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Here’s a different side of a politician. Karen Majewski, mayor of Hamtramck, takes us through reconnecting with her Polish roots and how it landed her and her husband in one of America’s most interesting immigrant enclaves.

Interview/Audio/Photos: Ash Hennen
Additional Photos: Karpov the Wrecked Train

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In addressing the crowd gathered for WDET’s A Call to Action event on Wednesday, February 22, Kurt Metzger of Data Driven Detroit presented several statistics to make the case for why people need to volunteer in the city of Detroit.  Rather than just leaving people with the impression there is a lot of need, he stressed metropolitan Detroit has a lot more capacity to volunteer.

Metzger noted that out of the 51 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, metropolitan Detroit ranks 32 in terms of number of volunteer hours.  Minneapolis, Portland and Rochester, NY are among the leading regions for the number of volunteer hours served.

It was with that backdrop that Craig Fahle, host of the Craig Fahle Show on WDET, and Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh engaged the audience gathered at the Community Arts Auditorium on Wayne State’s campus and issued the challenge to get people to pledge to serve 10,000 volunteer hours in 30 days.

Founder and Executive Director of Forward Arts, Dominic Arellano hopes with the attention focused on Detroit lately, an event like this is the spark people and businesses need to truly involve themselves in the city.

“Many of WDET’s listeners are the type that want to be active in their community and Detroit, if they aren’t already. Combined with the issue of some organizations not being able to get volunteers, their Call to Action makes for a great platform for the city and region,” he commented.

An integral part of this Call to Action is tracking the goal of 10,000 hours in 30 days, the team at LOVELAND created a website that allows people to easily find organizations and pledge the number of hours they will volunteer.

WDET General Manager J. Mikel Ellcessor closed out the meeting by challenging the approximately 400 people in attendence to do three things.  1.  Pledge hours.  2.  Follow along and watch the progress.  3.  Have three committed conversations with friends or colleagues about what they can do and ask them to give their time as well.

As Fahle acknowledged to the audience, “When you add up everyone in here, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.”

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Doug Rothwell, Business Leaders for Michigan

The Detroit Economic Club luncheon today was the scene for the public unveiling of a strategy document by Business Leaders for Michigan that focuses on building the economic strength of Michigan cities and metropolitan areas.

Formulated in partnership with The Brookings Institute, the plan highlights several assets the state has including the fact that six metropolitan areas beat the national average for number of patents issued per 1,000 workers.  In fact, Detroit leads the nation’s 20 largest metropolitan areas in export intensity measured as a percentage of the regions output that is exported.

Doug Rothwell, President and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan noted that there are no silver bullets for fixing Michigan’s cities and he hopes this strategy is used by elected officials as a blueprint.

The three overarching goals outlined by the strategy are,

1.  Michigan supports strategies to strengthen the link between innovation and manufacturing to increase regional exports and attract global investments.

2.  Michigan supports strong regional systems to train existing workers and welcome new ones to fuel economic growth.

3.  Michigan makes targeted investments that leverage distinct assets in urban and metropolitan areas to transform regional economies.

When asked where the dollars for implementing this program will come from, Rothwell noted that instead of spreading Federal and State dollars across a number of different programs, many of the strategies outlined could be implemented by properly targeting those dollars. For example, the 21st Century Jobs Fund the Michigan Economic Development Corporation currently administers could repurpose funding to focus on the specific economic strength of each metropolitan area.

Bruce Katz, Vice President and Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program for The Brookings Institute noted that he can envision a 21st Century Places Fund down the road, similar to the 21st Century Jobs Fund.  Katz also noted that as other states begin to dust themselves off from the latest recession, they are looking at letting funding flow more toward cities, recognizing cities tend to be the economic drivers of each state economy. Of particular interest for Detroit, were the findings around identifying and leveraging key assets for accelerating the growth of urban economies.  He said these include anchor institutions, waterfront, cultural institutions and distinctive architecture and stated that Detroit’s Downtown and Midtown lead the country in both.

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Andrew Zimmern is a hard guy to get a hold of – but it seems Detroit has gotten a hold of him in many, many ways.

All of his Motown love will show tonight during the world premiere of “Bizarre Foods: America” featuring his Detroit visit, which happened last fall. Everyone who met him was wowed by his charm and unique sarcasm. It’s the reason we rabid fans love his work. And it sounds like our loyalty will be met with a great episode, which starts at 9 p.m. EST on The Travel Channel.

Check out what the man had to say about our city, our food and our people. Zimmern has been traveling non-stop for weeks now, and he took the time to answer the Hub’s questions. I totally dig his commitment to eating and helping a reporter on the fly!

The Travel Channel

Q: Detroiters called you sharp, witty and a good eater. What would you call them?
A: Vibrant, welcoming, with a lot of heart. The people there have picked up where society has let them down. There’s a self-sufficiency there that’s just incredible.

