Detroit

Wayne State works to lessen financial burden for students

By Newsroom

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December 9, 2008

Wayne State University has come up with a plan to help ease some of the financial burden of rising tuition rates for next semester and beyond. The five-part plan finds a number of ways to help save students money or gives them more time to pay college costs. For instance, Wayne State has established a tuition and fee grace period for next semester, allowing students to register for classes even if they haven't paid all of their bills in full up to $1,500.Wayne State will also continue to invest in its new economy-based curriculum, giving students more options of finding good jobs.Wayne State is also offering financial help for students via one-on-one counseling. The idea is to help them figure out their needs and explain what options they have financially. It will also offer seminars on financial aid, planning and management. The first seminars will be held on Dec. 13.The university is establishing a temporary Student Response Center to help fulfill this need. For more information, call (313) 577-3378.Source: Wayne State UniversityWriter: Jon Zemke

Round-up: Curl up and Dye is cutting, Community Acupuncture is poking

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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December 9, 2008

Midtown denizens have good reason to give thanks this holiday season: a couple of amenities have opened their doors for business.Curl Up and Dye hair salon has opened its doors on Cass Avenue in the Stuber-Stone Lofts building. Hours are Monday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday from noon to 8 p.m., Thursday from noon tyo 9 p.m. and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Walk-ins welcome until 6 p.m. daily; appointments only on Saturday. Call 313-833-5006. The shop's grand opening will be held on Dec. 13 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. There will be a chance to win one of six salon gift baskets that each come with a gift certificate for a Curl Up and Dye service. Three stylists are currently on staff with experience in all types of hair. Read more about proprietor Jennifer Willemsen's operation here.New for the area is Detroit Community Acupuncture, Nora Madden's venture, which debuted with a Noel Night open house. The E. Canfield clinic's hours, to begin with, are Mondays and Wednesdays from 3 to 7 p.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 6 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call 313-831-3222 to schedule an appointment and come back to Model D next week for an in-depth feature on the venture; for now, whet your appetite with this.One last quick thing. Piezano's Pizza, on Second Ave., has become Passport Pizza and Ribs. It's a local chain with over 40 locations, but this is the city's first. Call 313-494-5200 to order a pie or stop in -- it's between Prentis and Canfield.Writer: Kelli B. KavanaughPhoto: Marvin Shaouni

Metro Detroit’s Seven Day Weekend

By Ryan Allen

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Arts & Culture

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December 4, 2008

Thursday is the new Friday. Or was that Tuesday? In Metro Detroit it doesn't matter. Great local music can be had every night of the week. From punk to pop, electronica to jazz, hip-hop to hard rock, Metromode offers up seven nights of tried and true sonic scenes.

Stout Systems cements presence in new TechTown space, plans to hire

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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December 4, 2008

A native son returns to Detroit to open an office for his Ann Arbor-based company and create a few jobs. Excerpt: John W Stout has a stake in his native Detroit. It's why the president and founder of Stout Systems opened an office for his Ann Arbor-based firm in TechTown this year. "TechTown is clearly the center of a lot of the growth in Detroit," Stout says. "I am very interested in seeing Detroit reborn and I think TechTown is a focal point of that rebirth." Stout Systems started 15 years ago with just Stout. Now it employs 25 people, gives work to another five people and is looking at starting an internship program. It has anywhere between 1-3 people working out of its Detroit office at any given time. Read the rest of the story here.

A Secondhand Economy

By Daniel Johnson

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Arts & Culture

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December 4, 2008

Barter is back, resale has embraced upscale, and salvage goes green as Metro Detroit tightens its belt and widens its consumer options. Local businesses are successfully leveraging the Internet and up-to-the-minute trends to revive old tyme economic practices.

Metro Airport station set for Detroit-Ann Arbor rail line

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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December 4, 2008

The date to start service on the Detroit-Ann Arbor commuter rail project is set and most of the station locations have been determined.The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments plans to begin operationing the rail line in October, 2010. It also has sited the station locations for all but one of the stops. Only Ypsilanti remains. SEMCOG is still working with the city officials to find a viable stop location. The latest station announcement was the Metro Airport stop, which will go at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Henry Ruff Road on Wayne County property. Shuttle busses will connect the stop to Metro Airport. SEMCOG officials and the myriad of train companies that control the track are still working out the logistics of how the commuter rail line will work and what improvements are necessary. Amtrak will provide the trains.The commuter rail line would utilize existing tracks with stops at Metro Airport, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Dearborn. It's possible it could also be expanded to connect Royal Oak, Ferndale, Troy/Birmingham and Pontiac.Source: Carmine Palombo, director of transportation for SEMCOGWriter: Jon Zemke

Tiger Stadium preservationists notch more hits, line up construction funds

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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December 4, 2008

Tiger Stadium isn't just hanging on anymore. A major part of the historic structure is well on its way to becoming something quite special. Excerpt: Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy progress report: The $4 million federal earmark, key to preserving what's left of Tiger Stadium, is in the U.S. Senate's Budget Committee. Thom Linn, president of the Conservancy, puts the earmark's chances of passage at "extremely likely" and expects that to happen early next year. The Conservancy just finished making a presentation to the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation Monday that covered its design and feasibility plans. A financial feasibility presentation to the DEGC is scheduled for March. Linn expects the Conservancy to close on the field in the summer, start construction shortly thereafter and finish the project about 18 months later sometime in 2011. "This is a historic opportunity for Detroit and the region," Linn says. "If we're successful this will be the only pre-World War II baseball stadium that has been preserved." Read the rest of the story here.

Loyalty and passion go a long way when talking about economic growth

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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December 4, 2008

There seems to be a link between loyalty and passion for a community and its economic growth. Whodathunkit? No, really, with all kidding aside, if you love an area, care about an area, stay in an area, live to serve that area, and there are more than one of you then economic growth in some capacity probably isn't far behind. Excerpt: A new Gallup study of six Southeast Michigan counties and 25 other U.S. communities shows a possible link between economic growth and residents’ loyalty and passion for the area they live in. The Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation funded the "Soul of the Community" study as part of a multiyear effort in the 26 areas its founders owned newspapers. The study included telephone surveys of nearly 14,000 adults between February and the end of April. Read the entire article here.

NPower turns rise in tech assessments into New Center jobs

By Newsroom

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General

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November 20, 2008

One Detroit non-profit is carving out it's own niche by helping to make other non-profits more efficient.Excerpt:Npower Michigan is turning new business into a few new hires at its headquarters in the Youthville building in New Center.The non-profit spun out of Microsoft performs tech assessments for other non-profits. The idea is to find inexpensive ways so these community organizations can work more efficiently. Npower Michigan is sort of the Great Lakes State chapter of the larger Npower non-profit.Npower Michigan is set to do 114 technology assessments in the later half of this year. That's three times as many assessments it did for Michigan non-profits in 2008 fiscal year.Read the rest of the story here.

Retooling SE Michigan’s Workforce

By Lucy Ament

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Arts & Culture

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November 20, 2008

Evolve or perish has become the mantra for Michigan's economy. But what to do with generations of workers who flourished under the old system? To borrow a recent slogan: "We are the change we have been waiting for". Metro Detroit's universities have some ideas about how to make that change.