Goodbye to 2017 and this Blog. Hello to 2018 and less Negativity.

A view from the Sleeping Bear Dunes

When I started this blog a little more than four years ago, I was living in Virginia and yearning to return home. A year later, I was happy to be back in Michigan, and I have spent the last three years exploring more of our state than I ever had before. There is so much natural beauty to behold here and many good people to meet. With Michigan's distilleries, breweries, and restaurants, my taste buds were never bored, and my stomach was rarely empty. Our cities and towns are filled with architectural wonders and world-class museums. Our history includes Native Americans, French fur traders, the Underground Railroad, British forts, and the Arsenal of Democracy. There is much to be proud of and to love about our Great Lakes State.

However, there is a dark side to our society, both in Michigan and throughout our nation. And that dark side breeds on the internet in comments sections and social media. Twitter has become unreadable to me. It's just a place for people to shout over each other. The cacophony has made us both angry and deaf. For someone who likes to read thoughtful and informative prose, seeing arguments reduced to ignorant memes and name calling is disheartening. Seeing violent acts committed as a result of Twitter fights and hateful propaganda is heartbreaking.

In this climate, writing positive posts has become too difficult for me. I've also made some other changes in my life that frankly leave me with less time to write. I'd rather spend my free time with my wife, Allison, and two daughters than trying to come up with new things to write. I will continue to travel throughout our great state, and I'll talk to people more. This is my last blog post, but my blog will be up for some time for anyone who wants to read old posts. I'm shutting down my Twitter and Facebook pages in a few days. A conversation can tell me a lot more about a person's character than 280 characters ever will.

With that said, here's to a wonderful 2018 and beyond. Thank you to the very few loyal readers I've had for your comments and support. Thanks to the few guest writers I've had. You added different voices to this blog that I appreciated. And most of all, thanks to Allison for being my editor and biggest supporter.

I'll leave whatever readers I have left with some of my favorite moments and things from Michigan in 2017 that I didn't get around to writing about:

The Guardian Building Tour

I finally went on Pure Detroit's Guardian Building Tour a few weeks ago. I highly recommend this tour. Our guide was a history student at Wayne State, and he gave a great tour that included the history of the building and the city, and background about the architect and the materials used to construct the building. It's a gorgeous building with great views of the city. One last thing: Don't forget to tip your tour guide.

A view of a freighter from the Guardian Building

Noel Night

Unfortunately, this event ended when a couple of idiots with guns ruined the fun for everyone. It was sad seeing the ignorant comments from people saying, "This is why I never go to Detroit," when people are shot in the suburban shopping malls, schools, churches, and homes throughout this country every day. [Sadly, as I type this, the national news is reporting a shooting in a Denver suburb with several wounded and at least one deputy dead.]

The Detroit Public Library lit up for the holidays

Anyway, until the shooting happened, this event was everything I love about Detroit. The Midtown museums were open to the public, and people of diverse backgrounds happily wandered the streets. The highlight was seeing the Mosaic Youth Theatre perform at the Charles Wright Museum. The kids in this theater group were incredibly entertaining. My five-year-old daughter was on the edge of her seat, smiling and clapping at everything these young performers did. I hope to see them again soon.

Detroit Urban Craft Fair

Before Noel Night, my family and I visited the Detroit Urban Craft Fair at the Masonic Temple. I am not a craft person, but there was a lot of really cool art depicting Detroit. I didn't buy anything, but Allison did. It was heartening to be in a crowded space full of artistic people who are proud of Detroit.

Kerrytown Bookfest

I visited Ann Arbor's Kerrytown Bookfest for the first time this year. It is a great event for readers of all ages. Several Michigan authors were present to sign books and give readings. There were tons of kids' books features, which our daughters loved. There were a couple of letterpress companies giving demonstrations, and one even allowed our daughters to use the small press. We also got to make paper.

My daughters making paper

Kuzzo's Chicken and Waffles

Detroit's Kuzzo's Chicken and Waffles is damn good. I of course had to try chicken and waffles, and they were outstanding. I've only been once, but I definitely will return, because I love southern comfort food, and Kuzzo's serves some of the best.

Breweries

I was able to try a few new breweries this year, and all were satisfying.

I visited Grand River Brewery in Jackson with Allison after running a nearby half marathon. Disclosure: The owner of this brewery is a cousin of mine, but I wouldn't let that influence my opinion (if I didn't like it, I wouldn't write about it). The brewery has a pretty big menu, but I could smell meat on the smoker when we walked up to the restaurant. I had to try the beef brisket, and it did not disappoint. I also had an excellent flight of beer.

