District meeting schedule announced

Meeting - Photo by Free Photos/Pixabay

Earlier today, the City of Detroit's Department of Neighborhoods announced its schedule for district meetings for the year. These meetings will be hosted by staff members Mona Ali, the district manager, and Eric Fowlkes, the deputy district manager. They will provide residents and other community stakeholders with an opportunity to both learn about developments and share their concerns.

The first quarterly meeting for District 7, which includes the Warrendale neighborhood, will be on Wednesday, February 5 from 6 - 8 pm. The next three meetings will be:

• Monday, May 6;
• Wednesday, July 15th; and
• Wednesday, October 14.

Each of these four community meetings in our district will start at 6 p.m. They will last until 8 p.m. All meetings will happen at the Adams Butzel Recreation Complex (10500 Lyndon Rd.), which is approximately four miles away from the Warrendale neighborhood in Detroit.

Also, each of these four community meetings will have a different topic. The agenda for each district gathering will be released before it.

Once those topics and agendas are released, I will report about it on the Warrendale Detroit Blog just as I have before.

Community meeting next Wednesday

Home in Warrendale - Photo by Frank Nemecek

The City of Detroit will host the community meeting for District 7 next Wednesday, October 9. This event will take place in the Adam Butzel Recreation Center (10500 Lyndon St.) from 6 - 8 p.m. District 7, of course, is the section of Detroit that includes Warrendale and its surrounding neighborhoods.

Items on the agenda for this meeting include the Detroit Water & Sewage Department as well as Halloween in the D. Representatives from all of the other departments in city government will also be on hand. This is an excellent opportunity for residents to express any concerns about city city services because the people you need to talk to will be right there.

I look forward to seeing lots of Warrendale residents at this meeting on Wednesday, October 9.

Vietnam Veterans Day

Vietnam Veterans Memorial/ Washington, DC
Photo by Jim Bowen/Flickr

The Vietnam War ended 44 years ago today, with the last American troops leaving by helicopter. President Richard M. Nixon later declared that March 29 was to be known as Vietnam Veterans Day.

President Barack Obama issued a similar proclamation in 2012 on the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War starting.

Along the way, 45 of the 50 states as well as Peurto Rico have passed similar resolutions to establish a Vietnam Veterans Day as a way of welcoming home those who were scorned decades ago. Michigan, unfortunately, is one of the few states that have not adopted such recognition.

I want to take a moment to welcome home all of the Vietnam Veterans. Thank you for your service.

And for any of the elected officials who read my blog from time to time, we really ought to talk about the fact that Michigan is one of only five states in the Union that doesn't formally recognize Vietnam Veterans Day as a holiday.

Carrie Fisher and our dystopian future

Carrie Fisher - Photo by Riccardo Ghilardi

Earlier today, legendary actress and writer Carrie Fisher passed away at the age of 60. She joins Richard Adams, author of Watership Down who also died today at the age of 96, George Michael, and so many other high-profile deaths in 2016 that I have lost count.

Carrie Fisher doesn't have any particular connection to Detroit or the Warrendale neighborhood. Indeed, none of these deaths have any particular connect to Detroit nor the Warrendale neighborhood. However, I still need to rant about something and, well, this blog is my opportunity to do so.

It seems to me that the bankers and politicians who have screwed our world up will continue to live. Meanwhile, the artists like Carrie Fisher and others who have collectively made living in this world worthwhile are dying off rapidly.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how the dystopian future begins.

Open Letter to Jim Diamond (and everyone else downtown)

Downtown and Midtown Detroit are becoming expensive. They are becoming so expensive, in fact that Jim Diamond of Ghetto Recorders can no longer afford to operate there and is considering a move to the suburbs.

An article about this fact, by the way, is available from The Detroit News here.

That's a little sad because he is one of the creative pioneers who helped to make the rebirth of downtown possible.

However, if Jim Diamond or anyone else is interested, I can show them a bunch of really cool spaces in Detroit's Warrendale neighborhood on the far west side that would be a great spot for you.

Plus, you'll be closer to Gracie See Pizzeria, named the best traditional pizza in North America at the International Pizza Expo, as well as Tijuana's Mexican Kitchen, which is one of the best Mexican restaurants in town. You'll also be closer to some shawarma that makes the stuff served downtown seem like left-over Chef Boyardee.

And when you need to burn off all of those calories, you'll also be closer to the largest park in Detroit - one that's bigger than Belle Isle, Campus Martius, Grand Circus, and Hart Plaza combined.

An Open Letter to Virginia Postrel

Will Van Gogh Go to Los Angeles?

I want to thank you, Ms. Virginia Postrel, for having the courage to say what so desperately needed to be said. As you pointed out in your most recent column for Bloomberg View, Vincent Van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Straw Hat really would be much better off in Los Angeles than it ever would be at its current residence in Detroit.

Many of my fellow Detroiters, of course, will disagree with this assertion. Nancy Kaffer wrote a blog piece this afternoon in which she pointed out that, on a per capita basis, there are more Detroiters who visit the Detroit Institute of Arts than there are Los Angelenos who visit the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Of course, you and I know that isn't why Van Gogh's work - and all of the other great masterpieces that Detroit has been holding hostage for generations - would be so much better off in Los Angeles. These artworks would simply get better exposure in Southern California than they ever could in the Motor City.

I mean, think of the opportunities that shipping these priceless masterpieces out west would represent to art lovers everywhere.

• The art could be featured on NCIS: Los Angeles and other great television shows. A super villain, who would no doubt be British, could steal one of these masterpieces while in transit, only to have our heroes recover it exactly three seconds before it's sold to a Middle Eastern art dealer as part of a plot to finance another Al-Qaeda attack.
• Or maybe it could be featured in Fast & Furious 27 - where the gang has to steal the prize of the Getty collection in order to pay for their monthly prescriptions
• Or, if we're really, really lucky then maybe this artwork will be the star of a new reality television. Contestants could spend hours trying to paint Van Gogh's other ear onto his portrait. In order to keep it up to the current standards for television, though, those contestants will have to do so using nothing more than their genitals.

Of course, I regret to inform you, Ms. Postrel, that the biggest obstacle to bringing this art to California may actually be from Los Angelenos themselves. I took an informal poll of my friends and former classmates who live in Los Angeles.

They simply do no see you the opportunity that you and I see in this matter. Their most common reaction was, "You've got to be [expletive deleted] kidding me?"

It would appear that these individuals, including some native Los Angelenos, simply do not relish in the idea of exploiting another community's misfortune. They would rather get on an airplane, travel to Detroit, and see these great works of art where they currently are.

But don't worry, Ms. Postrel. I'm confident that after a few more columns, you'll be able to change their collective minds.

That is, of course, unless they were actually serious about boxing you up and shipping you back to Texas before you further embarrass the great city of Los Angeles.