Dearborn Mayor Michael Guido Dies - Local News - ClickOnDetroit.com | WDIV

Dearborn Mayor Michael Guido Dies - Local News - ClickOnDetroit.com | WDIV

Our neighbors to the south have lost their mayor today. Longtime Mayor of Dearborn Michael A. Guido passed away at the age of 52 following a battle with cancer.

He had been Mayor of Dearborn since January of 1986. He was re-elected in an uncontested election this past November for a sixth consecutive term.

His family will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Tipperary Pub: Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week

Things were, to put it mildly, hectic at my dayjob yesterday. As a result, I unfortunately did not get a chance to post the Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week.

Luckily, everything has calmed down considerably. I can, therefore, take the time to announce that the Tippery Pub (8287 Southfield Freeway - (313) 271-5870) is the Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week for November 15, 2006.

The Tippery Pub has been greating visitors to the Warrendale neighborhood with Irish hospitality since 1969. While the pub came under new ownership recently, their service and drinks have not.

Of course, being named Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week is only the latest honor to be bestowed on the Tipperary Pub. They were named "Best Teeny Irish Bar" by the Detroit News in 2005 and "Best Reason to Order a Pint" by the Detroit Free Press in 2004.

My favorite thing about this place is that it's the main reason why my counterpart at the Dearborn Blog ventures into the Warrendale neighborhood from time to time. Not to be outdone by that, however, there's also the fact that they have live Irish entertainment every Friday and Saturday. Wednesday is their open mic night.

The Tipperary Pub is located on the southbound Southfield Freeway service drive, just south of Joy Road. They have lots of safe and secure parking in their lot.

Steve's Three Brothers - Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week

Steve's Three Brothers Restaurant (17820 W. Warren Avenue - (313) 271-1227) is one of coolest little diners in Detroit area. Their service is warm and friendly. Their prices are reasonable. They are also the Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week for November 8, 2006.

Steve's Three Brothers Restaurant has been in business in the Warrendale neighborhood for decades and serve some of the best Polish food you can find in the area. Periogis are a specialty of the house and I highly recommend them.

The only drawback to Steve's is that they are currently only open from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., Monday through Friday; closed on Saturdays and Sundays. They are hoping to once again expand their hours. Until then, if you ever find yourself in Warrendale on a weekday afternoon, you'll be hard pressed to find a better place for lunch.

Ideas for Warrendale: Posting Photos of Dealers

K (real name withheld upon request) wrote in to suggest:

There really ought to be some big, annonymous website and blogs to post photos of "alleged" drug deals going down,, faces, license plates, exact location, time/date, organized by State, city, and RESPONSIBLE police precint, mayor, and county sheriff. IF there was a BIG website,, for people to create postings across the nation,, all in ONE, easy to find webspace,, it would become VERY big, popular and noticeable by the police and newsmedia... and participation by local residents would be phenomenal.

We could also notifiy the local newsmedia to check out the website and see all the crime going down.

There is such a site. And you found it. Send me any photos, video or information that you want. I'll post it.

As for the local news media, I'm working on that part.

Did you know that it is illegal to have basket-ball hoops parked out in the streets? No laws allow for the playing of B-Ball in the street. Call the cops to get these off the streets... they belong in the yard. The reason for the law.. is to keep children SAFELY away from moving cars. But drug dealers and "street punks" like to have basket ball practice in the streets, to have an excuse to hang out in the street and watch out for cops coming down the road. And to make some drug deals appear less obvious.

Yes, I know it's illegal to have a basketball hoop in a public street - although I didn't know about drug dealers using those kids as look-outs.

I know of several people who have reported those hoops to the City by calling 3-1-1. They've been rather slow in responding to those complaints. However, if enough people file enough complaints, eventually it they feel compelled to act.

The Comment Thread

My previous post about the Richard & Sandy Dauch campus, which is where they're building the new NFL/YET - Boys & Girls Club, drew a heated exchange between CanoeCarver and an anonymous reader. CanoeCarver did a pretty good job of refuting the personal attacks made against him, but I did want respond to a couple of points that the anonymous reader said.

For everyone except this anonymous reader, please excuse the rant below.

If you have a problem with the very concept of naming a building or a project after someone who donated a significant amount of money to make it happen then you are obviously entitled to your opinion. However, I would greatly appreciate it if you would express your opinion without referring the donors as "egomaniacs." If all they wanted to do was have their name on something, Mr. and Mrs. Dauch could have rented a couple dozen billboards for a lot less then what they gave to the Boys & Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan.

