Burton Leland passes away at the age of 69

Burton Leland

Burton Leland, who represented the Warrendale neighborhood in both the Michigan House of Representatives and Michigan Senate for 26 years, passed away this morning. He was 69 years of age at the time of his passing. In later years, Leland represented Wayne County's 6th district on the County Commission.

During his time in the Michigan Legislature, Burton Leland was a tireless advocate for consumer rights. In 1986, while serving the state house, he sponsored Michigan's Lemon Law that protected buyers from defective automobiles.

Burton Leland was also a relentless public servant for the Warrendale neighborhood. Whenever the Warrendale Community Organization needed something during his almost three decades of representing us, he was one of the few elected officials that residents could consistently count on.

Burton Leland's son Gabe Leland continues to represent the Warrendale and surrounding neighborhoods on the Detroit City Council.

Burton Leland was also proud of his Jewish faith. I attended a meeting of the Wayne County Commission a few years back when, at Leland's urging, a Jewish rabbi delivered the invocation. The invocation is normally held before the start of each meeting and his lead by a local religious leader. However, that was the first time in Wayne County's more than 200 year history that a rabbi was invited to perform this ceremonial role.

Details for Burton Leland's funeral are not currently available. When they become public, I will share them here.

On a personal note, I want to add that I write this post with a tremendous amount of sadness. I have spoken with Burton Leland on more occasions than I can remember over the past 30 years - going all the way back to my days as a high school student in a government class. I was always impressed with his intellect, his dedication, and a love for Michigan and its people that will continue to live on with every person that he ever met.

Update @ 10:48 p.m.
I have learned that the funeral for Burton Leland will be at 2 p.m. this Tuesday, February 27. The service will be at the Ira Kaufman Chapel (18325 W. Nine Mile in Southfield). More information is available here.

Campground to re-open in Rouge Park

Rouge Park on a foggy day - Photo by Frank Nemecek

Scout Hollow, a 17.4-acre campsite that is located inside Rouge Park, will re-open this spring, the City of Detroit announced this morning. This re-opening of the only campground within the city limits is the result of a new initiative called Outdoor Detroit, which is designed to encourage our youth to understand and appreciate the great outdoors.

Once re-opened, Scout Hollow will be able to accommodate up to 30 campers at a time at each of the three campsites. The project's goal is to host 250 campers in 2018 and to reach 1,000 campers per year by 2020.

The re-opening of Scout Hollow is made possible by grants of $200,000 from the Kresge Foundation and $20,000 from the Sierra Club. The City of Detroit's Department of Parks & Recreation, as well as the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit, made a significant buy-in to this project.

Any youth group will be allowed to use Scout Hollow. However, priority will be given to groups from Detroit and the surrounding communities.

Warrendale celebrates National Margarita Day

National Margarita Day - Stock photo from Max Pixel

Today is National Margarita Day, a special moment to celebrate one of the most popular cocktails in the world. Millions of people enjoy this blend of tequila, triple sec, and lime every day. There's even a page on Facebook that is devoted in large part to numerous different variations on the margarita recipe.

To celebrate National Margarita Day, the Chili's Bar & Grille (5707 Southfield Rd.) at Ford Road and the Southfield Freeway has margarita specials today. Several other bars and restaurants in the area have good options for them as well.

My personal favorite, though, is the food and margaritas at Tijuana's Mexican Kitchen (18950 Ford Rd.) I cannot say enough good things about them.

For those who read this from outside of the Warrendale neighborhood, WDIV-TV has a list places across the Detroit area who have specials for National Margarita Day on their website. USA Today information about specials and other events across the country today over on their website.

National Margarita Day is one of those great unofficial holidays. It was founded by Todd McCalla to celebrate his personal love for this classic cocktail as well as the good times, special friends, and warm memories that the drink inspires. His idea has spread from there across social media.

I hope everyone has a chance to enjoy National Margarita Day. Please drink responsibly, though.

Community meeting this Wednesday

Outside a community meeting - Photo by Frank Nemecek

The City of Detroit will host a community meeting for District 7, which includes Warrendale and the surrounding neighborhoods. This meeting will happen this Wednesday from 6 - 8 pm in the Adams-Butzel Recreation Center (10500 Lyndon).

This meeting will focus on financial literacy and housing. There will also be a dinner, which is sponsored by City Councilwoman Janee L. Ayers.

Everyone who lives in Warrendale or the surrounding neighborhoods of Detroit is invited to attend. Attendees are asked to RSVP by sending an email to alim [at] detroitmi [dot] gov.

