In the News

We need buses. AND trains. Didn't you read our 5 Years and 250 Issues Later feature last week? Need more and better convincing? As Shakespeare once wrote... "Read on MacDuff." (we corrected the typo).

Excerpt:

"The most effective transit systems seamlessly combine all these transit modes and more. Many people will take a local bus from their neighborhood to a rapid transit line along a major road. In fact, St. Louis saw their bus ridership increase when they built light rail because the whole system became more useful and attractive together.

If Detroit wants to stabilize and grow its economy, buses, rapid buses, and light rail must all be included in Detroit's regional transportation system. If Detroit only supports a basic bus system, we will remain a third-class city unable to attract new businesses or highly-educated workers. If Detroit only invests in light rail and neglects its buses, we will worsen the region's economic inequality, potentially leading to higher unemployment rates and lower educational attainment."

Read the rest here.

Actress / singer Alexandra Silber has moved onto London's West End and spotlights beyond... but her heart is still in Birmingham, Michigan.

Excerpt:

"There are so many beautiful nooks and crannies in this seemingly sleepy, Wonder-Years-y suburban town complete with wide American streets peppered with Labradors, slip-n-slides and children on bicycles. There is a buzzy downtown with two cinemas, boutique-y shopping, and utterly glorious places to eat for every budget.

But part of the peculiarity of metro-Detroit is that no single neighborhood is like another and they are all too nebulously nuzzled and inter-mingled up against one another to know where one begins and another ends. It is, of course, a driving city too, so as a kid you are stuck riding your bike to downtown Birmingham (scores of 12-year-olds wander the streets outside the cinemas at weekends) and as a teenager you are suddenly in a car and 40 miles away within 15 minutes on the giant American highways with nothing particularly important to do. Something about that dilemma feels charmingly typical to American suburbs— having been the plight of youth from the 60s until now.

Birmingham is 4.8 square miles, 12.4 square kilometers, 2 High Schools, 17 churches. 3 post offices. 1 train station. 3 golf courses. 2 cinemas. 4 seasons. 1 river. 1 annual Spring carnival. And 20,000 really nice Midwestern people and probably 1000 assholes. Give or take."

Read the rest here.

The Michigan film incentive may be on life support but some Dearborn teens are determined to keep the cameras rolling.

Excerpt:

"Prom-iscuous," the 13th annual Dearborn High School feature film about a senior prom, is so well-written, produced, directed and acted the ban on lewd dancing is the only indication this is a film put on by adolescents.

Kelley Thierry, 17, wrote "Prom-iscuous" and Taylor Stanislawski, 17, directed the film, which premieres May 23 and 24 at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn. The "mock-umentary" involves MTV following six kids as they prepare for the prom. All of the students are enrolled in the class Advanced Movie Making, taught by Kurt Doelle, whose credits include the 2011 Arts Educator Award from the Dearborn Community Arts Council and the district's Teacher of the Year award a few years back. But please don't ask him about it because he simply doesn't do the ego thing. At all.

Read the rest of the story here.

Flipping common wisdom about metro Detroit on its ear: the problem isn't too few engineering jobs. It's too few engineers.

Excerpt:

Fifty-one companies, from Bosch to Hyundai to DTE Energy, looked to fill almost 3,500 positions. For the first time in a long time, engineers like Nancy Miron no longer were scared. The 54-year-old left Michigan during the recession for a job in Kentucky, only to be laid off there. She still owns a home in Royal Oak.

"The market is better than it was several years ago," she said. "I'm not worried."

Even so, a shortage of highly skilled workers is threatening to stall newfound growth for business and the state economy, even as millions across the country are looking for work.

Read the rest of the story here.

When you consider how many people work out of their homes, how spread apart businesses are in metro Detroit, and how few instances there are to "bump into" potential clients, networking events seem not only like a good idea, they seem like a necessity.

Excerpt:

"Companies of every stripe can benefit. Last month, nonprofit entrepreneurship accelerator Bizdom U and the Mobile Technology Association of Michigan, a nonprofit trade organization, held a similar event. Its "Mobile Matchup" focused on networking between entrepreneurs and developers of mobile technology.

"A lot of times, entrepreneurs are working from home, so this helps them build those all-important connections," said Maria LaLonde, recruiting and development leader for Bizdom Detroit."

Read the rest of the story here.

This terrific first-person editorial on the current trends in American housing highlights both the virtues and concerns of moving toward a walkable, more compact rental market.

Excerpt:

"Beyond rentals, the clear changes in the residential marketplace also bode well for innovative approaches to smaller-footprint but nonetheless high-quality types of housing, such as “pocket neighborhoods” of cottages and slightly larger homes arranged around a common green, as championed by Ross Chapin. Downsizing trends may provide opportunities as well for more applications of the “Katrina Cottages” designed for quick rebuilding along the Gulf of Mexico coast following the loss of homes to Hurricane Katrina. A LEED-Platinum version of the latter was just celebrated in a cluster of 29 of the homes on two acres in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

(Marketing tip: it may be time to lose the “Katrina” part of the trademark for these cottages – whose concept I love – since the potential market might increase without the association with temporary housing in the context of a national tragedy.  Just saying.)"

Read the rest here.

Ferndale's recent food truck rally at the Rustbelt Market was a big success according to organizers. But it looks like our songs of praise for the city's embrace of food truck culture may have been a bit premature.

Though still more welcoming than many metro Detroit communities, push back from local businesses has started to complicate local implementation of a trend that has been enthusiastically welcomed in cities in like Austin, San Francisco, and Portland, OR.

