Le Petit Zinc crêperie and cafe--a Detroit Community Success Story

As someone who has greatly enjoyed the food and hospitality offered by Charles Sorel's Le Petit Zinc creperie and cafe, I was glad to see it featured on the NY Times Op Ed page yesterday in an article by Toby Barlow. Along with Slows Bar B Q, Le Petit Zinc is one of the great signs of what is possible in Detroit for creative entrepreneurs supported by the community--

Toby Barlow's Oct 24 NY Times Op Ed piece begins:

I was recently sitting at the bar of Le Petit Zinc talking to the owner, Charles Sorel, when he said something I found shocking: “I can’t imagine opening a business anywhere but Detroit.”

From a local, I would have just written it off as city pride, but Charles is, as he himself puts it, a citizen of the world. Born in the French Caribbean and reared in Paris, he ran a French joint in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene and lived in Brazil before winding up here. When I pointed out the risks of starting up in a city as troubled as Detroit, he shrugged it off. “When I moved to New York in the late ’80s there was not a day when someone in the city wasn’t robbed or beaten or killed,” he said. “This is so much better than that.”

A year ago, Charles opened Le Petit Zinc with the simple belief that there was a market here for a crêperie and cafe that served fresh organic food at a decent price. But that was certainly no guarantee of success....

But as I also heard from Charles, the support of the community, including other food owners who could have treated Charles as a competitor, has made the success of Le Petit Zinc something for the entire community to celebrate:

The owner of Slows, a barbecue place nearby, not only helped him get his permits, but also built tabletops for him at no cost. Jordi, the owner of the Cafe con Leche coffee shop, hooked him up with his coffee supplier. Dave, who had recently opened Supino Pizza, even dropped everything one day to get the paper Charles needed for his credit card machine.

Most surprisingly, just as Charles was starting up, Torya Blanchard was opening another downtown crêpe place called Good Girls Go to Paris. Instead of treating Charles like a rival, Torya happily exchanged recipes with him, even coming in one day to help make his batter, an act of crêperie solidarity that would surely have made Detroit’s founder, Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac, extremely proud.

“They want their neighbor to make it,” he says. “It’s different from anywhere I’ve been. Here, your success is their success.” Even his suppliers have shown a generosity he finds surprising: the Avalon bakery charges him wholesale prices even if he orders just one loaf....

So cheers to Charles and to all who have helped to make Le Petit Zinc a Detroit success story in 2009!

Read the rest of Toby Barlow's article here, and a Model D article about Let Petit Zinc from February 2009 here.

Le Petit Zinc is located at 1055 Trumbull Street, just west of the Lodge and two blocks north of Fort Street.

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS ON YOUTH CRIME

ACTIONS OF PARENTS AND LEADERS, MORE THAN OUTRAGE, ARE KEY TO BREAKING CYCLE OF VIOLENCE

By Luther Keith
Executive Director, ARISE Detroit!

Here we go again.

After a rash of youth related killings, assaults and car-jackings, we have seen the usual hand-wringing and declarations of outrage on editorial pages, talk shows and from pundits of all kinds, including those of the barber shop and beauty salon variety.

But outrage alone-- while it does have some value and makes for great headlines and media dramatics -- is not enough.

We need a plan and we need to work like heck to make the plan work. We must have staying power, understand that there is no microwave, no magic bullet or quick-fix solution that can be prescribed by any politician, preacher, celebrity or even the president of the United States.

Looking for answers?

Look in the mirror. Look around you. Look on your block. Look in your community.

It is on us folks, all of us parents, all of us teachers, anyone who cares about our future and our community in Detroit and beyond, in Michigan and beyond.

First of all, it is not a youth problem; it is a parent problem, an adult problem. Children do not raise themselves.

Listen to Keith Bennett of Goodwill Industries of Detroit and the mastermind behind the Flip The Script male responsibility program that has redirected the lives of more than 1,000 young African American males, many of whom at one point walked on the wrong side of the law.

