The hotel to replace Kroger selected

Last year, I asked "A hotel to replace Kroger?"  The answer is yes.

Royal Oak Patch: Planning Commission OKs Hotel Complex

By a 7-2 vote, the Royal Oak Planning Commission approved a special land use and final special redevelopment site plan for an 8-story hotel complex at the site of the former Fresard auto dealership at 400 N. Main St. at its meeting Tuesday.

The plan will now move to the Royal Oak City Commission for its approval of a development agreement.

The site and landscaping plan for an 8-story hotel, an 8-story apartment building, a pair of office buildings and a 4-level off-street parking deck has essentially not changed very much since it last appeared before the planning commission in December, said Royal Oak City Planner Doug Hedges.

That was last June.  At that time, there was one precondition to getting the project approved.

In his comments, Hedges strongly went over the Planning Department’s recommendation that a hotel be part of any first phase of the project.

“I can not emphasize enough how adamant the director of planning (Tim Thwing) is that this contingency be included,” Hedges said, adding, “It is our strong opinion, and it’s been stated in the public hearing, that the whole project as been more or less predicated on the hotel. And, it is our opinion that that needs to be done first before anything else. It may be harsh but our opinion is no hotel, no project.”

Hedges remarks drew approval from the audience. The closest resident to the proposed development, Nikki Martinez on Pingree, acknowledged she was excited about the hotel and would not be a fan of the development without it.

To date, the petitioner has not named a hotelier and no contingency was added about naming one.

That hurdle has now been cleared.

Royal Oak Patch: Royal Oak Hotel Development Moves Forward with Hyatt Place

After months of silence, an announcement is made regarding a proposed 8-story hotel complex at 400 N. Main St., the site of the former Fresard auto dealership.
...
"The 400 N. Main project is still moving forward," said [Architect Jason] Krieger, who is also a DDA director. "I know it's been quiet, but they had to do their due diligence and their feasibility study. The (hotel) picked is going to be the Hyatt Place."
...
"I will say I have stayed in Hyatt Places many times. They are very nice hotels," said Jay Dunstan, DDA chairperson. "It going to be a great addition to downtown."

I'm looking forward to the the completed hotel.  I've even looking forward to the construction.  It's more entertaining to walk past a construction site than a vacant lot as I head downtown.  As for driving, I have alternate routes to avoid the congestion and I'll be happy to put up with the traffic to see this all done.

Also, there is enough tourism to keep the hotel afloat, what with the Dream Cruise, the Detroit Auto Show, and the Detroit Zoo, to say nothing of downtown Royal Oak as an entertainment destination for people coming in during business trips and relatives coming in to visit residents during the rest of the year.  When all that stops, we'll have bigger problems to worry about then whether the town can support a hotel.

Update on the Royal Oak dog census

The Dog census I described last month has been postponed.  WXYZ reports in Royal Oak dog ordinance takes effect today, census delayed.


It looks like the dog license registration effort has been a success.  How much of one?  C&G Newspapers stated that there were "only about 3,500 active dog licenses" issued in Royal Oak before the amnesty began last month.  This week, Royal Oak Patch followed up.

"For the month of June, we issued 2,079 dog licenses," City Clerk Melanie Halas said. The total number of dogs licensed in Royal Oak as of June 30 is 5,348.

The number of licenses issued looks familiar.

More than 2,700 dog owners without a valid license have purchased them as a result of the county's beefed-up census, and workers won't finish their work until mid-October.

Royal Oak managed to do almost that well just by offering an amnesty.  Let's see how much the extra week does, and then the census after that.

As for me, I paid for my dogs' licenses on Friday, saving $42 in the process.  I'm just waiting for the tags to come in the mail.

Hermann's Bakery open again

It seems my eyes deceived me yesterday, when I wrote that I saw that Hermann's Bakery was closed. The latest Royal Oak Patch article on the story reported that it was open Friday.

Hermann's Bakery reopened at 9 a.m. Friday after being closed for nearly a week after a roof collapse at La Feast, the restaurant next door. ... On Wednesday, Hermann’s learned its building was safe to occupy. Stodola said employees came back to work on Thursday and baked overnight to restock shelves.