Follow me, please

Blog - Stock photo courtesy of Pixababy

When I started blogging way back in 2004, pretty much the only way to read blog content was to visit the website. Today, however, things have evolved. People can read this material in any number of different ways.

In fact, of the more than 800 people who read this every day, there are now five different avenues of getting this material.  With that in mind, I'd like to take a moment to recap each of them.

Some folks prefer to have blog posts delivered to their email inbox every morning.  If this sounds like something that you would prefer, simply enter your email address into the "receive email alerts" box at the right, click the "subscribe" button and my friends at FeedBlitz will send my posts to you via email every morning for free.

For avid Facebook users, I invite you to join the 804 other people who follow the Warrendale (Detroit) Blog there. If you're interested, simply visit this blog's Facebook page and click the "follow this blog" hyperlink. My posts will then appear in your Facebook news feed.

My personal favorite is to use an RSS reader, which enables you to follow any number of blogs and then read all of them all on one consolidated page, instead of having to visit each site individually. If you would like to try this, simply your preference from the "Subscribe to RSS feed" pull-down menu at the right.  One can then add this to an Atom, Netvibes, or Yahoo feed.

Of course, if you prefer to keep things simple, you can always simply bookmark this site in your web browser of choice and visit my site periodically. This is the original method of doing things. Quite a few people still do it this way.

These tips are brought to you by the Warrendale (Detroit) Blog as part of our Tip of the Week feature. Please check back next week for more advice on your home, money, and life. Please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for more great content.

Warrendale bakery featured in Detroit News

Paczki - Stock photo

It seemed like everyone else in the Detroit area was in Hamtramck getting their authentic paczki or at some supermarket getting paczki of generally lesser quality. Those of us in Warrendale, however, knew that the best paczki came from our neighborhood. Whether it was Chene Modern Bakery, Sisters Cakery, or West Warren Bakery, all of them produced some of the best pasties in the metropolitan area.

One of our local bakeries, Sisters Cakery (15730 W. Warren Ave.) was featured in an article from The Detroit News. You can find their story here.

I love it when the local news media show Warrendale businesses a little love.

Let's go skiing in Rouge Park

Official Warrendale Snow Gauge - Photo by Frank Nemecek

The far west side of Detroit got 6.5 inches of snow last night and early this morning, according to the Official Warrendale Snow Gauge. More is continuing to fall. Moreover, the snow is expected to continue through tomorrow as well.

For those who are interested in enjoying this winter wonderland, the Friends of Rouge Park are hosting an impromptu cross-country ski event this afternoon. Anyone with their own skies is invited to join them. There is no cost to join this event.

The group will meet at 1 pm in Rouge Park at the south prairie trailhead on Outer Drive at Tireman. They intend to ski through the prairie trail then possibly onto some others.

Rouge Park is one of the few places within the Detroit city limits where one can do a lot of cross-country skiing. This is a great opportunity for those enjoy the sport.

Snow plows to hit residential streets in Warrendale

Snow plow in action - Photo courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

The City of Detroit's Department of Public Works has announced that their contractors will soon begin plowing residential side streets in the Warrendale neighborhood as well as the rest of Detroit. The snow plows are expected to clear a 10-foot wide path along each of the 1,880 miles of residential streets in the city beginning at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

Under the terms of their contract with the City, each of the four private contractors has until 6 a.m. Sunday morning to complete the job.

In order to avoid being plowed in and to make work easier for snow removal crews, Mayor Mike Duggan urges residents to not park their cars on side streets, if possible.

With additional snow in the forecast over the next few days, DPW will continue to monitor the weather and our road conditions. If conditions change, they will supply updates throughout the day as deemed necessary.

Many area residents have already responded on Facebook to news of snow plows on residential streets by saying "I'll believe it when I see it." As a result, readers of this blog can look forward to a special report on how effective the snow plows were on Sunday afternoon.

Greening of Detroit seeks volunteers to plant trees

Trees in Rouge Park - Photo by Frank Nemecek

The Greening of Detroit seeks help from volunteers to plant 1,500 saplings in Rouge Park's Meyers Nursery. They are also looking for people willing to train to become Citizen Foresters to lead groups of volunteers in planting. 

To become a Citizen Forester, volunteers are required to their field training session on Saturday, April 7 at 9 am. This training session will take place at the Meyers Tree Nursery, which located on W. Outer Drive inside of Rouge Park.

The upcoming volunteer planting dates for the Greening of Detroit will be:

• Saturday, April 21;
• Friday, April 27;
• Friday, May 4; and
• Saturday, May 19.

More information the Greening of Detroit, their Citizen Forester program, an opportunity to sign up are all available on their website.