“I’ve been working with kids since I was coaching in 1971 and kids have not changed,” Bennett said. “What has changed is the things we tolerate as parents. We make excuses and have lowered the bar.

“Whenever I see kids out on the street behaving badly and acting improperly, that means somebody has not finished their business (of raising their children). We started the process by bringing them into the world but didn’t finish the process of raising them to maturation so they will know how to behave.

“If you do your work inside the home, you won’t have to worry about them on the street.”

Frank McGhee directs the Youth Initiatives Project, a youth leadership program for the Neighborhood Services Organization (NSO).

He wants to see the community as a whole become more actively engaged in efforts to direct young people in the right direction, showing outrage over crime and violence, but also moving beyond displays of rage.

“The community has got to stop saying it is not my problem (until I am personally affected),” McGhee said. “When they do that, young people will respond. These kids are only copying what they see adults do.”

McGhee views the violence as a deterrent to educational achievement.

"If you are struggling with violence, scared to go to school, you won’t be able to do well in school,” he said.

Of course, law enforcement has a huge role to play in this and McGhee wants to see a better job of curtailing the purchase of illegal weapons which too often ends up in the hands of young people.

Finally, he wants to see elected officials not just saying more, but doing more on the issue of crime and violence.

Of course, Bennett and McGhee are both right.

However, there is a laundry list of other contributing factors as well, including the societal glorification of violence in all forms of media, the failure to make all children understand the value of education, the fraying of the family unit and the proliferation of illegal drugs which continues to wreak a devastating toll on our community.

I submit, in keeping with the mission and spirit of ARISE Detroit!, we need to find a way to engage EVERYONE – churches, businesses, schools and individuals – with the idea that we all have a personal stake in creating good in our community.

It’s not about one organization, one campaign or one agenda.

During WW II, Detroit was known as the Arsenal of Democracy for turning out material for the war effort and all Detroiters, indeed all Americans, had a stake in doing something to achieve the common goal of victory for our nation.

We need no less a commitment now.

That means whatever skill, talent, concern, interest or belief you have, find a way to use it to contribute it to the righteous cause of community transformation.

There are some things you can do RIGHT NOW that can have a positive impact, in some cases immediately, on the lives of our young people and the health of our community.

Take a child to school, even if not your own. Take a child to church, even if not your own. Read to a child, even if not your own. Teach a child to read, even if not your own.

Become a mentor, become a tutor.

Become a Big Brother or a Big Sister. Join 100 Black Men. Join the Detroit Parent Network and learn what’s going on in the schools and how you can help.

Get involved with the Boy Scouts, the Girls Scouts.

Find out what your church is doing to promote positive youth development.

Go over to YouthVille Detroit and learn how you can help with any of their many worthwhile youth programs, including the Peace Project.

Connect with Communities in Schools of Detroit and get plugged in to volunteer at a school.

Contact the Detroit Public Library and become a literacy tutor.

Find out what your block club is doing for neighborhood youth. If you don’t have a block club, form one.

Call the United Way of Southeastern Michigan and look into volunteer opportunities. Call ARISE Detroit!, 313-921-1955, or go to our website, www.arisedetroit.org, and register for any of the more than 400 programs and thousands of volunteer opportunities.

If you can’t do any of that, just sit on your front porch and make sure the kids in your neighborhood are safe when they walk home from school.

Those are just a few of my ideas. Let me hear some of yours, and more importantly, let me hear what you are DOING.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact Luther Keith at lkeith@arisedetroit.org

Detroit's Katrina: Where is the National Response to Assist Detroit's Residents in Rebuilding Their City?

From "Community-Based Preparedness" (Oct. 14, 2009)

On October 7, an estimated 30-50,000 Detroit residents descended on Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit--not to escape the ravages of a hurricane, but with the simple hope of being able to escape the increasing ravages of homelessness and hunger that are threatening many of Detroit's residents.

