A few weeks ago, I received an email from a young woman who’d just moved to Ypsi from Brooklyn, after a brief layover in Ann Arbor. She was looking for studio space, and thought, I guess, that I might be able to help. I couldn’t. But, one thing led to another, and I ended up […]
Posted in Ann Arbor, Art and Culture, Special Projects, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Ann Arbor Derby Dimes, artists, bandanas, bikes, Boston, bowling alley, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Bowl, comics, container gardening, Corner brewery, Erika Hess, FEASTMass, images of Mark, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, pasta salad, portrayals of Mark Maynard in popular culture, Rebecca Solnit, Riverside Park, Rob Hess, roller derby, Sherlock Holmes, Spur Studios, The Warriors, unflattering portraits, University of Michigan, University of Michigan School of Art and Design, Ypsi immigration interview |
As I was walking my dog around Ypsilanti’s 38-acres of depressingly-barren downtown real estate known as Water Street yesterday morning, it occurred to me that it might be fun to pick a day sometime soon and encourage everyone in Ypsilanti to come out and plant sunflower seeds together. And, in a fit of inspiration, I […]
Posted in Special Projects, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged brownfield, commons, flowers, gorilla gardening, guerilla bio-remediation, Lisa Waud, Michigan Avenue, phytoremediation, Pot and Box, seed, seed bombing, seedbombs, slingshots, sunflowers, teraforming, toxic waste, trebuchets, Water Street, Water Street Redevelopment Project, wildflowers |
By Mark | January 17, 2013
A few days ago, Linete and I foud ourselves in Detroit, without kids, poking around Corktown. The plan was to get something warm to drink at Astro Coffee, but it looked too crowded. Linette peaked in, through one of the fogged-up windows, to see if there was space for me. (She can fit most anywhere. […]
Posted in Ann Arbor, entrepreneurism, Local Business, Locally Owned Business, Mark's Life, Uncategorized | Also tagged 2520 Michigan Avenue, absinthe, Andy Didorosi, Astro Coffee, Bureau of Urban Living, Canine to Five, City Bird, Claire Nelson, Cliff Bell’s, cocktails, Corktown, Dave Landrum, Detroit, Detroit Bus Company, Detroit Farm and Garden, Detroit gas stations, Downtown Home and Garden, Emily Linn, entrepreneurism, entrepreneurship, Felch Street, flowers, friends who do cooler stuff that I do, Gallery 555, Green Dot Stables, Hatch Detroit, Helen Harding, Honor & Folly, Hugh, ice cream truck, indy retail, Izzy’s, Jean Henry, Joe Posch, Katherine Yates, Le Petite Zinc, Lisa Waud, Liz Blondy, Mercury Bar, Michigan Avenue, Model D, Mudgie’s Deli, new ideas in retail, Open City Detroit, Paper Street, Pete Bailey, Pop-up for the Holidays, pop-up retail, Popular Mechanics, Pot and Box, Rachel Parke, retail in Detroit, Rooselvelt Park, scotch, Slows Bar BQ, Small & Mighty, St. Cece’s, Stagger Lee, The Sugar House, Two James Distillery, urban gardening, Valentine's Day, Xavier’s, YEP, Young Entrepreneurial People |
By Mark | December 5, 2011
[Quite a bit has changed since Linette and I had Clementine seven and a half years ago. For one, people no longer just drop by with food. Now, friends and neighbors band together and coordinate their activities through sites like Mealbaby, so that you aren’t confronted with the nightmare of three lasagnas showing up on […]
Posted in Food, Mark's Life, Other, Uncategorized | Also tagged advice, Agriculture, Arlo, Blogbaby, Gene Kim, Mealbaby, planting seeds, plants |
Today I learned about a documentary called Grown in Detroit. Here, according to the website for the film, is what it’s about. Grown in Detroit focuses on the urban gardening efforts managed by a public school of 300, mainly african-american, pregnant and parenting teenagers. In Detroit alone, there are annually more than 3,000 pregnant teenagers […]
Posted in Detroit | Also tagged Back to the roots, Catherine Ferguson Academy for Young Women, class warfare, Detroit Public Schools, documentary film, education reform, Grown in Detroit, nutrition, public education, school closings, sit-ins, teen pregnancy, the growing gap between rich and poor, urban gardening |