A beer flight at Grand River Brewery

I also enjoyed my visits to Royal Oak's ROAK Brewing, Black Lotus in Clawson, and Fillmore 13 in Pontiac (I also love seeing some of the revitalization efforts in Pontiac. It has so many beautiful buildings.). They all poured good beer and served tasty food.

Michigan Writing

I've compiled a few Michigan reading lists over the years. Since last summer's list, I've read a few more books by Michigan writers that I found noteworthy. The top of the list is The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade, by Thomas Lynch. Lynch's book explores questions of life and death, but often with an irreverence and humor that make these questions more palatable.

I finally read The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides after seeing the movie a few times. The movie is pretty true to the book, but I enjoyed the book more. It gives more of a feel of what living in Grosse Pointe and Metro Detroit was like back in the 1970s.

I've heard a lot of good things about Bonnie Jo Campbell, so I read her novel Once Upon a River. The novel is set in western Michigan and follows a young woman's journey to find herself after experiencing several family tragedies and traumas. It's an intense book, and some of the traumatic parts were hard to read, but only due to the high quality of Campbell's writing.

Last, but not least, is Adam Schuitema's The Things We Do That Make No Sense. This Michigan writer's collection of short stories presents quick, but real, snapshots of life that I found relatable and engaging.

Leland

Leland is one of those towns that I always wanted to visit. We made a quick detour there on the way home from Traverse City this past summer. Unfortunately, it was a rainy and cool day, so we didn't explore as much as we would have liked, but we did enjoy walking around the old fishing village and visiting a couple bookshops. I would like to visit again, but with more cooperative weather.

Leland

The Thumb

Unlike me, Allison is an actual, professional writer. She had an assignment to write about things to do and see in the Thumb. I tagged along and was thinking about writing something, but it wouldn't have compared to her article, which you can read here. Except for the cold and rainy weather, we had a lot of fun.

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Confession: Despite growing up in Michigan, I visited the dunes for the first time ever over Memorial Day weekend. Having run the Bayshore Marathon two days before, my legs were aching from 26.2 miles of pounding on asphalt.

The dunes deceived me because every time I reached the "top," I realized there was another top in the distance. The first "top" gives a majestic view inland of Glen Lake, but I wanted to see Lake Michigan, so I punished my aching legs and continued on, trying to keep up with my daughters sprinting up the sand.

I don't know how many peaks I reached only to see another one taunting me. It must have been two or three, but each view was worth the climb. My sore legs slowed me down, but they forced me to spend more time enjoying the views and the cool spring air blowing in from Lake Michigan.

When we finally reached the bluff that gave us a view of Lake Michigan, I was overcome by dunes' and lake's imposing grandeur. I felt humbled and grateful to live in a state with so many natural wonders, and I still do.

Thank you again for reading. Godspeed!

Lake Michigan from the Sleeping Bear Dunes

Five of Michigan's Great Independent Bookstores

Pages Bookshop in Detroit

My favorite indie bookstore from childhood died more than 20 years ago at the hands of Barnes & Noble (which moved in across the street), but that same Barnes & Noble perished recently, most likely because it couldn't keep up with Amazon. It's been a common trend over the last 30 years. Big bookseller moves into the neighborhood, forcing an independent store to close, and then the big guy shutters its store when it can't compete with online shopping.

Luckily for those who love independent bookstores, some indies have survived the decades-long assault from big booksellers and the internet, while others have recently opened up shop. Whether they opened in the last few years or more than a few decades ago, good independent bookstores realize that they are much more than stores that sell books. It doesn't matter whether they sell coffee and other merchandise or just books. The special ones are gathering places for readers and writers. They offer recommendations, spur conversation, preserve and promote knowledge, and elevate communities.

Although they may not be as common as they once were, Michigan still has many independent bookstores. Here are a few of my favorites:

Falling Rock Cafe & Bookstore

Falling Rock Cafe & Bookstore

Munising is a city of just more than 2,000 people on the western edge of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Most visitors know it as the place to hop on one of the Pictured Rocks cruises, but Munising also has a top-notch bookstore in Falling Rock Cafe & Bookstore. The cafe serves custom-roasted coffee, breakfast, and sandwiches.

The bookstore has more than 30,000 new and used books, as well as locally made jewelry, pottery, and gifts. I was impressed by their section dedicated to local writers and found a couple of great books set in the U.P., South of Superior and Here. With its wide-open floor plan and numerous tables, Falling Rock is a great place to warm up with a good book and cup of coffee on a cold U.P. day.

