Ranch Dressing (Michigan’s ketchup)

I’m really behind with this journal.

While Poland was part work and part vacation, filming in Detroit is part work and another part work. Detroit Lives! has a lot more going on than this film- and with a few different art fairs this weekend, last week was intense. Philip had to print about 300 shirts. Converting the basement studio into a mini assembly line where we could work and sing along to REM’s “Monster” wouldn’t normally be such a chore. But, of course, we couldn’t start that work, until we had finished this work…

Detroit Interviews: Week One

Detroit needs money; Detroit needs business… So we spoke to the head of Tech Town: a business incubator that helps startups get off the ground. Partnering with Wayne State University, they have the resources to help everyone from the little guy printing bumper stickers to scientists breaking new ground in biomedical research.

Philip Cooley, a local restaurant owner, is fostering his own sort of creative incubator. By buying an abandoned factory, he’s fixing it up to house creative ventures, like Adriana Pavon’s fashion design studio, with the expectation that his residents spend some of their time mentoring local youth.

Detroit is reclaiming some of its old business community as well. Skidmore Studios flocked to the suburbs a few decades ago, but now, government incentives and city tax breaks make the move back Downtown a no-brainer for owner Tim Smith. Plus, his new offices are going to have a sweet view of Comerica Park.

Some people might ask- “why do businesses get tax breaks while the city is forced to lay off police officers?” Well, we spoke to one Internet entrepreneur who, among other ideas, is proposing a tax system involving an interactive “Sim City” type map where taxpayers could choose where their funds are allocated.

Detroit Soup is one way to see how community money is being spent (it’s also a way to GET some community money). This micro-funding platform is a monthly dinner open to the public where people pay $10 at the door and anyone can pitch their ideas for community improvement projects. At the end, everyone votes, and the winner gets the door. Past winners include a fashion designer who wanted to produce coats that convert into sleeping bags for the homeless and transforming a vacant lot into a sculpture park.

City beautification doesn’t cost much at all. Chazz Miller with Public Art Workz convinced the owner of a run-down factory to rent him the space for nothing more than the cost of fixing it up. Now, the factory has become an entire compound for artists as they paint murals around town, teach classes and mentor kids. And their activity has even spurred development of other storefronts on the block.

Then there’s the Heidelberg Project- a block of rotting houses that became home to an eccentric artist in the mid-80s. He painted one house with polka dots, then he built sculptures out of rusted shopping carts or whatever else he could find… then he painted another house, he covered another with thrown-out stuffed animals… 25 years later, thousands of tourists come to visit, kids hang out to learn how to paint, and the locals pitch in to keep it looking nice. That’s neighborhood pride.