Pony Rides in Rouge Park

The Friends of Rouge Park and the Buffalo Soldiers - Calico Troops will be giving pony rides on Saturday, August 9 starting at Noon. Please bring your family out and join them as we enjoy the outdoors and share our animals with the kids.

This event will take place at the Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Center (formerly the Detroit Police Department's horse barn) at Joy Rd. and Lahser in Rouge Park.

This is their first fundraiser!

Gracie See Pizza: Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week

The folks at Gracie See Pizza (6889 Greenfield, 313-581- 8070) recently competed in the International Pizza Challenge, which was held at the 25th Annual International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. They competed against pizza makers from around the globe and came in second place in the "Best Traditional Pizza" category.


Since the first and third place winners in this competition were both from Italy, I think we can confidently say that the best traditional pizza in America is made right here in Detroit's Warrendale neighborhood. (Take that NYC!)

Congrats to everyone at Gracie See Pizza! You are the Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week.

Home Repair Grants for Seniors

The Housing Services Division of the City's Department of Planning & Development will award $3 million in grants to low-income senior citizens for home repairs as part of their Senior Emergency Home Repair Program. Grants of up to $12,000 are available to low-income seniors aged 65 and older as well as to physically disabled persons aged 55 or older.

There will be a citywide drawing for these grants on Saturday, September 29 at 9 a.m. in the Cobo Conference/Exhibition Center. Seniors need not be present to receive these grants.

These grants can be used for:

• Furnaces;
• Plumbing;
• Roofs;
• Electrical;
• Structural; and
• Building Code Violations.

For more information, please call the Housing Services Division at

Mail Bag: Warrendale Community Organization

In response to my comments about prostitution in the Warrendale neighborhood, an anonymous reader wrote in to say:

the warrendale community org has to start putting it in high gear..thats the only hope for warrendale...we need a neighborhood news letter to go out to every address..and we need the business community to sponser that...the city and police are not going to help....what happened to the cool "warrendale banners"..on the light posts?...no money?...well start raising the money..get the word out..go door to door...the servive drives look like crap..why doesnt the warrendale org send out their own letters to the houses and business.....why isnt channel 2,4 and 7 contacted to do a "feelgood story"..on a neighborhood struggling?......if the president can dupe the country into spending 2 billion$ a day in iraq...than we can get the residents in warrendale to support....some nice banners and other landscaping....

I agree that the Warrendale Community Organ- ization has the potential to do a lot of great things for our neighbor- hood. The problem, however, is that out of a neighborhood with 9,036 homes there is usually only a dozen or so people who show up at their meetings. In fact, when the WCO did a clean-up of the Southfield Freeway service drive last May, there were more people who came to help out from Macomb County then there were from the Warrendale neighborhood.

Think about that one: folks in Macomb County have absolutely nothing to gain from seeing a portion of the Warrendale neighborhood cleaned up, but there were still more of them helping out than there were folks who live right by it. This is in spite of the fact that flyers were hand-delivered to everyone who lives along the service drive and it was announced repeatedly including on this blog.

Now it's a New Year.

A chance for a gigantic "do-over."

A time to move beyond blaming others.

A time when folks make resolutions and (hopefully) keep them.

With that in mind, please allow me to say this. There won't be a WCO meeting in February because of scheduling problems. The next one will be on Monday, March 5 at 7 p.m. in the Activities Building of Sts. Peter & Paul Church.

I invite and encourage everyone in the neighborhood to stop by. I also invite the dozen or so people who have emailed me privately to say that they used to live in Warrendale and wish us the best to stop by as well. Your input and involvement is welcome even if you no longer call the Warrendale neighborhood home.

If you work the afternoon or evening shift somewhere and can't make it to the meeting, I invite you to send me an email (frank.nemecek [at] gmail.com) and I'll see if I can find a way to get involved that meets your schedule.

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.