True community development spreads one block at a time
By Eric T. Campbell The Michigan Citizen
DETROIT — The philosophy driving development of the Hope District comes from a teaching that Mike Wimberly took to heart during a lecture on urban redevelopment —start on one corner, or one block, and don’t move until you’ve touched everything.
A chain of revitalized property on East Forest going east of Van Dyke has benefited from Wimberly’s adherence to this credo. He and the community around him have taken a grassroots initiative and created a point of reference for the area. [more]
DETROIT — Discussions between City Council and the Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority (GDRRA) officials continue to take place under a veil of secrecy.
It’s been two weeks since Council president Ken Cockrel Jr. addressed the difficulty in getting information from GDDRA officials. Since then, the GDRRA has canceled a crucial board meeting and conducted a session with council that was closed to the public and ran an hour long, cutting a scheduled public discussion to about 10 minutes. [more]
The Staples family includes (l-r, rear) son Brian Staples, wife Jacqueline Porter, Tommy Staples, Jr. (shot to death by police June 2), son Tommy Staples III; (l-r, front) Brian’s children Davion, 6, and Darion 4, and daughter Ashley Staples, 14. Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office said they have not received any police department report on Staples’ killing by police officers. The Prosecutor’s office is required to investigate all police shootings.
Cop car first ‘bumps’ victim, then he is shot in back
By Diane Bukowski The Michigan Citizen
DETROIT — “He was the only man I ever had,” said Jacqueline Porter of Tommy Staples, Jr., her companion of 30 years, the father of their three children and a grandfather. “I saw him lying up under the police car with blood in the tire tracks. He was still bleeding under the car. They didn’t take his body away until 5 a.m.”
Two Western District Detroit cops, Officers Cobbs and Townsend, shot Staples, 54, multiple times in the back and ran him over with an unmarked car June 2 around 10 p.m. in an alley at Puritan and Tuller, according to witnesses. He was on his way back to his Lilac street home for dinner after walking his 14-year-old daughter Ashley to a friend’s house to have her hair braided. [more]
DETROIT — The Detroit Public Schools administration and board have postponed a vote on a budget that calls for 2,200 lay-offs, outsourcing of social work staff, and other cuts to fix a projected $408 million deficit. But a Michigan Citizen analysis of the budget published by DPS shows that the district could recoup more than $704.4 million using other solutions. (See chart, page 4.) [more]
DETROIT — Media makers and social justice activists from across the country convened over the weekend for the 10th annual Allied Media Conference at the McGregor Conference Hall on the campus of Wayne State University.
Over 60 workshops, film screenings and discussions focused on the status and future of media-based organizing. [more]
During the primary campaign we heard a lot about “change comes from the bottom up.” Rarely do we get to see this kind of change actually happening. But last weekend at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, I saw the world shift toward a much more hopeful direction.
In the midst of phenomenal energy, imagination and joy in the possibilities of what young media makers are bringing to the world, I sat in a room at Wayne State University’s McGregor Memorial Conference Center and witnessed a live video conference between Palestinian youth and media activists from Detroit and Brooklyn. The young people were sharing media they had engaged with in parallel workshops in Palestine and at the AMC. Both workshops had introduced ideas like digital stories, music videos and murals. [more]
Obama supporter at Joe Louis Arena. PHOTO BY DALE RICH
By Shea Howell Special to The Michigan Citizen
Barack Obama’s June 16th rally in Detroit brought a message of hope, faith and vision.
It was a Motown moment that showed how much this country is changing. It resonated with a new kind of politics, asking us to recognize the “core value” that “change comes from the bottom up.”
“If we are honest, we know our problems are not just the result of one person or one party but go back decades.” [more]
DETROIT — The 2008 primary race for the highest office in the nation has brought millions of new voters to the polls. With the end of the primary season and the beginning of the general election, many more will finally become active participants. But what about access to the polls for those whom society has attempted to marginalize?
The purging of Florida citizens, ex-felons and non-felons alike, from voter rolls in 2000 is just one example of a state apparatus intentionally eliminating minorities from the election process. In addition, new photo ID laws popping up around the country create more barriers to voter participation. [more]