The Stars Still Shine at Detroit's Redford Theatre

The Redford Theatre

As a teenager, I saw a handful of movies at the Redford Theatre in Detroit--classics like The African Queen, On the Town, and Shane. Everything about the Redford felt historic, from the organ to the interior architecture to the way they showed Warner Brothers cartoons before the feature and always had an intermission when we could refill our pop and grab more snacks without missing any of the action. I remembered how, once the lights dimmed, the sky-blue ceiling shone with hundreds of tiny lights, giving the audience the feeling that it was watching a movie under the stars.

Until Saturday, it had been a couple of decades since I visited the theater, so my memory was a little fuzzy about the building's architecture. Regardless, I was excited to bring my wife and two girls to the theater. The Redford was showing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and my daughters were excited to see it for the first time in a movie theater.

A Japanese-themed painting in one of the staircases

The theater's yellow-trimmed marquee is not as imposing or ornate as those of other old movie houses in Michigan, which only makes the inside of the Redford Theatre more impressive. When the theater first opened in 1928, it had a larger marquee, but it was later replaced. Part of it was used for scrap metal during World War II, not the only change brought on by the war. The theater's original Japanese-themed interior was removed or painted over after Pearl Harbor, and much of it was still hidden when I last visited in the early 1990s.

An Afternoon of Poetry in Detroit

Three new collections of poetry by Michiganders

“Publishing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.” ―Don Marquis

On Saturday afternoon, I had the opportunity to attend a poetry reading in Detroit presented by Lynch and Sons Fund for the Arts and Wayne State University Press. The event featured three poets, Keith Taylor, Cindy Morgan Hunter, and Jim Daniels, reading from their newest collections of poetry. Each collection was published through Wayne State's Made in Michigan Writers Series, which publishes poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, and short fiction by Michigan writers.

Keith Taylor

Keith Taylor

Keith Taylor has published several poetry collections and teaches creative writing at the University of Michigan. He read from his newest collection of poetry, The Bird-While. Before reading his poems, he explained that he borrowed the title of his collection from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson described a "bird-while" as "the space most of the wild birds will allow you to make your observations on them when they alight near you in the woods." 

Each of the poems Taylor read is a brief, but thorough, view of both human nature and actual nature. He read about his daughter's narcolepsy, a hummingbird that stops its work to watch a jet fly overhead, young scientists talking about life as information, and the day the trees in his yard were uprooted by a storm. 

Cindy Hunter Morgan

Cindy Hunter Morgan

Cindy Hunter Morgan is a native Michigander who teaches creative writing at Michigan State University and has authored two award-winning chapbooks. Hunter Morgan read from Harborless, her collection of poems about Great Lakes shipwrecks. The Great Lakes are the resting grounds for more than 6,000 shipwrecks and 30,000 mariners, and Hunter Morgan gives a humanizing glimpse into what might have been the final moments of more than thirty of these wrecks.

Before reading each poem, Hunter Morgan gave a brief history of the shipwreck itself. One ship caught fire carrying a cargo of peaches, and Hunter Morgan captures the smells, sights, and sounds of a ship full of peaches going up in flames. Another ship carried Christmas trees from the Upper Peninsula to Chicago, where families waited at the docks to purchase trees that never arrived. Hunter Morgan used the pantoum poetic form for this Christmas tree ship poem, Rouse Simmons, 1912. A pantoum consists of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza. In this case, it gives the poem the wave-like effect intended by Hunter Morgan, as if the debris from the ship were bobbing up and down in the rolling waves.

Jim Daniels

Jim Daniels

Jim Daniels is a Detroit native and professor of creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Daniels explained that, despite living in Pittsburgh for more than thirty years, he always returns inland to Detroit. So he titled his latest collection of poems Rowing Inland. The poems he read gave glimpses of the Metro Detroit of Daniels's youth and his relationships with his family then and today.

When he read about driving the gridded streets of Detroit and ending up in Canada, Daniels's personal words felt personal to me, for I know these streets and drove them aimlessly as a teenager. His poem Hard Candy is about a family secret and the hard candy his grandmother kept in a metal dish. I remembered how both my grandmothers kept dishes of hard candy, and I wondered what sorrows and secrets they kept locked away.

The Venue

The former Kresge estate

The reading was hosted at the former Kresge estate in Detroit's Arden Park neighborhood. Paddy Lynch, of the Lynch and Sons Fund for the Arts family, purchased the house in 2011 and has brought it back to its original glory. Besides the Kresges, who founded K-Mart, the house's street once was populated with famous Detroit families like the Dodges and Fishers. 

