Daily Detroit

Our deep-dive conversation is with Brian Mulloy. He's doing small-scale development in the city of Detroit through his Ballet Real Estate, but with a focus on building restoration and urban spaces.

His transformation of a building at Bagley and Trumbull (and subsequent development of a property few thought could be built on it behind it) has not only has caught attention for its looks — but the amount of hassle he had to go through to get it done.

So how can Detroit support smaller developers? How can the city infill neighborhoods instead of building giant, block-sized developments? How has the advent of the "Motor City" emptied the city of Detroit? We get into that and more.

00:40 - Coronavirus is roaring back in Metro Detroit. Cases are skyrocketing, and unfortunately, hospitalizations are up too. Sewage testing in Macomb County shows that we may very well have more cases ahead. We get into what's happening, as well as run down vaccine expansions in Detroit and the possibility of some districts moving back to remote learning as test positivity rates exceed 9%.

02:40 - The old warehouse with the Boblo Boat sign will be demolished as part of a bigger deal. More: https://www.dbusiness.com/daily-news/moroun-family-and-port-authority-end-master-agreement-boblo-building-to-be-demolished/

03:20 - Road improvements are coming as part of massive $3.5 billion bonding issue. We cover some top level things over the next couple of years, but here's the map to dig in yourself: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/3aebfdf9166a47c9ac53caed4b106e04

04:55 - The University of Michigan beat LSU to make it to the Sweet 16. We were going to talk about it with Fletcher, but he's come down with COVID-19. So instead, we'll have the conversation we recorded before the game covering the Pistons, a proposal to rename Brush Street after Matt Stafford, and what Detroit City FC is up to.

Listener favorite Steve Friess from Hour Detroit is back on the pod! Today, we're talking about:

His big piece on Governor Gretchen Whitmer: https://www.hourdetroit.com/political-topics/the-surreal-life-of-gretchen-whitmer/

Local political predictions, including Detroit Police Chief James Craig's possibly precarious position depending on how the year unfolds: https://www.hourdetroit.com/political-topics/2021-political-predictions-questions-answered-whitmer-duggan-michigan/

And what's happening politically, in general.

Don't forget we do this show weekdaily and is in all your favorite podcast apps. If you'd like, there's two ways to support the show:

1) Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-detroit/id1220563942?mt=2

2) Become a member at Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/dailydetroit

A big question out there for a lot of people has been as we're getting vaccinations out and there's some light at the end of the pandemic tunnel is - how will I return to work? And what will that look like?

Major employers in the area usually set the tone as the benefits and structures they offer influence others. One of those, of course, is Ford. The Dearborn-based automaker announced Wednesday their return to work plans for its office workers.

Remember the concept of hybrid cars?

Well, now, it's hybrid work models.

More than half of the 86,000 global Ford employees who have not returned in person yet will this summer.

But the office will look different than they left, and where they work will change. It'll also impact the kinds of buildings and structures Ford uses going forward.

To unpack what that looks like, Jennifer Kolstad, the global design director of Ford Motor Company's built environments, joins me to talk about it.

Although there has been a loosening of restrictions like dining capacity and gatherings between households, not only is COVID-19 not at bay but we're experiencing a new outbreak in Metro Detroit.

Statewide, daily cases are increasing and new regional data from COVID ACT NOW shows that we're near the same spike levels that we saw in the Spring of 2020.

COVIDACTNOW, Screenshot of Metro Detroit data from 3/17/21 This is a problem as although there is some progress with vaccination, we don't have anywhere close to herd immunity.

Plus, we discuss the report that a large group of people won't take the vaccine – including nearly half of Trump voters and enough portions of some demographics that it'd prevent group immunity.

Some areas, like Macomb county, are now exceeding 33 cases per 100k per day.What's driving this and what's next? Dr. Paul Thomas from Plum Health Direct Primary Care joins us. He also talks about ways to build trust when it comes to the vaccine.

Support our work: http://www.patreon.com/dailydetroit