Tag Archives: the future of American cities

Two Frenchies on what they love about Detroit’s “Do It Ourselves” culture, and why they’re making a film about it

A few months ago, I received a nice note from two French filmmakers, who, for some reason, had stumbled across my site and liked it. Their names were Nora Mandray and Hélène Bienvenu, and, as I’d come to learn over the course of subsequent emails, they had been living in the the area for some […]

Posted in Art and Culture, Detroit, Sustainability | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

On the optimism and pity of the non-Americans passing us by

My friend Pete and I eat lunch together a few times a month. Pete, who’s an academic, tells me of his travels to fascinating places like Malawi and Sweden, where he’s either conducting field research on the spread of parasitic diseases, or sharing his findings with leaders in the field of world health, and I […]

Posted in Mark's Life, Observations, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

PBS in Ypsi, the New York Times in Detroit, and a state in transition

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet on PBS, Ypsi was featured on the most recent episode of Under the Radar Michigan. The crew, as you may recall, was here in town this past October, shooting footage of people lined up down Michigan Avenue, waiting to partake of the 40¢ chicken dinners that […]

Posted in Detroit, Ypsilanti | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

NBC Nightly News sends crews to visit Michigan cities in hopes of terrifying nation into paralysis

It would be great if, one day, a national news crew came to Michigan for something other than a “canary in the coal mine” story… I suppose we should be thankful that people around the country are finally taking notice of the plight of Michigan’s cities, which, one-by-one, are being sold for scrap by non-elected […]

Posted in Michigan | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

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