Despite the grandeur of the home, the event was intimate. My wife, Allison, and I were able to speak to all three poets, and we found each of them to be friendly and unpretentious, normal people with extraordinary voices. The reading itself was in a basement room adorned with artwork along the walls. The poets and speakers stood in front of a mural that Paddy said reminds him of Ezra Pound's poem The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter. Paddy read Pound's poem at the end of the night in honor of his parents, who will be celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary this year.

Thomas Lynch, Paddy's uncle and a renowned writer in his own right, spoke before the readers. He depicted the struggle for poets to find audiences (and recited the Don Marquis quote above), and discussed the importance of poetry and the arts in our fractured society. His sense of humor shone as he joked that the poetry reading was a success because the attendees outnumbered the poets. 

The reading was a reminder of Michigan's natural beauty and the humanity of its residents. I look forward to seeing what other writers Lynch and Sons Fund for the Arts and the Made in Michigan Writers Series will uncover. 

At the end of the night, I walked out of the reading with a signed copy of each poetry collection, beautiful broadsides of the poets' works by three letterpress studios, and the echoes of rose petals.

The broadsides

My Favorite New-to-Me Places to Eat and Drink in 2016

As 2016 comes to a close, it's time to reflect on the most important things in life, food and drink. Although I have plenty of favorite restaurants that I visit on a regular basis, I do like to try new places, especially when traveling around Michigan. Here are a few of my favorite restaurants and bars that I experienced for the first time in 2016.

Breweries

Tenacity Brewing

Tenacity Brewing

I visited Tenacity Brewing in Flint one afternoon this fall. It had just opened for the night, so I was one of only a few customers. The brewery is in an old firehouse along the Flint River, and it has a great atmosphere with a few different rooms and outdoor seating to sit back and drink. I tried a flight of beers and was impressed. The Farmer's Daughter IPA was very good, and their Oktoberfest was smooth. The highlight was their dark wheat, and I purchased a growler of it to go.

An empty flight

Bell's Eccentric Cafe

Bell's Brewery is the godfather of Michigan craft brewing. Larry Bell and his team started brewing in Kalamazoo more than thirty years ago, and Michigan's craft brewing revolution was born. Even though most of their brewing occurs in nearby Comstock, Bell's still brews on the original site in Kalamazoo, and they serve beer and food next door at the Eccentric Cafe.

Bell's Eccentric Cafe

Despite being a Bell's fan for years, I had never been to either of their breweries. The Eccentric Cafe lived up to my expectations. I had an excellent burger as well as a couple of delicious beers. After finishing my meal, I stopped at the Bell's General Store, which sells t-shirts, homebrewing equipment, beer glasses, beer (of course), and more. I picked up one six pack of the Oracle Double IPA and a mixed six pack of Bell's beers.

What's Been on My Plate During the First Half of 2016

Osso Buco from Roadside B&G

We're almost at the halfway mark of 2016, and I've had the pleasure of eating at several excellent Michigan restaurants this year. Here are some of my favorites from this year.

Roadside B&G

I have eaten at Roadside B&G in Bloomfield Township several times, and I always leave satisfied. Their balsamic glazed brussels sprouts with dried cranberries is a great appetizer. As for main courses, my favorites are the roasted vegetarian enchilada (I get it with short rib added) and the baby back ribs. On my most recent trip, I tried an osso buco with polenta special that was perfection. The restaurant also makes a very good mac & cheese (and the kids menu version, with its large portion, might be the best bargain on the menu).

Chartreuse

Chartreuse makes a lot of "best of" lists for Detroit, and the Detroit Free Press named it the restaurant of the year for 2016. I have only visited Chartreuse once, but one visit convinced me that it deserves the accolades it receives. The restaurant is next door to the Detroit Institute of Arts, so my wife, Allison, and I decided to try Chartreuse after attending the Freep Film Festival at the DIA.

It was a snowy April day, and Chartreuse's bright chartreuse-colored interior felt warm and inviting. We had a short wait for a table, so we ordered a couple of drinks at the bar. I tried the delicious "gon now git," a combination of rye, averna, and lemon. Allison had the Last Word (Then again, she always does), a tasty mixture of gin, chartreuse green, lime, and maraschino. For dinner, I tried the spare ribs, which were phenomenal. Allison had the vegetable bulgogi--a strange mix that included pineapple, poached egg, green curry, and excellent kimchi, but all the flavors worked well together.