This human surge was a response to news that 3500 federal grants were available to assist city residents needing temporary housing assistance to avoid homelessness. This is how badly the residents of Detroit are hurting. But they've been hurting for a long time--so long, in fact, that the nation seems to yawn whenever they hear another story like this one, which hit the headlines only days after TIME magazine's lead cover story on "The Tragedy of Detroit."

Detroit has been drawing a lot of media attention over the last year, and has now even "earned" for itself the "honor" of a Detroit office for TIME magazine with a front page cover titled "The Tragedy of Detroit" that launched its one-year "Assignment Detroit" project. This project will feature Detroit-area stories over the next year.

But while the "tragedy" of Detroit has been receiving news coverage, along with a lot of freelance photographic coverage of its decaying urban architecture, the slow-moving tsunami that has devastated Detroit's human population over the last decade has received no national or federal response similar to the kind New Orleans received after the Katrina disaster.

While Katrina devastated New Orleans in a single week in August 2005, Detroit has been in crisis for decades, the victim of repeated waves of slow-moving economic "hurricanes" that have left Detroit's physical and human infrastructure severely damaged. And of course this damage has only been magnified over the last year by the triple hurricane of the national economic recession, the crisis of the auto industry, and a series of local governmental scandals that have virtually paralyzed Detroit government for more than a year.

Detroit's citizens have been needing an effective and responsive government, and we can now hope that the long series of elections of Mayor and City Council in 2009 will yield the kind of government in 2010 that will work with, rather than against, the community and its energy and capacity to bring about change in Detroit. While more efficiency in government spending is clearly necessary, this efficiency cannot be achieved by cutting the basic services needed by Detroit's residents, such as public transportation, which are already at bare-bones levels.

Meanwhile, the nation seems to react to every story of about the Detroit "tragedy" with a collective yawn.

Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans suddenly, and its devastating impact--largely the result of human neglect and failed response--was highlighted every night on the national news for weeks at a time. President Bush's miserably failed leadership in response to this crisis helped to raise New Orleans to the center of national consciousness, and it became a symbol of the racialized impacts of bad policy, neglect, and the poor planning that made the nation take the Katrina disaster in New Orleans to its heart, and respond in kind. For a moment, at least, the nation even seemed to admit that in spite of its desire to be colorblind, racial inequities and racism were still major determining factors in American life.

Detroit is a twin sister to New Orleans, not only in its French heritage, but in its suffering as a result of the racialized impacts of bad policy, neglect, and poor planning over many decades. Yet Detroit is the twin sister whose major needs have been all but ignored by the nation--even though the needs of its citizens, and of the city as a whole, are just as great, and perhaps even greater now, than those of New Orleans.

The twinned collapse of the national economy and the local auto economy have left Detroit with a depression-level 30% unemployment rate, and a rate of housing abandonment that probably surpasses that of any other city in the nation. Without having suffered the destruction of the wall of water that devastated the lower ninth ward in NOLA, significant parts of Detroit closely resemble NOLA's most devastated ward.

But where is the national surge of response to help Detroit's residents, its nonprofit organizations, and its local government to recover from this disaster?

We need a national recovery program that will fund the many nonprofit organizations and residents in Detroit to put the city back to work rebuilding itself. As someone who has gotten to know many of the amazing people and organizations in Detroit who have been doing great work under the most trying circumstances for many years with very limited resources, I've seen the great things that are possible for Detroit--if only the nation will move beyond simply telling the story of Detroit's tragedy, and will instead move to funding Detroit's recovery.

Detroiters are ready to rebuild their beloved city. They have the passion, the energy, the commitment, and the vision for rebuilding. All they need is some help with the financial resources, which have been drained from the city for several decades.

The nation and much of the rest of the state of Michigan has stood idly by for decades and watched the city decline. Some, but not all, of Detroit's problems have been self-inflicted. The state of Michigan is now in almost as desperate an economic condition as Detroit, so has not been able to extend much help to Detroit in the current crisis. And so Detroit's recovery requires and demands a national response.

Its time for the nation to stop yawning, and to start doing what is necessary to lift up the city that was once the arsenal of its democracy. Its citizens can make the city great again, with a bit of help from their fellow citizens across the nation, and from our shared federal government.

