A creative new learning space is coming to Detroit’s District 5. The name of the space is Kraftologie and it is a place for inclusive, hands-on crafting.

Owner Trice Clark is able to bring her vision to life because of a $100,000 grant from the Comerica Hatch Detroit contest by Tech Town. Hatch Detroit is an organization that supports small businesses and encourages residents to vote on what businesses they want in their neighborhood. Clark beat out three other finalists in the May 13 Hatch-Off that followed weeks of public voting and live pitches from the four finalists. More than 30,000 votes were cast in this year’s competition. 

This contest has been going on for more than 15 years and past winners included dining restaurant Baobab Fare, Sister Pie and Batch Brewing Company. For more information go to hatchdetroit.com. 

Additional headlines for Friday, May 15, 2026

Senior housing community ready for residents

The former Lewis College of Business campus was reborn into a senior housing community. The long vacant landmark located on Detroit’s northwest side is now the Dr. Violet T Lewis Village, named after the American businesswoman and educator who founded the school in 1928. This affordable senior housing has 105 units and is for residents 55 and older.  

The project is a mix of historic preservation with new build and will help supply a housing market that’s experiencing a shortage. The village is fully income-restricted, serving households at roughly 30% to 80% of area median income, or about $20,000 to $70,000 per year. Developers say the project is designed to help longtime Detroit residents age in place and expands affordable housing for seniors. 

Sports

MLB

The Detroit Tigers fell to the New York Mets again with the score 4-9. It doesn’t help that the Mets are the last place team in the National League East.  

The Tigers now look to bounce back this weekend against the Toronto Blue Jays with a three game affair at Comerica Park. First pitch for today’s game is at 6:45 p.m.

NBA

And the Pistons face elimination in Game 6 of their series against the Cleveland Caviliers. The hometown heroes will potentially have to face Donovan Mitchell and James Harden without sharpshooter guard Duncan Robinson due to lower back soreness. 

Game 6 in Rocket Arena will be one to watch. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m.

Soccer

Detroit City FC face off against Forward Madision FC as part of the USL Cup. The game starts tomorrow at 6 p.m.

NFL

Detroit Lions defensive end Myles Adams is showing up to the Salvation Army’s upcoming sports pop-up event at the Rochester Hills thrift store.

The one-day-only pop-up will showcase hand-selected sports inventory like jerseys, athletic apparel and Detroit fan gear all at thrift store prices. 

Adams spent the majority of the 2025 season on the team’s practice squad and was resigned this offseason because of the positive impression he left on Head coach Dan Campbell’s practice squad.  

‘Martin’ tour

And the Distinctively Detroit Tour is bringing you 90s sitcom nostalgia with Wazzup, Detroit! If you are a fan of the show Martin and the show’s Detroit’s ties, this is for you!

The tour will start at the William V. Banks Broadcast Museum where the star character Martin stepped into the world of broadcasting. The museum is the former WGPR building. Then the tour will go to Martin’s former apartment at the Garden Court Apartments. For more information go to distinctivelydetroit.com. This is all going down tomorrow May 16 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

At its peak, the city of Highland Park was described as a model city with more than 60,000 residents and the housing stock to hold it. Today, the population is less than 9,000 and neighborhoods are plagued with blighted and abandoned properties.

But city officials see an opportunity to rebuild the housing stock and population. Carlton Clyburn is the Director of Community and Economic Development in Highland Park. He spoke with WDET’s Bre’Anna Tinsley as part of our Crossing the Lines – Highland Park series.  Clyburn says the city’s rebirth will start with building what he calls “the missing middle.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Carlton Clyburn: So, the missing middle are your duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes. What that does… it brings more families in, right? But also, it helps with development costs. So, if you got a 2, 000 square foot home single family, it’s going to cost you the same as a 2,000 square foot duplex. The difference is you can get double rent or double the cost for your return on sale if it’s a duplex.  And it fits, it matches some of the people that’s living out of wanting to get out of like apartment living, or looking to start a family those kind of things. So we’re really looking to fill in that missing middle gap.

