Latest news with #Hudson's
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What was Detroit like in the 1960s? Take a look back in time.
It was the best of times — and the boiling point. In the 1960s, Detroit roared with the sounds of new muscle cars and the distinctive sounds of Motown. Woodward Avenue was the glittering spine of the city, lined with movie theaters, shops and crowds. At Motown's Hitsville U.S.A., Berry Gordy was changing the sound of America, while downtown department stores like Hudson's remained bustling centers of fashion and community life. But beneath the rhythm of those radio hits and the hum of the assembly line, tensions between police and the city's Black residents were brewing in the neighborhoods, ultimately leading to a deadly five-day uprising. Take a look back at Detroit in the 1960s with our curated photo gallery, featuring images from the Free Press archives and beyond, capturing the city's highs, lows and everyday life during a decade that changed everything. Riot or rebellion? The debate on what to call Detroit '67 More: Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' still relevant and revealing, 50 years on More: Detroit's Algiers Motel site, where 3 teens were killed in 1967, to get historical marker More: Willie Horton book excerpt: 1967 riot may have been first time I embraced my community This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What was Detroit like in the 1960s? Photos take you back in time
Axios
23-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
Hudson's Detroit to host tech entrepreneurs and creatives
An exclusive network of entrepreneurs, artists and executives is coming to Detroit next month for a conference at the new Hudson's Detroit building and other high-profile local venues. Why it matters: The event, known as Summit Detroit, opens a window into Detroit's evolving reputation and the allure of its culture, past and present. It's also one of Hudson's first major events following the mayor's State of the City speech in March. State of play: More than 2,000 people are expected to attend the "immersive ideas festival," taking place June 5-8 at a handful of locales, including Michigan Central, the Detroit Opera House, the Harmonie Club and Hudson's. The lineup of speakers includes Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, Sade Lythcott of the National Black Theatre, artist Shepard Fairey, author and psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb and Mayor Mike Duggan. The talks focus on innovation and storytelling, and they are meant to spark creativity and personal connections between attendees. Context: The Detroit event follows previous Summit Series gatherings, dating back to 2008, in places like Peru, Palm Desert, California, and Aspen, Colorado. At a 2019 conference in Los Angeles that focused on food sustainability, attendees met with Chief Raoni Metuktire to discuss efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest. How it works: Membership in the Summit community, which boasts more than 30,000 members, is by application. Tickets to Summit Detroit start at $4,500. What they're saying: Detroit's renaissance is the ideal backdrop for Summit's business leaders and entrepreneurs to forge new connections, organizers say. "There's a group of people that are operating at a really high level, that are connected by curiosity, that show up to build and dream and create together, which is inherently what the city has always had," Summit CEO Jody Levy tells Axios. Between the lines: Food, music and mental health are also part of the programming, with strong local influences. Chefs from restaurants Barda, Baobab Fare and Takoi will be on hand. Detroit DJ and musician Moodymann and former U of M football player and investor Dhani Jones are on Summit Detroit's advisory board. Jones said he's excited for attendees to experience the city's new Hudson's skyscraper, its "Michelin-quality cuisine" and the spirit of innovation across a wide range of professions and passions.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mayor Mike Duggan drew Dan Gilbert, roaring audience for his final State of the City speech
Mayor Mike Duggan delivered his 12th and final State of the City address Tuesday night from inside Hudson's Detroit, the new 47-story skyscraper taking over the former site of the iconic Hudson's department store in a speech that, like the location, highlighted Detroit's future by celebrating its past. Highlighting Detroit's historical arc, from the Arsenal of Democracy to the suburban exodus that left the Motor City a shell of its former self, Duggan spoke for an hour about how far the city has come since he took office in 2014 as the city was preparing to exit its historic bankruptcy, and he first pleaded for residents to "give him a chance" to turn things around. Throughout the high-energy slideshow presentation, Duggan rattled off a laundry list of new commercial and residential developments throughout the city; new manufacturing deals, like Stellantis' Jeep assembly plant on Mack that hired 4,000 Detroiters; income tax collections that rose from $248 million 12 years ago to $470 million as more people moved into the city and new businesses opened, and a $550 million general fund reserve to help the city through any future fiscal storms. All of it news, that Duggan said, will equal a tax cut of at least $150 for city residents. "Because you stayed in the city of Detroit," Duggan said to applause. The mayor waxed poetic about the former Hudson's department store, where children would line up on the 12th floor for Christmas before the building eventually closed. And how, in 1998, the city demolished the building, leaving an empty patch