Red Pill

Who says Detroit doesn't have good neighborhoods?

Next week I will be moving into Detroit's Corktown neighborhood with four students from Project M. We wanted to stay in a neighborhood in the city vs. the suburbs to really get a sense of what the city is all about. What I find amazing is most people I have talked to from Detroit said there were no neighborhoods to stay in. The big misconception is Detroit has no functioning neighborhoods. I guess we will find out next week, stay tuned..

Great segment about Detroit and Corktown on NPR

Most of this piece takes place in the Detroit neighborhood of Corktown. This is the same neighborhood that the students of Project M Detroit will be staying in when we arrive there in two weeks.

Take a listen: Download 20090812_atc_13

Apple's new "iTablet" computer? Sorry try again.

The rumors are flying today about the new tablet computer Apple will be releasing this Fall. They shot a commercial in a Truckee, CA diner today featuring a flat device being dubbed the iTablet computer. I have heard many other predications for the name including, MacBook Touch, iPhone Pro, and MacBook Tablet. It seems most predictions revolve around this being a tablet computer with OS X or a high level iPhone (I'd love to see someone holding one of these up to their head).

I believe this is all wrong, and it seems very obvious why.

1. The new device will be called the iBook. Duh! They dumped the name last year for Mac Book and Mac Book pro while developing this device.

2. Why would they want the name iBook? To compete directly with Amazon's Kindle! 

Prediction:

Apple will be pushing downloadable books from the iTunes store to read on your new iBook. Think about it, for a little more money than a Kindle you can listen to some music, surf the web, and check email if you need to. I don't think this will be a full blown Mac complete with OSX because it would cost too much but I could be wrong on that one.

Mark my words, you heard it hear first! The all New iBook

What are your thoughts?

Detroit has cheap houses, acres of green space, and a strong artist community. Thats a start...

I will be entering the city of Detroit with Project M at the end of August, and the first thing we are sure to notice is the overwhelming number of abandoned homes. At it's post WWII peak Detroit was the fourth largest city in the country with 1.8 million residents. Today it has roughly 900,000 residents, nearly 1 million people have abandoned the city, mostly for the suburbs.

Is there a silver lining in all this misery? Can we find some opportunity in this situation? The average price of a house in Detroit is $16,000.00 less than most cars cost. There is also endless amounts of green space in Detroit due to the demolition of thousands of house over the last twenty years.

There are many small grassroots organizations finding creative solutions to some of the tough challenges facing the city. Recently a handful of these organizations have gained national attention and will hopefully materialize into a full blown movement. These organizations are part of the reason we are bringing Project M to Detroit.

Some of these organizations include:

Powerhouse Project which was started by artists Gina Reichert and Mitch Cope in March of 2008. They began by purchasing a house and two plots of land for $4,900.00. They kept their house off the grid by adding solar heat and power in addition to fixing it up and painting it very creatively. They are now trying to get other artists to join them in there new neigborhood.

Object Orange was also started by artists, for different reasons though. They wanted to call attention to delapitated houses that needed to be bulldozed. By painting these houses "Triggerific Orange" they call attention to these abandoned homes in the hopes that the city will demolish them.

100 Abandoned houses website showes phot of 100 abandoned homes, it not only spread awarness and puts the issue into prospective but it also has liks to buy some of these homes.

We obviously have some major challenges facing us as we try to jump in and become part of the possative change that may or may or may not come to Detroit. Many of us that will be part of Project M Detroit are originally from this once great city. We can't ignore the enormous oppurtunities that exist in this current environment. And we can't help but hope that Detroit will be reborn like cities a century ago that were destryed by fires and earthquakes emerging fromthe ruble to become great again.