Bre’Anna Tinsley: Okay, and so you said you just updated the master plan—

CC:  No, we just created our economic development strategy. We’re in process. We were going to do some updates to our master plan, because we need to do some things with our zoning. And the new requirement from the state is to do a housing assessment.

I mean, you could kind of look and as we’re planning out the city, we got a couple areas where  we’re looking at all market, single family, right? But we have a lot of areas where we can build out, and that’s what we’ll be looking at that missing middle.

BT:  I want to talk about the water bill situation that has been like a big thing in Highland Park—and correct me if I’m wrong, if I get any of these numbers and figures wrong. But it started with a $54 million debt correct?

CC: Made up. Made up debt.

BT:  And then the state, and then the state came in and provided, I think, about $30 million to help rebuild the infrastructure, which brought some of that debt down. Is that correct?

CC:  So we have been overcharged by GLWA for years, since they started. They didn’t want to abide by us. So, they said, “no, we want to charge you more.” Part of that agreement was us putting meters in the ground. Okay? We have put meters in the ground, and we’ve already found a $1.5 million reduction. So, they’re still overcharging us.

The rate that Highland Park pays is comparable to what Wayne County pays, and that’s 43 communities, you see. So we’re being greatly overcharged, but by us putting these meters down, by us providing the data, somethings got to give now. I mean, we told y’all we was being overcharged. Y’all owe us some money. We need relief.

Because you’re right. That’s another thing that will keep the developers away. So you know, the timing is everything, because that gives you know, that gave us opportunity to start working on our plan, our economic development strategy, updates to the master plan, and while the water folks are battling that water deal, then we can put these plans into action.

BT:  What about what residents are doing to rehab their own homes? Are there any resources available to them? Is the city looking to provide any resources to them?

CC:  So right now we do have ongoing grants, like through the HOME program and some of the other programs, but… they’re more so for [ages] 60 and over. So, I’m looking for more monies for not 60 and over, right? Because we do have families in need for home repair.

And, you know, the developers I talked to about moving forward, or, “Hey, we built this block out, and it’s a few homes we got to find money for, you know, rehab for them as well.”  Maybe not so much interior, but at least exterior, because the last thing we want is somebody you know to come in and build this neighborhood up and leave three or four houses looking like they look when we could pull money like a community benefits. I mean, if you’re pulling money out, give them, give them four houses, $5,000 a piece. Or, send your contractors over there to see, you know, what could be done within a scope to bring them up as well. So, I’m conscious of it. 

BT: You might have mentioned it earlier, at the beginning of the conversation, but knocking down homes, there’s a lot of blighted properties. Where’s the city at with demoing more of the dilapidated buildings?

CC:  We have $5 million worth of demolition happening, right? And that’s pretty much going to take our inventory out the state. Most of their properties are demoed. The county, most of them are demoed. They’re finishing up some more demo. The issue are the privately owned blighted properties that we do have nuisance abatement orders on. We are looking to, you know, hold negligent property owners accountable. It’s just a little bit longer process.

BT:  Highland Towers is coming down soon. Is there any plans to put, like, more housing there? Or what do you know, what the city is looking at?

CC: I would look so that’s something I’m talking to the county about, because we did have to transfer ownership. Oh, and Highland Towers was a privately owned property that we took through our nuisance abatement ordinance, and the county has money, so we transferred it to the county to knock down. So they’ll be knocking it down, and we’ll work with them on [a request for proposal] ​or what kind of development we want to see. But we probably want to see, you know, residential, retail, mixed use, something similar, just something creative like this, going up and down Woodward, and what’s in Brush Park.

You know, Brush Park is what I’m really a fan of, because it has a lot of the old bones. But you got this new stuff, you got the old stuff. That’s a good mix. And, when I saw what was going on in Brush Park years ago, I’m like, this is, this is what we can do in Highland Park.

BT: You mentioned the housing shortage, homelessness, do you think is that enough to drive people to Highland Park when the homes are available?

CC: I believe so. Yes. Because, like I say, with the Greenway, us being on Woodward, Davidson, 75, the Lodge, logistically, it makes sense. You got everything, what, three, four miles. You got all the field, all the sports teams right up the street. It is, logistically speaking, good luck.

