Chinatown improvements, President Ford's 50th, Pewabic, Weekend events

This Week on One Detroit:

Detroit’s Chinatown gets $1 million for streetscape renovation

“The first recorded Chinese immigrant who moved to Detroit was a man named Ah Chee,” said Michigan State Senator Stephanie Chang (D-3rd District, Detroit). Ah Chee moved to Michigan in 1872.

Since then, many thousands of Chinese have made Detroit and southeast Michigan their homes here, but the city’s Chinatown district on Cass Avenue just south of M.L.King Boulevard lost its Chinese population to the suburbs decades ago.

There’s an effort now to bring recognition to the Asian Americans in Chinatown and encourage Asian American businesses to locate there.

Chang led a news conference on Monday to announce one million dollars will be provided from the state to improve the Chinatown streetscape.

State senators Mary Cavanaugh (D-6th District, Redford Township) and Sarah Anthony (D-21st District, Lansing) also spoke in support of the funding.

Senator Anthony said that in the last forty years, many communities have been left out, but with the recent Democrat majority, there has been a commitment for projects like this.

“Part of that commitment was telling the stories, the diverse history that make Michigan an amazing state,” Anthony said.

The announcement on July 29 coincided with the demolition of an historic structure on Cass Avenue exactly one year ago.

The condemned and long-vacant building owned by Olympia Development had been the offices of the Chinese Merchants Association and the Shanghai Cafe, a popular Chinese restaurant. The demolition happened despite the pleas of some Asian American groups.

Midtown Detroit will be overseeing the streetscape improvements which are expected to begin next year.

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of President Ford’s inauguration

August 9 will mark the 50th anniversary of Gerald Ford becoming U.S. President. The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan is named after the country’s only president to hail from Michigan. One Detroit contributor Zoe Clark of Michigan Public sat down with Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes and Jenna Bednar, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Faculty Director of UMICH Votes and Democratic Engagement, to talk about President Ford and the election process half a century later.

Pewabic: One of the nation’s oldest pottery and ceramics factories

Over in Detroit’s East Village, a neighborhood down by the river on the city’s east side, you’ll find a working piece of machinery that’s been operating since the time of Henry Ford’s Model T. The Pewabic Pottery ceramics factory has been running its antiquated clay mixing machine since 1912.

Pewabic makes vases, decorative and architectural tiles that emerged as part of the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 1800s. You can find Pewabic’s ceramic work in buildings like the Guardian Building, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Comerica Park, and other places around the city.

“We started at a time when this was really popular throughout the United States,” Pewabic Education Director Annie Dennis said, “We were really one of the oldest continuously operated historic potteries so there are not many more left like us.”

The original driving force behind Pewabic was Mary Chase Perry Stratton, who worked with other Detroit artisans and designers when the city started to grow as a manufacturing powerhouse. Dennis has been looking into Stratton’s past.

“We are finding she had connections to the Detroit suffrage movement,” Dennis said, “I think it was really inspiring for women artists to find a woman-run organization and that’s no different today.”

One Detroit Senior Producer Bill Kubota visits Pewabic to learn about its storied past in ceramic art and design and how it’s still going strong today.

One Detroit Weekend: July 26, 2024

The first weekend of August is here. Start the month by celebrating with good food and live music performances at Blues, Brews, and Barbecue in Westland or the annual Dearborn Homecoming Festival.

Plus, check out work from local artists at the Belle Isle Art Fair or Live at Five at the Northville Art House. And Sistah’s Braid Too! hosts a hair, fashion, and vendor expo in Detroit.

Contributors Peter Whorf and Dave Wagner from 90.9 WRCJ share what’s in store in Metro Detroit this weekend and beyond in this week’s “One Detroit Weekend.”

Stay Connected:

Subscribe to One Detroit’s YouTube Channel and don’t miss One Detroit on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 9 a.m. on Detroit PBS, WTVS-Channel 56.

Catch the daily conversations on our website, Facebook, Twitter @OneDetroit_PBS, and Instagram @One.Detroit