in downtown Detroit for 30 years. Then, Detroit businessman Dan Gilbert took over the site and built the skyscraper standing today, marking Michigan's second tallest building. "Isn't it beautiful?" Duggan said. Duggan praised a host of his turnaround teamates in his speech, from the city council, to Detroit's 9,000 municipal employees, clergy, city and state officials, private residents and community groups, even former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who Duggan said has given Detroit 12 years of support for city services, census counts and public spaces — including the building of Spirit Plaza outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center on Jefferson. But the mayor had special praise for Gilbert for numerous other investments through his tenure, including moving Quicken Loans to downtown, restoring the Book Tower and covering delinquent property taxes for struggling residents. "Now there are 1,500 former renters in the city of Detroit who are homeowners ... because of the program that Dan started," Duggan said. "Dan has changed the course of the city in the last five years .. .and not for a single time, did he stop worrying about the welfare of the city of Detroit." Sitting in the front row, Gilbert received a grand applause from the audience. But he was not the only one Duggan thanked. The mayor said the city could not have emerged out of its hardships without the help of the community, including neighborhood block clubs, Detroit's clergy community and more, as he reflected on the last decade. Leaning into history, Duggan spoke of Hudson's closing, how the city grew with the Packard factory employing about 40,000 people to make vehicles and President Franklin D. Roosevelt calling on Detroit to make bombers and tanks, giving it its reputation as the "Arsenal of Democracy." But things took a turn. The Packard Plant closed in 1956 and the city's population began declining. Detroit was the fifth largest city in the nation in 1950, according to U.S. Census data Duggan referenced, and took a dip to 24th by 2010, resulting in a plethora of issues which followed. Half of the city's streetlights were inoperative, neighborhoods were lined with abandoned houses, recreation centers and at least 250 closed city parks, 200,000 residents moved out of the city and political leaders were fighting with each other across the state, and with unions. Duggan then made a decision to leave his executive role at Detroit Medical Center to run the city. Then, Detroit filed for chapter 9 bankruptcy in July 2013, months before Duggan took office. Within his first year in 2014, Detroit exited bankruptcy but Duggan still had several issues to tackle, including population decline, blight, crime and unemployment. Tuesday marked Duggan's final State of the City address as the mayor prepares to leave office to run for Michigan governor as an Independent candidate. Duggan's campaign geared up for the address by emailing a plea for donations for his gubernatorial campaign on Monday, pledging to deliver promises for Michiganders as he did "for the city of Detroit." When Detroit's unemployment rate reached nearly 20%, many predicted a "bleak" future for the city. Duggan attempted to maximize on the city's vacant land by bringing in manufacturers to develop sites, which would hire hundreds or even thousands. "I took what everybody said was a problem, our vacant land, and I took advantage," Duggan said, adding that several experts and national media snubbed the city for any potential of restoring its manufacturing industry. Flex-N-Gate in 2016 opened Detroit's first new auto industry plant in 20 years, hiring at least 500 employees. Lear Corporation took over the abandoned Hudson Motor Plant site to build a new seating plant, hiring 700 employees. Dakkota Integrated Systems opened a plant at the old Detroit Kettering High School site with 600 jobs. The Detroit Assembly Complex - Mack hired 4,000 Detroiters. Factory Zero hired 4,000 employees, along with 200 more at its parts facility at the former AMC Headquarters site. The old State Fairgrounds holds a "major business park" anchored by an Amazon Fulfillment Center, holding 2,400 employees. Duggan also credited the Ilitch family for building two office buildings on Woodward Avenue, and Huntington Bank headquarters for bringing in hundreds of jobs. Michigan Central Station was one of the more long-awaited developments, which reopened last year after years of abandonment and city leaders nearly demolishing the site. Ford Motor Co. purchased and restored the site, moving in 1,000 employees. In an effort to make Detroit competitive, the city offered discounts on new taxes, giving Ford a 25% discount to pay $300 million over 35 years instead of $400 million. Detroit's unemployment rate dramatically dropped to reach its lowest years later. The mayor also touted Detroit's income tax growth, which the bankruptcy plan approved by the court projected a 2% increase, reaching $326 million by the 2026 fiscal year. In his latest budget hearing, Duggan touted the city for collecting a 7% increase, reaching $470 million. "Our finances are better because of all the people working and living in the city, and paying their taxes," Duggan said. As Detroiters left, so would police. Detroit was considered the "most violent city" in 2014, Duggan said. In an attempt to retain police officers, the city provided officers $10,000 in raises, adding about 350 more officers on the streets and invested in crime reduction technology. "Ninety-nine percent of our positions are filled today because we're paying them," Duggan said. Community violence intervention initiatives like ShotStoppers reduced gun violence in the city. A movement