Power Plant Physical Therapy

I had never been in a power plant until I stepped into Detroit's Mistersky power plant. Producing power at a fraction of its former capacity, it stands as a living monument to a city whose thirst for power has been quenched by a declining population.

As we tour the site, maps prove sometime useless. We walk through tunnels of wires and conduits. Row after row of control panels, throw switches and gauges sit dormant. Analog dials stand frozen, locking in measurements for equipment which has long since turned off. A crew of engineers monitors modern computers which sit interspersed among deserted consoles.

Mistersky power plant was the wind farm of its day. Mitersky is proof of the incredible technological heights achieved through Detroit's industrial might.  Can the might used to create Mistersky by redirected to build a new Green economy?

Housing Site Scavenger Hunt

Demolition is about to begin at this housing site, but there might not be anything left by the time work begins.  Like a turkey at Thanksgiving, the carcus of this housing site is being picked to its copper bones.





Care for a drink?



Stolen cooper hosebibs create a new water feature



The sounds of water cascading
from the 2nd floor soothe the senses





Continuously flowing water creates
a carpet of wall to wall water



Tobacco, Alcohol and ....

While driving down this section of Michigan Avenue, I noticed a billboard...

If one can ignore the message being sent to this neighborhood...

If we can accept that the tobacco and alcohol industries target black neighborhoods because "blacks have higher consumption indices for these products"...

If we accept the fact that lung cancer rates among blacks have increased four times faster than among whites in the last 30 years...

If we accept the fact that black men have a 70 percent higher death rate from cirrhosis of the liver than whites.

If we can tolerate that in 2010, 20.8% of African-Americans had no form of health insurance (as compared to 11.8% of non-Hispanic Whites)...

Then one should take notice of this Billboard's remarkable low price.

------------------------------------------------
"THE MEDIA BUSINESS; An Uproar Over Billboards in Poor Areas", New York Times (Business Section), May 1, 1989

US Dept. of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health

Phoenix Rising: Part 1-1/2

The Phoenix has begun to rise over Jefferies East.  The seeds of Cornerstone Estates have taken root. Water pipes and sewers are now charged with sustaining the new life injected into this mixed-income public housing townhouse development.

In the shadow of Motor City casino a reborn housing development springs to life.

Parkman Library Update

Parkman Library is rejuvinated as a 21st century library.
Opened on April 16, 1931 as the eighteenth member of the Detroit Library system, in 2012 it's new technology and literacy center serves 400 patrons a day with free Internet access and technology training.

Circa 1931

Circa 1931

Judging an Old Book with a New Cover

The exterior improvements at Detroit Housing Commission's Warren West apartments are complete. It's new colors shining cheerfully over the I-94 horizon.

Bronze energy efficient slider aluminum windows compliment a three tone exterior coating.  Towering over its sister buildings along this section of Warren Avenue, its new skin dominates the Core City neighborhood skyline.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

21st Century Libraries

Public libraries began popping up on American soil during the 18th century. Their purpose was simple, to give its citizens access to information through the free circulation of books. In the case of Ben Franklin's Library Company of Philadelphia, to serve the civic good of giving people a means through which to settle arguments.

The first public library arrived in Detroit in 1865. And on April 16, 1931, the doors of the eighteenth member of the Detroit Library system opened in honor of American historian Francis Parkman.

Today, libraries are evolving to serve a new modern-day purpose: to bridge the digital divide.

• For 66% of Americans, libraries are their only source for free access to the internet.



• 70% of Americans depend on library computers whether or not they have a computer at home.



• 55% of retail companies require online job applications.



• Between 2008 and 2009, libraries have seen a 110% increase in career service usage.

In attempt to bridge the digital divide, the Knight Foundation awarded a $866,000 grant to the Detroit Public Library to expand free Internet access at the Parkman Branch library by building a new technology and literacy center. The library will now be able to serve an additional 400 patrons a day with access to the Internet and an ever-growing range of activities including job searches and resume building.

Continuing to serve its original goals, this historic library is now being restored with a 21st century purpose.

Work began in the summer of 2010.