Daily Detroit

Our feature interview today is with Amy Latawiec. She's the founder of a new body positive indoor cycling (or spin) studio on the east side of the city called Rebel Cycle Studio. More: https://www.facebook.com/RebelCycleStudioDetroit/

Our stories:

- Officers in the Detroit Police Department are getting raises as part of a new union contract.

- The old Joe Louis Arena seats are being sold starting at $50 for the next two weeks.

- Auto supplier Lear Corporation has sold a seven-story building in the recently renamed Paradise Valley and Cultural District, which is targeted for a multimillion-dollar redevelopment.

- If you catch a Lyft anywhere in Metro Detroit, you'll have the option of rounding up your fare and donating it to the Detroit Public Schools Foundation.

- Sven and Jer talk about Greektown, their memories and what maybe should go there upon the news that New Parthenon has been bought by the people who own Pegasus Taverna

- In downtown Ferndale, there's word that Bobcat Bonnies will open this weekend.

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Thanks to Milo Digital for their support. We're welcoming a new sponsor to the show next week!

Recorded on October 18, 2018.

Your stories for October 17, 2018:

- Detroit's riverfront just took another major step forward. The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation is making a $50 million grant to redevelop West Riverfront Park.

- Keeping with the theme, here's a second story about foundations making an impact. The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan announced $20 million in grants to a variety of local organizations.

- During a search for drugs in a house in 2015, Detroit Police officers killed three pet dogs. What has ensued since then has been a legal battle that has been raising questions around pets and property and police power.

- Corktown is getting a new MoGo bike sharing station thanks to help from the Ford Motor Company.

- Michigan ranks highly for something I'm pretty sure we'd rather not. Our state is in the top ten for states most vulnerable to identity theft & fraud. Nuri Gocay joins us from the IT in the D podcast to share what you can do to protect yourself. Supporting link: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/

- Could one of Greektown's mainstay Greek restaurants be closing? Maybe so. More: https://detroit.eater.com/2018/10/16/17983944/new-parthenon-restaurant-greektown-closed-temporarily

Thanks to our sponsor for today, Milo Digital.

Like the show? Don't forget to subscribe to the Daily Detroit podcast wherever fine podcasts are found.

Big show for you today. Our feature interview is with Steve Gursten. He's an auto law attorney and breaks down the breakdown in Michigan's insurance system. After all, it's the most expensive in the nation to get your car insured in this state.. and the most expensive city is Detroit. You can find him here: https://www.michiganautolaw.com/blog/

Your stories:

- Detroit radio legend Mike Clark has died at the age of 63.

- Davenport University is moving its Livonia campus to the city of Detroit, and they're doing it in the New Center One Building.

- Over the weekend, the Church of Scientology officially opened their Church they had been working on at Griswold and Jefferson.

- Kroger is looking to open a new store in the Detroit inner ring suburb of Oak Park.

- Quicken Loans is opening a Windsor office.

- If you haven't been to Detroit's own Sweetwater Tavern... here's another reason to go. The wings joint at Congress and Brush made Thrillist's list of 21 best chicken wings in America. More: https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/the-21-best-chicken-wing-restaurants-in-america#

- Detroit Mini Donut has launched their crowdfunding campaign to move into a space on East Grand River in downtown Detroit. More: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/brick-and-mortar-time-in-downtown-detroit#/

- There's some news out of the nearby Green Acres neighborhood of what's not happening. The Metro Times writes that the city of Detroit's Zoning Board of Appeals denied Asian Corned Beef - a popular mini-chain serving corned beef eggrolls - a zoning variance. more: https://www.metrotimes.com/table-and-bar/archives/2018/10/16/greenacres-neighborhood-thwarts-asian-corned-beef-egg-roll-threat-classism

- The upscale clothing retailer Madewell has opened up a new store in the newly redeveloped Shinola Block in downtown Detroit. That's on Woodward in a row of historic buildings where the new Shinola Hotel is going in.

- A visa denial has stymied plans for Windsor- based Bread Meats Bread to come to Detroit. Want to take the space? Here's a link to apply: https://www.detroitshippingcompany.com/vendorapp

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As we hit the fall season, we thought it appropriate to check in with Michele Hodges about Detroit's beloved Belle Isle State Park. She heads the Belle Isle Conservancy, the non-profit devoted to supporting the park.

