Warrendale Community Organization to meet Monday

Ken Cockrel addresses the WCO - Photo by Frank Nemecek

The Warrendale Community Organization will have its next general meeting on Monday, March 4  from 7-8 pm. The group will meet in the Activities Building at SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church (7685 Grandville).

The guest speaker for this month will be from the-Detroit Area Agency on Aging. The meeting will also feature a series of community updates.

Everyone in the neighborhood is invited to attend this meeting.

City of Detroit looking for young adults to help plan the future

The City of Detroit is seeking people between the ages of 15-25 to participate in meetings with them about the city's future. Young adults in that age range who live in the Warrendale area are invited to apply. There is a stipend that will be paid to those who participate.

Those residents who are interested should contact Lindsay Barrett at (313) 207-3696 or email her at barrettl [at] detroitmi [dot] gov.

A flyer from the City of Detroit with more details is available below.

Warrendale Community Organization to meet on Tuesday

The next meeting of the Warrendale Community Organization will be this coming Tuesday, September 4. The neighborhood group will meet from 7 - 8 p.m. in the Activities Building of Ss. Peter and Paul Church (7685 Grandville).

Everyone who lives, works, or plays in the Warrendale neighborhood of Detroit is welcome to attend.

Warrendale on SciTech Now

Back in October of last year, I reported that a crew from the show SciTech Now on PBS was coming to Warrendale. They did a report on how some of the vacant lots in our part of Detroit are being used bioretention gardens as well as the impact that these garden have.

Detroit Public Television interviewed Barb Matney of the Warrendale Community Organization and myself on behalf of the show. They also spoke to several other people in the area and included lots of footage from our neighborhood.

I'm thrilled that this episode of SciTech Now has aired on PBS. It is available to watch on Detroit Public Television's website or by clicking the embedded video above.

As cities around the nation continue to look for better ways to meet environmental challenges, I'm excited that Detroit is able to showcase one solution. I'm also grateful to Detroit Public Television and the rest of the PBS family for shining such a positive spotlight on the neighborhood.

I was only featured in this episode very briefly. However, SciTech Now also used several photos that I provided them that showed what my basement looked like after Detroit was hit with record rainfall in August of 2014.

That flood was a painful - and expensive - moment for everyone in Detroit. I'm glad that it seems to have served as an impetus for improvements to our water and sewage system. 

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.

Warrendale Community Organization releases meeting schedule

Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church - Photo by Frank Nemecek

The Warrendale Community Organization recently released their schedule of general membership meeting in 2018. The nonprofit neighborhood association will have their next meeting on Monday, February 5. Additional meetings will happen on:

• Monday, March 5;
• Monday, April 2;
• Monday, May 7;
• Monday, June 4;
• Monday, August 6;
• Tuesday, September 4;
• Monday, October 1;
• Monday, November 5; and
• Monday, December 3.

The organization will not have any general membership meetings in either January or July.

In addition, their December meeting will be their annual holiday pot-luck.

All of these meetings will happen in the Activities Building of Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church (7685 Grandville St.). Anyone who lives in or has an interest in promoting Detroit's Warrendale neighborhood is welcome to attend these meetings.

PBS looks at rain gardens in Warrendale

Film crew from Detroit Public Television sets up - Photo by Frank Nemecek

I was interviewed yesterday by a film crew from Detroit Public Television, who was working on behalf of the show SciTech Now on PBS. An upcoming episode of the show will examine the four bioretention gardens in the Warrendale neighborhood as well as their impact on our neighborhood and the rest of Detroit. Barb Matney, president of the Warrendale Community Organization, was also interviewed for this episode.

The four bioretention gardens in Warrendale were designed by researchers at the University of Michigan. They are designed to soak up and help treat some of the rainwater that would otherwise go into Detroit's sewage treatment stream. More information about these rain gardens is available from my friends at CityLab over on their site.

I am personally glad to see some of the vacant lands in Detroit put to a productive use. These rain gardens improve the local environment. They also make it less likely for flooding to happen in our neighborhood and improve our overall quality of life.

The four bioretention gardens in the Warrendale neighborhood of Detroit are located at:

• 8027 Greenview Ave.;
• 8287 Evergreen Rd.;
• 8084 Stahelin; and
• 8091 Vaughan St.

SciTech Now air regularly on PBS (channel 56 in Detroit) and online. The producers were certain when the episode focusing on Warrendale's rain garden will air. As soon as I learn the date that it will air, I will share it here and on this blog's Facebook page.

