Cover Stories
How to make waves in the Detroit area this summer, even if you don’t own your own ride
Rent a boat Riverside Kayak Connection 4016 Biddle Ave., Wyandotte; 734-285-2925; riversidekayak.com If you’re looking for a fun way to enjoy Belle Isle or the Detroit River, Flynn Memorial Pavilion has an array of rental options, including canoes, pontoon pedalboats, solo kayaks, and stand-up paddle boards that can be rented by the hour. Bicycles for…
Welcome to the second annual Boat Issue
It’s summertime, so you know what that means: It’s time to crack open a cold one, don your finest Hawaiian shirt, and climb aboard for our second annual Boat Issue. Why are we doing this again? Like we said last year, it’s basically pointless to live in Michigan and not enjoy the Great Lakes —…
Tiki boats have arrived on Detroit’s shore — so we tried one out
This just in: Detroit has achieved peak kitsch status. We have privately chartered tiki boats now and they’re actually really fucking fun. Of course, this is coming from a small staff of screen-addicted journalists who bask in the jaundiced glow of fluorescent lighting like cynical salamanders, and whose shared idea of fun involves debating the…
In search of Detroit’s best uninhabited and underrated islands
If one were to put together an A-list of excellent islands around metro Detroit and Windsor, a few choices are obvious — Belle Isle, Grosse Ile, Walpole Island, Harsens Island, and even the industrial Zug. But there are more than 20 islands in the Detroit River, another 11 in the St. Clair River delta that…
Officials backpedal on alcohol ban in Manistee National Forest
It’s a rite of passage: grab some six packs, load up the car, and head up north for a weekend of tubing, canoeing, fishing, or kayaking. Pure Michigan. Only no one seems to have informed the USDA Forest Service of the crucial importance of the first part of the equation. On Feb. 6, 2019, the…
Stretch of Lodge freeway named ‘Aretha Franklin Memorial Highway’
A stretch of the Lodge freeway in Detroit is being designated as the “Aretha Franklin Memorial Highway.” The announcement came Monday after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a House bill introduced by Rep. Leslie Love, D-Detroit. “I’m honored to be able to dedicate a portion of the M-10 freeway to remember Aretha and all she did…
Ford recalls about 58,000 Focus sedans over software flaw
The Ford Motor Co. issued a recall of nearly 58,000 Focus cars to correct a powertrain software flaw that could deform the fuel tank. The affected sedans, which were built at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, received an incomplete software update from a previous recall. Ford advised customers to take their affected Focus to…
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is celebrating 60 years of legendary Motown
Music has been a connecting force between Michigan and Ohio for decades. In 1959, Motown Records Corporation was started by Berry Gordy with an $800 loan from his family. The music that came out of that label would yield hits that have a special place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and in…
Universal Academy students, after contentious graduation ceremony, spar with administration over transcripts
Former students, alumni, and parents of Universal Academy — the Detroit charter school that made headlines last month after the salutatorian blasted school leadership during her graduation speech — convened outside the building of Hamadeh Educational Services, the charter school system overseeing UA, on Friday afternoon because their transcripts had not been released. The people in front…
Grosse Pointe Park reaches pact with Detroit to remove border barrier
For six years, Grosse Pointe Park found different ways to block a major intersection at the border of Detroit. First it was a large pile of snow. Then a “delayed” water main project. Then a shed. And finally a farmer’s market with giant potted plants. Now, the two communities have reached a tentative deal to…
Rapper Tiny Jag removed from Detroit’s Kindred festival after criticizing AfroFuture Fest’s race-based ticket pricing
A Detroit hip-hop music festival removed rapper Tiny Jag from its lineup after she criticized another local hip-hop festival for its race-based ticket prices. After the incident, Kindred Music & Culture Festival announced on Tuesday it was dropping Tiny Jag from its lineup. Last week, Tiny Jag — real name Jillian Graham — publicly dropped…
Why marijuana activist John Sinclair deserves a holiday
It’s no stretch to say that John Sinclair has been a major figure in the movement to legalize marijuana in Michigan — at least in the early years. He got arrested and went to jail. The John Sinclair Freedom Rally in 1971 focused national attention on his case and on Ann Arbor, and national figures…
The 7th Annual Detroit Sidewalk Festival is themed ‘Peace Power Utopia’
The Detroit Sidewalk Festival is back this summer for its annual celebration of performance and installation art. The festival will take place on Aug. 1 through Aug. 3 at the intersection of Grand River Avenue and Lahser Road. This year’s theme is “Peace Power Utopia,” and artists are encouraged to explore concepts within their work…
AG Nessel charges a sixth Catholic priest with criminal sexual conduct
Attorney General Dana Nessel charged a sixth priest with criminal sexual conduct on Monday, after he was arrested by special agents from the AG’s office. Related Father Joseph (Jack) Baker was arrested in Wayne County and charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct — sexual penetration with a person under 13. The Archdiocese…