Curbed Detroit examines the situation and has some smart buit pointed thoughts on the subject.

Excerpt:

"But what businesses seem to be missing with all the INF-ing is that there is such a thing as healthy competition, and a food truck – even one with its very own permanent parking space on private property – creates a destination and a little something urban planners like to refer to as “street excitement.” The amount of damage done to a brick-and-mortar business’s business is probably comparable to that of a Subway – and business owners certainly don’t have the option of demanding ordinances changed preventing fast food chains from opening next door.

Bottom line is if a person is seeking a leisurely sit-down dinner with drinks and ambiance, they aren’t going to see a food truck and say, “Nevermind, let’s just go here instead!” (Imagine how THAT first date would end.) Conversely, someone looking to grab a quick bite to eat on the go won’t suddenly be swayed by an attractive façade to stop in for a three-martini Mad Men lunch. The clientele base might be exactly the same, but each concept suits different people at different times."

Read the rest here.

Read about the rally here.

Looks like Metro Detroit landed in the middle of the pack when it comes to the cost of doing business here. Of course, that analysis may not be indicative of much. San Francisco came in dead last and that doesn't seem to deter businesses and talent from moving there. Still, we guess it's good to know where we stand.

Excerpt:

The rankings in KPMG's 2012 Competitive Alternatives study were based on 26 business operating costs, such as labor, facilities, utilities and taxes, across 19 industries. The 26 factors were weighed equally.

Among large metro areas with a population of more than 2 million, Cincinnati was the least-costly business location, mainly because of its low costs for facility leases, transportation and property taxes.

San Francisco was the most expensive U.S. city for businesses.

Read the rest of the story here.

Question: What company changed its name in order to appeal to more customers and expand its reach?
Answer: Motor City Trivia became Great Lakes Trivia, finding trivia league success in bars and taverns across the Midwest.

Excerpt:

"The company also has expanded into the Toledo and Cleveland markets for a total of about 90 locations between Michigan and Ohio, marking significant expansion for a company Mark Adams founded in Plymouth with his family members three years ago with its first show at Liberty Street Brewing Company."

Read the rest here.

And watch the video below.

Should angel investors get tax credits to invest in small businesses? Critics say they don't deliver for the price spent. David Weaver, founder and chairman of Great Lakes Angels in Bloomfield Hills says they do.

Excerpt:

"But there are two ways that tax credits can increase the amount of funding available for start-up companies. They keep more money in the pockets of existing angel investors—money that can be plowed back into a company an investor has already funded, as it continues to grow, or that can help the investor support another company that might otherwise go unfunded. And credits can help create new angel investors—people who otherwise would put their money in financial instruments, real estate, art or some other more-proven asset if a tax credit didn't make investing in a start-up worth considering."

Read both sides of the argument here.

It looks like Birmingham is becoming one of metro Detroit's hottest real estate markets for investors. Hmmm. Could it be the increasing density of its developing 24-hour downtown and walkable neighborhoods?

Excerpt:

"Birmingham land has more value than anyplace else in metro Detroit," said Bob Pliska, managing director of the Sperry Van Ness office in Birmingham.

"There's a high value for small parcels of land because everything is built up, and it's in the center of everything. It's Birmingham."

Read the rest here.

The U.S. needs doctors. Medical schools are accepting more students. But residencies aren't. It's a conundrum explained by a metro Detroit plastic surgeon .

Excerpt:

"The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) couples prospective applicants with residency programs, sort of like a medical version of eHarmony. Each applicant makes a list ranking the residency programs in their order of desirability. The residency programs do the same with the applicants, and the NRMP matches them up.
Not all graduating medical students get matched.

According to the NRMP, last year 971 graduates of U.S. medical schools were shut out, accounting for 5.9% of U.S. grads. Graduates of international medical schools fared even worse - less than 50% of them obtained a residency.

That means more than 7,000 doctors were left with a diploma that said “M.D.” but no guarantee they would be able to use it.'

Read the blog and the spirited comment conversation here.

Metro Detroit is on track to open nearly three dozen new restaurants in 2012. Why so many in an economy that's struggling. Well, cheap real estate is part of the answer.

Excerpt:

"On top of that, he's confident in his restaurants' ability to succeed because, he said, he's giving people what they want: a nice restaurant with good food that isn't too expensive.

"It's not going to cost you $100 for two people to go out for dinner," he said. "We're not getting into fine dining because frankly there is no market for it."

Prentice isn't the only restaurateur adding to his stable of casual-upscale businesses."

Read the rest of the story here.

Bagpipe. Kilts. Haggis. Groundskeeper Willy. Most Americans have a limited knowledge of Scottish culture. Troy's St. Andrew's Society of Detroit aims to change that. And they've hired a Ferndale film studio to help them.

Excerpt:

"Though M-1 Studios has developed a strong background in industrial and commercial work since opening in 2008, it's not the production company's first time working with a cultural association. M-1 also produced a series of videos for Heritage Works, a Detroit organization that promotes youth and community development with cultural programming focusing on the arts of Africa and the Diaspora."

Read the rest of the story here.

What's better than a rodent on water skis? Why, nothing, of course. Twiggy, the water skiing squirrel sensation will be featured at the Home & Garden Show (March 9-11) at the Silverdome in Pontiac. Be there or be sorry.

Excerpt:

"Aside from performing, Best said the Twiggys’ other important duty is promoting water and boat safety.

Best said her squirrels have performed all across the world, in the U.S., Canada, Bermuda, Paris, France and Germany. She has appeared in numerous books, magazines, newspapers, and on television shows all over the world."

Read and watch the rest here.