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www.bestinblackdetroit.com POWERED BY REAL TIMES MEDIA
Volume 81 – Number 1
michiganchronicle.com
Designing the rest of Detroit
September 13-19, 2017
Garlin Gilchrist,
By Keith A. Owens
the surprise candidate?
Senior Editor
It may still be too early to applaud, but the promises we’ve been hearing for so long about the rollout of a comprehen sive plan for the rest of the city’s neigh borhoods, comparable to what has been done for the city’s downtown and Mid town areas, appear to be taking shape into a visible reality. In short, the Detroit Design 139 Ex hibit, which opens to the public at noon this Thursday, Sept. 14, on the first floor of the 1001 Woodward Building, offers a window view into what Detroit’s neigh
City clerk challenger says he isn’t surprised at all By Keith A. Owens Senior Editor
Maurice Cox, Detroit Planning and Development director borhoods will become over the next decade or so. This is not just a dream or a vague concept; this is a map of plans that are either already under way or that at the very least have starting dates at tached for 38 planned neighborhood transformations. The exhibit closes on Sept. 30, but there will be more exhibits in coming years designed to offer Detroit ers a chance to track visual progress of what is being done and what is planned. The following is from the Detroit 139 “Vision Document” which was distribut ed in advance of the exhibit. “Detroit Design 139 is a collaborative architecture advocacy platform that or ganizes thought-leadership design ini tiatives focusing on Detroit’s future built and natural environment. “Detroit shapes Design. For genera tions, Detroit has advanced modern urban development with innovative design prac tices — the integration of the first stretch of paved concrete on Woodward Avenue, the nation’s first tri-colored traffic light, and the contribution to mass-production
See DESIGNING DETROIT page A-4
WHAT’S INSIDE
Garlin Gilchrist may be the only person in Detroit who claims to not be surprised by the fact that he will be the one challenging incumbent Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey and not Heaster Wheeler. Because judging by the polls leading into the primary, Gilchist was given only about a 2% chance whereas Wheeler had 12%. But the incumbent Winfrey was polling far higher than either of them at about 48%. But once the day was through, and the final votes had been tallied — piti fully few though they were — Gilchrist came in second behind Winfrey at 19%, qualifying him to be the challenger. Winfrey also did better than the polls predicted, coming in above 50%, but relatively speaking, it was Gilchrist’s noticeable leapfrog effort past Wheeler — and an increase from single digits to double digits in the polls — that caught everyone’s attention. Granted, Gilchrist had raised far more money than any other candidate and he re ceived the endorsements of the Detroit Free Press as well as the Detroit News. But this was a race that tradition ally attracts barely any attention from voters, plus the race between Mayor Mike Duggan and challenger Sen. Coleman Young II was the one that had been garnering all the headlines for all the obvious reasons (white mayor vs. son of city’s first black mayor, the persistent two Detroits narrative,
etc.). And Garlin Gilchrist was hardly a household name, whereas both Winfrey and Wheeler have been wellknown in Detroit for quite some time. All of which is to say that this final stretch of competition between Win frey and Gilchrist could easily prove to be as interesting as the one between Duggan and Young, and possibly more so. Because although the very large numbers gap between the two sug gests Gilchrist has a long and arduous uphill battle ahead of him to even pull within striking distance of Winfrey, his
ability to raise as much money as he did (more than $100,000) combined with his ability to come out of rela tively nowhere to shoot past a known quantity such as Wheeler has some be lieving that he may be more of a threat than the numbers alone suggest. Es pecially if he somehow manages to spark enough enthusiasm to benefit noticeably from the likely much larger voter turnout in November — or if he manages to increase that turnout with his well-documented abilities to turn
See GILCHRIST page A-4
City of Detroit using hidden cameras to catch illegal dumpers Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Police Chief James Craig are sending a strong mes sage to anyone who illegally dumps debris in city neighborhoods: Police are watching.
Local officials concerned about DACA’s future See Page B1
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Each week, workers from the city’s DPW remove more than 500 tons of illegally dumped material across the city. To address the problem at its roots, DPD has been test ing hidden cameras in a number of locations where dumping repeatedly reappears after city crews clean them up. During that time, DPD has identified alleged illegal dumpers in 25 cases, based on the strength of the video images. One of them is Leo Tolin, of Detroit, who was captured on video dumping in north west Detroit on Aug. 26. After being iden tified based on video evidence, a warrant was issued and he was arrested by police. Investigators, armed with a search warrant, also seized Tolin’s 16-foot white box truck, from which he dumped a large box and other debris. Once Tolin, who is the owner of Price is Right movers, pays $1560 in blight viola tions or he posts a $1500 bond, he will be able to have his truck returned.
going to use existing laws to seize the vehi cle they used in this criminal activity.”
“We are doing it effectively with Project Green Light and with this initiative we are using video technology to conduct investiga tions that begin with reports of illegal dump ing made to the city through the Improve Detroit app. I believe the Detroit Police De partment is going to be the trendsetter for other departments around the country.”
The city currently has more than a dozen cameras installed at frequent dumping lo cations around the city. By the end of Sep tember, Chief Craig said he expects to have “For too long, people have used our neigh dozens of cameras at known dumping loca borhoods as dumping grounds because they tions, where video will be reviewed daily by could get away with it,” said Mayor Duggan. staff at his Real Time Crime Center. The Cameras effective in identifying city and “As with a lot of things that used to be tol total cost of the cameras is about $75,000, suburban suspects erated in this town, like illegal graffiti, we’re including the monthly cost of $54 for elec So far, 22 individuals have been charged not tolerating people who want to dump in tricity and Internet access for each camera. our neighborhoods anymore. We are going “Whenever we can, we are going to use tech out of the 37 incidents capture on video to charge them and whenever we can we are nology to our advantage,” said Chief Craig. See HIDDEN CAMERAS page A-4