Detroit Dreaming

Lofts like this don’t hit the market too often.

In a 1904 Beaux Arts–style building, it’s got architectural appeal—the foyer has some impressive marble columns and pilasters—combined with a great location at Cass Avenue near Willis Street.

The two-bedroom, 1,600-square-foot unit has a long floor plan with a nice flow—the living room leads to the dining room which leads to the kitchen. The front door enters into the living/mud room, and the back entrance near the master bedroom and private patio exits into the gated parking.

The cherry and maple wood floors have a great finish and the exposed brick lends a nice urban feel. The loft comes with washer and dryer machines, Rocket Fiber hi-speed internet, and 15-foot by 20-foot basement storage unit. (The cat, however, is not included.)

It’s also on the top floor and offers some decent views of Midtown.

4142 Cass Avenue, Unit #301 is listed through O’Connor Real Estate for $550,000.

We’re rolling along in our Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft, in which you, the reader, act as general manager for all 32 franchises to make one cohesive draft.

After the Arizona Cardinals predictably took Kyler Murray with the first overall pick, it’s time for the San Francisco 49ers to take the podium. Acting as general manager for the 49ers is commenter SUHFARGONE.

With the second pick in the POD Community Mock Draft, the 49ers have taken Ohio State edge defender Nick Bosa. Here is SUHFARGONE’s explanation for the pick:

“I selected Nick Bosa for the San Francisco 49ers because, without the benefit of trades, it’s pretty much a no-brainer. The 49ers did trade for Dee Ford this offseason but, as they say, “you can never have too many good pass rushers.” and Bosa definitely fits the bill. Bosa is not just a pass rusher, though. He is a complete defensive end, good at setting the edge and defending the run, as well as pressuring the pocket. He has a variety of pass rush moves and very good use of hands to shed blocks on his way to the quarterback.

He’s the No. 1 prospect on most every big board I’ve seen, making him the best player available. He has a high floor, a good work ethic, and no character issues. These are all very important factors when investing a pick this valuable. On top of that, he has NFL bloodlines and has been compared favorably to his brother Joey.

San Francisco has needs at wide receiver, in the defensive backfield, offensive line and at linebacker as well. I briefly considered players like D.K. Metcalf, Marquise Brown, and Devin White. The value just wasn’t there at pick No. 2 overall, though. These positions may be of greater importance to the team than another DE after acquiring Ford, so a trade down could make a lot of sense here for them.

The only other players I seriously considered here though were Quinnen Williams and Josh Allen. Williams, in particular, gave me pause due to his ability to generate pressure from the interior of the defensive line. He could make a lot of sense here as well. He also happens to be the only player I’ve seen ranked above Bosa anywhere.

But in the end, I took the player with the most value and potential to help San Fran win now. Pairing Bosa with Ford will give the Niners a desperately-needed pass rush that can take some of the pressure off their linebackers and defensive backs. Hopefully this will translate to better overall play on every level of the defense.”

Numerous outlets have reported that federal charges have finally been issued in the probe into the city of Detroit’s scandal-ridden demolition program. But fortunately for the city, that might be the extent of the damages in the years-long investigation.

Earlier this week, federal prosecutors made charges public against two former employees of Adamo Group, a contractor that’s worked with the city on its extensive demolition program. The court documents state that Anthony Daguanno and Aradondo Haskins took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from subcontractors to secure favorable bids in the program.

In 2015, Haskins was actually hired by the Detroit Building Authority, which oversees the program along with the Detroit Land Bank Authority.

The federal probe had been underway for several years and rumors of corruption cast a cloud over Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration. Though the charges don’t leave the city unscathed, in many ways the news is a vindication. According to The Detroit News, court documents state that city officials were unaware of the bribery scheme and no more federal charges are expected.

The demolition program has been a major element of Mayor Duggan’s neighborhood revitalization efforts. The city has received hundreds of millions in dollars in federal funds to demolish more than 11,000 structures.

And this wasn’t the only time the program has come under scrutiny. Cost overruns required a 60 day stoppage and a $5 million settlement. Most recently it’s come under federal investigation for using contaminated dirt with high concentrations of chloride as backfill.