Highland Park is a small city that once had a relatively large population for its size. At the height of Detroit’s automotive boom, more than 50,000 people lived within Highland Park’s 2.9 square miles. Today, the population is less than 9,000.

WDET’s Crossing the Lines series features conversations with and stories about Highland Park’s people, culture, and history.

Detroit Public Radio’s Citizen Vox project gives residents a chance to express how they feel about their communities and the issues that matter to them.

WDET’s Pat Batcheller spoke with Highland Park resident Ken Bates at a coffee shop on Woodward Ave. on April 10, 2026.

Bates was born in Detroit but moved to Highland Park with his wife more than 25 years ago. They bought a Craftsman-style bungalow in a historic district of the city. Voters elected Bates to the city council in 2018, where he served until 2022. He chairs the board of an energy nonprofit called Soulardarity. Its mission includes installing solar-powered streetlights in Highland Park’s neighborhoods.

Bates shares his thoughts on housing, poverty, community pride, and development.

Ken Bates: We know that there’s a housing crisis, a housing shortage nationally, affordable housing. Highland Park has an abundance of land that is underutilized, that really could be put forth in terms of development. So, we could look at land trusts. We could look at affordable housing, low-income housing, market rate housing, duplexes to grow the population because that’s what we have in abundance.

Manufacturing? I doubt that will ever come back to the extent that Henry Ford and Chrysler and some of the other manufacturers had here. That’s a bygone era.

And so, we have to look into the future as to what will help Highland Park become sustainable. What kind of industries should we count on?

You have to get education on board. You have to get private development. You have to get your government funding all in order, and you have to have a plan and a vision and the expertise in order to do it.

If not, you’re just maintaining the status quo. And year after year, you’re just one disaster away from some financial calamity, whether it be a natural disaster or something like the Great Lakes Water Authority suing us for $19 million and threatening to put it on our tax rolls.

Pat Batcheller: What do you like about being in Highland Park?

KB: Highland Park is centrally located. It’s convenient. There’s a sense of—like with my block, I never expected it to be so diverse. And yet you’ve got immigrants, you’ve got people of different faiths. You’ve got people who are ascribed to different lifestyles. I mean, it just it goes on and on, different political beliefs, and we all live together in the same community, and we’re able to communicate and talk and look out after each other.”

PB: From the conversations I’ve had with you and some of the other folks I’ve talked to, it isn’t really the borders that define Highland Park, it’s the people. Would you agree with that?

KB: Well, yeah, I would say the people do define Highland Park because, because again, they’ve been here. Most have been here quite a long time. And even if you travel outside of Highland Park and talk to people that formerly lived here, many people will tell you, ‘Yeah, my grandparents lived here.’ They remember it as a great city. They’ve had fond memories.

The historical district is obviously something that has gained attention. People are looking at those homes and, if they have the means to renovate them, are coming in and deciding, “well, let’s renovate this home.” Because you can’t rebuild those anywhere for anything that I would consider reasonable.

Highland Park has just had its own identity for a long, long time. And so, I can’t see that changing because it would be so difficult to incorporate us into the Detroit culture. We’re not Detroit. We’re not Hamtramck. We’re Highland Park.

PB: What’s the most pressing issue facing Highland Park right now?

KB: It’s poverty. You’ve got to figure out how to raise people’s incomes up, so to speak, their standard of living. So, whether it be through employment, homeownership, because poverty impacts everything around us. For example, ALDI is usually out of shopping carts because people abscond with them. If you’re running a business, that’s not helpful. We were fortunate in that Foot Locker moved into the old CVS building because CVS, Rite-Aid, and another drugstore left.

Convincing businesses to come here is a real challenge because the landscape has changed. Brick and mortar stores aren’t necessarily how people are going about retail experiences. You would think that we would have a thrift shop or something of that nature in a community like that. We don’t.

So, trying to look at trends that will allow people to be gainfully employed, increase home ownership, educate their children are things that should be made priority.

The appearance of the city has to change because we have a lot of blight. We had a press conference celebrating the announcement of Highland Towers on Woodward being torn down. We’ve got to have news that is uplifting, that is showing progress now. Yes, the building should be torn down because it’s caught on fire sixteen years ago. But we need to be announcing opportunities for growth projects that will bring about change.

