be donated to nonprofit groups.

The Farmers Market is in downtown Royal Oak at 316 E. Eleven Mile, two blocks east of Main.

The London Chop House Returns To Detroit After 20 Years

Eat It Detroit

The London Chop House is one of the most storied establishments of Old Detroit, perhaps second only to the J.L. Hudson's building in its infamy. People still tell stories about it to this day -- nearly anyone with any interest in Detroit history and/or dining culture can tell you that this was the place Chef Jimmy Schmidt cut his teeth before opening the Rattlesnake Club, or that this place was so popular that the Caucus Club was opened merely to contain its spillover (with another interesting sidestory that the Caucus Club was where Barbara Streisand got her start -- true, if only down to the actual letter of the phrasing). It was one of the top-ranked restaurants in the country from the 1950s into the '80s, collecting top honors from a variety of publications as well as a James Beard Award along the way. It was a revelation in painstakingly detailed tuxedoed service at a time when this kind of service was still very much in vogue, far exceeding other establishments in its committment to its customer experience.

When a guest made a reservation, he would arrive to find his table with books of matches and a reserved sign all imprinted with his name, as well as a card with a coin in a slot reimbursing him for his phone call. Alpha types jostled for table #1, while regulars glowed with the knowledge that their suavely jacketed waiter had remembered how many ice cubes they liked in their highballs. 

The Chop House was a hallmark of Detroit's former grandeur, the very embodiment of wealth, power, and prestige that local industry afforded high-powered businessmen. To look at some of the old menus now reveals a steakhouse that is mostly unremarkable save for comparisons to anything other than a steakhouse, but this was the kind of place where the food played second string behind the concertmasters that were image, image, image. The London Chop House meant money, and diners may just as well have eaten their hundreds pan-seared with garlic and white wine for the privilege of being seen in a place imbued with such illustriousness.

But that Detroit is gone.

I'll spare you the hand-wringing over That Which Once Was; that time has passed and most of us who "reminisce" about it today weren't even alive to see it. The London Chop House is the preferred go-to reference point of how great Detroit once was, much as Slows is the contemporary go-to reference point of how great it can be once again. (Conversely it is also an fitting analogy of how far Detroit hath fallen; read this piece on its imminent closing, printed three years before it actually shut its doors, in the New York Times.) Anyone who has spent any length of time writing about food and/or history in this town has spilled their fair share of Internet ink waxing nostalgic on the Chop House (self included). So the news that leaked last week -- news that may have been a bit overlooked in the course of all the holiday hubbub -- that the London Chop House would be reopening after nearly 20 years was met with surprising quiet.

Or maybe it isn't so surprising. At a time when every new high-profile venture in Detroit is met with much fanfare and the usual suspects doing backflips months in advance of its opening on the Craig Fahle Show et.al., the re-opening of the London Chop House has been shrouded in secrecy. The few who do know any significant details about it -- whether garnered by legitimate means or through the grapevine of legitimate hearsay -- aren't at liberty to talk about it.

Here's what CAN be said: the restaurant that is opening is under the ownership of the Gatzaros family, local restaurateurs responsible for the Fishbone's chain as well as the fairly-new Wah-Hoo (an upscale Chinese restaurant in the Central Business District). It is being called the London Chop House & Cigar Bar. It will be located at 155 Congress St. in the lower level of the Murphy Building, the same location as before.

Aside from its name and location, any other similarities between the old Chop House and this doppleganger have yet to be revealed. The owners are extremely tight-lipped about it (like, legal action tight-lipped ... like, this might be my third law suit threat tight-lipped), and while it is supposedly scheduled to open in about a month there is almost no information available about it.

Click HERE to read the rest of this delicious article! 

This is Hilarious: How-To Guide For Making A Hardscrabble, Gritty, Post-Industrial Documentary About Detroit

The Michigan Central Depot is a must-have shot for any documentary about Detroit.

Dustin Dwyer
Changing Gears

Detroit is a city that fascinates a lot of people.

Its story is not a simple one, though it has sometimes been a dramatic one. So maybe it’s not surprising that we seem to hear every week about a new documentary film being made about Detroit.

Changing Gears hasn’t had a chance to see all of these documentaries, but we’ve heard about an awful lot of them.

And we’ve noticed some patterns that we thought could be helpful in case you ever decide to make a documentary about the Motor City.

So, here is our DIY guide for how to make a Detroit documentary:

Opening shot: An abandoned building sits desolate in the morning light. Tufts of yellowed grass sprout up among the cracked concrete and bent steel. The grass blades wave weakly with the wind, as if in surrender.

Once the shot establishes, you can add a voice-over, and possibly some sad music.

Suggested locations:

Michigan Central Station 
Brush Park 
Packard Plant Fisher Body Plant 21

 Act One: “Paris of the Midwest”
After you visually establish that Detroit is a rotting mess of industrial decay, you’ll need to remind your audience of the glory days. Be sure to refer to Detroit as the Motor City as much as possible.

You should also use phrases like “put the world on wheels,” “gave rise to the middle class” and “Paris of the Midwest.” You can even get archival footage of Detroit on YouTube.

Once that’s established, you’ll want to cue up some ominous music. It’s time to show people the city’s rapid and depressing decline. In the past, if you were making a documentary about Detroit, now would be the time to show footage from the 1967 riots.

But using the riots as a way to describe Detroit’s decline has fallen somewhat out of fashion. You can still mention the riots, but be sure to mention that other cities had riots too, and that the city’s downfall can’t be blamed on this one set of events. Still, you’ll have to blame the decline on something, so here’s a list of possible scapegoats:

Corporations 
Globalization
The Federal Government 
The State Government
Unions
Racism 
Disinvestment 
The declining social fabric of America

Act Two: The Post-Apocalyptic Hell-Scape
This is the part of Detroit documentaries that gets people most excited, so don’t hold back. Some choose to skip the other parts of the story completely and just do an entire documentary on this. Either way, you’ll need lots more shots of abandoned places.

This time, visit some neighborhoods on the outskirts of downtown. You can get shots of empty blocks, crumbled houses and graffiti. Pay special attention to the places where vegetation has started growing up through concrete. In a Detroit documentary, you can never have too many of those shots.

It’s also important to put a human face on this part of the story. You should try to find someone with big, watery eyes who’s old enough to remember the good days in Detroit. If you’re lucky, they’ll tell you about bullets being shot through their window, drugs taking over their street and the inevitable hopelessness that every poor soul left in Detroit can’t help but feel.

If you’re really lucky, they’ll ask you to stop taping so they can cry. It goes without saying that this person should be extremely poor and preferably black.

End the act with a long, lingering pause, so that your audience can fully feel the visceral, unending misery that is life in today’s Detroit.

Act Three:
A Glimmer Of Hope This act is sometimes optional in Detroit documentaries. In other documentaries it’s the entire focus (but those are usually the boring documentaries). Anyway, the hopeful storyline should start off with a shot of downtown Detroit, this time with actual people in it, to show that life goes on despite all the horror.

Then you’ll want to cut to a project or business that is emblematic of what’s going right in the city. Here are some suggestions:

Avalon Bakery 
Slow’s Bar B Q 
Good Girls Go To Paris Crepes 
Detroit Denim Co. 
Any community garden 
Any artist 
TechTown 
Detroit Creative Corridor Center


Click HERE to read the rest of this article!