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"You go in to your studio and you’re alone," he says, standing in the front room of his North End studio, which is located in a former firehouse near Mount Vernon and Beaubien in Detroit.

A quick glance at the space is all the proof you need that Gardner, who lives in Highland Park, spends a lot of time there; the front of the studio is home to series of vibrant oil paintings in progress, and the back is filled with steel that's either been transformed into sculpture or is awaiting its turn to do so. 

And, yet, despite his bouts of creative solitude, Gardner is far from alone. As one of eight artists chosen this year to be part of the Live Coal artists collective, he's part of a tight-knit artist community in the North End area. The collective is a project of the Live Coal Gallery, which is located in the Clairmount Studios arts complex at 80 and 82 Clairmount Avenue.

Each year Live Coal selects a new contingent of aspiring, emerging, and established artists dedicated to its mission of engaging community members in the arts into the collective. Members can exhibit and sell work at the gallery, lead workshops, and create special installations and performances. 

Live Coal Gallery features rotating exhibits as well as a small section dedicated to hand-blown glass made by the late Detroit artist and educator Larry Humphrey. It also hosts events, such as book release parties and artist talks.

The gallery itself is the creation of Yvette Rock, a Detroit-based artist, activist, and educator who holds degrees in Fine Arts Yvette Rockfrom Cooper Union in NYC and U-M Ann Arbor. She's a former artist-in-residence with InsideOut Literary Project and has exhibited work in a variety of mediums all over Southeast Michigan. Her efforts with the Live Coal Gallery began in 2013, when she launched the first version of the art space in a red-brick house in Detroit's Woodbridge neighborhood. Rock was motivated by a desire for a local venue that would support emerging artists and serve as a space for intergenerational collaboration and exhibition. 

"I found that it was challenging for a lot of artists to be able to have shows who were new to the art scene," she says.

The Live Coal Gallery maintained an active space in Woodbridge for two years, before shuttering its doors in 2015. For several years after that, it's led a traveling existence, headquartered in an 18-foot trailer called the Live Coal Arts Mobile, which serves twin roles as a gallery and workshop space. But this year, the gallery set down roots again, finding a new home at Clairmount Studios, which just held its grand opening April 13. 

Clairmount's Studio Scene

The studio complex is a project of the social services nonprofit Central Detroit Christian Community Development Corporation (CDC), which received a $100,000 Kresge Innovative Projects: Detroit (KIP:D) grant in 2017 to transform a duplex on Clairmount Street into a community space aimed at helping local artists teach classes and hone their crafts while engaging residents in the arts.

CDC decided on this approach for the space after reaching out to local residents and finding they wanted to see more art in the neighborhood.

Lisa Johanon, Executive Director of Central Detroit Christian, hopes Clairmount Studios will inspire young people in the surrounding neighborhood to see that, despite life's chaos and drama, there’s still a lot of beauty to be found.

"I want kids to know that I want them to feel [that beauty], and I want them to enjoy it and be able to have the opportunity to be creative and expressive," she says.

In addition to the Live Coal Gallery, Clairmount is also home to The Red, a children’s museum operated by the gallery that features a permanent collection of art from Detroit-area youth, creative play space, open studio, weekly programming, summer art camps, special performances, and a gift shop. The two-story art complex serves as a meet-up space for groups like the Oakland Avenue Artists Coalition, which established its own multipurpose art and performance pavilion in North End with KIP:D funding.  Several artists-in-residence are headquartered in the studio too, including Edwin Geronimo, fiber artist Sarah Mark who runs the Asmara Design program there; performance artist and poet Billy Mark; jewelry artist Emily Mbong; and Steve Cato and Jarod Pratt, a pair of writers and videographers known as The Storiers who offer workshops and other activities.

Sarah Mark moved to Detroit with her family in 2012, after designing women’s high fashion sportswear in Los Angeles. Early on during her time here, she met several neighborhood mothers whose daughters wanted to get into sewing and clothing design, but she kept running into a big hurdle, finding studio space. 

Thankfully Clairmount Studios has helped her address that issue. From her sunny second-floor space, she now teaches young aspiring fashion designers the basics of fashion illustration, pattern making, and sewing. Mark wants her students to envision futures in the fashion field, encouraging them to think about attending design schools, working for established companies, and setting up their own businesses.