Q: What surprised you the most about what you ate here?
A: Detroit is one of the most culturally diverse cities I’ve visited in a long time. It definitely shows in the food. It’s home to the largest Arab-American population in the country, not to mention its thriving Polish, Mexican and Bengali communities. With that comes honest, authentic food. What’s more, people from all over the United States have relocated to Detroit. I’ve eaten some of the best soul food in the country here. I’d argue that this kind of cultural cross pollination defines America, and it’s the kind of thing Detroit is doing well, maybe even doing it better than any other city in the country. Out of an absurd challenge, has come a renaissance.

Q: They say Detroit has great audiences — but do we have great food? People here would like to get on the foodie radar.
A: Absolutely. There’s so much happening here on a micro level. Eastern Market is simply amazing, and peppered mostly with entrepreneurs who are bringing this city back in a big way. I could’ve done the entire show there– not because there are so many different foods, but because of the stories we found. We met a woman who was selling iced tea (Grandad’s Sweet Tea). It’s a bottled product. Three quarters of their family were unemployed so they started making iced tea. Now it’s sold in eight or nine states and they have 20 employees. This kind of story is everywhere in Detroit, and it think it’s the key to revitalizing the city. I was thrilled not only by how great the food scene is there, but by how it’s also bringing hope to the community.

Q: What does Detroit need that you did not see?
A: Detroit is one of the most culturally diverse cities I’ve visited in a long time – I can’t think of anything I would add.

Q: What one memory will stay with you about this city — given that you’ve seen so much of the world?
A: There’s a place called Love’s Custard Pie. It is the best pie I have ever eaten in my life. It’s worth going just for that … chess pie, sweet potato pie, blueberry pie, buttermilk custard pie.

Oh, and the salted, fermented fish pizza from a little mom-and-pop shop (Amar Pizza) run by a Pakistani family in Hamtramck. I liked it because I like anchovies on my pizza. They have 20 pizzas, and their best-seller is still tomato sauce and cheese, but their fellow countrymen and people from Bangladesh love that salted fish pizza. It’s the best part of the show.

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P.S. Here’s my favorite comment from Zimmern’s personal blog post about the show. Hip, hip, hooray!

If I was a betting man I would be taking Detroit and giving the points, even doubling down. Plenty of people gave Detroit up for dead, and maybe it was already dead and no one knew it, but this city is gaining traction in its neighborhoods and small enclaves of commitment and its thrilling to see. I can’t wait to get back there.

That’s some food for the soul.

P.P.S. If you want to watch with some of the local Mower Gang guys who were in the show, head out to Ferndale’s Emory tonight. Everyone is welcome and The Emory is donating a portion of the bar tab back to the Mower Gang’s gas, gatorade, and beer fund. The event, which starts at 7:30 p.m., will be held at 22700 Woodward Avenue in Fab Ferndale.

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Did you have a yellow secret lurking in some dark corner of your home growing up? A pile of dusty evidence stashed in the basement or attic or under the stairs?  I know my family did. The only thing that saved our pile of National Geographic’s from growing unabated was that as a military family we moved every two years.

As a whole, National Geographic has weathered the move to online media well. Its magazines are still published and highly acclaimed but a great deal of its content is now available on line too — making it much more accessible than the file by pile so many of us used to resort to because the photographs and the articles were too wonderful to throw away.

I am hoping that’s still the case.  Since the latest issue of National Geographic’s travel publication “Traveler” features a wonderful and prominent section on Detroit – the teaser copy on the cover “America’s Surprise Comeback City” is followed on page 46 with a centerfold spread “Rise and Shine Detroit, hard times aren’t over but there’s no denying the Motor City’s new spirit”.

To which I say that’s the spirit and thank you to writer Andrew Nelson and photographer Melissa Farlow for the thoughtful coverage of our flawed yet fair city.

I didn’t cringe from yet another photo gallery of Ruin Porn as I flipped through the pages. Rather I ooed and awed and nodded with approval at their selections and coverage, which even includes a great “Made in Detroit” timeline of what they call “this uniquely American city.”

“Call it a rising, a revival, a new dawn—there’s undeniable energy emanating from Detroit… An expanding Detroit RiverWalk edges downtown, where corporations like DTE Energy, Quicken Loans, and Blue Cross Blue Shield have moved in thousands of workers. A favorite 1960s-era restaurant, the London Chop House, has announced its reopening. And that badge of gentrification, Whole Foods, plans to build a store in the inner city.”

Reading the magazine’s mission statement made me smile: “National Geographic Traveler reports on destinations of distinction and character, and we support efforts to keep them that way – believing that to enhance an authentic ‘sense of place’ will benefit both travelers and the locations they visit.” Detroit is all those things. Heck, we have distinction, character and authenticity in spades.

It was fun too to attend the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitor’s Bureau reception for the National Geographic team at the Westin Book Cadillac last week to hear the back story behind the decision to feature Detroit. Turns out that the editor Keith Bellows didn’t know when he made the assignment that Nelson grew up in Detroit. Whether it was a happy coincidence or kismet that brought this issue to be, this is one Detroit story I want all of us to share and share often. So don’t let this issue of the magazine gather dust even virtually. Read and see the whole spread on line and then be sure to spread the word – about Detroit’s comeback and its promising future.