Fork n' Pint

Asian beef tacos from Fork n' Pint

I reviewed Fork n' Pint after my first time eating there. I have been back to this Waterford restaurant a few more times because it has quickly become one of my favorite restaurants in Metro Detroit. I love their fries. Their pizzas and burgers are very good. The walleye n' chips (served with potato chips, not fries) are wonderful, and so are their vegetarian options, like the coconut curry tofu. And they have fantastic tacos, as I recently discovered when I tried their Asian beef tacos. With its great menu, large drink menu, and relaxing atmosphere overlooking Cass Lake, I am always happy to visit Fork n' Pint.

Lending a Helping Hand at Focus: HOPE

Volunteers at Focus: HOPE

"Recognizing the dignity and beauty of every person, we pledge intelligent and practical action to overcome racism, poverty, and injustice. And to build a metropolitan community where all people may live in freedom, harmony, trust and affection. Black and white, yellow, brown and red from Detroit and its suburbs of every economic status, national origin and religious persuasion we join in this covenant." --Focus: HOPE Mission

Since its founding in 1968, Focus: HOPE has striven to fulfill the above mission. It offers the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, career training programs, and the HOPE Village Initiative (a collection of community-based programs to help children, families, and neighborhoods succeed) to the Detroit area.

Focus: HOPE established the Commodity Supplemental Food Program in 1971. The program serves nearly 40,000 seniors and about 5,000 mothers with small children in the Detroit area each month with canned and packaged food. Most of the program's participants pick up their food from one of its four food centers, but Focus: HOPE also delivers food to homebound seniors.

On Saturday, I played a minuscule part in fulfilling Focus: HOPE's mission by taking part in a volunteer event through the University of Michigan Club of Greater Detroit. We met at the food warehouse on Focus: HOPE's main campus on Oakman Boulevard. The main campus has several buildings covering three city blocks, including the warehouse, training centers, a children's center with childcare programs, and a food center.

Rows and rows of food.

When I entered the warehouse, I was astonished by the volume of packaged food that was waiting to be delivered to the food centers and homebound seniors. Rows upon rows of pallets of boxes containing rice, canned goods, juice, and more were a sad reminder of how many people still need help to put a decent meal on their tables.

The Focus: HOPE staff was friendly and efficiently showed our group how to pack the boxes of food using an assembly line. A few other volunteers and I were at the end of line and had the job of loading the boxes onto pallets. Even though I literally had the heavy lifting, I figured a couple hours of hard work was only a small act to help others.

Boxes of much needed food for seniors

In the end, we loaded more than 1,400 boxes of food for delivery. Despite providing only a fraction of what is needed to feed those in need in the Detroit area, it felt good to be a small part of the solution to our metro area's problems. We all have our own lives to live and our own problems to deal with, but I hope we all take some time throughout the year to take ownership of our communities' problems by lending a helping hand.

The Freep Film Festival

I finally made it to my first Freep Film Festival. This annual Detroit event is presented by the Detroit Free Press and Michigan.com, and various theaters in Detroit and Royal Oak.

Unfortunately, I was only able to see one film because of my schedule and because a couple of films I wanted to see were sold out. However, I luckily had seen and reviewed two of the films before, Superior and Exported From Michigan.

Although most of the films have a Michigan connection, I wanted to see one that specifically focused on Michiganders, so I chose Accidental Activists. This film explores the journey of two women, Jayne and April DeBoer-Rowse, who tried to challenge Michigan's adoption laws so they could have equal parenting rights to their children. When U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Friedman told their attorneys that Michigan's adoption law wasn't the problem, they then found themselves challenging Michigan's same-sex marriage ban and ending up on the winning side of last year's U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States.

The film was directed by Mandi Wright of the Detroit Free Press, and she does an excellent job getting inside the everyday lives of the DeBoer-Rowses and the whirlwind of becoming unwitting but unwavering champions of a crusade that they initially had no intention of undertaking.

Following the film, Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson led a discussion with April and Jayne DeBoer-Rowse, their attorneys, Dana Nessel and Carole Stanyar, Judge Friedman, and Wright. The discussion shed light on the filming process and each panelist's feelings about the film and the lawsuit's path through the justice system.

The Detroit Institute of Arts hosted the film and helped make it a great experience. Next year, I hope to attend more than one screening at this fantastic festival.

For more information about Accidental Activists, click here.

For my previous reviews of Superior and Exported From Michigan, click here and here.

A Few of My Favorite Foods From 2015

A pizza from Mani Osteria in Ann Arbor

I did not write as much as I wanted to in 2015, probably because I was too busy eating my way around the state, especially Metro Detroit. Here are a few of my favorite restaurants and foods that I experienced for the first time in 2015.