Her husband, Billy, also works to empower young artists at Clairmount. But, rather than fashion, he focuses on performance and music. His studio space was at originally the Marks’ Detroit home. But the fact it wasn’t being used when he was out seemed like a waste to him, so he relocated to Clairmount Studios, where he's begun to work with young people and other locals to support music in the neighborhood.

"There’s an opportunity to not only create space for artists, but to also connect with the tastes and the styles of people who are living here — and the young people and their tastes — to try to find a way that we can all share ideas," he says.

His first project has involved setting up an open mic called The Clair for local youth. It's been enthusiastically embraced by four local teens, who are now running the show. The inaugural open mic took place April 20 and future shows are scheduled for the first and third Saturday of each month from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Mark interested in using the open mic as an area to come up with ideas that can be polished at a recording studio on the lower level of the facility.

"The hope is that there would be some kind of circulation that curves between the open mic and the studios," he says.

Art On Wheels

Meanwhile, life for the Live Coal Gallery crew has gotten pretty lively of late. 

Rock just celebrated the gallery’s sixth year anniversary with a special reception at the Andy, another arts venue in Detroit's HOPE Village neighborhood, on Friday. Visitors got a chance to check out an exhibition from the collective, see a live glass blowing, and hear live jazz and literary readings.

They also had an opportunity to check out the Live Coal Arts Mobile, which Rock continues to tour through Detroit with as part of her mission to engage with local residents. Right now, the Arts Mobile tends to focus on North End, Piety Hill, and Brightmoor, but it also takes regular trips to Southwest Detroit and Cody Rouge.

While she enjoys the traveling aspect of the museum on wheels, she doesn't miss the challenges she used to have storing the mobile gallery's artwork. Thankfully, having Live Coal Gallery based in a physical location again means she no longer has to stash art in a trailer, storage place, or friends’ houses for shows.

"Having what I call a home base has been really special for me, because I've been scattered for several years as Live Coal Gallery," she says. "This feels really good!"

Clairmount Studios is located at 80 and 82 Clairmount Ave. 

This article is part of a series where we revisit stories from our On the Ground installment and explore new ones in the North End. It is supported by the Kresge Foundation.

Photos by Nick Hagen.

When the Flint water crisis took place in 2014 and 2015, one of my graduate nursing students decided to get involved.

Having already worked with me in the Greater Toledo area to screen children at risk for lead poisoning, my student helped conduct blood lead level screenings of the children exposed to the water. Test results later showed that the number of lead poisoned children in Flint had doubled after the crisis.

Since that time, some have worried that children in Flint are suffering academic setbacks as a result of being exposed to high levels of lead in Flint’s water supply.

State officials advised that as many as 9,000 children under the age of 6 in Flint be treated as having been exposed to high levels of lead after the city’s drinking water supply was switched in 2014 from water from Lake Huron to water from the Flint River.

Others, however, have pushed back, arguing that Flint’s water crisis is not the culprit behind any academic losses. Certainly lead was a problem for children in Flint long before the water problems.

But as a nursing professor and parent educator who specializes in treating children with elevated lead levels, I believe that just like in Detroit – where lead poisoned children have suffered academic setbacks after being exposed to lead, mostly from lead paint in their homes – similar academic setbacks are likely taking place in Flint.

However, my experience shows that lead levels in children can be lessened by educating parents on simple things they can do to decrease exposure to lead in their homes.

Ill effects

Lead affects children’s brain development and results in reduced “intelligence quotient,” or IQ. It also leads to behavioral changes, such as shortening of attention span, restlessness, conduct disorders, aggression and reduced educational attainment, as shown in “What the Eyes Don’t See,” a book by Mona Hanna-Attisha, a physician who helped expose the Flint water crisis.

Lead exposure can harm children even before they are born. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that approximately half-a-million children in the United States between the ages of 1 and 5 have an elevated blood lead level.

Although lead poisoning is preventable, the neurological and behavioral effects of lead are believed to be irreversible. No level of lead is safe for children.

