The Metro

After decades of decay, the city announced a letter of intent with a developer to give Detroit’s historic Packard Plant new life. The plant as a whole has seen the heights of the automotive boom and the consequences of disinvestment and neglect.

So which moments deserve to be preserved in its next chapter?

Dave Marchioni, the industrial and automotive curator at the Detroit Historical Society, and John Lauter, historian of the Packard Plant, revisit key moments throughout it’s history to provide perspective. 

A child has been diagnosed with measles in Oakland County. DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital in Commerce Township has been identified as the likely site of exposure.

People who were in the Emergency Department of the hospital on Dec.  7, 2025  between 7:20 p.m. and 11:10 p.m. may have been exposed.

Kate Guzman, Oakland County Health Officer, told The Metro the child was not vaccinated for measles and had recently traveled domestically.

This follows a series of major changes to federal vaccine recommendations and guidelines, made under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Kennedy is a vaccine skeptic and his views are becoming policy at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) both of which are under his supervision.

These changes include loosening recommendations for infants and toddlers regarding hepatitis B, chickenpox, measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR).

At the FDA, Vinay Prasad, the chief medical officer and head of evaluation and testing, issued a statement forecasting a more time and cost-intensive process for new vaccine approvals. Members of the medical community including former FDA officials, have shared concerns for public health, saying the proposed changes would make thoroughly tested and safe annual vaccines like the flu shot too expensive and time consuming to adapt to new versions of the virus.

Guests:

The winter months are often marked by the holidays and the new year. Yet, it's often lost on most people that domestic violence incidents trend up during this time of year. 

The warning signs for domestic violence intensify during winter. So what are the signs and how can we as community members step in to protect survivors of domestic violence?

Co-Executive Director of the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence Cheree Thomas joined Tia Graham on The Metro to talk more about domestic violence during the winter months. 

Detroit Salon is a new initiative produced by the woman-led organization Salonnière that puts Detroit artists in front of global audiences, curators and museums by touring exhibitions that carry their pieces. 

The collective’s first show was in Paris at Art Basel, where they installed three different exhibitions. Each one highlighted different areas of life in Detroit.

Juana is an artistic creative director and chief curator for Detroit Salon. KESSWA is a vocalist, producer, filmmaker who musically curated the exhibitions in Paris. 

Juana Williams and Kesswa joined Tia Graham in the studio to discuss Detroit Salon’s efforts. 

This Thursday, Dec. 18, Holiday Detroit will showcase professional dancers, singers and musicians alongside students from Voyageur College Preparatory High School in a festive performance. 

Renowned choreographer Lisa McCall and The Temptations lead singer, Tony Grant joined the show to talk about working with students and more. 

On Sunday, a father and son killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia. It was one of the deadliest attacks on Jewish people in that nation’s history.

The attack is part of a larger trend of rising antisemitism.

Since October of 2023, American Jews have reported a rise in antisemitism, including an uptick in violence against Jewish people. This past year alone, high-profile attacks happened in Pennsylvania, Washington DC, and Colorado. 

All of this has happened amid what scholars say is Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. What is the connection between Israel’s violence and violence targeting Jewish people around the world?

The Metro’s Sam Corey spoke with Jewish scholars and community leaders to learn more. 

The Robocop statue commemorating the 80s sci-fi film was finally installed in Eastern Market after over a decade of planning.

The movie centers Alex Murphy, a Detroit police officer who was killed on the job by criminal. A corporation tasked with reducing the city’s crime rate then uses his body to create a crime fighting cyborg.  

The concept spawned multiple sequels, comics, an animated series, action figures and more. But what about the movie resonated so deeply with fans in Detroit that they were willing to help fund a sculpture to honor it?

Curtis Sullivan, owner of the Vault of Midnight comic book stores, is a huge fan of Robocop. He joined the program to discuss the significance of the film, its relevance to Detroit, and the new sculpture.

Somewhere between the psychedelic 1960s and the arrival of punk in the late 1970s, Detroit had a unique imprint on American music with an avant-garde, noise rock scene. Destroy All Monsters was an influential band and art collective at the time.

Their sound was radical, experimental, and noisy.

The band was formed in Ann Arbor in the early 1970s by Cary Loren, Mike Kelly, Jim Shaw and Niagra.

The group’s influence on art and music in Detroit is being recognized with a retrospective at Cranbrook Art Museum called “Mythic Chaos: 50 Years of Destroy All Monsters.” Also on display through March is a sister exhibition, “Noise, Vision, and Ruins” at the Detroit Public Library, Main Branch and curated by Cary Loren. 

Both exhibitions are open through March.

The Metro’s David Leins spoke Loren about the group’s origins, and what to expect from the exhibitions.

To some, the story of the Packard Plant mirrors that of Detroit. Built in the early 1900s, the building was a major site of auto manufacturing in the city. That was until the mid-1950s, when the plant closed.

But that didn’t spell the end for the Packard Plant. The building continued to house industrial and commercial tenants into the 1990s, and was even home to some legendary Detroit raves. The site isn’t really a factory anymore. It’s a ruin. And now, two developers say they want to give that ruin new life.

What are the plans for the redeveloped plant? Developers Mark Bennett and Oren Goldenberg spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent about that and more.

The project to reconstruct I-375 is meant to do two things at once: rebuild aging infrastructure and repair the harm caused by a highway that, decades ago, tore through Black neighborhoods and business districts in downtown Detroit.

But as plans evolved, the cost of the I-375 reconstruction project was ballooning to $520 million. Criticism was mounting among nearby business owners who feared losing money and Detroiters who wanted to ensure the project would deliver reparative outcomes. 

So in August the Michigan Department of Transportation paused the project. Then last month, it was revived with a different plan. 

Jason Garza is the Michigan Department of Transportation Deputy Region Engineer. He spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent.