Photo by Spencer Olinek

You’ve probably heard by now that the Imagination Station on the perimeter of Roosevelt Park caught fire Tuesday morning and will need to come down completely. Kind of a tough pill to swallow for the team of folks that have been behind the project for a couple years now. But they are all taking it in stride, and will be holding a bbq next Tuesday for folks to come hang out, ask questions and see the installment of a new mural on the house right next to the one that caught fire. The murals message? “IT”S OK!”

Not too shabby. Check out the Facebook invite for more information.

Recall MANTRACITY– our mural project taking strong inspiration from Stephen Powers’ “A Love Letter for You.” The point of the murals we are painting is to place simple messages on large walls throughout the city that promotes a higher level of civic engagement (people read it and learn something about the city, or feel the desire to “love” their city a little bit more, or perhaps feel like they can be a part of making the city better) and pride amongst us Detroiters.

Perhaps you’ve seen the first two MANTRACITY murals:

Well, the third one is in the works, and get ready, it’s gonna blow your mind:

So yeah, we’ve got the base coat down, about 5 gallons of that Killz primer. The background will stay white though, so we can get a nice pop with the letters. Per the usual, we’re going to try and squeeze it in and get the mural done before the weather gets too cold. The suspense switch has been turned on, as we won’t be unveiling the message until completion. This mural is being brought to you by the wonders of LOVELAND micro-funding. You betcha. They provided the resources to make this thang happen. Thanks JERRY MARY LARRY!

Stay tuned.

While leafing through the recent issue of the Atlantic, I was drawn in by a headline reading, “Kansas City Bets on Culture.” The sub-headline asked the question “If you build a shiny new performing-arts center, will the creative class come?” I immediately thought of Bilbao, Spain. It was largely an industrial town in the 19th and 20th centuries (second in production only to Barcelona) that underwent a transition to a service-based economy in the latter part of the 20th century like many other cities have: Pittsburgh, Turin, Manchester, Berlin, etc. Bilbao just did it by creating a destination. They commissioned Frank Gehry to build the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum in 1997. Within a couple of years the Guggenheim became a heavily sought-after tourist destination, drawing in millions of people. In many ways it ushered in an era of service-based growth repairing many components of the broken industrial past. And so the Atlantic asked the same question with a performing arts theatre built in Kansas City. Will it bring the young creative class in as tourists? As residents?

Here in Detroit, could we build a cultural attraction to usher in similar service-based growth? Could RoboCop do it? OK, OK. Kidding. Sort of. Though it doesn’t seem a horribly distant prospect given that boat loads of people go to Philly every year to see a Rocky statue.

Perhaps more likely to be the cultural attraction that could bring in the masses would be the re-development of the elephant in the room of our architectural ruins: Michigan Central Station. Everyone from Mars to Maryland has heard of this place, if not taken a photo of it, which lays the groundwork for a massive inflow of people were it to be re-developed in to something interesting. I can already hear people screaming that that will never happen. But wait–

Team LOVELAND has created a site to begin gathering ideas that people have as to what could be done with the train station: talktothestation.com. Anyone can get on the site and suggest ideas for the future re-development, with others being able to “love” that idea, the social equivalent of Facebook’s “like.” Even more interesting is that Nora Moroun, the wife of infamous Matty, the station’s owner, has taken a shine to the website and the sheer amount of ideas that are coming through. It’s proof that some dialog is being had around the future of this magnificent station, which is a massive step forward compared to previous years and controversy around its fate. If they do choose to develop something with the building, get ready Kansas City and Bilbao, because the masses will be flocking to Detroit to see and taste one of the greatest architectural comeback stories of all time.

Alright, RoboCop is officially happening. This morning the Kickstarter campaign met the $50,000 necessary to erect such a statue. There have been arguments left and right in the city as to the worthiness of such an endeavor: RoboCop represents a film portraying a terrible Detroit! Why spend $50k on RoboCop statue and not tackle something like the education system!? And then, of course, there is the fanatical fan base that passionately supports such a creature: It’s fun, lighten up a little bit! It’s a bunch of people coming together to crowd source public art! Well, whatever the case. The statue is going up. Let’s make some lemonade out of lemons with this RoboCreature.

First, as crazy this may sound, there are probably a lot of people that will come to Detroit to see the statue of RoboCop. Let’s just play a little numbers game here. There were 1,413 people that pledged money for the project. I went through looking at the characteristics of the contributors, and roughly 1/5 of the backing populous is from out of state– and probably many more based on Kickstarter profiles who don’t list where the person lives. So, that’s 282 people that gave money to this project that don’t live in Detroit who probably want to catch a glimpse of Robo in the flesh when he is built. Now, if those 282 people, through the course of their visit, spend $100 locally (which is a conservative sum even with hotel, food and entertainment), that’s nearly $30k in resources poured in to the local economy. Sure, that’s really not a lot of money, but the multiplier effect of such activity could get exciting. What if that amount of people come per month? Well, that could very possibly mean a quarter of a million greenbacks dumped in to the local economy. And right now, that is a lot. Perhaps the Imagination Station folks might see some benefit to pointing future RoboTourists to various locales in Detroit and using the statue as a starting point to better things. If RoboMonster starts opening people’s eyes to the more redeeming sides of Detroit, well, then hey. Job well done.

Second, as silly as RoboCop might seem, it provides a pretty compelling case of possibility in Detroit. Can’t you hear it now? “You’re telling me you can’t raise $20k for this project and that moustached Paffendorf got $50k in the bank for ROBOCOP?!” There’s a real good chance RoboCop is going to push people in the direction of getting more and more creative with how they fund projects and ideas in Detroit. It’s no secret that the city is a little less resource-stocked than other places, so anything creative with fundraising is something that could take us all a long way. There are something like 18,000 non-profits in Wayne County alone (that has to be more per capita than most counties) that are fighting for money with the same tired models. Perhaps Robo can present some interesting solutions for how meaningful endeavors can be funded in the city, which eventually leads to a more productive city.

Other RoboLinks:

Thoughtful commentary against Robo: Supergay Detroit
Thoughtful comments for Robo: My Dear Detroit
Unveiling of the RoboSuccess news: MLive, Jeff Wattrick
And someone else just chimed in with RoboSuccess: The Detroit News

As you have probably noticed, Jerry and Mary over at team LOVELAND have been making a lot of cool stuff happen in the city. They funded Monumental Kitty, got neighborhood kids art supplies near one of their LOVELAND colonies, managed to start up the Imagination Station with Jeff Debruyn to get some neighborhood services and an arts residency program moving. And heck, they even managed to raise money to hang a giant solar-powered neon extravaganza from atop the Roosevelt Hotel.

Now they are helping DETROIT LIVES!. Ohh baby, let the games begin.

They are currently fundraising for a variety of Detroit-based projects and organizations, one of which is a new project for DL!. That’s right. With your purchase of inches, you can now opt to support DL! with a LOVELAND grant that would support media development and the costs associated with transportation to get on college campuses talking to young people about opportunity that exists in Detroit. Yep. Time to tackle brain drain head on. Move here, stay here, come here, create here, whatever. Be here. That’s when the magic happens.

Head on over to LOVELAND’s site to check out all the deets. We’re real excited about this, a special thanks to Jerry and Mary for their support and commitment to making this happen. Go buy some inches and support DL!.

You’ve heard me talk about the film Lemonade: Detroit. It’s a story of Detroit goodness– “hope porn” as it was called in director Eric Proulx’s TEDx presentation– chock loaded with stories about the people and places that are making this city so exciting. You’ve also heard talks here of Jerry Paffendorf and LOVELAND whereby folks can purchase inches of real Detroit land for $1 a piece and do with it what they please. Well, get ready, the two are teaming up for a new micro-fundraising adventure to help cover the costs of producing an entire Lemonade documentary (as it stands right now, the film is a trailer only).

So, ala LOVELAND’s approach to real estate, for $1 you can buy a single frame of the future Lemonade film, get a producer credit that would even be logged on IMDB, and the rest is history. With folks paying $1 per frame, and with something like 24 frames of video shown per second in the film, they would like to raise about $120,000. This would cover the costs of producing the entire feature film and help make the project a reality.

Time to get famous and be a big-time producer, Detroit style. Have a look at the website and get your producer credit while you can.

OK, OK, OK. Got an update coming via wireless signal straight from the DIY Street Fair in Ferndale.  21st century here, people.  The days have involved  a lot of folding, shenanigans with Apple’s PhotoBooth, ridiculously tasty craft beer (the WAB’s Porter is still gold in my book– just sayin’), an ungodly amount of well-dressed (mostly excited and adorable) children and a lot of interesting breeds of canines.  I didn’t realize there were such things as dogs with ridge backs, companies that makee slippers and head dresses for dogs, etc.  Clearly I am a ways out from owning/caring for such a creature.