Screening children

Most of my work with lead poisoned children has taken place in the Greater Toledo area. My graduate nursing students and I have collectively screened more than a thousand students at Toledo Public Schools. Of those children tested, 577 – 38.9% – had blood lead levels above 4 micrograms per deciliter. The CDC says intervention is warranted at 5 micrograms per deciliter, but I prefer to intervene at 4 micrograms to focus in on problems before it reaches a higher level.

In individual schools in Toledo, the share of students at or above 4 micrograms per deciliter ranged from 21% to 73%. Many of the children we screened were already in special education classrooms because of their lead exposure.

What actions are needed

Whenever my graduate students and I detect lead in children, we educate their parents or caregivers about where lead comes from. We discuss what lead does to children’s brains and bodies once it enters their bloodstream. We also offer practical tips about how they can decrease lead exposure in their homes.

For instance, we recommend that caregivers wet mop and clean. Why? Because over 80% of the children that I’ve screened for lead in the Toledo area live in rental properties. That’s significant because many of these homes and apartments were built before 1978, the year the United States banned lead-based paint in housing, and are the most likely to have lead paint. As different families move in and out of these properties, many different children get exposed to lead in the same rental home over the years.

It is critical that these rental properties and family-owned homes be certified by local health departments and other governmental agencies as “lead safe.” But just as there are lead threats inside the home, there are also threats outside the home. Those outside threats come from children playing in lead-tainted soil around the home and tracking it inside.

Fighting back

When 18 of my graduate nursing students and I followed up with Toledo families with lead poisoned children between 2016 and 2018, we found 11 of the 577 children had significant decreases in their blood lead levels and improved academic performance.

One 8-year-old girl, for instance, had her blood lead levels drop from 22.6 micrograms per deciliter two years ago to 6.1 micrograms per deciliter.

The girl’s mother was diligent in following the recommendations we made to decrease lead absorption in her daughter, such as increased nutritional intake of vitamin C, iron and calcium. In addition, the girl began to take daily multivitamins and ate snacks during the day to avoid an empty stomach, since food decreases the gastric absorption of lead. Shoes were left at the door of their home to avoid tracking in lead-contaminated soil from outside. The mother also damp mopped and dusted to decrease exposure to lead from the air. The girl was also encouraged to wash her hands frequently. Referrals were made to the local health department for further assessment of the living environment and possible financial support to secure a “lead safe” home for the family.

Future of Flint

Five years after the Flint water crisis, people are still distrustful of the local water. Efforts to hold officials accountable seem to go back and forth. Residents are trying to sue city officials and the federal government for lead contamination in the water. Criminal charges were dropped on June 13 against several officials who had been charged in the crisis, but may be re-issued.

The circumstances by which children were exposed to high levels of lead in Flint and Toledo may be different. But as one who has worked directly with lead-poisoned children, I know it is likely the impacts will be similar. Lead-poisoned children in Toledo schools have struggled to stay on task, stay out of trouble, learn reading and math skills, and keep up with their peers academically and socially. There’s no reason to think that lead-poisoned children in Flint aren’t going through the same thing.

[ Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day. ]

Marilynne R Wood, Professor, University of Toledo

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Giannis Antetokounmpo insists he will not be looking to the officials for protection in the playoffs despite Andre Drummond's rugged attempts to disrupt his flow.

The Milwaukee Bucks star led his side to a dominant 121-86 home win over the Detroit Pistons in Game 1 of their first-round series on Sunday, contributing 24 points and 17 rebounds.

Antetokounmpo carried on where he left off in the regular season and opponent Drummond had no answer, earning a flagrant two foul and an ejection after shoving the Greek to the floor.

The 24-year-old was asked if he might expect similar treatment throughout the playoffs after an MVP-calibre season, but he was not too concerned.

"As a team, we've talked about it. We try to keep our composure," Antetokounmpo told a news conference. "If the opposing team try to foul us hard or try to hit us or play dirty, we need to keep our composure and do our job. Our job is to win games.

"I'm not going to look to the referees for protection. I've just got to play smart and try to avoid the situations."

Coach Mike Budenholzer was similarly not worried by the way Drummond handled the Bucks' top performer.

"I actually didn't see any of the replays," he said. "It seemed pretty obvious in the heat of the moment that it was a flagrant one.

"He gave him a good push. It's part of the playoffs and, besides obviously being a flagrant, it didn't seem like anything. It's part of the game."