The Move Detroit coalition has launched two programs aimed at increasing the city’s population.

The first is the Make Detroit Home program, a grant program offering financial incentives to encourage entrepreneurs to bring their small businesses—and their residence—back to the city.    

The program has $500,000 it can give away in forms of grants and other financial incentives.   

Move Detroit CEO Hillary Doe says they are hoping to target new and returning Detroiters to the city.   

“Then for the kind of returning Detroiters and the new Detroiters, the eligibility there is that your intention is to, you know, bring your residence back home. You know that you want to become a resident of our great city here, and then you can get access to those benefits, including things like up to $1,000 in relocation.”  

The second is the Neighborhood Ambassador Program that seeks to nominate 100 Detroiters to help shape the city’s growth strategy.   

Doe says program’s goal is to influence people to move to the city with stories and experiences shared from current residents.  

“To help share their favorite local haunts, their favorite small business owners. Share stories and really be our storytellers. To share, you know, Detroit story with our city, our region and you know the country.”  

Applications to nominate a resident is open. The 100 ambassadors will be chosen in June.   

Additional headlines for Thursday, April 9, 2026

New strategies to enforce safe housing

Detroit’s laws, health, and building safety departments are increasing enforcement strategies to ensure safe and quality housing for renters.   

The effort is anchored in three coordinated actions, joint inspections between the health and safety departments, initiating court-enforced consent agreements for properties with known persistent issues and placing liens on chronically blighted properties.   

The Building Safety Engineering and Environmental Department (BSEED) has identified 60 apartment buildings with ongoing maintenance issues.  

BSEED Director David Bell says the city has reached a turning point. “Apartment buildings in this city where violations pile up, repairs never happen, and families are left in conditions that no one should ever have to tolerate. This has to stop.”  

Bell says the goal is to increase certificates of compliance from 14% to 35% in a year.  

Workshop to tell the stories of Southwest Detroit

The University of Michigan’s School of Social Work’s Engage Project is hosting a workshop called “Detroit Voices Southwest Oral History Project.” The workshop will focus on exploring the power of community storytelling and oral history. 

Participants will learn how to document their communities stories, preserve lived experiences, and use story telling as a way to foster dialogue and collective action.

The event will be held this Saturday, April 11 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Mexicantown Community Development Center at 2835 Bagley in Detroit. Registration is not needed and lunch will be provided.  

Chevrolet Malibu recall

General Motors is recalling more than a quarter-million Chevrolet Malibus to fix their rearview cameras.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the way GM mounted the cameras could expose them to moisture that can weaken the adhesives holding them in place. That can cause distorted or blank images, increasing the risk of a crash.

The automaker says it’s not aware of any crashes or injuries. It will replace the cameras at no charge. 

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield recently appointed Ali Abazeed as the city’s new Chief Public Health Officer, saying he would be a part of creating a “health in all policies” approach to government.

“We’re really excited to get up and going and also to continue the good work that the department has done over the years, but also to upgrade the software of what public health can look like in the city of Detroit,” he shares. 

Abazeed previously created and led the city of Dearborn’s health department. He also worked as a public health advisor at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

Past policies shape today’s health issues

He says health is impacted by housing quality and environment. He hopes to work with the department’s staff of 280 people to create better health outcomes for Detroiters.

“The challenges that Detroit faces from a health perspective, those aren’t inevitable…  they’re created by decades, if not centuries of decisions made by man, policies that have been excluding people from opportunities,” he says.

Abazeed says the city focuses on a harm reduction approach by working with all city departments to connect the dots for people who live in the city. He says part of that will include having more health department officials out in the city.

“90% of your life expectancy happens in the communities where you live, learn, work, worship, play…  then it requires us to take that 90% collaborative approach across everything that we do at the city,” he says. 

Abazeed says Detroiters face health burdens like asthma, which he says require a multifaceted response. 

He says everyone is entitled to good health. 

“Understanding who has been disqualified, who has been sort of pushed to the side, and whether that’s… in Washington or Dearborn and now in Detroit, I think the work is relatively the same, even if it does take on a little bit of a different scale,” he says.