alliedmedia.org :: Detroit Digital Justice Coalition Awarded $2 Million to Enhance Local Information Economy
Detroit, September 28 2010 – The Detroit Digital Justice Coalition (DDJC), in partnership with Michigan State University, is receiving approximately $2 million in federal stimulus funds to support its community organizing and economic development efforts in the Detroit area.
9/8/10: Artists and historians explore and photograph Detroit’s abandoned buildings in hopes of protecting them from the wrecking ball.
Detroit Dragway
Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile. Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of its the most desolate sections and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural. Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. The current plan would demolish about 10,000 houses and empty buildings in three years and pump new investment into stronger neighborhoods. In the neighborhoods that would be cleared, the city would offer to relocate residents or buy them out. The city could use tax foreclosure to claim abandoned property and invoke eminent domain for those who refuse to leave, much as cities now do for freeway projects. Mayor Dave Bing, who took office last year, is expected to unveil some details in his state-of-the-city address this month.
Paul’s Restaurant
8tracks | mhbednar | Hitsville, U.S.A.
8tracks | Pseudochild | We Almost Lost Detroit
8tracks | halflite | Detroit Soul City
8tracks | artificialsweetner | Detroit Stand Up
8tracks | philippe | Detroit Rock City
8tracks | kosmo | Electronic Music from Detroit and Beyond (Part 1)
One of Thad Jones’s first recordings for the Blue Note label, this mid-1950s set finds the revered jazz trumpeter in typically fine form. A Michigan native who relocated to the Big Apple (hence the title), Jones mixes a pair of Rodgers & Hart standards (the romantic “The Blue Room” and the weeper “Little Girl Blue”) with a few solid originals, resulting in a top-notch bop record.
Liner Note Authors: Leonard Feather; Bob Blumenthal.
Recording information: Audio-Video Studios, New York, NY (1956).
Photographer: Francis Wolff.
Personnel: Thad Jones (trumpet); Thad Jones; Billy Mitchell (tenor saxophone); Oscar Pettiford (bass instrument); Kenny Burrell (guitar); Tommy Flanagan (piano); Shadow Wilson (drums).
Audio Remasterer: Rudy Van Gelder.
Requiem for Detroit (2010) : A Post-Industrial Dystopia : 75min. produced in 2010 by BBC : Julien Temple 2010 BBC documentary on the urban decline of Detroit : Detroit: the last days : Detroit is a city in terminal decline. When film director Julien Temple arrived in town, he was shocked by what he found – but he also uncovered reasons for hope. Detroit: the last days | Film | The Guardian
Director & Narrator: Julien Temple, Detroit Consultants: Logan Siegel, Russ Russell, Bradley MacCallum, Director of photography: Steve Organ, Produced by George Hencken.
Interviews with Mitch Ryder, Martha Reeves, John Sinclair (Beat Poet), Bradley McCallum (Detroit historian), Lowell Boileau (artist), Tom Wilkinson (GM executive), Paul Thal (auto executive), Peter de Lorenzo (author, The Autoextremist), Mike Neeson (Detroit resident), and more…
video to download here
nytimes.com/slideshow :: The Detroit Breakdown, a festival of music from Michigan, took place on Saturday at Lincoln Center Out of Doors.
“There were two through-lines at the Detroit Breakdown, a festival of music from Michigan on Saturday at Lincoln Center Out of Doors. One was the crisp, enterprising gospel-turned-pop that found its biggest audience on Motown Records. The other was a cantankerous streak that runs from Detroit blues through the city’s proto-punk and garage-rock, and arguably into the combative hip-hop of Eminem. Through afternoon and evening shows, craftsmanship and commotion kept recombining. (…)”
nytimes.com Motor City Zooms Into Town for a Visit
