After 30 years feminists return to Detroit
No, feminists didn’t all evacuate Detroit 30 years ago. But the National Organization for Women is to hold their convention in Detroit for the first time since 1977. The city is trying to attract more conventions to fill up all its shiny new hotel rooms unfortunately the conference is at the Dearborn Hyatt.
“Throughout the weekend, chapter delegates and activists will take on hot topics like misogyny in Hollywood and the media; electing a feminist president; women and war; universal healthcare; media reform in the wake of the Imus controversy; and the impact of the recent Supreme Court decisions on reproductive rights, pay equity and school integration.
This year’s exciting list of speakers includes powerful women in politics, pioneers in social reform, and influential media figures. Jennifer Granholm, the dynamic governor of Michigan, will welcome the crowd with the first speech of the weekend.”
[via United Press International]
Hearing on newly proposed riverfront condos to be held next week
Still more upscale condominiums are planned for Detroit’s east riverfront, this time on vacant city-owned land east of the Harbor Hill Marina opposite Belle Isle.
City planners and developers from Morgan Development LLC presented their proposal to the City Planning Commission Thursday evening. Plans call for Morgan to build four 10-story condo towers and multiple low-rise buildings immediately east of the marina.
Some more news about the new residential high-rises that will be built next to Harbortown. Up to 500 units could be built.
[via Detroit Free Press]
Obama: Nation should be more outraged about urban violence
DETROIT - Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on Thursday decried the lack of outrage over gun violence in urban America and criticized President Bush’s decision to commute the sentence of former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby while black men serve prison time for lesser crimes.
Finally, Barack Obama brings some attention to the problems facing black America at large and not just New Orleans. Of course, how could he ignore such problems when he’s targeting the audience at the NAACP conference in Detroit. Not a lot of promises coming from the man besides pointing out the lack of outrage but Hillary Clinton’s solutions, offered at the conference, are no less vague.
[via PopMatters]
FIVE THINGS: About Michigan summers
EAT LOCAL
Thanks to many microclimates, more than 200 food and fiber products are grown in Michigan.
Farmers markets make it convenient to find what’s local and fresh. In July: asparagus, beets, blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupes, cherries, cucumbers, eggplant, greens, nectarines, peaches, peppers, raspberries and strawberries. In August, add apples, Asian pears, broccoli, sweet corn, tomatoes and watermelon. In September, add plums, pumpkins and sweet potatoes.
UP NORTH
Go there, read about it. Up North is a way of life — indescribable for many people. Nobel Prize-winner Ernest Hemingway captured its peace and beauty in his Nick Adams stories, written in the early 1920s. …
IT’S LIGHTER LATER
With the state at the western end of the Eastern time zone, sunset comes later for Detroit than for any other major city in the continental United States.
On the longest day of the year, June 21, the sun set in Los Angeles at 8:08 p.m., in Chicago at 8:29 and in New York at 8:30. In Detroit, the day lingered till 9:13 p.m.
At the Free Press has a great round up of things that make Michigan uniquely pleasant. There’s the variety of agriculture which competes with California for first place in the nation and the variety of microclimates throughout Michigan which also, like California, provides good weather for growing wine grapes (more about Michigan’s wine country below).
But did you know that Detroit gets to enjoy almost 45 minutes more daylight per day than Chicago in New York City and almost an hour more than California?
[via Detroit Free Press]
Michigan’s Wine Country Grows Where the Cherry Is King
DRIVING along the fingerlike peninsulas of Grand Traverse Bay, it’s easy to see why this part of Michigan calls itself the cherry capital. In spring, dense orchards explode in creamy blossoms, their pink hues like Impressionist smudges against the brilliant blue of Lake Michigan; come July’s harvest time, the branches are thick with ruby fruit.
But sprouting from the rolling green hillsides between the orchards is evidence of yet another fruitful enterprise — the neat rows of vineyards, which are fast turning this area into a destination for oenophiles and casual wine tasters alike.
The Grand Traverse Bay area is the featured travel escape at the New York Times and it’s not just Traverse City and it’s all-things-cherry but the wine tasting and the vistas throughout the countryside and along the shores. Black Star Farms who make the “pear in a bottle” are also featured.
[via New York Times]
Laos general a ‘man of peace’ who didn’t plot overthrow …
Protesting the arrest of one of their leaders, Hmong Americans rallied today outside the U.S. District Courthouse in Detroit to call for the release of Vang Pao, a military general from Laos who helped the United States during the Vietnam War but now stands accused of plotting to overthrow the Laos government.
About 200 Hmong Americans walked on Lafayette Street holding signs that read “General Vang Pao, We will stand by you” and “General Vang Pao is a hero.”
They joined other Hmongs who held similar rallies today in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California, where Pao lives and was arrested.
Detroit is one of the cities in the United States with large Hmong populations (the others being Wisconsin, Minneapolis, and throughout California). I’m not quite sure why that is but they are mainly clustered in northeast Detroit (there’s a Hmong market on Schoenner north of 7 mile) and in Warren. They come from Vietnam and Laos and also Thailand wherethey escaped to during the Vietnam War. They do not have a country of their own. And this may be why the general would seek to overthrow the Laotion government.
[via Detroit Free Press]