Jack White and Brendan Benson will play an intimate acoustic show at Detroit’s Third Man Records
For Third Man Records heads who just can’t get enough, Raconteurs frontdudes Jack White and Brendan Benson have announced an intimate acoustic gig at Third Man Records Cass Corridor. The show is at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 9, at TMR. Tickets are $3 for Vault members and $40 for the general public each, and…
Rep. Tlaib, state lawmakers to host town hall about auto insurance reforms
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib is hosting a town hall on auto insurance reform Monday evening to address new state legislation aimed at reducing the rates. Tlaib also will discuss her latest efforts on the federal level to make auto insurance more equitable, partly by eliminating credit scores as a factor in rates. The progressive Democrat…
AfroFuture Fest changes ticket structure after controversy
Detroit music festival AfroFuture Fest ignited a social media debate over the past week, receiving both praise and scrutiny for its two-tier ticket pricing in which white people were asked to pay more than people of color. The event’s Eventbrite web page listed early bird tickets for people of color at $10 while white attendees…
Another building in Lansing tagged with anti-ICE graffiti
Someone scrawled “STOP ICE” on the 140-year-old Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing shortly after midnight on the Fourth of July. The message came two weeks after a vandal tagged the Michigan Republican Party’s headquarters with “Fuck ICE.” The Michigan State Police tells Metro Times its investigating the graffiti but declined to say whether the…
Opinion: It’s time for a public referendum on Detroit’s Project Green Light facial-recognition surveillance technology
Author Willie Burton is the Police Commissioner for Detroit’s Fifth District. This op-ed is republished with permission. We, the people of Detroit, do not want pervasive real-time facial recognition surveillance in our city. However, despite the public outcry, the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners has forced this invasive and unconstitutional overreach of their authority upon us…
Michigan woman sues Jimmy John’s for putting mustard on her sandwich, loses case
A Comstock Park woman who sued Jimmy John’s for putting Dijon mustard on her sandwich has lost the case. The decision this week by the Michigan Court of Appeals not to hear the case brought to an end two years of litigation that made national headlines when the suit was filed in 2016. Though it…
Detroit’s Clear Soul Forces keeps it close to home at El Club
In the seven years since Noveliss, L.A.Z., E-Fav, and Ilajide released their debut record Detroit Revolution(s) as Clear Soul Forces, they’ve toured Europe and garnered love from the world’s hip-hop community, all while keeping it close to their Detroit roots. CSF returned this year with Still — 11 tracks of Detroit hip-hop that furthers the…
Tiny Jag pulls out of AfroFuture Fest after learning white people would be charged a different price to attend
Jillian Graham, aka Detroit-based rapper Tiny Jag, pulled out of a local music festival this week because she disagreed with its pay model, in which people of color would pay less for tickets than white festivalgoers. Graham said she only found out about AfroFuture Fest’s pay model when a white friend reached out to her…
PJ Ryder explains why he’s selling Detroit rock ‘n’ roll bar PJ’s Lager House for $2.2 million
PJ’s Lager House — the longstanding Corktown rock ‘n’ roll bar owned by former record store owner PJ Ryder since 2007 when he purchased it for $350,000 — has been listed for sale for the cool price of $2.2 million. The real estate listing went up last week, but when asked when exactly he decided…
Detroit heavy-hitters Black Noi$e, Zelooperz, and Jay Daniel team up at Deluxx Fluxx
Christmas in July isn’t really a thing but we’re feeling this gift of a lineup: Zelooperz (the noted member of Danny Brown’s Bruiser Brigade), emerging electronic producer Jay Daniel, and Black Noi$e (a Metro Times artist to watch who just so happens to roll deep with Earl Sweatshirt) — all of whom are riding the…
Stef Chura will celebrate ‘Midnight’ with Johnny Ill and French Vanilla at Deluxx Fluxx
When reviewing her sophomore record Midnight, Rolling Stone called metro Detroit indie rock babe Stef Chura “a formidable triple threat,” while Pitchfork called her presence on the new record as being as “self-assured as PJ Harvey and as liberated as Alanis Morrisette.” The recent MT cover girl and punk cheerleader — if you had any doubts,…
Ann Arbor’s Chirp will bring uplifting funk to the Blind Pig
Name a more Ann Arbor-sounding experience than watching local prog-funk favorites Chirp at the Blind Pig. We’ll wait. While y’all recover from the meandering funk of Electric Forest, there’s the Wilco-meets-the Marcus King Band stylings of Jay Fryndenlund, Brian Long, Ken Ball, and John Gorine of Chirp. Formed in 2015 and known for performing their…
Rep. Justin Amash just left the Republican Party, citing ‘partisan death spiral’
Michigan Rep. Justin Amash celebrated Independence Day by announcing his independence from the Republican Party. The self-described “lowercase ‘L'” libertarian announced his split from the Republicans in an essay published by The Washington Post on July 4, titled “Our politics is in a partisan death spiral. That’s why I’m leaving the GOP.” Today, I’m declaring…
Shocker: The Ilitches failed to meet yet another District Detroit deadline
