 |
|---|
| Former Michigan State football coach Brady Hoke put his 11,000-square-foot Ann Arbor mansion up for sale — and it’s already in sale pending status.
The home, which is about 40 miles from Detroit, was listed for $3 million and features everything from professional grade appliances in an open concept space to spa-like bathrooms. The five bedroom, five full bath house also features two half baths and a walk-out lower level, which has a full bar, recreation and workout areas and a waterfall in the backyard. If that’s too much for you, though, then you can also consider heading to an auction to buy a home that once belonged to a mafia “lieutenant” to the “Godfather” Joseph Zerilli, a Prohibition-era gangster. The house was built in the 1950s in Gross Pointe Park and was owned by Dominic Peter Corrado. Featuring big white columns out front and a wine cellar, the house heads to auction on June 20, after one more open house on June 14. Luxury home builders of today often include a number of lavish features designed to make living there more like staying in a resort than owning a home. Considering that the rich and famous often have personal chefs, maids, and others waiting on them, the resort comparison may be an apt one. Such homes also often come with guest cottages, which tend to mimic the main house in appearance and generally amount to one- to two-bedroom dwellings totaling around 1,200 square feet. But historical homes aren’t the only ones for sale in the Detroit area. Former Detroit Lions defensive player Ndamukong Suh listed his home in the suburb of Birmingham last month. The 7,394 square foot home is going for $3.45 million, so Suh can make the move to Miami to play for the Dolphins. Earlier this spring, Suh signed a contract with that team for $114 million. Suh’s former home has five bedrooms, four full bathrooms and three half-baths. Amenities feature an “indoor sport court, full size work-out room, massage room and recreational area,” according to the listing from Hall and Hunter Realtors. |
Tag: Detroit
-
You, Too, Can Have a Luxury Home in Detroit — If You Have $3 Million
-
Can Boomerangs Turn Detroit into the Next Great Tech Hub?
According to a recent article on the tech site Re/code, Detroit’s burgeoning reputation as a hub for technological start-ups has one phenomenon to thank: boomeranging. Though the term “boomerang” has mostly been associated with employment-challenged millennials moving back in with their parents, the boomerangs of Detroit are mostly young people who were inspired to return out of a sense of loyalty for the city where they grew up.
The city of Detroit currently holds less than half the population it did only 65 years ago, leaving the area at risk to fall into urban blight. For many young people with family in the area, the crisis signified a chance to move back and make a difference.
Boomerangs that move back to the area are moving back to build businesses, attract investors and rejuvenate the city where they grew up. Many of the young innovators are moving to neighborhoods like Midtown and Downtown.
A new incubator space in Midtown called TechTown has sprung up to accommodate them, and they’ll soon be able to move between the neighborhoods using the M1 light rail project, which was paid for mostly using private funds.
A small group of recent college grads have also made Detroit their home as part of the Venture for America program, which is essentially the tech equivalent of Teach for America. The students purchased an $8,000 house and are creating their own start-ups on the run-down property.
Some boomerangs who’ve made their fortunes with tech start-ups elsewhere are buying up and renovating older buildings to rent out to other businesses and start-ups. Others have moved their business operations there to support the community.
“Anything you’re doing here makes a statement,” Ben Bator, founder of the profitable humor website Texts From Last Night, told Re/Code. “The conscious decision to move to Detroit and to make it your home says something.”
The cost also has an appeal. There’s plenty of available space in Detroit and it comes at a fairly cheap price. The downside is that much of the older architecture requires expensive renovations.
Though the strides that have already been made are promising, several Detroit natives are choosing to wait a little longer before moving back. Many believe that the city’s comeback needs to be a bit more evident before they return.
Some just aren’t convinced that tech has the staying power to revitalize a city, even though a tech solution like content marketing generates three times the leads as traditional marketing and costs 62% less. But for the boomerangs who are investing in the city, seeing their hometown restored to its former glory is worth the risk.
-
Detroit Police Reports Reveal Fewer Violent Crimes in 2014, but Problems Persist
According to data from the Detroit Police, the number of violent crimes in that city fell significantly in 2014. Most notably, homicides are likely at their lowest since 1967. In 2014, there were 300 murders in Detroit; that represents the lowest number since 2010, when there were 308.
Before that, Detroit saw 281 homicides in 1967, which was the year of the summer riots. However, the homicide rate was far lower based on the city’s 1.5 million residents; today, the population has decreased by more than half to about 688,000 residents.
The homicide rate per 100,000 residents has declined in recent years, however, from 55 per 100,000 residents in 2012 and 47.5 in 2013 to a rate of 42.9 in 2014.
Robberies also saw a significant decrease since 2013, dropping from 2,836 to 1,879 as of Dec. 22, when the crime statistics were released. Many of these robberies involve credit card thefts, with Visa cards, which account for 52% of all payment volume worldwide, likely representing the top card stolen.
Carjackings fell from 765 to 525 in the past year, representing a 32% decline as a subset of the robbery category.
Yet despite the sharp declines in many types of violent crime, Detroit is still one of the most violent cities in the United States, according to FBI statistics from November.
One recent case highlights the problems that Detroit residents face on a daily basis as police and U.S. Marshals search for a “person of interest” in a death now being ruled as a homicide.
Eighty-one-year-old Casey Wybenga, a restaurant owner who helps feed the needy in the Heartside district, was found dead at an America’s Best Inn motel in Walker on Tuesday, Dec. 30. The death was ruled natural at first, then suspicious after evidence arose that placed Matthew Brunn, 29, at the scene.