Frita Batidos

Ann Arbor's Frita Batidos serves Cuban street food, and is a new favorite of mine in Ann Arbor. Their fritas are creative variations of the traditional burger while the batidos are tropical-flavored milkshakes. For more, read my review from January 2015. I've been back a few times since, and it is still excellent.

Kitchen Hanzo and Sharaku

Tempura from Kitchen Hanzo

One of my favorite finds this year is a couple of Japanese restaurants in an unassuming strip mall in West Bloomfield. Kitchen Hanzo and Sharaku have the same owners but deliver different food and experiences. During my first visit to Kitchen Hanzo, our waiter described the food as traditional Japanese pub food, but do not expect burgers and fries. Instead, the long menu lists a lot of smaller dishes that can be shared, as well giant hot pots filled with seafood. Everything is delicious, and the hot pots are especially appealing on a cold winter day.

Seafood hot pot

Sharaku is Hanzo's more upscale sibling. They have a menu with traditional Japanese main courses, but I only tried several rounds of sushi the one time I visited. The sushi is outstanding, and I definitely want to visit again.

Sushi from Sharaku

Saffron Indian Cuisine

Saffron Indian Cuisine in Farmington Hills is right around the corner from my work, and I often pick it up on the way home on Friday evening. I have not had a dish I did not like. Some of my favorites are the Vindaloo, Rogan Josh, Jalfrazie, and Palak Panner.

A Winter Escape: 24 Hours in Detroit

This is Detroit

When asked where to escape for an overnight stay or a weekend, many Metro Detroiters probably would mention ski trips to Northern Michigan, a cottage on a lake, or even a weekend in Chicago or Toronto. When faced with the need to get away for a night, my wife, Allison, and I chose to stay closer to home and spend a weekend in Detroit. Detroit is ever-changing, and though we try to visit the city as often as possible, we still cannot find the time to do everything we want to in this burgeoning town.

We only could get away for one night in December, but we wanted to make the most of our time in the city. First, we wanted to give a little bit back to the city, so we arrived early on a Saturday morning to volunteer with the Cass Community Social Services, through a volunteer event organized by the University of Michigan Club of Greater Detroit.

Cass Community Social Services provides food, housing, and health services as well as job programs to Detroiters. Our job involved building door mats out of recycled tires. The mat program employs formerly homeless Detroit residents, and also uses the services of volunteers. Along with the mats, they sell other products including Detroit Treads sandals made from discarded tires and coasters. After a morning making mats for the program, we visited the organization's store and walked out with two door mats, and two pairs of sandals.

Detroit's Renaissance Center From the Inside

From late April to mid-June, I had the opportunity to work on a project inside Detroit's Renaissance Center, aka the Ren Cen. This seven-tower complex dominates Detroit's skyline. The 73-story center tower is Detroit's tallest building and is famous for its views of downtown, Canada, and Southeast Michigan.

I had an office with windows in Tower 400, and the view captivated me every day.

This was my view.

Fog blankets the river and the Canadian shore.

A peaceful morning on the Detroit River.

Detroit Is Alive

Since moving back to Michigan in September, I have worked in Detroit for about half the time I have been here, with the other half in offices in Southfield. I recently began a new job farther out in the suburbs, and though I am enjoying this new opportunity, I will miss being in Detroit on a nearly daily basis.

Almost two years ago, I was upset that an internet search of Detroit produced results such as "Detroit is dead" or "Detroit is a dump." I presented photographic evidence to rebut those claims in a post titled Detroit Is More Than They Say It Is.

Today, a Google search of "Detroit is" turns up words like "magical" or "different" instead of dead. Though the city still has a lot of work to do, it is a magical place, and it definitely is different from other places.

Detroit Is Blossoming

A view of the Renaissance Center from Hart Plaza in the Spring

Detroit Is Proud

Spirit of Detroit mural at Checker Bar

Detroit Is Welcoming

Detroit's Woodbridge neighborhood

Preserving Memories at the Corner

Gate 4 from Tiger Stadium still stands

I stopped the car outside the old gate on Michigan Avenue and began explaining to my mother-in-law the history of Tiger Stadium. I pointed out the people cleaning up the field and told her what I knew about the Navin Field Grounds Crew, the purely volunteer group of baseball lovers who maintain the sacred field that Detroit's city government has neglected since Tiger Stadium closed in 1999.

