There’s been some good news so far this month regarding groundbreakings of major developments in Detroit by big chain stores. Earlier this week marked the official groundbreaking of the Whole Foods store in Midtown. And come this Thursday a new project called the Gateway Marketplace will break ground near 8 Mile and Woodward.

The new development is expected to host a Meijer superstore and a Marshalls. But why is this such a big deal? After all, contrary to popular belief Detroit already has plenty of grocery stores. But, the bigger meaning behind project like this is that it shows major corporations and big chain stores are starting to have more confidence in the future of the city and therefore are choosing to invest in developments. 

Check out more details and a video of the Whole Foods groundbreaking here on HuffPostDetroit. 

Thanks to Translogic, we’re able to take a closer look at some of the possibilities of future transportation infrastructure in the city.

Most of us already know the story of how Detroit became the Motor City after it fell in love with roads and highways thanks to the car boom of the 1950s. Thanks to that subsequent shift in mindset, and promotion of the very industry that put Detroit on the map, options and ideas regarding mass transportation were neglected. 

But with Chrysler’s recent announcement of financial support for light-rail in the city, it’s apparent this conversation about where to go from here in regards to mass transit, will be something we’ll be talking about for quite some time to come.

Check out the video below for more.

The Detroit Free Press has started a pretty cool new project on their website. Dubbed Detroit Self-Portraits, and deriving inspiration from the DIA “Detroit Revealed” Exhibit, the site allows Metro Detroiters to upload and share their views of the city.

Visitors can then go on and vote for their favorite images and leave comments. Head on over to the project here and check out the collection so far. 

Photo by Steve Hauptman

After the Mercury Bar failed to catch on with the coffee crowd, the recently renovated venue has now reopened withe a new menu and a new vision. 

Burgers!

Right across the street from Slow’s BarBQ on Michigan Avenue, the Mercury Bar officially opened this past Saturday. The restaurant features a beer drinking room on the lower level aptly named Corktown Cellars. The interior of the place features a huge mural by local artist Jerome Ferretti, along with a pretty cool full-wall Fathead of a classic Mercury car grill. And of course, what I’m sure will be one of the biggest draws come summertime, the restaurant has a huge adjacent patio overlooking the old Michigan Central Station. 

Check out Curbed Detroit for the gallery of the restaurant. 

Picture from Curbed Detroit

If you’ve been downtown, you’ve probably seen them. Maybe, you’ve even used them.

They’re Detroit’s numerous tubes, walkways and skywalks that connect some of the city’s buildings and sporting venues together. From the tubes in Greektown to the skywalk connecting the Joe and COBO to the adjacent parking garage, there’s actually quite a few more than I ever took the time to realize.

Lucky for us, Faded Detroit put together a nice little gallery of some of Detroit’s tubed walkways, along with some interesting back stories on why the walkways were even built to begin with. Head on over and check it out. 

Picture from Faded Detroit

The people over at Changing Gears decided to poke a little fun at some of the cliches that have become synonymous with documentaries about Detroit. We’ve all seen, or have at least heard of, the slew of recent Detroit docs that have been released in the past couple of years, some much worse than others.

Lucky for you though, if you happen to be an aspiring doc filmmaker because most of the legwork has already been done for you. Check out Changing Gears’ DIY Guide to making your own film about Motown and who knows, maybe you too could be holding your premiere at Sundance one day?

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.

Read the entire guide here.

Well, it only took me about a month to get around to posting this. Blame college, finals and life. Last month I met with Channel 7’s Stephen Clark to job shadow him for the night. Afterwards I had to write about my experience for one of my journalism classes. Here’s how my visit went.

For better or for worse, the plan to bring light rail to the city is history…at least for now, anyways.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting the plans were scrapped in favor of a new system of high-speed city and suburban busses.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Detroit Mayor Dave Bing that doubts Detroit could pay operating costs over the long term for the Woodward Light Rail line because of it and the state’s financial problems swayed him against the plan. 

It was a plan that had been four years in the making, and while it’s tough to see it fall through, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t completely surprised and not all that disappointed. 

The idea to bring light rail and more public transportation to the city is an idea I have loved and supported since all this talk first began. BUT, the reality is that a line that runs solely up and down Woodward and doesn’t cross north of 8 Mile, just isn’t the best use of scarce funds and resources right now.

