The Michigan Science Center Extends Free Admission Offer to Entire 4th of July Weekend

Today, the Michigan Science Center (MiSci) announced that it will offer free general admission on July 2 and 3, in honor of veterans, first responders and in recognition of the overwhelming response to their July 4th Ford Fun Free Day, which received 5,000 pre-registrations within 24 hours. Thanks to the generous support, totaling $30,000, from the sponsors listed below, MiSci is able to extend free admission for the entire holiday weekend and provide hands-on, interactive science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) experiences to individuals who may not have access otherwise.

Saturday, July 2, 2016, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 3, 2016, noon – 6 p.m.

To take advantage of MiSci’s free general admission on July 2 and 3, patrons should pre-register for tickets at https://mi-sci.secure.force.com/ticket/.  Additionally, tickets will be available for purchase for MiSci’s newest exhibit Bug Quest and the Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure film in the IMAX® Dome Theater.  

Weekend Programing: The following educational activities will be available for visitors this weekend.

·       Kaboomistry: Learn about the relationship between pressure, temperature, and fuel to explain why things go KA-BOOM! MiSci will mix physics and chemistry to get loud, flashy effects.
·       Put it to the Test: Under Pressure: MiSci will put pressure to the test with experiments that you can try at home.
·       Adventures on the Science Seas: This show is for MiSci’s younger audiences and introduces the idea of simple machines.

Hatch Detroit 2015 Winner Live Cycle Delight Opening Its Doors In West Village

Hatch Detroit is pleased to announce the 2015 Comerica Hatch Detroit Contest winner, Live Cycle Delight, will open its new cycle studio this fall located at 8019 Agnes St. in Detroit’s West Village. Live Cycle Delight will be the fourth contest alumni to locate in the West Village area and the first contemporary indoor cycling studio in Detroit.

“Live Cycle Delight will be the contest’s 15th business to establish a brick and mortar location in metro Detroit,” said Vittoria Katanski, executive director, Hatch Detroit. “From bakers to brewers to a kayak rental company, and now the first cycling studio in Detroit, this contest brings together a unique group of business entrepreneurs who will continue to make Detroit’s independent retail standout.”

Live Cycle Delight will offer three types of indoor cycling classes ranging from 30- to 90-minute sessions with varying intensity levels. TRX conditioning classes will be scheduled daily between cycling classes to complement the cardio-intensive cycling. These conditioning classes target the body’s core strength and flexibility to improve balance and reduce injury risk during bike rides. Additionally, the company encourages outdoor bike rides by offering meet-up rides as an introduction to outdoor cycling safety, promoting cycling hubs throughout Detroit and continuing to expose Detroit as a bike friendly community.

Live Cycle Delight will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily and plans to offer monthly memberships as well as student and corporate packages. For those thinking about testing the pedals, single spin classes and TRX Drop-in Delight classes will be offered as well.

The company will also feature a state-of-the-art Bike Lounge encouraging outdoor riders to make Live Cycle Delight a start, stop or in-between ride destination. The Bike Lounge will have a tire pump station, lockers, Wi-Fi and water provided free for all members and class participants. Part of Live Cycle Delight’s Bike Lounge, will be a hydrate station filled with cold-pressed juices and healthy snacks available for purchase.

Visionary entrepreneurs looking to follow the tracks of Live Cycle Delight have until July 15 to submit applications for the 2016 Comerica Hatch Detroit Contest, presented by Opportunity Detroit, for a chance to win $50,000 from Comerica Bank, and more than $200,000 in pro bono services including a $25,000 branding and design package from GTB (formally Team Detroit), a 30-second social media advertisement from MCCI, legal services from Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn and a package of accounting, IT, public relations support, and counsel from Hatch Detroit and its partners.

As presenting sponsor, Opportunity Detroit will host the Top 10 Announcement Party and the Hatch Off event to declare the 2016 contest winner determined by public vote and a live pitch to a panel of judges on Aug. 26.

Applicants looking to perfect their application before submitting to the contest are encouraged to register for one of the two remaining business planning workshops on June 29 or July 7 by visiting http://hatchdetroit.com/submission-workshops/. Complete submission guidelines and contest rules are available on www.HatchDetroit.com.

“When the top 10 Comerica Hatch Detroit Contest semi-finalists are announced they instantly become part of the Hatch Detroit family,” said Katanski. “For many of the top 10, the contest is their introduction to the public and is a great way for them to gain visibility, public support and support of other potential investors.”

The contest has garnered 1,400 business submissions with a combined 300,000 public votes that helped crown Hugh, La Feria, Batch Brewing Company, Sister Pie and Live Cycle Delight as contest winners, and assisted 14 other business storefronts in the cities of Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck since 2011.