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Pep-rally time: Gather around to learn the reasons you should be hopeful for Detroit from one of the city’s Grande Dames, Grace Lee Boggs.

…Because for every sob story, there is a community garden, where Detroiters are touching the soil, watching it transform lives and bellies, giving rise to an agricultural renaissance. And it gives Detroit’s youth a sense of process instead of just pushing buttons.

…Because there is a new depth to the word “neighborhood,” where neighbors are reaching out to each other and showing how Detroiters love deeply and fully.

…Because young people are learning that they can create their own work, empowering themselves and the city toward renewal.

…Most importantly, Detroiters are showing the world the true power of the classic statement: “Making a way out of no way.”

“We are at a time when we need to grow our souls,” Boggs said Wednesday at the Detroit Historical Museum as part of the Society’s Scholar Series. “We are challenging ourselves to become creators of a new world. And that’s happening in Detroit.

“Where others see devastation, we see a city emerging, a place where things are made new,” Boggs added. “It is a transition as profound as the transition from hunters and gathers or from agriculture to industry. … This is a cultural revolution. We can make a way out of no way.”

At nearly 97 years old, Boggs is a marvel of good genes, good deeds and just plain old goodness. Born in 1915, Boggs has seen change not only over the decades, but has a sense of change over the centuries. Think about this: She was in college during the Great Depression. She has been a leader of workers’ rights, Civil Rights, Asian American and African American rights, women’s rights and all that is right since the 1950s.

She has made Detroit her home for long enough now that she is one of the major forces in our city’s history and, even more impressively, our future.

Her appearance is so very deceiving – here is this petite woman whose wheelchair seemed to only cradle her bones. But once she opens her mouth and starts to speak, the room properly hushes to hear what this legend of peaceful change has to say.

Boggs’ talk was inspired in part by her most recent book, “The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the 21st Century” (with Scott Kurashige, 2011). Within these pages, she talks about Detroit with a sense of joy and respect – feelings that shine so keenly through her features as she talks about this lovable (!) city.

“Because of technology, we don’t have to mourn the loss of the assembly line. There is another kind of production rising,” Boggs said. “People can create. They can write. They can make change. … People will come to Detroit because there is something self-reliant happening here.”

For example, she pointed to the Freedom Freedom Growers, a group with a Southside garden and the dream of growing a garden and the community around it. This organic garden is grown on four lots leased from the city, and it is about asking people to participate – in life, in planting, in harvesting, in feeding themselves and one another – instead of being passive spectators.

“There are 1,000 community gardens here. And for many people, this is the center of the urban agricultural movement for the whole country,” Boggs said.

As background, I have kept an eye on Boggs’ work since I participated in a unique program called “Push the Edges” about 12 years ago. This strange year-long seminar and collaboration united journalists with Detroit-area community leaders in hopes of finding some sort of so-called common ground. Boggs was always the rabble-rouser, letting no lame or half-thunk comment go. She always called us to a higher ground, a more thoughtful place, a dignified end. I kinda dug that.

Detroit…Boggs style. “We have the space and the place to begin anew,” she said.

Amen, Mama Boggs.

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Shane Cunningham spent the last 9-and-a-half years in the Coast Guard. When deployed overseas, he’s seen his friends pack footballs, baseballs, mitts… mostly smaller equipment to keep them occupied during their downtime. But Cunningham has something else in mind for his next station, and it’s definitely not small enough to carry with you.

Fowling is a pretty simple concept. It’s football and bowling mixed, where pins are set up on top of a platform and two teams throw footballs to knock the others’ pins down first. A few other rules: if you knock over the 5 pin (in the center) on your first throw, it’s an immediate win, and you aren’t allowed to interfere with the throw if the football lands past a painted line. The best part of the game is the way the football bounces around after it hits the ground. Sometimes your throw can bounce back into your own pins. There’s virtually no predicting it.

Cunningham is in the process of building the pin platforms right now “After they’re built, I’m just painting everything white to start and adding the Coast guard stripe,” he explains. “I’m going to leave the wood in pieces, because it’s easier to ship. We’ll assemble when we get overseas.”

He was first introduced to the sport about 4 years ago, at a block party in Troy. “One of my uncle’s best friends used to play,” he says. “He explained it to me, and I thought it was the simplest, stupidest game ever! I thought it was going to be fun and easy. Then I got really mad because I wasn’t awesome at it right away! That was the big thing. It kept me playing.”

After the painting and construction, state-side and abroad, his work isn’t quite done. “I’m going to be teaching everybody over there how to fowl,” Cunningham says. “At first, like me, they thought it was stupid, but then they saw the pictures and I told them it was much harder than it looked, so they’re excited for it now.”

Fowling has gained a kind of cult following since it began. Paul Konkal is a fellow fowler and friend of Cunningham. “I was at the Indy 500 when they were still making up rules,” he recalls. “It’s funny because I’m a so-so race fan, but probably the last 4 5 times I’ve gone, I get there early just to fowl, then go home before the race starts. So it’s a lot of driving for one day of fowling, but it’s the best tournament there is.”

