Daily Detroit News Byte

More than three quarters of a century ago, Sarah Elizabeth Ray was kicked off the Boblo Boat for being African American, as it was a segregated attraction. Her lesser-known case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court and laid the groundwork for later cases involving Rosa Park ands and Brown v. Board of Education. Now Ray's home is on the list of 11 most endangered historic places, and there's an amazing documentary trailer telling her story. Desiree Cooper joins us to talk about it.

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01:05 – Fletcher Sharpe (@saintfdw on Twitter) previews the LA Force Men’s Detroit City FC match on Wednesday night at Keyworth Stadium 05:37 – The DCFC Women’s team had their first loss against the Chicago Mustangs. Fletch breaks it down and looks forward. 10:51 – Fans across the country have been acting up between dumping popcorn on Russell Westbrook to spitting to a fan running on the Sixers court. Fletcher makes the argument that until fans get it together, we shouldn’t let fans in arenas. Local and frequent Detroit City FC news coverage is brought to you by our members on Patreon. Join us: http://www.patreon.com/dailydetroit

It's a Friday edition of your Daily Detroit and Devon O'Reilly joins Jer to send us out to the holiday weekend. 00:20 First up, we talk about our cocktails of choice. Jer talks about what he dubs the "Sapphire Sun," meaning Faygo Arctic Sun and Bombay Sapphire gin. All that's needed is your local party store to pull this one off.  Devon's drinking an Americano with a touch of booze. The stories: 02:01 There's generally great news on the COVID-19 front, and unless there's major changes we're finally going to be pushing that coverage kinda to the back. The Detroit region is doing very well, with a test positivity rate below 5%. 05:10 Proposed changes to Detroit's charter will not be on the ballot thanks to a judge's ruling that without the Governor's signoff, it cannot appear. As a city resident, some of the ideas inside were compelling - but probably belong in the form of laws or ordinances instead of the charter itself. Also, it seemed a bunch of people forgot we as a city have $200m+ of annual pension paymen

Detroit is only second to New York City when it comes to overall tax burden, according to some estimates. And when it comes to property taxes, due to the systems of incentives, breaks, Neighborhood Enterprise Zones and other financial tools, it’s very possible a loft downtown with a higher value can have a far lower tax rate than a neighborhood house. Matthew X. Roling shares with us on this episode of the Daily Detroit podcast how he thinks a split rate property tax system would slow down land speculators, lower tax bills for actual homeowners, and encourage development without doing massive giveaways. Oh, and it’d be revenue neutral, too. This is something that’s actually been talked about among leadership, but would require a change in state law to make possible. It also might break some of the addiction Detroit has for incentives. Those incentives often reduce the property tax burden to what are basically normal state levels. That’d even the playing field for smaller and individual developers, including p

Housekeeping: We're getting a lot of requests for t-shirts. Do you want one? Are you willing to meet us in the middle and cover the cost of yours, or become a member? Listen to the end for more.  On today's show, Eric Trytko joins us to break down the Ford F-150 Lightning. How will it stand up to competition? Is there a market for this? What is there to look forward to, and what are the reservations? It's an in-depth, smart conversation on a vehicle that Ford is making big bets on. Plus stories around town: - Venues are opening up around town and concerts are returning - Nicole Curtis won her case with the Detroit Land Bank Authority, keeping at 1908 Foursquare in the Islandview neighborhood - Spotlite Detroit just opened also in Islandview - Listener Jason reminds us Mt. Clemens in Macomb County is doing a drinking district, too (whoops! Sorry! Mt. Clemens has some beautiful architecture) - Detroit City FC is playing the Michigan Stars after all this weekend after much drama Thanks to our episode sponsor, Fu

OMGWTFBBQ what an episode. We literally scrapped it three times and then everything happened. First, Devon O'Reilly joins us to talk about the change in mask policy. In Michigan, as of 9am Saturday, it's masks off for vaccinated individuals. But will you? Will he? And in what situations? And we get into what some of the thinking might be behind the moves. We also talk about Bedrock's purchase of 300 River Place and the vibrant neighborhood that is down there at Jos Campau on the river side of Jefferson. I-75 will be a mess this weekend, just avoid it. Then, Fletcher Sharpe joins us for a not only a wrap-up and preview of the Detroit City FC matches, but literally while we were recording the show news broke that the Michigan Stars won't be going to California and are forfeiting their match over a conflict with the league, NISA. Safe to say, Fletcher unloads. @saintfdw on Twitter, btw. And finally, Michelle Mirowski from Ferndale Radio is on to talk about the ongoing fundraiser. The community station is raising

The whole Line 5 pipeline situation under the straits of Mackinac, as I uncover more and more, seems to be a symptom to a larger, bi-national problem and lack of plan.  Proponents say the pipeline critical to the economy and energy infrastructure. Opponents say a double pipeline under the great lakes - especially one that’s not buried - poses a special threat to the unique fresh water resource that is the Great Lakes. What if both concerns are true? And what if I told you that it’s a pipeline that provides half of the province of Ontario’s fuel needs and two thirds of Quebec? That’s around 23 million people that are reliant on this thing.  It turns out Michigan draws a small percentage of the product, and most of it - possibly more than 90% - is pulled out of the ground in Canada, then starts in Wisconsin, goes through Michigan - and back to Canada.  So do we want to cut off our neighbor and ally without a backup plan?  But also… should we as a state demand more for bearing so much environmental risk? Should