Rouge River in Detroit caught fire 50 years ago today

Fire - Phote by Hans Braxmeier

It was 50 years ago today, on October 9, 1969, when a spark from an acetylene torch lit some debris along the Rouge River in Detroit. From there, flames spread quickly to the surface of the river.

Back then, the Rouge River regularily ran thick with industrial waste just like other bodies of water did in the Detroit area. Within seconds of the initial spark, the Rouge Rive was soon on fire.

Flames shot 50 feet into the air, according to some observers at the time. News reports from the era tell us that It took a total of 65 firefighters and ten pieces of firefighting equipment to extinquish the blazes on the Rouge River.

The Rouge River has come a long way since that day 50 years ago. Changes in environmental regualtions have made it so that it's no longer acceptable to dump industrial waste into our rivers. This has done much to make our rives a safe habitat for fish and birds and to make them a place that humans can enjoy as well.

Plus, in the intervening decades, the Rouge River has not caught fire one.

Regardless, I believe it's important for Detroiters to take a moment to remember the day when the Rouge River caught fire.

Best time to sell your home in Detroit

House for sale in Detroit - Photo by T. Koch/Pixabay

Navigating the housing market can be tricky and so much of it depends on timing. Knowing when you should list your home can mean the difference between making a significant profit or simply getting out the door - and often that timing changes on a dime. With a little research and some time on your side, you can determine the best time to sell in Detroit, MI.

One size doesn’t fit all
A quick internet search will bring up generalized suggestions for selling from top real estate agents around the country. The general consensus of when the best time to sell your home is appears to be spring, or more specifically, March. Let’s take a moment and consider the weather in Detroit, MI in March.

I’m sure that shuffling around looking at prospective homes in slush doesn’t top your list of favorite things to do, which is why a “one size fits all” approach to listing your home isn’t ideal. With the market dependent upon things like weather, temperature, and hours of daylight, March is not a good time to sell in Detroit, unless you’re okay with having your home sit on the market for a bit.

Best time for you and your family
What’s motivating your move? Are you relocating, downsizing, upgrading? These factors will help determine the best time for you to sell your home. Be aware of the amount of time involved in getting your home ready to list and then the time you’ll need to have your home in show-ready condition before you receive an offer. If you’re in the middle of an insanely busy time at work and you’re not pressed for time to relocate, consider holding off until you have the time to devote to prepping your home for sale.

Best time to sell quickly in Detroit, MI
Let’s be honest, no one wants their home to sit on the market, especially when a job relocation sets the clock ticking. The longer a house sits on the market, the more likely the selling price will plummet (and the opposite is true -- houses that sell fast typically sell at or over asking price). The best time to sell in Detroit, MI -- and to sell quickly -- is June. Be aware that June is the ideal closing date and that the average time it takes, from listing to closing, is three months. In this case, you want to be prepared to list your home in March to sell in June.

Best time to sell for a profit in Detroit
If time is on your side and you’re in a rush to sell your home, consider timing your sale for the most profitable time of the year. This will be especially helpful if you’re upgrading your home on your timeframe.

You could potentially make 20% more off of the sale of your home if you sell your Detroit, MI home in July. The sun’s shining, the temperatures are nice and warm -- people are happy and ready to buy, especially those families with school-aged kids. So, if you want to make more money from the sale of your home, you want to look at listing in April for a July settlement.

While the best time to sell in Detroit will differ slightly, depending on your situation and goals, it’s best to work directly with a top agent in your area to determine the timing. However, if time is on your side, you’d be better served by taking the time to get your house prepped for listing and researching the best agent for you.

Halloween in the D

Detroit is gearing up for a spooky and fun Halloween, Mayor Mike Duggan outlined in his announcement last week at the 8th Police Precinct, which services the Warrendale neighborhood. The Department of Neighborhoods is the lead agency for making this happen. However, there will be a variety of partners supporting these programs.

In and around the Warrendale neighborhood, Rouge Park will be transformed into a Haunted Park for visitors on Thursday, October 31. D-DOT will also bring back its popular Haunted Bus There will also be Trick Or Treating at police stations, fire houses, and recreation centers across Detroit.

More information about Halloween in the D activites is available in the video embedded above.

Review - Blood Sugar

New York Times-bestselling author Daniel Kraus has a new novel hitting stores tomorrow. This novel, in my opinion, is the perfect Halloween crime story. It's smart, sexy, and a heck of a lot of fun to read.

Blood Sugar starts in a ruined house where an angry outcast hatches a scheme to extract vengeance upon his community for a lengthy list of wrongs committed against him. With the help of three equally alienated children, our villain intends to poison, maim, or kill every child in his neighborhood on Halloween night.

I like the fact that Kraus used one of the children to act as his narrator in this novel. Imagining that much pure evil from the perspective of one of the supporting characters enabled me to imagine both the horrifying madness of our villain and the complexities that enabled him to recruit his young co-conspirators.

Prior to writing this piece, Kraus worked with Guillermo del Torro to co-author The Shape of Water in 2018. While Blood Sugar deals with a very different subject matter than his previous project, there can no denying that the ink flowing through Kraus's veins is just as powerful today as it ever was.