Comerica more than doubled its commitment for the 2016 contest, investing an additional $50,000 to help launch even more small business successes in Detroit and contributing $25,000 to the Michigan Women’s Foundation to establish a micro-enterprise loan fund offered exclusively to Hatch Alumni to help them meet short-term funding challenges.

Check Out The Renderings of DTE's New 1.5 Acre Park In Detroit!

DTE Energy's planned park (Photo: Detroit Free Press)

Click HERE For More Details! 

Midwest Living Covers The 1,000ish Mille Mitten Road Trip

Photographer: Mike Gilger

In 3 days and 10 cars (and a few boats and bathing suits), 30 friends cover 1,100 Michigan miles in a new take on classic road rallies.

Michigan-born friends Ben Bator and Matt Ferrel grew up taking a certain sort of vacation. “You take 75 north to your exit, go to your cottage and then you don’t leave that area. You just get to your destination and stay,” Ben says. Growing up, it was a great trip. But not really a great take-in-the-scenery road trip.

Not like the Mille Miglia (that’s 1,000 miles in Italian). The epic road rally began in 1927, when bored Count Aymo Maggi invited a few Porsche- and Ferrari-driving associates to race him over 1,000 miles of Italian countryside. The tradition continues today in a noncompetitive fashion—vintage Italian touring cars required.

Ben says, “We thought, What if we could do that in a way that catered to our friends who didn’t necessarily have three vintage Porsches, but had the same interests?” In 2012, he and Matt planned their first 1,000-ish-mile Michigan-crossing Mille Mitten, hitting public high points (Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore swims, Mackinac Bridge crossings) as well as homes and hideaways. They invited 25 friends to join them (based on personality, not vehicle), and the Mille Mitten was born.

You don’t have to wait for Ben and Matt to invite you to their (nonracing) road rally to experience a Mille. Follow their adventures at millemitten.com, or design your own using their insight. Ready to rally?

Click HERE For The Full Article! 

PBS' 'This Old House' To Help Restore Home In Northwest Detroit

Photo: Kevin O'Connor 

"This Old House" will head to Detroit for the first time to help a retired firefighter and his family renovate their home in the Russell Woods neighborhood in the northwest area of the city.

The renovation project in Detroit will span 10 episodes that are scheduled to air in March. The Public Broadcasting Service television show has plans to renovate additional homes in Detroit, with more details to be announced in the coming weeks.

"There are some amazing housing stories in Detroit," John Tomlin, senior producer for "This Old House," told Crain's Detroit Business. "We heard beautiful stories of people working hard to improve their homes and we wanted to ... be a part of telling the story."

Tomlin said the producers of This Old House chose the Detroit project because they liked the family and "the house had some potential."

"We went through a lot of abandoned houses doing our research," he said. "A lot of them are borderline. You're not sure that the homeowners can finish it."

The two-story brick home was built in 1939 and was owned by the Detroit Land Bank Authority. The family recently purchased the home at auction and is required to rehabilitate the property and live in the house under the terms of the authority's auction program.

Click HERE For The Full Article! 

This Weekend! Get Your Tickets For Corktown's Newest Art, Music & Food Festival

Corktown STRUT is Detroit's music, art and food festival over 4th of July weekend, July 1-3, 2016

Click HERE For Tickets and More Information!

Music Line-Up

The Country's Largest Bike-Share Operator Is Now Making Its Bikes In Detroit

If you rent a bike from Citi Bike in New York this week (and look carefully) you might notice something new: some of the bikes are now made in Detroit. The company that manages the bike-share program—along with many of the other major bike-share networks in the country—has decided to start manufacturing bicycles in the U.S.

In part, that's because bike share is growing quickly, and Motivate, the company that runs the programs, wanted to be able to respond equally quickly with production. As recently as two years ago, bike share was struggling; Motivate, then known as Alta, was on the verge of bankruptcy, and it wasn't clear if fledgling bike-share fleets would all survive. Executives from Equinox and Related took over the company, renamed it, and turned things around.

If you rent a bike from Citi Bike in New York this week (and look carefully) you might notice something new: some of the bikes are now made in Detroit. The company that manages the bike-share program—along with many of the other major bike-share networks in the country—has decided to start manufacturing bicycles in the U.S.

In part, that's because bike share is growing quickly, and Motivate, the company that runs the programs, wanted to be able to respond equally quickly with production. As recently as two years ago, bike share was struggling; Motivate, then known as Alta, was on the verge of bankruptcy, and it wasn't clear if fledgling bike-share fleets would all survive. Executives from Equinox and Related took over the company, renamed it, and turned things around.