Cunningham and his fellow fowling enthusiasts have a website, aptly named www.whatsfowling.com. There, they track where fowling has spread across and Cunningham says he’s excited to see the map light up on foreign shores. (Canada doesn’t count in his mind.) Visit to see the map light up, learn the rules, or find out where you can fowl. After all, Cunningham and his friends have a saying for the newly initiated: “Today you woke up a fowler. You just didn’t know it yet.”

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Detroit is the original DIY community. In other words, our crafters can beat up your crafters. Maybe that’s why artist Carole Harris finds so much inspiration here.

Detroiters are known for creating something out of nothing. So you’re bored on a Sunday afternoon in March? Create the Marche de la Nain Rouge! Want a place to buy bagels? Open up your own Institute. Like contemporary art? Take an old auto dealership and re-imagine it as something wildly wonderful.

Ms. Harris is just like all of her fellow Detroiters. She looks out her window onto Woodward Avenue, and she sees the beauty, motion and majesty of the city. She then translates it into a quilt. Not those flouncy ones you might have seen during a grandmotherly sleepover. Oh, no, art fans. These are genuine unique expressions of Harris’ vision – just through fiber instead of tempera.

Harris and I spoke this week to highlight her participation in Quilt Art: International Expressions exhibit at the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House. The exhibit, which continues through March 25, features more than 30 quilts that will shake you of any old-fashion notions you might have about these lovely pieces of art.

The Ford estate is the first stop on the quilts’ national tour. Some 22 international artists from nine countries are showing their work there – and it is all free to the public. So not only do you get to go onto the grounds of one of the finest estate homes in Southeast Michigan (I am gaga about everything there – the view, the gardens, the grandeur) but you can explore the exhibit in full sans money from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Love that.

These are contemporary works. There is no pastel pink or puffy paint here. No, ma’am. The colors are sensual and saturated. Harris is taking the exhibit to the next level through her March 22 presentation on her version of quilting, which she considers Improvisational Art.

Some background on my new friend. Harris is a professional interior designer and longtime fiber artist. She learned needlework from her mother; she also grew up at a time when these arts were taught in school. Harris said she was a tall teenager, so she started making her own clothing as well. She got her art degree and started her career.

Her first quilt was in honor of her marriage. That was a standard quilt, allowing Harris to learn the basics of this art form, she said.

“It was a traditional pinwheel pattern, one of the oldest and most dominant patterns in quilt making. That was the last traditional quilt I ever made,” Harris said. “From there, I was experimenting with different formats. … For me, it’s too boring to do a pre-conceived pattern from somebody else. I’ve always approached my work as an artist.”

In other words, don’t think you’re going to snuggle up under her creations. Nope. These are the ones you hang on the wall, ponder, study, allow to free to your imagination.

And that’s how Harris feels when she creates them – they are symbols of the freedom she feels as she puts them together. Since she was old enough to know, Harris said she was drawn to painting, drawing and music. And she studied music for 10 years (until that teen thing got in the way). But it plays a huge role in her art.

“I’m inspired by music. … People will ask me what inspires me. I truly don’t have anything in mind to start. I put two pieces together and see if they speak to each other. It’s like playing one note, which leads you to the next note. It will tell you where it wants to go. It will help direct you.”

Her intuition, her imagination, her spirit of do-it-yourself-ness and improvisation guide her.

“I just love making them. I’m not concerned with the final thing,” she said.

So there you go, Detroiters. Don’t worry about the outcome. Just go try something. Let yourself be inspired. You’re doing great so far.

Now for the fine print…

Reservations for all programs, including Ms. Harris’ talk on improv quilt art, can be made at www.fordhouse.org or by calling 313.884.4222.

 Edsel & Eleanor Ford House is located at 1100 Lake Shore Road in Grosse Pointe Shores.  Since 1978, Ford House has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors to share in Eleanor Ford’s vision of preserving the estate for future generations to enjoy through interpretive tours, family activities, lectures, exhibits and gardens and grounds events.  For more information, visit www.fordhouse.org or call 313.884.4222.

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Detroit made its presence known on Super Bowl Sunday in more ways than just the Chrysler commercial. Turns out it was a local company, Detroit Labs, that built out the hugely succssful Chevy Game Time app, which gave away free cars and skyrocketed into iPhone’s top 10 free apps list. Surrounded by the likes of Facebook and Instagram, this was no small accomplishment.

So now that the Super Bowl has come and gone, and things have calmed down a bit over at Detroit Labs, we sat down to talk to Henry Balanon, mobile director and one of the group’s co-founders.

Q: First off, congrats on the overwhelming success with Detroit Lab’s Chevy Game Time app! Were you expecting this kind of response?

A: Balanon: It was always in the back of our minds that we wanted that, but there were a lot of factors that we couldn’t control. There’s always that shadow of doubt: are there going to be enough people using this? For all intents and purposes, all of the expectations that we had and that GM had were far exceeded… in a positive way!