The Ilitch family has missed yet another deadline to start developing property around Little Caesar’s Arena in the lower Cass Corridor. Crain’s reports that the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the quasi-public entity that must approve district development plans, confirmed that no plans have been submitted for Ilitch-owned land on the northwest corner of Woodward Avenue and…
Snyder turns down Harvard fellowship after backlash, citing ‘lack of civility’
Turns out former Gov. Rick Snyder will not be taking up a research fellowship at Harvard University after all. Snyder took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce he was turning the fellowship down after it drew backlash on social media. People were upset that Harvard chose Snyder, who oversaw the Flint water crisis, which poisoned…
Marijuana Regulatory Agency issues emergency rules for recreational marijuana
The Marijuana Regulatory Agency has issued emergency rules for adult-use marijuana in Michigan. The rules definitely signal a different attitude toward marijuana in Lansing, particularly in making it easier for smaller businesses to get into the game. The high capitalization costs for medical marijuana businesses, which added up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, have been…
Detroit City Council approves cutting parking ticket fines in half for Detroit residents
The Detroit City Council approved a plan on Tuesday that will cut parking ticket fines in half for residents of Detroit. The cost of the tickets are to be reduced from $45 to $22.50, but they must be paid within five days. The discount will only be available to Detroit residents and not suburban residents.…
Parkland survivor Emma González calls out Madonna’s graphic ‘God Control’ video: ‘This is NOT the correct way to talk about gun violence’
On her latest record, Madame X, Madonna samples the voice of Parkland survivor-turned-activist Emma González on the album’s closing track, “I Rise.” The sample comes from a speech González gave shortly after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Fla., which left 17 dead. The Queen of Pop has continued to take on gun control in…
‘We on the Lodge wit it’ inspires song, T-shirts, meme in Detroit
“We on the Lodge wit it!” That’s what a young woman yells in a viral video showing cars blocking the Lodge freeway in Detroit while Dodge Hellcats blew donuts over the weekend. While police Chief James Craig pledges to seize cars that were responsible, others are having fun wit it, producing T-shirts, a music video,…
Savage Love: Prejudicial statements
I’m a man from a very liberal background. Recently, a girl I started dating — a girl from a similar background — mentioned that she has “a thing for Black guys.” She also met my childhood best friend, a man of Korean descent, and commented to me that she found him handsome despite not typically…
Horoscopes (July 3-9)
ARIES: March 21 – April 20 You’re in the midst of a situation that could go either way. If you’re too stubborn to meet people in the middle, things will fly south. Issues that revolve around the inability to be truthful are messing everything up. Before life can turn out for the best, you’re going…
Review: It’s hip to be square at Shield’s in Detroit
If anyone can overcome the jinx that’s haunted the intersection of Woodward and Warren, it should be Shield’s, which can boast a history of pleasing first Detroiters and then suburbanites since 1937. Since 2017 restaurants under successive owners have bombed in the historic Maccabees Building; they flailed about wildly, trying three concepts in their final…
Watching democracy die, part 1: The American experiment is more fragile than you think, and it’s not just about Trump
As it turns out, it was a bad week to be reading a book called How Democracies Die. The 2018 tome by Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt presents case studies of how democratic governments throughout history have fallen to authoritarian regimes as a warning that the 243-year-old American experiment is more fragile…
Mounting public pressure puts brakes on Detroit’s facial-recognition technology
As Congress and a rising number of cities contemplate banning facial-recognition technology, the City of Detroit is trying to expand its controversial and constitutionally murky system. But mounting, last-minute pressure persuaded the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners to delay a vote last Thursday on approving the use of the technology and expanding it to cameras…
Weird Al Yankovic dials it back — but he’s still weird
News flash: Weird Al Yankovic changed his Twitter bio. Under any other circumstance, this would hardly be newsworthy. But the accordion-wiedling Prince of Parody changed his Twitter bio last week to reflect his public decision to distance himself from the dethroned King of Pop, Michael Jackson, and the music that helped solidify the prolific pun…
The inaugural first Earthwork Detroit Festival advocates for social justice
Art can open up doors. Music can motivate the masses. And experiencing both music and art live — as an audience, as a community — can cultivate compassion, advancing causes and expanding our perspective. If that sounds lofty to you, then you’ve never been to an Earthwork event. The Earthwork Harvest Gathering is an annual…
Review: ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ has gentrification blues
Maybe it’s because I catch a lot of matinees, but it’s rare for me to hear a movie interrupted by a long succession of oblivious snores. Alas, such was the case this weekend in my screening of The Last Black Man in San Francisco, a movie which the normally energetic friend who accompanied me also…