to "defund the police" emerged amid racial justice protests in 2020, but the mayor pushed for more police and community violence intervention to reduce crime in the city. Duggan touted a major drop in homicides in 2024, marking the lowest rate since 1969. Homicides dropped by 38% since 2023, shootings dropped by 53% and carjackings are down by 56%, Duggan added. Additional investments led to hiring more EMTs, cross-trained firefighters and new ambulances. Detroit's fire department also reached response times below the national standard, which is eight minutes. The city at one point reported response times up to 58 minutes in 2013. Duggan was confronted with balancing the city's budget since taking office. In his latest budget address for the 2026 fiscal year, he proposed a $3 billion budget — up from $2.7 billion last year — and proposed investments in multiple areas, including homelessness initiatives and the Detroit Department of Transportation. Detroit's budget to address homelessness has more than doubled from $6 million in 2023 to $14 million in 2025, which is expected to increase shelters and beds. DDOT expects to add 45 more buses, and hire at least 63 more drivers and 24 mechanics, if Detroit City Council approves his budget proposal. DDOT is also running 178 buses daily but expects to run 220 this year. The city also expects to boost public safety by funding community violence intervention initiatives, if council approves. Several job training organizations, including Detroit at Work, JumpStart, have also trained more than 1,200 for various jobs across the city, providing wages from $18 to $60 an hour. Duggan highlighted that one of his main focuses was providing a riverfront for the public. The city planned a condo development 12 years ago on the east side of the riverfront, which would have taken up a large piece of it, Duggan added. He opposed the development and the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy stepped in to redevelop the East Riverfront into Gabriel Park, leading to further developments along one of Detroit's most visited attractions. That included Riverside Park on the west side of the riverfront, near the Ambassador Bridge. The park was previously abandoned and closed due to contaminated soil. The city is also rebuilding AB Ford Park on the east side. Duggan is also supporting a development plan to build a multisports complex on the former Uniroyal site. City Council recently nixed a previous long-stalled development plan. Michigan's tallest building, an icon of Detroit's skyline, has been a subject of demolition and redevelopment in a proposed effort to reimagine the riverfront. General Motors moved into the building in 2000 but recently announced it would move into Hudson's Detroit. "Since COVID, the RenCen is 80% vacant," Duggan said. "I had one request of Mary Barra. I said, 'Don't just sell the buildings.' " He pointed to several examples of building owners leaving buildings behind to deteriorate, including the Packard Plant, which partially collapsed at one point. "I love those five buildings, but I'm gonna be a mayor who faces reality," Duggan said. He credited Gilbert for the idea of preserving three of the towers to redevelop them into a hotel, offices and apartments with affordable housing. The plan also includes a quarter-mile park for an entertainment destination similar to Chicago's Navy Pier. After requests surfaced to transform the two proposed for demolition into housing, Duggan said it would be cheaper to build new apartments instead of renovating the towers, which would involve running plumbing through the building, and breaking through a concrete and steel plate ceiling. "You have to fight through 39 stories of concrete and steel," Duggan said. Duggan outlined a number of neighborhood developments and praised the NFL draft for the umpteenth time about its draw of 775,000 visitors. But he assured Detroiters that the city will be in a good shape in the next five years, indicating that if the city's income tax growth continues at its current rate, in five years, revenues will grow another $200 million. "I don't think a day goes by when someone says, 'What happens when you leave?' " Duggan said. "This city's best days are in front of you, I deeply believe that. You're going to have more days like we had last April." Touting the large visitor count with "no incidents," Duggan also celebrated that in two years, Detroit will have "an even bigger event ... when the Final Four comes to Detroit," receiving a grand applause and cheers from the audience moments before he ended his speech. "I'll be sitting in the audience as a guest, not as mayor, and I'll be cheering," Duggan said. "Nothing stops Detroit." Dana Afana is the Detroit city hall reporter for the Free Press. Contact: dafana@ Follow her: @DanaAfana. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mayor Mike Duggan delivers final 2025 State of the City address
CBS News
25-03-2025
- Business
- CBS News
How to watch Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's final State of the City address