I swear I saw the yellow "Unsafe for Occupancy" signs in its windows, as well as those of its neighbors. At least my eyes weren't tricking me about their status.

Beyond Juice and La Feast both remain closed. Craig said he has not received a letter (engineer's report) from the owners of those two buildings stating the structures are safe. Beyond Juice leases its space; the owner of that building needs to sign off on reopening. "I got a call from the owner of Beyond Juice asking if they could reopen because they noticed Hermann's was," said Craig. "I told him I need a letter from the owner of the building saying it's safe." Beyond Juice leases their building space.

As for La Feast, if the building isn't safe for occupancy, it might have to be demolished and rebuilt to bring it up to code.

Hermann’s was built in 1902 and the La Feast building in 1908. For a century, they shared a common wall which supported both roofs. Stodola says owner Richard Hermann knew about the wall. Jason Craig, the city's chief building official, said any rebuilding will require the new structure to meet current codes — any new construction must have its own load-bearing walls.

The article doesn't report what the owners of La Feast think about this possiblity, but Pam Stodola, the manager of Hermann's, would like it.

Stodola says she welcomes new walls, which will prevent noise and odors from passing from building to building. “Sometimes when they were cooking, smoke would come through the walls and it would make our building smell like something was burning,” she said.

This will be an ongoing story. I'll keep you all updated.

Sometimes, it isn't such a quiet neighborhood

In last night's post, I mentioned that I had more to write, but was saving it for later. Later has arrived.

There was one more storefront that had a story to tell, that of the the neighborhood pizza joint. I haven't blogged about it before, so it didn't fit the theme of Return at the time. Now that I've mentioned it already, it does. Like La Feast, Hermann's Bakery, and Beyond Juice, it was closed because of an accident, but this story is shorter and has a happier ending.

I was cleaning off my front porch when I noticed a procession of cars driving down my street. For a moment, I thought they were part of a funeral, with everyone leaving one of the two cemetaries that border my neighborhood for a wake at on of the houses on my street. Then, I saw the lights of a police car reflected in the side windows of the cars down the block. That piqued my curiosity, so I walked down to the end of the block, where the cars were turning onto my street. There I saw not only the police car, but a ribbon of yellow police line tape closing off the major street, the next side street, all of the next block and most of the block beyond that. I also smelled gas, as did several of my neighbors who had heard a crash and went out to investigate.

I walked into the parking lot behind the building in the first closed block and saw that yellow police tape also comepletely encircled the pizza place. I also saw a car parked against the building and someone digging into the parkway strip on the side street beside the pizzeria. Not only could I smell the gas, I could hear it rushing out of a broken pipe. I figured that the man was digging to find the turnoff valve. I returned home to tell my wife what was going on.

A while later, I observed a fire truck driving down our street, which I was sure had come from the pizza place. That was enough to make me walk over to the scene of the gas line break. In addition to the fire engine that had just left, there were two police cars, a Royal Oak Department of Public Services van, a Consumers Energy van, a backhoe, and a flatbed truck to haul away the wrecked car. I guess the guy with the shovel wasn't enough for the task. By this time, the smell and sound of escaping gas were gone. I also got a better look at the car parked alongside the building. Its bumper and front fender had collapsed. I couldn't tell exactly what happened, but it looked like the car had run into the gas meter. I came back one last time that night and one of the gas company's crew confirmed that was exactly what had happened.

This afternoon, the pizza place had reopened and everything looked normal, except for the skid marks that led from the major street onto the side street, and up the curb and the car's paint that had been scraped onto the building, leaving what looked like a gigantic bruise. All the employees inside were fine, even the ones that had been working the night before. They told me that the building shook when it was hit and they thought a truck had collided with the place. They were lucky it was only a small car.

If you want to see what the accident scene looked like, Royal Oak Patch has pictures.

Return: Storm damage from the past two Saturdays

Two follow-ups tonight.

First, if you remember the tree on Navy Street in Detroit that knocked down power lines, damaged a gas line, and started a house on fire over Labor Day weekend, it turns out it still hadn't been cleaned up by yesterday.




Action News works to get Navy street cleaned up after a tree fell across it.