ANYWAY (Catch that? Also re-reading Chuck Klosterman’s “Killing Yourself to Live” for the 8th time over here), the point of all this was to say that in my hot hands today is the brand-spanking new DL! catalog.  You betcha.  Coming in at a svelt 42 pages in length, this sucker is packing a powerful punch.  It’s a showcase of DL! wares from tees to medallions to posters— but more than anything, its a visual meet and greet with some of Detroit’s most excited (and exciting) doers.  Think of the Loveland super-combo Mary Lorene and Jerry “Nerd Alert” Paffendorf.  Think of Roland Legget and Connie Mangilin.  Or how about Margarita Barry over at I AM YOUNG DETROIT. Then there’s Jessica Hernandez and all the biz-nass she’s got going with her swampy blues band that’s making tracks and all the talk of Detroit Soup.  Andy and Emily Linn are featured as well, the brother/sister megateam that started City Bird in Midtown. 

The catalog substantiates DL!’s claim that there’s no better place in America to be young and hungry than Detroit by showing the young people that are on the ground making it happen. And hey, it serves the purpose of showing off DL! wares, too. It should be well known that Vanessa Miller did the photography and Courtney Burgam championed all the layout. A big high five to both of them. Here’s a look at the cover in space age low resoution via Apple’s Photo Booth’inator, but hey, I’m doing this remotely from the depths of Ferndale festival’dom:

The first pressing of the catalogs are headed to foggy London town and Pareee on Monday to try and see about getting some of the gear in shops over there across the pond.  In the very near future, however, the catalog will be available via MagCloud.

I had the chance to attend the PSFK Salon today held at the DIA. It was a mini-conference of sorts, 4 hours in length, under the premise of fueling imagination through creative and inspiring discussions about Detroit. Scott Monty spoke. He is man behind the wheel with social media at Ford. Catie Newell discussed her architectural project called Five Fellows that is shaping up to be an ongoing arts installation– and home– in the same neighborhood as the PowerHouse Project. Jeremy Eckhous talked about his company Advanced Energy Group and their use of geothermal energy as a renewable source of energy for affordable heating and cooling in the region. The panel discussion followed with Jerry Paffendorf of Loveland, Terry Parris from Model D and Rebecca Powers at Hour Detroit. Here’s some random snippets that people were heard saying throughout the course of the afternoon– all painting a picture for growth and change in the region.

“I think there is a dynamic happening right now to make us believe that change is really happening this time for Detroit.” Rebecca Powers

“We produced one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time in Henry Ford, and we will continue to do that.” Terry Parris

“It’s in our blood to make things here in Detroit” Terry Parris

“If you have an idea or story and you want to do it, there’s nothing stopping you in Detroit.” Terry Parris

A fine morning indeed.

Got some more photos from Maker Faire posted on Facebook. But big news this morning is the nice little ditty on Detroit that was in the New York Times print edition today. The article is titled “Wringing Art Out of Rubble in Detroit” and gives an uplifting story told through many of the doers around town that are making lemonade out of lemons. Kate Daughdrill and Jessica Hernandez were featured on behalf of their project titled Soup, a monthly meeting on Sundays above the MexicanTown Bakery where participants pay $5 entry, eat some soup and salad, and hear proposals from people all over the city for projects they want to do. At the end of the night, the best voted idea gets all the Soup money to put towards the project. It creates a nurturing environment to do cool stuff. Another feature in the article, Mr. Jerry Paffendorf and Ms. Mary Lorene Carter, got some words devoted to Loveland and the new up-and-coming Imagination Station near MCS– that is, the two houses that were purchased, are now being re-habbed and will eventually be an artists residency program. These fantastic projects aside, what’s particularly enticing in the article is the discussion of folks migrating in to the city and describing the move (from Portland and Montana interestingly enough, two favorite places of mine) to Detroit as poitive and one with “a sense of purpose.” It really starts to paint a much more vivid picture illustrating the real opportunity that exists in Detroit. When one of those featured migrants, the fella from Montana who comes with the intent to be a butcher, actually arrives and starts a charcuterie club and ingratiates himself in the young doer community, it says something about the real opportunity here. Yes, you can DO IT IN DETROIT. You can make it happen here, that’s for sure. And hey, once you arrive, people will listen, you can be an agent of positive change and growth, and holy moses, the frickin’ New York Times might even put you in a feature story.