Megan Abbott, who wrote Give Me Your Hand and The End of Everything amongst other great novels described Blood Sugar as, "a twisted little miracle with a sneaking, beating heart."

On a related note, I know now why Abbott is acclaimed by so many critics. She packed more of a punch into her nine word description than many critics could produce in a dozen reviews.

Anyway, back to Blood Sugar.

I recommend this book for anyone who loves a powerful thriller or a crime drama. The fact that this novel comes out so close to Halloween - a holiday that figures prominent in this story - makes everything that much better, in my opinon.

Blood Sugar by Daniel Kraus goes on sale tomorrow. It's currently avaiable for presale on Amazon.com and at booksellers everywhere.

Rouge Park offers 2 for 1 golf special for Detroit residents

Golf - Stock hoto by C. Flark

From now until October 13, residents of Detroit can enjoy 2 for 1 golfing at the Rouge Park Golf Course (11701 Burt Rd.). This offer is valid anytime except weekends before noon and includes both cart and green fees.

This is a great opportunity to explore the Rouge Park Golf Course, which is one of the great underappreciated gems of the Warrendale area and Detroit as a whole. There is also a similar deal at Chandler Park Golf Course for eastside neighbors.

In order to collect on this offer, Detroiters will have to present their drivers license or government-issued identification to confirm their residency. Only one of the two golfers needs to be a city resident for both to enjoy this 2 for 1 special.

For those who don't live in the city of Detroit, don't worry. The Rouge Park Golf Course has you covered as well. There is a $5 off coupon that is available on their website for our suburban neighbors.

Golfers can reserve their tee time by visiting this website. When you get to the course, please be sure to mention that you heard about this from the Warrendale Detroit Blog.

Now that there's this 2 for 1 special going on, I suppose this means all that's left for me to do is to somehow convince Paige Spiranac to join me on this golf outing.

View this post on Instagram

Had a blast at the @rocketclassic the last couple days! First time in Detroit and I loved it. I’ve never seen so many people so proud of their city and so passionate about this event. Thanks to all the people I’ve met who were so nice! I will definitely be coming back! @rocketmortgage @pgatour

A post shared by Paige Spiranac (@_paige.renee) on Jun 27, 2019 at 11:53am PDT

I know it's an incredible long shot for me to convice Paige Spiranac to join me on a golf outing. However, she has retired from professional golf and she did say how much she enjoyed visiting Detroit this past summer.

I know, long shot but a man can dream. Until then, I still have my discount on cart and green fees.

Jones to host Infinite Scholars Fair in Detroit

Council President Brenda Jones at a Warrendale meeting - Photo by Frank Nemecek

On Thursday, October 10, City Council President Brenda Jones will host the 3rd annual Infinite Scholars Fair in Detroit. This event will happen from 4 - 8 p.m. in Shed 3 at Eastern Market (2934 Russell St.) and will feature representatives from more than 40 colleges. Some of these schools will offer on-site acceptance for students as well as an onsite scholarship awards.

At the event last year, Detroit students were awarded more than $11 million is scholarships onsite.

The Infinite Scholars Fair is focused on students who are currently in the 12th grade. Those in the 9th through 11th grades, however, will still be welcomed. Students should bring up to 20 packets with them containing a copy of the transcript, ACT/SAT scores, recommendation letters, an essay on why they want to attend college, and a resume.

There is no cost to attend this event in Detroit. Regardless, interested students are still asked to RSVP online.

Update @ 5:17 p.m.
On the subject of preparing for college, I believe students should consider the question of safety when selecting a collee or university.

It was fortuidous, therefore, that a representative from SafeHome.org reached out to me today. They released a study on the Safest Cities for College Students to determine the safest colleges nationally and in each state. The rankings were determined using the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, and U.S. Department of Education from colleges with at least 10,000 students in nearly 150 U.S. cities through 2017.

Western Michigan University was ranked as the least safe college or university in the Great Lakes State. In contrast, Lansing Community College was shown to be the safest. The full report is available online here.

My rant about publicists

WTF cat - Image from somewhere deep in the bowels of the Internet

I feel a need to rant about something related to this blog. To be specific, I feel a need to talk about publicists.

The Warrendale Detroit Blog has gained a reputation an influential social media site over the past 14 years. As a result, I receive multiple emails from one publicist or another pretty much every day who is looking for me to cover one thing or another for them.

These requests or pitches from publicists in the Detroit area as well as nationally and even internationally from time to time. Most of these contacts are professional and are appreciated, even if I don't always feel like they are the best fit for this blog.

However, I was contacted by two publicists today who possessed a level of dumbassitude that was simply on another level.

I had to tell one particular publicist this afternoon that the Warrendale Detroit Blog does not normally cover community events in Chula Vista, California. I suppose if it were a big enough story that Detroiters would be interested in it, I might cover it. However, a community health fair that is held more than 2,300 miles away does not even come close to meeting such a threshold.

This, by the way, was right after having to tell a different publicist from New York that Detroit, Michigan and Des Moines, Iowa are not in the same time zone. Not. Even. Close.

Anyway, I mention all of this purely in hope that others will see the comedy in this stupidity.