Q:Can you take me behind the creation of an app at Detroit Labs?

A: Balanon: Okay, so it starts off with a pitch to the client or whoever is funding the idea. Starts with a small feature set on paper of what people want to do, and usually those details are very fuzzy. It’s kind of a mash: this from this app, and that from that app, and it’s not quite fleshed out or a solid idea. So what ends up happening is that the creative lead takes the concept and starts making screen mock ups of what the app could look like. It’s a very integrative process, so then you would show that to the client and they’ll start to get ideas…Then all of a sudden 5 comps or mock-ups become 10. So the entire lay out gets fleshed out graphically first along with the feature set. Then that’s when the building starts and that’s when we take the mock-up and programming them into the device and adding any back end web service that might be needed. All the while we get demos out to clients and seeing what they think, then taking their feedback and making changes accordingly. It’s a big loop that keeps going and going and going, literally until game day when it’s time to submit.

Q: Being that this is an incredibly competitive field, what do you think factors into one app succeeding over another? What do you attribute your success to?

A: Balanon: There are a lot of aspects to getting an app adopted. The first is having a great product, which lot of people are able to do… so we did the best we could have done.  But then another piece is the marketing, and Chevy did a great job with marketing the app as well, running commercials during the Pro Bowl, during the NFC games and they put them in very strategic places. They headed marketing efforts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. There was a lot of work that everyone has done and because of that we were successful. There were a lot of people collaborating. It definitely made a splash.

Q: What initially attracted you to mobile app development?

A: Balanon: So I started with a company called Bickbot a few years ago. I started that because I loved using the iPhone and I wanted to make apps for it. It was a new industry. A wise man once told me “You have to get known for something, otherwise you’re going to get known for nothing.” So I really niched myself into that industry and a few years later cofounded Detroit Labs with three other guys there along with some support from Detroit Venture Partners. What I do here is similar to what I did at Vickbot, but at a larger scale. So what were doing with Chevy would have been impossible, but now that we have an entire team dedicated, I feel like we can do anything now.

Q: Do you have any general advice for people who would like to start building apps? What resources are out there for people who are interested but maybe inexperienced?

A: Balanon: If people don’t have experience within app building, I’d say books give a good sense of structure. I’d start with tutorials online too. It’s possible to teach yourself. I mean, I was a programmer before so it was easy for me to pick up, but the community is starting to get strong here around mobile development, so I encourage them to reach out to other mobile developers and learn from them.

Q: Are there any community meet ups geared specifically toward mobile development that you would recommend?

A:Balanon: Yes, there’s a conference a couple times a year called MobiDevDay and it’s all about developing apps. Cocoa Heads Detroit is geared specifically toward iPhones. The Droid Dev group is geared toward Android devices.

Q: How are you liking the Madison Building?

A: Balanon: You know a lot of people come through here, including a guy named Chuck Song, and he’s been to the Bay Area and New York and all over. He says that out of everywhere he’s been, this is one of the best startup spaces he’s seen. There’s great tech energy around here. We have a rooftop overlooking Comerica Park, and we moved here in October when it was very cold, and it’s still cold, but in the spring, the Comerica park crowd and energy will be there and that’s very exciting.

Q: So what can we expect to see in Detroit Lab’s future?

A: Balanon: Right now we’re working on our own apps that haven’t yet been released.  We’re continuing to do work for startups as well as fortune 500 companies, but we’re also introducing something called lab time where we’re creating and introducing our own projects. So we’re creating our own apps and hopefully in the next year you’ll all get to see some of it.

We sure hope so. For more on Detroit Labs, visit their website, or find them on Facebook or Twitter.

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Photo courtesy of Special Olympics

Every Monday morning, the writers and staff for the Detroit Regional News Hub meet to talk about what we are covering for the next week.  This meeting is a productive one for all of us, it helps us keep from stealing each others stories and makes sure we’ve got our lean reporting resources deployed properly.

It was at this meeting a few weeks ago where I was talking about the Polar Plunge to support Special Olympics this year.  And it was at this meeting where I was dared to take the plunge.

“Only if you donate the $75 minimum to participate,” I said.

Needless to say, I am now registered for the Polar Plunge on February 18 in Downtown Detroit, although the plunge is taking place in Belleville, Ypsilanti and Brighton as well.  These are just the locations in metropolitan Detroit, there are 27 locations throughout the state.

500 of us are expected to brave the cold waters of the Detroit River while another 1,000 people are expected to participate as spectators.  While this might seem ludicrous to some, it is a fundraiser that is growing in appeal.  In fact, the Detroit event use to be held on Belle Isle until the event outgrew the space.  Now registration is held at GM’s Wintergarden and plungers are bused to the Milliken State Park where they are dropped off to dip into the Detroit River.

There is quite a variety of people who do this too.  It was started by several members of law enforcement and they continue to be a large source of support says Ashley Diersch, development manager for Special Olympics Michigan.  Now many companies are using the plunge as a team building exercise.  Diersch points to a local Real Estate company as an example.  The president of the company has agreed to dress up in any costume his team chooses for the plunge as long as his team hits their fundraising goal. She says he was an impressive Snow White even though he’s 6’ 8”.