We were just driving through after a great lunch at Green Dot Stables and did not not plan to get out of the car. My wife and I had walked on the field before, and my youngest daughter was content to be secured in her car seat (and it's never a good idea to upset the status quo of our two-year-old). But then one of the grounds crew members walked up to the car and invited us to walk around what is left of the old ballpark. At first we declined, but my six-year-old daughter piped up from the backseat that she wanted to walk on the field.

Any time my daughter is interested in something I love, I jump at the opportunity to share my interests with her. So my mother-in-law, my older daughter, and I hopped out of the car and wandered onto the field. I explained to them the history of the ballpark and made sure my daughter knew how her grandpa took me to games and her great grandpa took him to games at this stadium.

A member of the Navin Field Grounds Crew at work

The names Hank Greenberg, Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, and Charlie Gehringer mean nothing to my daughter, but Grandpa is legendary to her. That's the beauty of this old field. Baseball fanatics love it for the legends that played there, but Detroit Tigers fan cherish it for the memories their families made and the traditions they have passed on since the Tigers first played baseball on the corner of Michigan and Trumbull in 1896.

Before we left the field, we watched the last remaining member of the Navin Field Grounds Crew sweeping home plate. We stopped and talked with him about the old ballpark and the future of the stadium site, and we thanked him for the work he and his group did to preserve the field for future generations.

Home plate at Tiger Stadium

As we walked away, I looked at the pitcher's mound and noticed a baseball resting on it, as if it was eagerly waiting for a couple of teams to show up for a pickup game. And pickup games and organized games still happen at the Corner throughout the summer, but the Tigers are long gone from the site.

The pitcher's mound at Tiger Stadium

My children will never see the Tigers play baseball at the Corner, but it's an important part of the city's history. I just hope that the planned development for the site preserves a grass field and as much of the original layout of the field as possible. I also hope that the field is open to the public so that someday my children can walk out on the field with my grandchildren and tell them about grandpa watching games there as a kid and their memories of walking on the field as children.

As we left the field, my daughter asked if we could take the baseball, but I told her that it belonged to the field. We left it behind, still waiting for a baseball game to return to the Corner.

Q&A: Exported From Michigan's Jon Vander Pol

Exported From Michigan is a documentary about the people and businesses in Michigan who are making strides to bring the state's economy back. Michigan native Jon Vander Pol directed the film and agreed to discuss his documentary with me.

Jon Vander Pol at the World Solar Challenge in Darwin, Australia

Was there any one person who served as your inspiration to make Exported From Michigan?

I was inspired to respond to the Chrysler “Imported From Detroit” campaign to make a positive film showing authentic stories of real people and companies who are creating innovative solutions to these social and economic problems. It’s a positive film. It’s not anti-Chrysler, but it bugged me that Chrysler was trying to trick people into buying emotional stock in their company when there are so many other Michigan businesses worth celebrating. Exported From Michigan highlights the people and organizations who are proving themselves worthy of believing in for the long term.

Where did you come up with the funding for the documentary?

Financing an independent film is one of the hardest parts; even with me and most of the crew working for free it still isn't cheap to make a movie. I fund-raised continuously for three years to cover the production expenses. Through the help of 17 private investors, a successful kickstarter campaign and a very generous grant from MSHDA, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, we were able to complete the film.

What is your background as a filmmaker?

I’ve always been intrigued by the power of story to inspire people, especially in the documentary format. I got a degree in digital filmmaking from the Art Institute of Colorado in 2007 and after working as a crew member on other people’s projects for years, I set out to tell Michigan’s comeback story in a feature-length documentary in February of 2011. It took 3.5 years to finish the film, and it premiered at the Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids on June 28th of 2014.

Exported From Michigan: The Fall and Rise of the Great Lakes State

Exported From Michigan at the Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids

"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." -Franklin Roosevelt

Over a period of a few decades, Michigan's economy went from one of the country's strongest to one its most depressed. Michigan became complacent, stood still, and lost its innovative edge. After years of its industries drying up or moving jobs out of state, many people looked around and thought, "What happened and what do we do to fix this?"

Grand Rapids native Jon Vander Pol's documentary Exported From Michigan explores the many Michiganders who are answering these questions and creating new and innovative ways for Michigan's economy to move forward. The film does not cast blame but instead preaches hope through the stories of Michiganders from varied backgrounds who believe in the state's future.

Happy Paczki Day!

Window display at Dutch Girl Donuts in Detroit

When I was living in the D.C. area last year, I had to go out of my way to find paczki for Paczki Day (aka Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras). Now that I'm back home in Metro Detroit, it's a lot easier to find paczki, but I wanted to try some of the best. It had been more than a decade since I had Michigan paczki, so I had to read paczki reviews online to decide where to go. I found five or six places that seemed to make every best paczki list, and I settled on two: 1) New Palace Bakery in Hamtramck, and 2) Dutch Girl Donuts in Detroit.