The non-profit is working to keep everything running on Belle Isle State Park, while dealing with the effects of decades of disinvestment and very old buildings.

A few of the things Sven Gustafson and Michele talk about include.. what the Conservancy actually does… the price tag for what it would take to properly fix up Belle Isle, as a lot of capital resources are being used to fix emergency repairs.… the new Piet Oudolf garden… if there are plans for the old zoo on the island… and more.

Your show for October 11th, 2018:

• Newly released surveillance video contradicts the claims of a white, former Detroit Fire Department lieutenant that he tripped and accidentally discharged a gunshot at a 14-year-old black student who had knocked on his door, seeking directions.
• Dan Gilbert already wanted to build Detroit's tallest skyscraper on the former site of the J.L. Hudson's department store on Woodward Avenue. The latest site plans, obtained by Crain's, show it getting even taller.
• Eastland Mall has been purchased! An unexpected bidding war produced a $3.125 million sale price.
• A report by WXYZ says it took Detroit Police four days to respond to a 9-1-1 call about a domestic abuse emergency. Wasn't improved response times supposed to be one of the department's new crowning achievements?
• Ann Arbor, Detroit, East Lansing and Ferndale received perfect scores in a ranking of municipal protections and equality measures for LGBT employees that go beyond state laws.
• Construction work is behind schedule on I-696 because of a labor dispute, but the freeway might reopen before winter weather arrives, even if the work isn't technically done.
• You know how expensive it is to use another bank's ATM? Well, a new study finds that Detroit has the highest average ATM fees in the nation. Yay?
• Residents of a historic building in downtown Detroit that is known as an affordable living option for low-income residents have received notices that they have 30 days to move out and find a new place to live. It's the latest in gentrification growing pains for Detroit. The Freep has the story.
• Kid Rock visits the Trump White House again, and Kanye West returns to Detroit for some sushi.
• And we have all the ammunition a weekend warrior needs about upcoming new restaurants and bars in the region.

Your stories for October 10, 2018: Federal law enforcement officials rounded up more than 120 missing children in Michigan as part of a giant sweep for sex trafficking victims.

- The Detroit Tigers will have a new team calling games from the broadcast booth next season. Unsurprisingly, Fox Sports Detroit opted not to renew the contracts of Mario Impemba and Rod Allen after long-simmering tensions between the longtime broadcasters simmered over last month in Chicago. Here's a link to Lynn Henning's Detroit News story about what is believed to have happened.

- The historic Belle Isle Aquarium gets a $1.7 million grant, adding to a string of recent good news for the island park.

- Ferndale gets a solar-powered, modern bus stop for the SMART FAST bus on Woodward near Nine Mile Road.

- There are two new events coming to the Detroit Free Press/Chemical Bank Marathon race weekend, which runs Oct. 19-21. More information and registration is here. Online registration runs through Oct. 15.

- Jer delivers an impassioned public service announcement about political ads on TV. Here's where to find a sample ballot from your neck of the woods to review your choices ahead of the Nov. 6 election.

- Jack White sang the Polish version of "Happy Birthday" to his 88-year-old mom at a gig in Warsaw.

- We talk about some changes Berkley, Oak Park and Huntington Woods are working on to liven up a moribund industrial strip of 11 Mile Road.

- And remember that luxury development along the riverfront we told you about yesterday? Well here are some of the early conceptual renderings for it. It doesn't look like Q-Bert at all, as it turns out.

This is your Daily Detroit podcast recorded on October 9, 2018.

Our guest for the show is Detroit City Councilman James Tate, to talk about the upcoming "Cash Flash" in Detroit's District 1.

Your Detroit stories:

- Detroit's getting yet another luxury apartment building, with rents in the $2,500 a month range for 1,000 square feet. And it's going to be designed by a company, ODA, known for what they call their "Tetris-inspired boxy designs that build a sense of community in urban cores."

- Ilitch Holdings, the company behind Little Caesars Arena, has made the decision to replace their boldly colored red stadium seats with black seats. Turns out the arena looks rather empty with all of the empty seats… and the red seats make it worse on TV.

- Former Detroit City Councilwoman Sharon McPhail has been fired from her post leading a struggling charter school on the city's west side, but she's refusing to leave.