Photo courtesy of Special Olympics

Most importantly, all proceeds from the Polar Plunge event help Special Olympians cover the costs of competing, including transportation and lodging.

If you want to join me in plunging this year, you can register online before February 17 or in person on February 18.  If dipping your toes into below freezing water does not appeal to you, spectators are always welcome at Milliken State Park.  And if you want to see me wear a bulldog mask as I jump in the water, help me raise $500.  Our camera crew will love the footage and I will welcome your “appaws”.

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Many things in life don’t come with an owner’s manual: Having a great marriage. Raising decent children. And how to start a business in Detroit.

Enter Tom Nardone. This week, he and the good folks at Ferndale’s Paper Street (a business incubator) hosted a “how to start your own company” class where cursing was allowed, drinking was encouraged and ideas at any level of development were supported.

Mentorship. Frank talk from a real entrepreneur. Advice on raising capital from a capitalist. If you think Detroit needs fresh ideas and a New Economy, here are the people making it happen. You wanna open a food truck, comic-book store, worm farm? Here is where your can-do spirit was not only appreciated, but it was lauded as well.

“You’ve gotta capture that dream. Because otherwise the dream gets lost in the frustrations of everyday life,” Nardone cautioned.

Now, don’t go thinking Nardone was easy on us. No way. This guy is a realist. He started his business, PriveCo Inc., with his own money borrowed from his own house. He created his company, which sells things people would rather buy in private in a safe, secure online environment, by reading books about web-site programming. So if you have a pie-in-the-sky idea, Nardone will hear you out. And then he’ll punch it so full of holes that you’ll look like SpongeBob and feel about as smart as Patrick Star. (Don’t understand my references? Go ask a 7-year-old boy.)

“Dreaming big is fun – when it’s on paper,” he added. “When you have to start writing checks, it gets scary.”

And the first day you don’t make payroll? That’s your last day in business. Yup.

Nearly two dozen people showed up for the class, which taught you how to write a business plan in eight not-so-easy steps. Well, Nardone made them seem easy for the most part. (“Six out of the eight are no-brainers,” he said to be exact.) He did a bang-up job of outlining each step, which include things like market analysis, operating plans and financial guesstimating. But actually writing a complete business plan and being honest about whether it has the potential for success is so very NOT easy. In fact, I think a lot of us left the first of the two-part course on Wednesday feeling pretty sick about the whole entrepreneur thing.

And that was the point to some degree. Being honest with yourself has to be one of the first steps in deciding to go out on your own. Let’s face it – it’s a lot easier to collect a paycheck from someone else. And it would be nice to lie to yourself that your idea for a bacon-themed pastry shop is a real winner. But that’s not what earns you any money. And, yes, despite your philanthropist intentions, is why you have a business in the first place. To make some damn money. After all, Nardone is a capitalist, through and through. And, yes, you Detroit do-gooders, you need to make some money somewhere along the way if you want to still be selling your single-brew coffee or horse dung or photography or what have you down the line.

“Ego isn’t going to get you anywhere,” especially when you fudge the number or your chance at success within such an important document as a business plan, Nardone told us. “You aren’t going to look back in 10 years and say, ‘Look at how confident I was!’”

But making us all wimps who never try anything new or daring clearly wasn’t Nardone’s intention either. Rather, he wanted to give participants an honest look at how difficult it is to get something new off the ground. It takes real guts – and an appetite for risk, failure and debt – to hang your own shingle, no matter what field you are in.

I’ll be honest. I’m a huge Tom Nardone fan. I love his business ideas (this guy owns the rights to and sell stuff at winners including Bachlorette.com and Vibrators.com. And, yes, that latter web site does get as much business as you think it would). I’m always amazed at his good deeds, especially as leader of the Mower Gang, while he still raises a family. I appreciate his humor and obvious intelligence. More importantly, I think he has the best of intentions. He really wants the people who come to his class or seek his advice in any form to get a business off the ground. And that, Dear Readers, is what Detroit needs.

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Another great space has popped up, so to speak, in the Sugar Hill Arts District. In the basement of 71 Pop, a collaborative pop up retail building, you’ll find the city’s newest clay and ceramics studio.

Sugar Hill Clay has been open a little less than a month now, but Director Rick Pruckler already feels settled in the neighborhood. “It feels very grounded,” he explains. “The Sugar Hill district already has this incredible past and art is popping up everywhere now.”

The past he’s talking about is in the heyday of the 40’s and 50’s, when the Sugar Hill district had its colony of world-class jazz musicians. In the recent years, this part of Midtown has been in the forefront of revival. The clay studio plopped itself down between some of Detroit’s essential art venues: Detroit Artists Market, the N’Namdi gallery, and MOCAD. “We’re trying to create an arts destination place. There’s a walkway being developed between N’Namdi and 71 Pop where people can meet and hang out… It’s really exciting to be tied to all this art,” Pruckler says.