I believe they have a geniune interest in seeing some great things happen on that site. I welcome their name being attached to it. That isn't an insult to anyone who lived there. It's a simple recognition that naming a building or project is a common way of saying "Thank you" to the people who financed the project.

This is hardly a new phenomena. When the City of Detroit was originally founded in July of 1701, it was named Fort Pontchartrain du de Troit (French for Fort Pontchartrain by the Straights). Pontchartrain was the Minister of the Marine under King Louis I of France and, more importantly, the man who commissioned Cadillac to set up the city.

Prior to being bought by the City of Detroit, the structure we now know as "Tiger Stadium" had always been named after whoever it was that owned the team (e.g., it was called Bennett Park, Navin Field and Briggs Stadium under succession of owners with the same names).

You finance something; you get to have your name on it. It's a simple, centuries old way of recognizing the people whose money makes everything possible. It does not make anyone an "egomaniac."

As for the other comments that the anonymous reader made, like this one:

My point was don’t play coy with me, all the good old boys from Warrendale know good and well that if the city of Detroit and State allowed you all get away with breaking away from the city with that b.s story yawl ran around with for years about being leased from Dearborn Height/twp/city until 2000 or what every that nonsense was about while Herman Gardens was full of poor black people you would not have laid claim Herman Gardens was part of the new city of Warrendale. I am alleging that all of this talk about Herman Gardens being part of Warrendale is self-serving and comes at a might convenient time. I am saying it’s funny how people over here have flipped the script now that the undesirables are gone.

I wasn't being coy. I was being polite and not pointing out your ignorance. However, since you keep pushing the matter, I'll set my manners aside for the moment.

Let's start with the most obvious part. The rumor from the late-1990s about Warrendale reverting to Dearborn or becoming it's own city wasn't started by anyone living in Detroit. In fact, I never even heard a Warrendale resident repeat it.

That rumor came from a handful of suburban real estate developers who were looking to drive up property values in the area. Dearborn already had much higher property values than Warrendale did. They tried convincing folks that if they bought now, they would make a huge windfall when Warrendale left Detroit.

It was the Warrendale Community Organization - the folks that you accuse of being "packed full of old racist Poles" - who were refuting that rumor at every turn. They sent out mailings to everyone in the community and in the news media to let everyone know that the rumor was false. They talked about it at meetings and everywhere else they went.

In short, they did everything within their power to put an end to that rumor. For you to use it as an example of racism only goes to show your own bigotry and stupidity.

The Warrendale community groups are well know for being packed full of old racist Poles who say things like: “I lived here my whole life, as have my parents and grandparents.” and “it's a disgusting shame what has happened to this once tight-knit Polish community”. Being a new school racist your more refined so you will stop short of blaming them damn Negros for “ruining” the community but once and a while you all slip up and show you’re a** and spray paint a swastika a school.

Your bigotry is exceeded only by your ignorance.

I invite you to stop by a meeting of the Warrendale Community Organization. Not only would you find an absence of "old racist Poles" but if you opened your eyes, you would see a racially diverse group of people who care deeply about their neighborhood and like the fact that Warrendale is currently one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in southeastern Michigan.

It might not be as much fun as anonymously hurling insults on an internet message board, but I guarantee that it would a lot more productive.

Okay - rant over.

Back to the regular blog.

Redeveloping Ryan Park

Its official name is the Lloyd H. Ryan Playground, but very few people know it because there hasn't been a sign on it in years. Most people refer to it as "that field by Greenview and Kirkwood."

Its facilities are rather minimal; a swing set and a slide - barely enough to really call the place a "playground". There was talk about up-grading the area a couple of years ago. However, as Detroit's budget troubles escalated, the City could no longer find the estimated $14,000 that it would take.

When the Warrendale Community Organization submitted its application to the State to be designated as a "Cool City", we include the revitalization of Ryan Park as part of our catalyst project. (Neighborhoods that are so designated are eligible for up to $100,000 for a "catalyst project" that is designed to attract and retail residents and visitors to the area.) If the designation comes through, we should see some new activity at this spot later this year.

And if it doesn't - we'll still figure out a way to make it happen. It'll just take longer.

We'll know more in a few weeks.