According to family members, Brunn, a parole absconder, was spotted driving Wybenga’s Ford station wagon/SUV the day before Wybenga’s body was discovered. Wybenga’s credit card had also been used after his death.
Brunn has had a history of criminal behavior, such as armed robbery and vehicle theft, since 2004. Police are currently seeking tips as to his whereabouts.
-
Palestinian Immigrant Found Guilty of Concealing an Israeli Bombing Conviction on Immigration Papers
As President Barack Obama prepares to square off against the Republican-led congress on immigration reform, a high-profile immigration case is making headlines in Detroit. Rasmieh Yousef Odeh, 67, was found guilty of immigration fraud earlier this month for concealing her Israeli military court-ordered imprisonment in 1969 from immigration officials. She served for 10 years after being charged with several bombings and was released as part of a prisoner swap with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
“An individual convicted of a terrorist bombing would not be admitted to the United States if that information was known at the time of arrival,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in a statement. “Upon discovery that someone convicted of a terrorist attack is in the United States illegally, we will seek to use our criminal justice system to remove that individual.”
According to Odeh, Israeli authorities tortured her into confessing to the bombings, but U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain dismissed that claim, saying it wasn’t relevant to the case of Odeh lying on her citizenship form. Odeh also claims that she thought the criminal history questions on the form only applied to crimes committed on U.S. soil, a claim that was disputed by Detroit immigration officer Jennifer Williams.
Odeh still has supporters in her corner, despite the fraud conviction. As the associate director of Chicago’s Arab American Action Network, Odeh worked with immigrants, specifically Arab women, making her popular and respected in Chicago. Women made up 51% of the U.S. immigrant population in 2012.
Many pro-Palestinian activists are also siding with Odeh, arguing that the U.S. government is using her case to silence critics of Israel. Dozens of Odeh’s supporters traveled from Chicago to Detroit to protest her conviction. Odeh faces 10 years in a U.S. prison and a possible loss of citizenship.
“I felt the verdict is not justice,” Odeh told The Associated Press. “The government did not allow us to defend ourselves.”
Tensions over immigration are reaching a boiling point on Capitol Hill, too, as aides submit their final recommendations on immigration reform to President Obama. The ambitious list of actions would allow millions of undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S. and seek employment, but the GOP-controlled Congress is likely to block any legislation.
No date is set for Obama’s decision, but Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said in a statement that it will likely be announced by the end of the year.
-
Michigan Governor Not Doing Enough for Radioactive Waste Disposal
Environmentalists are always concerned about our human impact on the environment, but not ever day a state governor gets involved in the nitty-gritty details of contamination.Governor Rick Snyder issued a review on Monday, August 25 to go over the state’s standards for how facilities dispose of certain radioactive waste in landfills. The general public has expressed resentment regarding the issue of radioactive material generated in Pennsylvania being shipped to Michigan.
Because this issue raises a health concern, the Department of Environmental Quality will call in the experts to study Michigan state rules for dealing with radioactive waste that was last edited in 1996. The major concern is that the standards are outdated and allow other states to dump their toxic waste in Michigan.
It all boiled down to a shipment of radioactive material produced by hydraulic fracturing — also known as “fracking” — which is a controversial process in order to access oil and gas trapped below the Earth’s surface.
Fracking has attracted a lot of negative press lately as researchers have discovered it could be a leading cause of groundwater contamination in some states. Over 80% of the most hazardous waste sites in the United States have negatively impacted the quality of nearby groundwater, and fracking is a major contributor of contaminating American drinking water. Michigan is one of the states that relies heavily on both groundwater and surface water as a natural resource.
“We believe the standard in Michigan remains protective of our people and our natural resources,” Snyder said, “but this advisory group of diverse experts, similar to the assembly that developed our standards, can provide an important, science-based and current review to make sure that’s still the case.”
The expert panel includes individuals from various health fields, waste disposal experts, oil and gas representatives, and other industry areas. Groundwater contamination is not only hazardous to local communities, but also to the environment. Only 3% of the Earth’s water is fresh water, and nearly 400 billion gallons of fresh water are used every day in the U.S.
Critics were not convinced of change based on Snyder’s statement.
“The state’s action in authorizing hazardous radioactive waste to be dumped here is utterly and completely incompatible with everything Pure Michigan should stand for,” said Mark Schauer, Snyder’s Democratic re-election opponent.
Wayne County’s disposal landfill, the state’s only landfill certified to dispose of technologically enhanced normally occurring radioactive material (TENORM), collects rocks, soils, and other naturally-occurring substances that have a higher-than-normal radioactive level.
This radioactive material is caused by hydraulic fracturing. This process is done by creating horizontal veins in the underlying bedrock off of a vertical well drilled into the Earth. Then the well is filled with water (and sand and chemicals) at high pressure speed which causes fissures in the bedrock, thus releasing natural gas and oil or even groundwater into the created cracks. The gas or oil is then forced to travel through horizontal well and flow up into storage tanks for later use.
The water used to crack the rock as well as any groundwater sources are then at risk to becoming contaminated.
Wayne Disposal in Michigan has agreed to take 36 tons of Pennsylvania’s waste that includes sludge and other byproducts of fracking. The landfill at Wayne Disposal is designed to contain such radioactive waste; it boasts a double liner with leak-detecting sensors.
“It’s an ideal place to dispose of any materials that have low levels of radioactivity,” said Dave Crumrine, spokesman for Environmental Quality Co.
The shipment of Pennsylvania’s radioactive waste has been currently put on hold until further notice. Hydraulic fracturing is legal and is under no federal regulations due to loopholes and exemptions in various environmental acts such as the 2005 Energy Policy Act and the Clean Water Act.