Their historical ties aren’t just in location either. For their teen classes, they’re partnering with Detroit’s long-standing Pewabic Pottery. “I’ve been teaching at Pewabic since 1986,” Pruckler says. “They needed more space for their Saturday classes and the fit was natural. We’ll probably have more projects with Pewabic in the future,” he explains.

The studio currently offers an array of classes: eating and drinking vessels, wheel throwing, tile, and intro to ceramics. 12-week courses are available, but drop-ins are always welcome too. Some classes cater specifically to one or another, but most of them are amenable to both seasoned veterans and those with no experience working with clay.

Tonya Lutz teaches Intro to Ceramics on Tuesdays. The class covers hand building, wheel throwing, glazing and firing, but it doubles as open studio time. “If you’re already advanced, you can go at your own pace,” she says. Even so, it helps to have instructors around. “There’s so much to learn and there are so many variables that it’s a really exciting field to get involved in,” Lutz says. “Different clay bodies react with different glazes, so there’s a lot going on. It’s mad scientist stuff.”

So while there is more than enough to keep busy between classes, workshops, and private parties, Pruckler has ambitious plans for the future: “It would be nice to get spaces for artists to rent for either working studios or sales,” he says, citing Chicago’s Lill Street as a model facility. “Detroit doesn’t have anything like this yet,” he notes, “but it’s needed.”

Sugar Hill Clay is also working out a proposal to the DMC about implementing a program to work with terminally ill children. “It would be mural work,” Pruckler says. “Each child would be making a piece that becomes part of a larger whole that would keep growing and evolving.”

For more on Sugar Hill Clay, or sign up for classes, visit their website and find them on Facebook.

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Click photo to hear Doyle Mosher speak about Challenge Detroit

A little over two years ago I got an e-mail from a friend telling me to check out The Collaborative in Birmingham. It was a good, trusted source so I called and met with its founder Doyle Mosher. He sat at a table made of Detroit relic shadow boxes designed and built by Detroit artist Scott Hocking.

I knew then this was going to be fun … I just didn’t know how much fun and how much The Collaborative would be contributing to Detroit’s transformation. Doyle exuberantly talked about this “little” plan he had to bring young talent to Detroit called Challenge Detroit

Now before we go any further I need to tell you The Collaborative Group is a non-profit dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship so either bringing talent to Detroit or keeping it here fits right into its agenda. The group also believes innovative, talented people both inside and outside Detroit want to be part of the city’s transformation. The question was how to either get them here or keep them here?

The answer: Challenge Detroit, which The Collaborative just launched. Deirdre Greene Groves, executive director of The Collaborative Group and Challenge Detroit, is championing the project.

Challenge Detroit will bring approximately 30 of the country’s best and brightest young people from every intellectual discipline, whether attorneys or artists, doctors or financiers, engineers or educators, either to the Detroit-area or keep them here. Here’s how it works.

Following a three-phase application process including written applications, video resumes, and in-person interviews, Challenge Detroit judges and partnering companies will determine final job placements. Each participant will work at one of 30 Challenge Detroit host companies, which include ePrize, Quicken Loans, Marketing Associates and Strategic Staffing Solutions.

“Challenge Detroit is founded on the belief that 30 of the best and brightest, passionate, hard- working and inventive leaders of tomorrow can make all the difference in the world, let alone a city,” says Groves. “We are working with top companies, non-profits and leaders from the greater Detroit area to develop this exciting social initiative that will positively impact the future of Detroit and the region.”

Those chosen will:

• Live in Detroit, supported by a $500/month housing stipend
• Receive a $30,000 salary to work at one of the top companies in the region
• Experience the city through organized social and cultural events
• Participate in monthly team challenges in partnership with area non-profits, designed to positively impact the city and region

Participants will also work with non-profits, including The Detroit Regional News Hub, Tech Town and the United Way for Southeastern Michigan on initiatives such as developing opportunities for social entrepreneurship, addressing urban issues pertaining to regional planning, transportation and education and distributing food to those in need.

During their year in Detroit, participants will gain new insights about the city and the greater Detroit region while sharing their story with the world through regular blogging, video logging and social media updates. “We believe, through their experiences with Challenge Detroit, these individuals will be intrigued to stay in Detroit, work in Detroit, bring new ideas to Detroit, even start their own business in Detroit, and by doing so, they will have a positive influence on our region today and in the future,” said Groves.

Challenge Detroit is accepting applications through March 16, 2012 and the year in Detroit will begin in August 2012. Those interested in participating, should visit www.ChallengeDetroit.org for more information and to begin the application process.

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If there’s a town does a lot with a little, it’s Detroit. Three new projects show how we’re funding a revolution with whatever coin we scrape up.

Literally. People’s lives will be improved, neighborhoods revamped, stores rescued from bankruptcy because Detroiters searched the proverbial couch cushions. We may be economically depressed, but this region knows how to squeeze a penny until it cries mercy.