The City of Detroit followed through with their promise to remove the fallen tree today.

A large tree has been removed from Navy Street in Detroit, 10 days after a tree blew down and blocked their road.

I'm glad to see that WXYZ is getting some results from the City of Detroit.

Next, it turned out that Tropical Storm Lee did more locally than make basements damp (mine has finally dried out). It contributed to a roof collapse, closing five businesses in Royal Oak, three of which are still closed.

Last night's storm knocked out power to 120,000 customers and damaged mobile homes

Last night, I quoted from a Royal Oak Patch article about the effects of the storm on nearby communities.

Meanwhile, Royal Oak and surrounding communities were especially hard hit by the storm; DTE Energy's website indicated at 12:20 a.m. that nearly 4,400 customers were without power in Royal Oak's zip code areas of 48067 and 48073. Ferndale had more than 6,000 homes without power, and Pleasant Ridge, Oak Park and Madison Heights had thousands left powerless as well.

Tom Wait of WXYZ reports from Pleasant Ridge about the power outages from the storm there.






Power outages in Metro Detroit

The Detroit Free Press also focused on Pleasant Ridge as they reported that Storm cleanup continues as 59,000 still without power in metro Detroit.

Residents in John Monaghan’s neighborhood in Pleasant Ridge spent today working with city crews and one another, using chain saws and rakes to remove debris from the area.


The damage from Saturday’s storms -- which knocked out power to 120,000 customers -- included many downed trees and branches, said Monaghan, who lives on Cambridge Street.
...
Nearly 59,000 DTE customers remained without power at 9:45 p.m. tonight after rain and winds of up to 70 m.p.h. swept through southeastern Michigan the day before. DTE Energy spokesman Scott Simons said the powerful storms downed more than 1,000 wires across the area as line crews were busy clearing debris, trees and branches. He said the utility expects to have power restored to up to 90% of the remaining customers by Monday evening.
...
Simons said additional help was on the way, as 70 crews are expected to return tonight from helping restore power to those affected by Hurricane Irene. Another 70 crews from other utilities also should to arrive tonight to help with the power restoration.

Yes, Hurricane Irene is having an indirect effect here in metro Detroit, even more than a week after it hit.

More than power was knocked out.

Thunderstorms disrupt Michigan season opener, Arts, Beats, and Eats, and other events

In Preview of Arts, Beats, and Eats, I made the following pledge.

I promise to keep you all updated as the news comes in.

It seems that the weather is not cooperating with event organizers who want Saturdays free of bad weather. Two weeks ago, a severe thunderstorm hit the last day of Woodward Dream Cruise, knocking down trees, causing damage to homes, and briefly canceling the event. Tonight, the same thing happened to Arts, Beats, and Eats and other events here in southeast Michigan.

Here's the warning from WXYZ.




Severe Thunderstorm Warning

At first, the cell in the video was just a threat to Washtenaw County, where the University of Michigan was playing. Don Shane reported on the calling of the game for weather.

WXYZ Sports Director Don Shane joins Tom Leyden on the phone with a first-hand account of what transpired at Michigan Stadium this afternoon as the Wolverines beat Western Michigan 34-10 in a weather-shortened delay.

This is the first time that a game at Michigan Stadium has ever been called for weather. That tells you how bad the storm was. The 11 PM news updated the report with the perspective of the coach and players themselves.

Brad Galli reports from Ann Arbor where the Brady Hoke era started with 130 degree temperatures and an on-and-off severe weather storm that eventually postponed the season opener.

Talk about extreme weather! Also, bet you didn't think I'd blog about sports in a sustainability blog. As you can see, I do when it supports a point about climate change. Yes, I know weather isn't climate change, but the combination of extreme heat followed by the first football game cancellation in U of M's history sure says something.

The storm eventually traveled to Oakland and Wayne counties, where they caused problems for events there.

Preview of Arts, Beats, and Eats

Woodward Dream Cruise may herald the coming of the end of summer, but it isn't the actual event that is the end of summer. That distinction belongs to Arts, Beats, and Eats. Here's today's coverage from WXYZ-TV's YouTube Channel and Royal Oak Patch.