In New York City, Citi Bike will double in size by 2017. In the San Francisco Bay Area, bike share is growing 10-fold. D.C. is adding 50 new bike-share stations. Chicago's program has grown 60% this year. Smaller cities, such as Columbus, Ohio, are adding bike-share systems. The list goes on.

As cities expand their fleets, Motivate decided to revamp production. "We were looking for tighter quality control," says Jay Walder, the company's new CEO, who previously ran city transit systems in both New York and Hong Kong. "It's a heck of a lot easier to visit a vendor in Detroit than it is to visit a vendor in China. It actually saves us costs in doing it."

Detroit-made bicycles can also be made and delivered more quickly. Motivate is partnering with Detroit Bikes—currently the only large-scale bike manufacturer located in the U.S.—which set up a new production line just to handle bike-share bikes.

Click HERE For The Full Article! 

At White House-Silicon Valley Event, Detroit Is A Highlight

The White House is partnering with the New Economy Initiative to host “The Detroit Story,” a side event highlighting Detroit’s business environment at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Palo Alto, California.

“It is time to tell the Detroit story, to put Detroit back on the global map, and to encourage innovators from around the world to come join the entrepreneurial movement in Detroit led by Detroiters,” said Julie Egan, deputy director of the White House Detroit Federal Working Group.

Detroit has a large footprint at this year’s Summit, with five official delegates. No other city has as many representatives, according to a press release.

Click HERE For The Full Article! 

Detroit 1967 Riot Movie To Partly Film In the City

Photo: CBS

"Zero Dark Thirty" filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow's next project will partly film in Detroit.

Plans were announced in January for Bigelow to direct a film set amid 1967's deadly race-related rioting in Detroit. Colin Wilson, a line producer, tells the Detroit Free Press they want "try to shoot as much as we possibly can" in Detroit.

Wilson says filming also could take place in the Detroit enclave of Hamtramck. John Boyega, who played Finn in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," is joining the cast.

The crime drama written by Mark Boal is scheduled to begin production this summer and be released in 2017 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the riots. Bigelow and Boal previously collaborated on the war movies "Zero Dark Thirty" and "The Hurt Locker."

Attention Creatives: Help Redesign Corktown's Michigan Avenue!

Photo: humanscalestudio.tumblr.com

Michigan Avenue is Corktown’s main street, but it is also a nine-lane state highway. This harms the neighborhood’s viability by separating residents from businesses, discouraging community interaction by reducing walkability, forcing dining and retail activity indoors, diminishing public life, and preventing the energy of the neighborhood from flowing out into public spaces.

People First Project wants you to change that.

They are seeking 12 forward-thinking designers, activists, architects, urban planners, and artists for a new project at the forefront of urban change.

These twelve people will each receive $5000 in funding to design and implement a transformative project that utilizes the principles of human-centered design to transform Michigan Avenue into a more complete street.

Additionally, selected project leaders will participate in a learning community that consists of global leaders in the tactical urbanism movement.

The ideal project should be highly visible within the larger community of urban activism while remaining rooted in Corktown by addressing the desires of its residents. Additionally, successful submissions will be projects that are inspiring and ambitious yet attainable for the allotted time frame and budget. We will be moving fast. We are operating on an accelerated timeline due to the weather, and because of that, people who demonstrate a unique combination of flexibility, speed, and excellence will be favored. All projects are aimed at the transformation of Michigan Avenue.

Click HERE For More Information! 

Check Out The Red Hot Chili Pepper's Newest Song "Detroit"

"Detroit"

Find me in the suburbs and

The shadow of decay

Rolling rings of rubber and

The band begins to play

Am I on the right side of the left side of your brain

Can you see the rising of old yesterday's remains

Funkadelic said it best I think you know the rest

Time don't stand a chance against this motor madness

Don't you worry baby I'm like

Detroit, I'm crazy

Don't you worry baby I'm like

Detroit, I'm crazy I'm like

Detroit, I'm crazy

Don't you worry baby I'm like

The Stooges and J Dilla, yeah

They tore this town apart

Put me back together, well

I guess that's quite an art

Henry won the war you see

But not with pen or sword

He did it with the little thing I think it's called a Ford

Funkadelic said it best I think you know the rest

Time don't stand a chance against this motor madness

Don't you worry baby I'm like

Detroit, I'm crazy

Don't you worry baby I'm like

Detroit, I'm crazy I'm like

Detroit, I'm crazy

Don't you worry baby I'm like

Detroit, I'm crazy I'm like

Detroit, I'm crazy

Everything's so hazy I'm like

Detroit, I'm crazy I'm like

Detroit, I'm crazy

Everything's so hazy

Check Out Their Full Album HERE!