So let this be an appeal for shared labor and collective national investment in the future of Detroit and its residents. For the fate of Detroit over the next several years will signal, in many ways, the fate of our entire nation.

Toward a Green Reconstruction of Detroit

Toward a Green Reconstruction

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Another Detroit is Possible, IF WE WORK TOGETHER TO CREATE IT

Detroiters are committed to building a vibrant, inclusive, equitable, participatory politics that is not beholden to the practices of exclusion and POWER-ELITISM of any kind (including class, race, and intellectual elitism). We especially reject the kind of politics that seeks to present itself as "another politics" that is IN THEORY a better politics, but that IN PRACTICE is simply another politics of exclusion being created by and for the privileged....

After my weekend experience (below) of trying to attend a meeting in Detroit about how "another politics is possible," and being told that if you had not been directly invited to the meeting, you could not participate in the discussion, I was reminded of all the ways the practice of narrowly exclusive in-group politics has frustrated the best intentions for creating a "new politics" in the past.

The basic principle of any truly democratic and inclusive politics is that its ideals need to be reflected in practice. If there is a major contradiction between ideals and practice, there is a major problem with the implementation of the vision of that politics.

We've seen this contradiction between ideal and practice result in disaster repeatedly in the political history in the past: in the founding of our own country on principles of equality that allowed slavery to be instituted in practice at the heart of our political constitution; and in the various examples of capitalist, socialist, or communist governments in the past, where stated principles of equality were overwhelmed by practices of exclusion, inequality, and violent repression.

Since there was nothing on the meeting announcement for "Another Politics is Possible" (see below) saying it was closed to all but the invited, I assumed it was an open meeting that would be dedicated to the discussion of HOW TO CREATE A MORE INCLUSIVE DEMOCRATIC POLITICS OF ORGANIZING THAT INVOLVES ALL PEOPLE EQUITABLY.

And since it was a meeting being held in Detroit, I also assumed that this meeting to discuss how another politics is possible would especially be open and inviting to Detroiters.

But unfortunately my assumptions proved to be naive. I arrived at the meeting place only to be told the meeting was not open, and was only for people--mostly from elsewhere in the country--who had already been discussing amongst themselves how another politics is possible for a year or so.

I was told these folks had decided to meet "intentionally" in Detroit to continue their private conversation. I appealed to several of the organizers, trying to suggest that perhaps, since they were meeting in Detroit, they might want to consider opening their meeting to the participation of a few people from Detroit who were committed not just to talking about another politics, but to working together with others in Detroit to make it happen.

But alas, the organizers were unmoved by such an argument, and "politely" told me I was not invited, and should therefore leave, which I did--with some relief and a bit of a laugh--as I realized that if this was the practical expression of "another politics" they were discussing, it was not worth investing any time in...

For me, this experience only further underlined how it's apparently become cool now for folks to fly in from elsewhere to meet in Detroit, and to talk about Detroit, & to be associated with Detroit, because its chic to be associated with the downtrodden and depressed, as we've seen with the new focus of Time magazine on the city--

But where are the Detroiters in these meetings and discussions, and why are they not being invited to participate in ways that can actually shape the discussion?

Ironically, this group had met on Friday night in Ann Arbor, and that part of their meeting was apparently open to the community in Ann Arbor, and to anyone who could afford to drive or fly in to Ann Arbor from elsewhere for a Friday night meeting. But for their weekend meetings on Saturday and Sunday in Detroit, members of Detroit communities were not invited to the discussion.

I'm always amazed at folks who like to think of themselves as planning for a new progressive or radical democratic politics, but who are so exclusive and confined in their discussions that you can't help but ask....

Isn't this the same old politics of exclusion and elitism?

And isn't it a bit indecent for a group that apparently sees itself as "progressive" and dedicated to creating a better politics for the future to hold an open public meeting in Ann Arbor on a Friday night, and then move to Detroit for meetings on Saturday and Sunday that are completely closed to anyone who might be interested in attending from Detroit?