Arts, Beats & Eats




Setup is continuing for Arts, Beats and Eats which opens tomorrow.

That's the video teaser from WXYZ. Here's the festival guide from Royal Oak Patch.

2011 Arts, Beats & Eats Guide0
What to see, hear and eat, as well as everything you need to know to enjoy the fest.
By Judy Davids

Oakland County’s biggest summer festival celebrating art, music, and food happens this weekend in downtown Royal Oak and Patch has you covered. Here's what you need to know to enjoy the popular event.

Arts, Beats & Eats: Guide to the Arts

What to see at the Juried Fine Arts Show, one of the major parts of the festival.

I don't know if I miss the Ann Arbor Art Fairs enough to look at the art show.  Good thing there's more going on than just art.

Arts, Beats & Eats: What to Hear

Check out this lineup.

Vince Gill, Brett Michaels, Panic at the Disco and George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic are the main headliners on the Michigan Lottery National Recording Artists Stage this year, but there another 250 acts performing on 10 other stages.

If my wife and I had more energy, there were places to sit (I think we would have to stand), and the weather were a little cooler, we'd be very tempted to go. We might not miss the music entirely. Last year, we could hear the bands playing from our house, more than a mile away.

Oh, yes, the Eats: Arts, Beats & Eats: Where to Dine

There'll be plenty of choices from nearly 70 food vendors at the festival. Now, where to go first?

This all looks very tempting. However, not only could I hear the music last year, but the event was so well attended that it exceeded capacity several times and entry was closed. Talk about being too successful for its own good! Just the same, I promise to keep you all updated as the news comes in.

Final day and night of 2011 Woodward Dream Cruise

Welcome to the the last day of the Woodward Dream Cruise, featuring clips from WXYZ-TV's YouTube Channel.

The festivities began before dawn with Kim Russell interviewing the hot rod and classic car enthusiasts at Memorial Park in Royal Oak.




Hot Rods at Memorial Park

Kroger in Royal Oak, the videos

In the intro to part one of last week's sustainability news linkspam, I mentioned "a local sustainability issue that looks like just a zoning and development issue, but has turned into something else entirely" in passing. In the spirit of "a picture is worth 1000 words," I give you these videos from WXYZ-TV. Issues of sustainable local business and sustainable built environment pop up all through both videos, including a mention of Royal Oak's walkable neighborhoods and walkable downtown. Then, there's the accusations of corruption by a lobbyist for the convenience store competitors of the proposed Kroger. And you thought city council meetings were boring.








I have a lot more to write about this issue, including coverage from Royal Oak Patch that follows up on the meetings and the provides more detail and my personal opinion of this (it's a very local issue for me, as the site in question is within walking distance of where my wife and I live--she has an opinion, too), but I have to run an errand and go to work. Stay tuned!

It's redistricting time!

WOOD-TV 8 on YouTube: The Michigan Republicans released their plan to redraw congressional districts

Royal Oak Patch: Levin, Peters Slam Republicans for 'Gerrymandered' Plan for New Districts
Under the GOP proposal released Friday, the Royal Oak and Bloomfield Township Democrats would be put in the same district.
By Beth Reeber Valone

A Republican proposal for redistricting Michigan's U.S. Congressional districts would have the entire city represented by one congressman rather than two and lumps those current two reps – Democrats Sander Levin and Gary Peters – into one redrawn 9th District.

The plan released Friday essentially moves Peters of Bloomfield Township into the redrawn district of Royal Oak's Levin, which is mostly Levin's current 12th District of Macomb County with a small portion of Oakland County.
...
Peters and Levin quickly issued a joint statement Friday blasting the Republicans for the most “shamelessly partisan” plan the state has ever seen:

“Instead of drawing fair lines that follow community and county borders in a logical way, the Republican legislature has drafted a map so skewed that it exploits every trick in the book to gerrymander districts in ways that benefit Republican incumbents," the Congressmen's statement said. "The legislature and Governor Snyder should reject this gerrymandered map and draw congressional boundaries in a way that puts Michigan voters’ interests squarely ahead of flagrant partisan advantage."