- It looks like the permanent fix for the bad water situation in Detroit's public schools will be provided by the business and philanthropic community, covering most of the $3 million dollar cost to install water hydration stations.

- Voters in Royal Oak will be asked whether the city should establish its own bus system called Royal Oak Go, or ROGO for short.

- If you're looking to get out and see the world on a Wednesday after work, the Trumbull & Porter Hotel in Corktown has 4,000 square feet of custom murals and artwork made by more than 50 local artists they'd like to show you.

- And in a final note, Detroit is now home to the world's largest linear friction welder after it was delivered on Tuesday to Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow, a public-private advanced-manufacturing partnership down on Rosa Parks Boulevard in Corktown.

Thanks to today's sponsor, Milo Digital.

On the Daily Detroit Podcast today:

- Flex N Gate opens on the east side of Detroit, hiring 50% Detroit residents into jobs. Looking for a job yourself? Here's a link to job training at Detroit At Work.

- We hit the streets to talk to folks on both sides at a strike at one of Detroit's iconic hotels, the Westin Book Cadillac, owned by Marriott. At issue? Wages, of course. But also the idea that workers shouldn't have to work two jobs to afford to live in the city.

- One of the Detroit area's most infamous motels is being shopped as a redevelopment opportunity. The Motorama Motel on Eight Mile Road at Woodward in Ferndale is for sale, and we have the purchase price.

- Southfield has joined the ranks of Detroit-area cities to celebrate the holiday instead as Indigenous Peoples Day.

- Detroit's Palmer Park is getting some badly needed new tennis courts. Crews recently demolished the old courts, which sit along Woodward Avenue between McNichols and Seven Mile Roads and have hosted a popular youth Tennis Academy for the past five years.

- And Nuri Gocay from IT in the D joins us to talk about tech and the recent security breach from a big tech company.

Thanks to our episode sponsors: Milo Digital and Falling Down Beer Company.

This episode of the Daily Detroit podcast was recorded on Monday, October 8. Subscribe to one of America's best local news podcasts here for free.

Our feature interview is with Detroit artist Olayami Dabls about his new exhibit in the Fisher Building lobby that examines the Civil Rights era. Everard Findlay, the exhibit's curator, also joins Sven Gustafson.

Your stories: The long and storied history of Detroit politicians getting in trouble with the law gets another chapter today. Detroit city councilman Gabe Leland has been federally indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and two counts of bribery.

- The Michigan Strategic Fund has awarded performance-based grants for five business expansion projects in metro Detroit worth a combined $33.5 million in investment and 444 new jobs... including one for a company owned by Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson

- We have a beer roundup.Royal Oak-based Roak Brewing is planning to acquire Traverse City's Right Brain Brewing Company. Up in Oxford, HomeGrown Brewing Company says it's started a new canning line. Detroit's own Atwater Brewery has release a new brown ale called First Brown ale. Brew Detroit is hosting a six-week indoor bocce ball tournament.

- This Sunday is the Southwest edition of Open Streets Detroit.

- The rollout of Detroit's new ConnecTen bus program has hit some bumps in the road. Signage held up with masking tape, confused riders, and the state of the State Fair Transit Center signage was a mess. Jer looked into it and the city now promises action.

- In a piece of late-breaking news as we record this podcast, the Detroit News reports that a campaign staffer for City Councilman Gabe Leland was charged in federal court Wednesday with joining a conspiracy to bribe an unnamed politician with thousands of dollars in cash and other valuable items.

- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer is proposing to set up a state-run reinsurance program and raise the age to buy tobacco to 21 as part of her newly released health care plan.

- The current Enbridge Line 5 pipeline that runs, in part, under the Straits of Mackinac, will be shut down and the petroleum pipeline re-routed into a new protective, multi-use tunnel.

- Buddy's Pizza… one of the pantheon of Detroit pizza parlors… is opening a location in the Detroit Zoo.

- Pop music star Alessia Cara is coming to town, but this event is for the musicians and those interested in the music industry. On Friday the Detroit Institute of Music Education will be hosting a discussion called "The Pains of Growing: A Discussion With Grammy Award-winning "Best New Artist" Alessia Cara."

The show was recorded on October 3, 2018.