Midtown : Features

To celebrate Detroit Collaborative Design Center's 20th anniversary, Francis Grunow sat down with DCDC staff to discuss the Center's legacy of facilitating participatory design in the city.

Our eternally youthful Detroit correspondent revisits his skinny, 25-year-old self, and name checks Dennis Archer and Spike Lee to help sort out what's next for the city. Take it away, Sir James Boyle.

Detroit is bouncing back with, among other things, beer. Businesses like Atwater, the Detroit Beer Co, Motor City Brewing Works and Traffic Jam & Snug have established a good foundation for growth, with room for plenty more. Joe Baur says cheers to that.

In preparation for this weekend's Marche, we give you a Victorian era account of the legend of the Nain Rouge. Read and be warned -- repeat not Cadillac's folly!

Street photographer Bill Rauhauser, 95, has spent decades documenting Detroit and its people. Glen Morren sat down with Rauhauser and others to explore this legend's living legacy.

A city bus system can only withstand so much disinvestment, and DDOT is on the brink. Mayor Mike Duggan recently appointed Dan Dirks, former SMART manager, to lead DDOT’s turnaround effort. Model D spoke with Dirks to find out how he plans to get the system back on track.

In December, we began examining the role Detroit music plays in the city's past, present and future. We continue the discussion in a three-part series that focuses on the cultural and economic impact of the local scenes. Keith Owens goes looking for people with ideas.   

This is a healthy sign: we can't remember a Valentine's Day in Detroit proper (and Hamtramck) filled with so many events, from music to skating to indie retail fun in a long, long time. Kelli Kavanaugh puts together a hot list of cool things to do this week. 

Public officials and developers across the region are preparing to reap the economic potential of functional transit, something many cities across the country have already done. How it gets done in Detroit is critical to its success, writes Nina Ignaczak.

In Part II of his creative look at how neighborhood life has evolved in Detroit, Francis Grunow goes back over 300 years -- older than our nation itself -- to explore how we came to the footprint we have today, and how things might look under a greater municipal regional entitiy.   

We welcome back Kelli Kavanaugh, Model D's former development news editor and now East Riverfront bicycle entrepreneur, who will be writing about cycling in the city over the coming months. First up: all you needed to know about bike sharing but were afraid to ask. 

We were recently invited to sit in on the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's annual meeting. It was a terrific event, filled with news of Midtown community love and artistic and financial growth for the organization. President and CEO Anne Parsons shares her remarks. 

Only seven days left to get the rest of your holiday shopping on and, thanks to a growing number of creative urban entrepreneurs, your options are increasing. Nicole Rupersburg compiles a list of places you need to go.

Our food shopping tour concludes in Lafayette Park, East Riverfront and Midtown, where Nicole Rupersburg visits markets offering fresh produce, meats, fish and other home cooking staples. Marvin Shaouni puts it all into focus with his camera.

Essayist Keith Owens says Detroit needs to polish off its 'international gold standard' as a music city and re-emerge as a creative powerhouse to rival Memphis and New Orleans, at the very least. Let's start by helping to keep local talent in the city, he says.