By Rabbi Aura Ahuvia

It is interesting that our portion for Shabbat of Passover, Exodus. 12:21-51, concludes with the making of matzah, and its Haftarah, from the Book of Joshua, concludes with eating it. The apparent progression — from making matzah to eating it — is linked through an upward trajectory. This sense of upward trajectory is also a leitmotif of the seder itself.

The Mishnah offered an instruction for leading the seder. Mishnah Pesachim 10:4, as translated by the popular website Sefaria, reads: “He begins [instructing him about the Exodus story] with [the account of Israel’s] shame and concludes with [Israel’s] praise (glory) …” If you look in your family’s Haggadah, you’re likely to find some variant of the above. Many modern Haggadot reference this general concept when they use phrases like “from slavery to freedom,” “from degradation to dignity” or “from catastrophe to consolation.”

We commonly presume today that this upward trajectory refers to us — the Jewish people — and, indeed, this is one valid interpretation. We prove this, in part, by referring to the above translation, “[… Israel’s] shame and [Israel’s] praise.” If you look closely, however, you’ll see that the word “Israel” is only in brackets. This indicates that it is an interpretation of the original Mishnah. Not surprisingly, there are others.

What was Mishnah’s original intent? To understand this better, let us turn to the original Hebrew, matchil bi’g’nut, u’m’sayeim b’shevach, which means, “Begin with genut and conclude with shevach.” What are genut and shevach? Rather than “shame” and “glory,” as common translations suggest, rabbinic literature understands the word genut to mean “shortcomings” or “disgrace,” and shevach as “praiseworthiness.” In our example, a better definition of genut would be “unseemly behavior deserving censure,” and shevach as “worthy acts deserving praise.”

In Beyond the Text: A Holistic Approach to Liturgy, liturgical scholar Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman posits that within its historical context, the Mishnah was offering guidance in table leadership skills: To achieve an overall mood of uplift, begin with the somber material and end with the celebratory. Thus, a second interpretation of “from genut to shevach” has to do with the emotional feeling of the seder.

Yet a third interpretation is that we refer to God’s own genut and shevach. As is commonly known, the Passover seder is modeled on the Greco-Roman symposium, which was, in part, believed to be underwritten by the gods. There, the format would be to first “roast” the gods and then to end the evening with their praise. Similarly today, we might open a wedding toast with an embarrassing story but conclude with heartfelt praise for bride and groom. In other words, we begin by daring to hold God to account for the fact of our slavery, but in keeping with an upward trajectory, conclude with words of praise for the fact of our freedom and redemption.

May we all enjoy a Passover filled with deep questions, satisfying answers and great joy.

Aura Ahuvia is rabbi at Congregation Shir Tikvah in Troy.

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Thru two rounds, The Masters has never looked so good.

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Tiger Woods of the United States walks across the Hogan Bridge on the 12th hole during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Tiger Woods of the United States plays a shot on the 15th hole during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 13: Webb Simpson of the United States plays a shot on the second hole during the third round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 13, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 13: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks on the fifth hole during the third round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 13, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 13: Alex Noren of Sweden plays a shot from a bunker on the eighth hole during the third round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 13, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 13: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks on the second hole with caddie Harry Diamond during the third round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 13, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 13: Haotong Li of China plays his second shot on the first hole during the third round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 13, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 13: Devon Bling of the United States and Martin Kaymer of Germany walk on the first hole during the third round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 13, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Jon Rahm of Spain plays a shot from a bunker on the 18th hole during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Tiger Woods of the United States plays a shot on the 17th hole during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa walks across the Hogan Bridge on the 12th hole during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Tommy Fleetwood of England putts on the 10th green during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: A detail of the shoes of Marc Leishman of Australia during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Tiger Woods of the United States walks on the 10th hole during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Jason Day of Australia putts on the 16th green during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Ricky Elliott, caddie for Brooks Koepka of the United States (not pictured), lines up a putt on the 18th green during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Dustin Johnson of the United States acknowledges patrons on the 18th green during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Tiger Woods of the United States plays his shot from the third tee during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 12: Phil Mickelson of the United States plays his shot from the eighth tee during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Watch The Masters Saturday from 3-7, and Sunday from 2-7 only on CBS62.

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