Utterly amazing!

Emma Goldman's famous phrase was: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution":

As far as we're concerned, If Detroiters aren't invited to the discussion, we don't want anything to do with "another politics" that replicates patterns of class privilege and power from the past.

I've become very tired and disgusted with folks who like to pretend to be progressive and inclusive in theory, but who are in reality anything but that. We truly need to build another politics, and the building needs to begin with openness and inclusiveness and equity IN ACTION AND PRACTICE, not just in theory.

So our message to the organizers of this and any other discussions about creating "another politics" in Detroit or elsewhere is: Please be so good as to remember to invite Detroiters into the discussion, and to be as democratic and inclusive in practice as you think of yourselves as being in principle.

Detroiters are committed to building a vibrant, inclusive, equitable, participatory politics that is not beholden to the practices of exclusion and POWER-ELITISM of any kind (including class, race, and intellectual elitism). We especially reject the kind of politics that seeks to present itself as "another politics" that is IN THEORY a better politics, but that IN PRACTICE is simply another politics of exclusion being created by and for the privileged.

To THAT politics, wherever it comes from, and in whatever progressive or salvational guise it may present itself, we say, NO THANK YOU!

We Detroiters will invest our time in actually CREATING a new progressive and inclusively participatory politics of equity and social justice of, by, and for Detroiters. And then perhaps those who like to continually talk about "another politics" in their small exclusive groups, without doing anything to put it into practice, will realize they might not already know everything they need to know about how to make another politics possible....

Another Politics is Possible in Detroit, and it will NOT be the same old Politics of Exclusion

A Little Ditty inspired by a closed meeting called
"Another Politics is Possible,"
held in Detroit, October 10, 2009
*
*

There once was a group
of self-styled intellectuals
who thought of themselves as progressives
(or radical, or something better than ___ (you?);
They flew into Detroit from LA and NY
and other great places
to discuss in an "intentional" way
how to organize politics
in a much better way--
They had been meeting for a year,
and wanted to be clear
that "Another Politics is Possible"--
But when it came to the actual meeting
they failed to make clear
for interested Detroiters
who wished to join their discussion
that although another politics
will be possible someday--
if they have their way--
newcomers were not
to their discussion of the possible
invited...

I have the experience of having tried to attend this meeting today to thank for inspiring the above little ditty, which is offered as a public service warning to any other Detroiter who may be so naive as to think this meeting is open to them--

So in case anyone else is interested in attending the above noted meeting in Detroit today or tomorrow, you should know it is a small and exclusive meeting NOT open to anyone who has not already been invited by the in-group at this meeting. Therefore, unless you have already received your personal invitation, you'll be turned away at the door.

I saw the above flyer posted here, and since there was nothing on the flyer saying it was a closed meeting, and the subject of the meeting was supposed to be about how ANOTHER POLITICS IS POSSIBLE, and about community organizing to achieve this "other politics," I assumed it was an open meeting that would be dedicated to the discussion of HOW TO CREATE A MORE INCLUSIVE DEMOCRATIC POLITICS OF ORGANIZING THAT INVOLVES ALL PEOPLE EQUITABLY.

And since it was a meeting being held in Detroit, at the Boggs Center, which is known for being a community-focused place for open discussions and meetings, I also unfortunately assumed that this meeting to discuss how another politics is possible would especially be open and inviting to Detroiters.

But unfortunately my naive assumptions were all wrong. I arrived at 3061 Field St., Detroit, and after being given a hug by someone I knew (who I had assumed was a committed progressive) was then told the meeting was not open, and was only for people--mostly from elsewhere in the country--who had already been discussing amongst themselves how another politics is possible for a year or so.

I was told these folks had decided to meet "intentionally" in Detroit to continue their private conversation. I appealed to several of the organizers, trying to suggest that perhaps, since they were meeting in Detroit, they might want to consider opening their meeting to the participation of at least one new person from Detroit, who was committed not just to talking about another politics, but to working together with others in Detroit to make it happen.