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan will deliver his final State of the City address Tuesday evening. Duggan will give his thoughts on Detroit's future from inside Bedrock's new mixed-use development on the site of the former Hudson's department store. "For 40 years since Hudson's closed, this block has been a huge dead spot in the heart of downtown and a reminder of all that had left the city. Next week, most Detroiters will be able to get their first look inside and when it opens later this year, they will be able to once again feel a sense of wonder and pride being on the Hudson's block," said Duggan in a statement. CBS News Detroit is simulcasting live coverage of the address beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— In November 2024, Duggan announced he would not seek a fourth term in office . In December, Duggan followed up on that announcement by kicking off his campaign for Michigan governor , electing to run as an independent in the 2026 race. Duggan is Detroit's 75th mayor. He is serving his third four-year term and is the second-longest-serving mayor behind Coleman Young, who was elected to five terms and 20 years. His current term ends in January 2026. Duggan first took office in January 2014, and the city emerged from its historic bankruptcy in December of that year.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Suburbs trying to look less suburban by building downtowns
Downtown Battle Creek | Photo by Anna Gustafson On a warm day in 1968 a young Bob Seger rocked a crowd of 20,000 in front of a Hudson's department store, a highlight of the grand opening ceremonies for the sprawling Oakland Mall in Troy. Troy was a booming, relatively new Oakland County suburb that had been incorporated as a city just 13 years before the 1.5 million-square-foot 'super-regional' mall opened. Its motto was 'The City of Tomorrow . . . Today.' But today, the city of tomorrow is trying to look a bit more like the city of yesterday. Troy, Warren and Livonia are among numerous cookie-cutter suburbs across the country trying to build downtowns from scratch. The appeal of suburbs was long centered on the availability of land for spacious homes with large yards and huge shopping malls with plenty of parking. Newly built freeways made it easy for suburbanites to commute to jobs in the city. Racial tensions resulted in massive white flight from Detroit and other large cities. About 120,000 white people fled Detroit for the suburbs in just the first two years after the 1967 riots, according to the Detroit Historical Society. But today, the suburbs have lost much of their retail mojo. The Hudson's (now Macy's) store Bob Seger played in front of, is closing this month. Oakland and many other malls are struggling to survive. About 1,800 U.S. malls have closed since the 1980s. Only about 700 are left. Online shopping has crippled brick-and-mortar retail, especially since the Covid pandemic. And many younger residents want to live in places with a more urban vibe. 'The whole way people acquire stuff is changing significantly,' Robin Boyle, a retired Wayne State University urban planning professor, told me. 'They want to go somewhere to eat and drink and have some fun. That's what's driving this.' Officials in Livonia cite the need for new, younger residents at the heart of plans to build a downtown, formally known as a city center, on 27 acres of property that is currently occupied by city offices. Livonia, which had a population of nearly 101,000 in 1990, has lost almost 9,000 residents in the past 35 years. The city's proposal calls for a mixed-use, open-air development containing retail shops, restaurants and housing. The center would feature a network of sidewalks and bike paths that would connect to the larger community. Mayor Maureen Bosnan told the Detroit News 'that if we do this right, this is the way to make sure that Livonia is the place that our kids want to come home to.' She said a downtown is 'a missing piece' in the city. Warren, a Macomb County suburb that's also the state's third-largest city, is trying for a second time to create a downtown from scratch. It's working on resurrecting most of a $170 million plan that called for housing, retail and a hotel adjacent to Warren's city hall and library. That development proposal died in 2022 when the Warren City Council voted against financial support for the project. Troy has built an expansive city center featuring luxury apartments, and mostly chain retail stores, restaurants and hotels at the busy intersection of Big Beaver Road and I-75. Boyle, a longtime member of the Birmingham planning commission, said one problem with these new city centers is that they lack the diversity and authenticity of long-established downtowns. 'Most of the successful ones are where there are old buildings,' he said. These include older suburbs such as Royal Oak, Ferndale and Clawson that have revitalized walkable downtowns where the tenants are 'overwhelmingly food and drinking establishments.' Robert Gibbs, a Birmingham-based planner who has designed city centers around the country, said about 75% of them either underperform financially or fail. The successful ones usually have strong anchor stores, including grocery stores and convenient parking, but also mimic the feel of a traditional downtown, he said. One example is the Village of Rochester Hills, a Gibbs-designed shopping center that's anchored by an upscale Von Maur department store and a Whole Foods grocery. Most of the retail and restaurants in the Village are national brands. But it also has city-like streets and sidewalks. Major retailers are attracted to such centers, which also provide healthy tax revenues to local governments, Gibbs said. Many of these centers are in what Gibbs calls 'edge cities,' such as Troy, that are located in the outer ring of metro areas. Overall, the suburbs are still growing, particularly those farthest away from urban cores. Experts say that may be attributable to lower housing costs in those areas and more people working from home since the Covid pandemic. But some bedroom communities are trying to attract younger residents who want something more than look-alike housing and big-box retailers. Building downtowns is one strategy. 'Edge cities are just plain boring,' Gibbs said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