To avoid the crowds, I went to each bakery the day before Paczki Day. First, I stopped at Dutch Girl Donuts. I have driven by this bakery many times and noticed that it always seemed to have a good crowd, even before dawn. The first thing I noticed upon entering was the intoxicating smell of donuts. The sweet aroma was overpowering, as if the building were made out of donuts.

Poutine in Corktown

Corktown's Brooklyn Street Local

When the Detroit Tigers moved from their ancient home in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood to Comerica Park, Corktown's future was uncertain. Would the businesses that thrived off the traffic from Tiger Stadium shutter their doors? Would anyone want to move a business into a neighborhood that lost its cash cow? Luckily for Detroiters, businesses did move in. Fifteen years after Tiger Stadium closed its gates, the neighborhood is a foodie destination.

Brooklyn Street Local is one of many restaurants to open up in the last few years. The restaurant uses locally sourced and organic ingredients and carries a wide variety of breakfast dishes and sandwiches, including several vegetarian and vegan options.

The Works burger. Definitely not vegan.

I ordered "The Works," a burger with bacon, cheddar cheese, a fried egg, lettuce, onions, and tomatoes. My wife ordered the spicy tofu sandwich (fried tofu, sweet and spicy sauce, kale, and pickled cabbage). We also ordered a spinach and feta omelette for our daughters to share. Our main courses were good, but our poutine appetizer made the meal memorable.

Spicy Tofu Sandwich

Even though the French-Canadian dish has taken over the Metro Detroit restaurant scene, I had not tried poutine until my visit to Brooklyn Street Local. The traditional French-Canadian dish consists of french fries, gravy, and cheese curds. I do not know what the English translation of "poutine" is, but my guess is "sublime artery clogger."

Brooklyn Street Local's poutine

Brooklyn Street Local serves a traditional poutine with a choice of mushroom or beef gravy, and they also have vegan and breakfast poutines. Since my wife does not eat meat, we went with the traditional with mushroom gravy. Since I have not had poutine before, I cannot compare Brooklyn Street Local's to other poutines, but I can say it was a great introduction to the world of poutine. With the first bite, I knew that I had found the perfect combination of salty, cheesy, and fried goodness.

My eyes have been opened to the world of poutine. Thank you, Brooklyn Street Local.

Brooklyn Street Local is located at 1266 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, MI 48226. It is open Tuesday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. It is closed on Mondays.

Happy Birthday, Detroit!

Happy Birthday, Detroit!

It's been 313 years since French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac pulled his boats ashore and declared that you would be Fort Ponchartrain du Detroit. You've changed nationalities a few times. First, you were French for about 60 years before falling under British control for almost four decades. Since 1796, except for that time the British captured you during the War of 1812, you have been a proud American city.

You loaned $50,000 to the state government to help raise troops for the Union cause during the Civil War. President Lincoln exclaimed, "Thank God for Michigan!" when the Michigan troops you helped finance were the first from a western state to arrive in Washington, D.C. During World War II, your auto industry built the tanks, bombers, and jeeps that helped topple the German and Japanese threats to democracy, and your women answered the call to arms by building these machines of war while your men were storming the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima.

You survived a great fire and grew from a small fort and fur-trading post to a cosmopolitan city of almost 2 million people. In the last few decades, a lot of people gave up on you. Many moved to the suburbs or other states and forgot about you. Many others say that we should give up on you, a city that has done so much to make our country the industrial and economic power it is today. These people have short memories, but do not worry about them. You have survived 313 years, and you will live much longer than all of us.

When you burned down in 1805, Detroiters did not give up on you. When riots tore you apart in 1863, 1943, and 1967, you lived on. When you have been alive for 313 years, you are going to have some rough patches. It's inevitable.

On your birthday, please remember your own motto:

"We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes."

And remember that this has been your motto during times of prosperity and times of despair because you are a city of invention and reinvention. Today, young entrepreneurs and wealthy business people are ignoring the naysayers and reimagining your future. Your riverfront is no longer an industrial wasteland, but a place where families can stroll on a beautiful summer day. New gardens arise from the ashes of your old buildings. There is a new energy within your boundaries that is becoming infectious. You will survive, as you have always done before.

So today, when you blow out your candles and make your wish, remember that there are countless people who share your hopes and dreams. You will live to realize better things.

Happy birthday!