But alas, the organizers were unmoved by such an argument, and "politely" told me I was not invited, and should therefore leave, which I did, with some relief and a bit of a laugh--as I realized that if this was their idea of "another politics," it was not worth investing any time in...

So Detroiters please take note: Anyone who does not already have an exclusive invitation from this group is not welcome to the discussion of "Another Politics is Possible" today or tomorrow:

Even if you are passionately committed not only to discussing how a truly democratic, inclusive and equitable politics is possible, but to organizing to grow this kind of politics together with others in Detroit, this meeting is not for you.

For me, this experience only further underlined how it's apparently become cool now for folks to fly in from elsewhere to meet in Detroit, and to talk about Detroit, & to be associated with Detroit, because its chic to be associated with the downtrodden and depressed, as we've seen with the new focus of Time magazine on the city--

But where are the Detroiters in these meetings and discussions, and why are they not being invited to participate in ways that can actually shape the discussion?

If for this exclusive group, "Another Politics" is truly possible, it would be interesting to know how they seek to open it up to others in Detroit and elsewhere...

Based on the information from this group's poster (above) and what I was told, their meeting last night in Ann Arbor was an open meeting for the Ann Arbor community, or for anyone who could afford to drive or fly in to Ann Arbor from elsewhere for last night's meeting. But today and tomorrow they are meeting in Detroit, and these meetings are NOT open to Detroiters.

So Detroiters, if you're interested in what this group is discussing about how Another Politics is Possible, you're unfortunately not invited to the discussion.

I'm always amazed at folks who like to advertise and think of themselves as planning for a new progressive politics, but who are so exclusive and confined in their discussions that you can't help but ask....

Isn't this the same old politics of exclusion and elitism?

And isn't it a bit indecent for a group that apparently sees itself as "progressive" and dedicated to creating a more progressive politics for the future to hold an open public meeting in Ann Arbor on a Friday night, and then move to Detroit for meetings on Saturday and Sunday that are completely closed to anyone who might be interested in attending from Detroit?

Utterly amazing!

Emma Goldman's famous quotable phrase was: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution":

As far as we're concerned: If Detroiters aren't invited to the discussion, we don't want anything to do with your "another politics."

I don't know about others, but I am so disgusted and tired to my soul of folks who like to pretend to be progressive and inclusive in theory, but who are in reality anything but that. We truly need to build another politics, and the building needs to begin with openness and inclusiveness and equity IN ACTION AND PRACTICE.

So our message to the organizers of this exclusive closed meeting is: Please be so good as to let us know when you decide to invite Detroiters into your discussion.... and then we'll decide if we're interested in participating.... (and based on today's experience, we're not sure why anyone would want to...)

Detroiters are committed to building a vibrant, inclusive, equitable, participatory politics that is not beholden to the practices of exclusion and POWER-ELITISM of any kind (including class and intellectual elitism), and especially to the kind of politics that seeks to present itself from the outside as "another politics" that is IN THEORY a better politics, but that IN PRACTICE is simply another politics of exclusion....

To THAT politics, wherever it comes from, and in whatever progressive or salvational guise it may present itself, we say, NO THANK YOU!

We will invest our time in actually creating a new progressive and inclusively participatory politics of equity and social justice of, by, and for Detroiters. And then perhaps those who like to talk in their small exclusive groups about how to make a better politics possible will gain the wisdom that will allow them to learn from Detroit, rather than to merely fly into Detroit, and talk about another politics while practicing the same old politics...

Ever since 1805....

French Catholic priest Father Gabriel Richard (1767 – 1832) originated Detroit's motto of regeneration after the fire of 1805 burned the city, including his recently opened school, to the ground: Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus--"We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes." Ever since then, Detroit and Detroiters have repeatedly defied the destructive toll of history to raise their city out of the ashes and restore it to prosperity. In 2009, the people of Detroit have the same determined will as did the small number of Detroit residents who rebuilt the city after the fire of 1805.