All of this is why PBS and their look at the bioretention gardens in Detroit are my Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week for this week.

Pocket park project coming to Warrendale

Area targeted for a pocket park - Photo by Barb Matney

Barb and Joe Matney, the dynamic duo behind the In Memory Of community garden here in the Warrendale neighborhood and key members of the Warrendale Community Organization, have launched a new project. They are working to create a new pocket park in our area.

The project will take vacant land in Warrendale and allow it to be used for recreation. They are trying to raise $10,000 through a GoFundMe campaign.

 Additional information about this project is available here.

Recycling workshop comes to Warrendale

I previously posted about a recycling workshop that will happen at Don Bosco Hall this Friday from 1 - 2 p.m. Since many people cannot attend due to work obligations, a second one has been added for Monday, April 11 from 6 - 7 p.m. in the Activities Building of Ss. Peter & Paul Church.

Eligible residents who attend either workshop will receive a free recycling bin. This will enable them to participate in the City of Detroit's curbside recycling program.

A flyer for this workshop is located above. Please share it with your neighbors.

WCO to Meet This Evening

Warrendale Community Organization meeting
Photo by Frank Nemecek

The Warrendale Community Organization will hold their next membership meeting this evening at 7 p.m. in Activities Building at Ss. Peter & Paul Church (7685 Grandville Ave.). Their guest speaker for this evening will be Arthur Edge, a building inspector for the City of Detroit.

The Activities Building is located at the north end of the church parking lot. Attendees should enter through the parking lot, which is at the rear of the church.

Their next meeting will be on Monday, June 3 at 7 p.m. where the guest speaker will be Wayne County Executive Bob Ficano. That meeting will also be held in the Activities Building at Ss. Peter & Paul Church.

Redeveloping Kosciusko: The Options

The Detroit Community Design Center and the City of Detroit's Historic Designation Advisory Board convened the second of four meetings yesterday evening that are designed to solicit community input regarding the potential redevelopment of the historic Kosciusko Elementary (20220 Tireman St.). This school has been shuttered for years now.

The first meeting was designed to identify the strengths, weaknesses and desires of the Warrendale neighborhood. This included strengths such as the diversity of our neighborhood, Rouge Park as a destination point as well as our proximity to health care, nightlife and retail.

During the second meeting, the Detroit Community Design Center presented a series of 16 design options. Each option was designed to maximize one of our strengths, address one of our weaknesses or otherwise meet one of our desires. Some of these options included:

• Targeted residential use for artists or senior citizens;
• Business incubator space;
• Cultural center;
• Music education and performance space;
• As well as several other options.
  

Residents were then invited to vote on what elements of these 16 options they liked the most. Design elements that involved the arts seemed to be the most popular as were those that involved child care.

Architects from the Detroit Community Design Center will next refine their ideas based on the community's feedback on their 16 ideas. This will then be presented at the third meeting, which will happen on Monday, September 21 at 6 p.m. in the Don Bosco Hall (19321 W. Chicago St.). Everyone is invited to attend this meeting, even if you weren't able to attend the first two meetings.

WCO Mayoral Forum

The Warrendale Community Organization will host a forum for the various Detroit Mayoral candidates on Saturday, January 17 from noon until 3 p.m. This forum will happen in the gymnasium at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, which is located at 5780 Evergreen in Detroit's Warrendale neighborhood.

The first hour will be an informal meet and greet, where residents will have a chance to talk with all of the candidates on a casual basis. There will then be a moderated discussion of the issues beginning promptly at 1 p.m.

In the interest of time, the executive board of the WCO decided to only invite five of the eighteen candidates. A vote was taken at the WCO's annual holiday as to which five candidates should be invited. The membership decided to invite:

• Dave Bing;
• Ken Cockrel, Jr.
• Warren Evans
• Freman Hendrix
• Nicholas Hood, III

Each of the candidates will be asked a series of questions that were prepared by a committee of WCO members. After that, the floor will be opened for questions from attendees.

This forum is free and open to the public.

Mayoral Forum

The Warrendale Community Organization will sponsor a forum for mayoral candidates on Saturday, January 17 from noon until 3 p.m. in the gymnasium at St. Thomas Aquinas Church. The WCO will invite 5 candidates to address questions such as public safety & crime, economic development in the neighborhoods, mass transit and the City's budget problems.

Members of the WCO will vote at their holiday party on which 5 of the mayoral candidates should be invited. (See below for details on the WCO holiday party.)

More information about this event will be forthcoming on this blog.