Karpov The Wrecked Train

Over the past few days, three fresh, shiny initiatives got my attention in a big way. And they all have the same thing in common: Groups of individuals using whatever discretionary income they have and in whatever small amounts they can spare to make wholesale change. Here are my new favorite projects:

They are pure brilliance, Dear Reader.

–Detroit Ca$h Mob: Noted photographer Dave Lewinski asked friends, Facebook followers and pretty much anyone else who reads social and regular ol’ media to shop at Detroit-area stores in a one-day push. It’s not a new idea, but it’s new to Detroit. According to his Facebook site, which he started about three weeks ago, Lewinski and other Mobbers select retailers that have reasonable prices on their merchandise ($2-$20) so anyone can afford to buy something. Today’s Mob at The Spiral Collective is said to have topped 50 people. And nearly 400 people have joined the Facebook page in those short weeks, so this thing has legs longer than Elle or Heidi.
–Detroit4Detroit: Nationally known do-gooders at Citizen Effect have just started a year-long project that creates what it calls “Citizen Philanthropists.” The goal is to find 150 dynamic people who are willing to tap their social, business and other networks to fund 150 projects around the city. These projects will tackle heady issues such as health, education, neighborhoods and housing. And 100 percent of the funds these philanthropists raise will go toward their project. That’s crazy good.
–Housewarming Parties: The Neighborhood Service Organization (NSO) last month launched “A Place to Call Home,” a campaign to raise $10 million toward the $50 million renovation on the NSO Bell Building on Oakman Boulevard in Detroit. To that end, it is asking individuals, clubs, groups and pretty much everyone else to host what it calls “Housewarming Parties.” The idea is to ask your guests to complete a registry for an apartment inside the Bell Building – these registries carry items as small as $2 salt-and-pepper shakers to $65 microwaves. So if you’ve got enough money for a bagel and coffee, you can give a family the supplies they need to survive with basic dignity. Nice in pretty much every way.

The Housewarming Parties will continue through March 31, so there is still time to sign up, said Denise Figurski, NSO’s Special Events & Volunteer Manager, Corporate Affairs. You don’t have to have a special party just to complete a registry, Figurski said. You can incorporate the fundraising into any party or gathering. But she figures Detroiters are good for another party, so why not get together for such a good reason?

NSO makes it easy on its helpful hosts. Each registry of approximately 100 items is already set up at Target. NSO assigns each registered host a liaison to assist with the party planning process. Those who get every item on their list, which totals about $750, will have the opportunity to help set up the apartments and, later, will be honored at a NSO Bell Building tour in fall 2012. The facility will house 155 one-bedroom apartments for formerly homeless adults, supportive care services and NSO’s headquarters.

Karpov The Wrecked Train

“Think of it as shopping for a college student in an apartment. We want things to be durable but nice,” said Figurski.

So much good for so little coin.

Granted, Detroit4Detroit is asking its fund-raising friends to come up with anywhere between $1,000 to $10,000, depending on the project. So that’s not exactly chump change. But with the right person, asking for and receiving that kind of moola may be as simple as a shout-out on Twitter. Folks like me are going to have to beg, sell cookies and do a whole lot of free press releases.

Amazing ideas. Amazing people. And it’s something everyone can rally behind, whether you eat cereal or filet mignon for dinner. More importantly, iit’s something. It’s not just sitting on your hands, waiting for Detroit to fix itself. It’s doing something that propels us forward. And I’m a big fan of Moving This Thing Forward.

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When you tune into WWJ AM 950 this Friday morning, you’ll notice their programming is just a bit different.  In addition to their normal news, weather and traffic reporting, they will be raising money for THAW, The Heat and Warmth Fund.

This will be the ninth radiothon that THAW has done with WWJ and this year the need is greater than ever.  From 5 am on Friday, January 27 until noon on Saturday, January 28th, organizers hope to raise $1.6 million, an increase of 20 percent from last year.  Susan Sherer, CEO of THAW is confident that goal can be reached because of the neighborly spirit in Metropolitan Detroit.

“This is really about neighbors helping neighbors.  We’re all experiencing in our own neighborhoods people who are losing their jobs, having their homes foreclosed, having to move and cobbling together their next landing spot,” she notes.

THAW works to help people who are in danger of having their gas or electric service shut off.  A lawsuit that kept much of their federal funding in limbo has been resolved, but that funding does not cover the bills for everyone who needs assistance.  Events like the radiothon help THAW reach the 20,000 people from around Michigan who have called for assistance.

Sherer is quick to point out that the majority of people only seek help from THAW once and the organization works to help families with small children and/or senior citizens first.  And even though we have experienced a relatively mild winter so far, that does not mean heating bills are smaller this winter.  Many of the people THAW serves live in older homes with poor insulation.  The difference in energy costs between a weatherized home and a non-weatherized home can be as much as $1,000 per year.

That is why THAW is piloting a few programs to help people be proactive about their situations.  They are collaborating with organizations to assist people with weatherization, energy optimization and budget counseling.  Sherer firmly believes that this approach will ultimately help more people pay for the energy they use without any assistance.

To participate in the radiothon, go to WWJ’s website or THAW’s website.

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