I've seen this movie before. In 2002, the Republicans in the state legislature dealt with Michigan's losing a U.S. House seat by pitting the most junior Democratic Representative, Lynn Rivers, against the Dean of the House, John Dingell. Rivers was the only Democrat elected to the U.S. House in the Republican wave election of 1994, so they had it in for her. What happened then was that neither Rivers nor Dingell backed down, so they faced each other in a primary. I was rooting for Rivers, as she had been my representative when I lived in Ann Arbor, but I couldn't vote for her, as I was living in Lenawee County, which was in the 7th District. She could have used my vote, as she lost.

As for what's going to happen here, I'm taking a wait-and-see approach. I worked on Peters' campaign last year, but I've been holding off on contributing to him for 2012 until the dust has settled from redistricting. Because I like both candidates, I'm hoping the two of them make a decision for me so that I don't have to. Otherwise, I'm faced with a quandry. Do I support Peters because I've worked for him before and I think he's better for the future of the party in Michigan (he's the second youngest member of the Michigan Democratic Caucus in the U.S. House) or do I support Levin because he's more progressive and would be favored in what is really his old district? I don't know yet.

Allow me this aside about Rivers' election in 1994. It was a choice between her and a young Republican activist. My ex-wife, a staunch Republican, put pressure on me to not vote for Rivers. Her political motto was "No Dumb-dumb-crats in this house!" I really preferred Rivers, who was familiar to me because of her service on the Ann Arbor School Board, but decided to honor the letter of my ex-wife's demand by deliberately throwing a away my vote by casting it for the Libertarian candidate in the race. After we walked out of the polling place, she asked, "You didn't vote for any Democrats, did you?" I could truthfully answer yes. Not having to pull stunts like that is one of many good reasons I'm happy to no longer be married to that woman!

Aside over. I'm not the only one taking a wait-and-see attitude. According to the Detroit News, Peters' opponent in 2010 is as well.

Republican Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski , who narrowly lost to U.S. Rep. Gary Peters in November, isn't so sure about running again for Congress in 2012.

"We'll see what happens," Raczkowski told Insider, noting he's focusing on his family.

Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, defeated Raczkowski 50 percent to 47 percent in November. Raczkowski said in January he'd "absolutely" try for a rematch if there is a winnable district after remapping.

Now, as Michigan lawmakers are redrawing the 15 congressional district lines to 14 due to population losses, the 9th District is looking like a political firestorm. A GOP draft plan first published by The News showed Peters' Oakland County district combining with that of Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, setting the stage for a possible incumbent showdown.

One likely Republican challenger, state Rep. Marty Knollenberg, is interested in taking back the seat lost by his father Joe in 2008. Knollenberg also sits on the state House's redistricting committee that helps redraw the district lines.

I don't think Marty McFly is going to take back the 9th District from either Democrat.

Redistricting is creating lesser controversies in state races as well.

Detroit News: GOP's Senate redistricting map weakens Detroit, Wayne County
Paul Egan/ Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing — A loss of clout for Detroit and Wayne County is reflected in the Michigan Senate redistricting map drawn by state Republicans.

The map, first published and reported on by The News this morning, was released by the Michigan Senate shortly after noon today. It would result in significant changes in the boundary lines of most of the state's 38 Senate districts. Since the GOP controls both chambers of the Legislature and has a majority of nominees on the Michigan Supreme Court that could ultimately decide the issue, the map could closely reflect the changes ultimately made to account for population losses and shifts documented in the recent census.

Wayne County would drop to seven senators, from eight.

And for the first time, no Senate district would be wholly contained within the boundaries of the city of Detroit, meaning it would be possible to have a Michigan Legislature with no Detroit senators. The current Senate has four senators from Detroit, which over the last decade saw its population drop by 25 percent, from about 950,000 to less than 715,000.

The shoes aren't finished dropping. The Democrats will release their plan today. Good luck getting that one passed.

And, yes, I changed my mind from yesterday, when I thought I'd do the other story and save this one for later. It turns out this was the story that was ready, not the other one. I'll tackle that one later.

ETA: For my previous post on redistricting, click here and scroll down to the bottom of the post to the last article of the leftover linkspam. There you will find a link to an Oakland Press article and video explaining the process.