There’s been much debate about just exactly who this rail line would be benefitting, and many times it was compared to Detroit’s other infamous rail system the People Mover. I’ve personally talked with many people about the plan over the course of the past couple years, and more often than not, they were less than enthused by the idea. Truth be told, the more I thought about it, the more I started to feel the same.

Detroit doesn’t have the money, or the people, or the right amount of business yet. It comes down to the chicken or the egg debate: do you build the rail to bring the people and the businesses? Or do you wait for the people and the businesses and then build the rail?

I think the latter option is going to be the best option going forward. It will be interesting to see how this decision is received around the city and region.

Read the full story here.

Freep

Even with all of the bright spots in Detroit—all the redevelopment projects, all the stories of new businesses and residents relocating back downtown—there’s a one large, continually growing cloud hanging over the city.

Detroit is almost out money.

And the man I thought would be able to get the city through this mess, along with a newly elected City Council I had so much faith in, seem to be letting me down—letting this city down.

At its core, the mayor’s emergency restructuring plan aims to cut spending $102 million over the next six months and avert a cash-flow crisis. To get there, Bing says, he would lay off 1,000 city employees and the unions would need to agree — by as early as next week — to reopen contracts and accede to 10-percent cuts in pay, a 30 percent employee share on health care premiums, pension restructuring, work rule changes and reduced overtime.

Today’s Detroit News reporting that now Bing has said he’s “ready to go to war” with City Council in order to implement his sweeping cuts and layoffs. Is this the kind of rhetoric though that’s really going to get things done? Has it really come to this?

How can the Mayor and the City Council be so desperately unwilling to work together?

“There’s a big difference intellectually between my staff and them; there’s a big difference operationally between my staff and them,” he continued. “They haven’t run anything. I am open and willing to work with them, but I am not taking direction from them. We’ve got to get away from politics.”

Read the full story here.

Photo by John T. Greilick / The Detroit News

Didya hear? The Huffington Post is launching a new website called HuffPost Detroit that will be completely dedicated to countering the narrative of national media that “parachute in to cover the declining metropolis.”

Pretty cool, right?

And also, I couldn’t not blog about the column in today’s Huffington Post by Toby Barlow where he discusses something that I always seem to be talking about with people I know. 

“Why do people who aren’t from Detroit (i.e. the suburbs) say they’re from Detroit?!?” is the usual whining question I receive from certain co-workers, friends and even some family.

My response, much like Barlow’s, usually goes something like this: if you’re from Southeast Michigan, which for all intents and purposes is Metro Detroit, you are in fact from Detroit.

But Barlow, goes a step further to explain just how important that tie is between the suburbs and the city itself, and why the sooner we all realize that Detroit and it’s surrounding suburbs are inseparable, the better off we will all be, and the better off the region as a whole will be in the end. 

The fact is the suburbs have been trying to run away from Detroit for half a century and all it has brought is ruin and depression for all. It’s time to stop running. It’s time to embrace this place. Luckily for you, right now, it’s a wonderful town to embrace.

The fact is that too many of the suburbanites cling to a past Detroit that was and never will be again, and in the process they fail to recognize the positive changes that are taking place there today, right now.

People will say, “Oh it’s not like it was,” they’ll say they can’t bear what happened to Detroit, but they’re simply blind to the possibilities of the present. Nostalgia for an old bygone Detroit is fine, but it’s not relevant to what is happening on Michigan Avenue, on Woodward Avenue, and in Eastern Market right now. 

I do have to make a point to say though that I don’t necessarily agree with Barlow’s blanket statement that “nothing good ever came out of suburbia.” While yes, I would love to see more people ditch the suburbs to move back into the city center, I acknowledge the realities of the situation. City living isn’t for everyone, that’s the honest truth, and quite frankly I had a pretty damn good upbringing in the suburbs so I understand the appeal to some people.

However, while I’m not asking for a mass exodus from the suburbs to downtown Detroit any time soon, I am asking that people at least give Detroit a chance, because like Barlow said: “Luckily for you, right now, it’s a wonderful town to embrace.”

Read the full column here.