#Josh Sidorowicz

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Man Who Stormed Florida Bank And Massacred Five People Has Been Identified

A man stormed a Florida bank yesterday and massacred five people. The identity of the attacker has now been revealed.

21-year-old Zephen Xaver is accused of bursting into the Sun Trust bank in Sebring, central Florida, around 12:30pm Wednesday and opening fire. He killed at least five people, police say, with Sebring Police Chief Karl Hoglund warning others injured in the massacre could still die, Metro UK reports.

  It is unclear whether the casualties were bank employees or customers.

After shooting, Xaver dialled 911. He later surrendered to officers when SWAT team arrived at the bank.

   Xaver, who lives in Sebring, is currently in police custody. The motive for the massacre has not been revealed.

Helicopter footage showed the front of the building badly damaged afterwards, with its windows smashed and metal frames littering the ground.

At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Police Chief Hoglund said: 

We’ve suffered a significant loss at the hands of a senseless criminal committing a senseless crime.

  Florida Governor Ron De Santis called the mass shooting ‘a terrible day for Florida,’ and vowed to use the full force of the law to bring the shooter to justice.

In the aftermath of the shooting, relatives of the bank workers were asked to gather at a nearby hotel, with one woman seen collapsing in tears after receiving a phone call.

Reporter Josh Sidorowicz tweeted: 

Just witnessed a woman walk out of the building while on the phone and drop to the ground crying. She yelled something, clearly in distress. And officer guided her back inside.

[desperatetlmes]

How did researchers get the flu vaccine so wrong this year?

Technically, researchers had the right answers when formulating this year's flu vaccine. But the virus cheated. Author: Josh Sidorowicz. from Google Alert - health http://ift.tt/2svMlse

[badlands75]

Badlands75RT @joshsidorowicz: BREAKING: FLINT, Mich. (@AP) — The head of Michigan's health department is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the #Flint water crisis.

BREAKING: FLINT, Mich. (@AP) — The head of Michigan's health department is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the #Flint water crisis.

— Josh Sidorowicz (@joshsidorowicz) June 14, 2017

from Twitter https://twitter.com/Badlands75 June 14, 2017 at 10:30AM via IFTTT

[jdetroit-blog]

NY Post reporter bikes through Detroit... and loves it

As you know, I always love it when good 'ol D-town gets some loving in national publications. The most recent example comes courtesy of the New York Post after one reporter made a visit and decided to bike through the city to see what it had to offer. 

The result: it seems we can add another reporter to the growing list who walk away after a visit both pleasantly surprised and and just as equally charmed. The whole piece offers a really nice perspective of the city and the gems within it. 

The reporter admits he never had any inclination to visit the city and, for the most part, was only familiar with a jaded and stereotypical picture of Detroit being a city of ruins in post-apocalyptic nightmare. Lucky for us, he realized how inaccurate that picture is.

It's not an in-depth analysis by any stretch of the imagination, and for the most part reporter Max Gross only hits on the biggest and more obvious attractions in Detroit like the DIA and Eastern Market. But then again, to someone who's never been here before, those are some pretty noteworthy and extraordinary parts of the city. 

Here's an excerpt:

The streets may have appeared a little lonely at first, but when I did encounter people, they seemed extraordinarily cheerful and friendly. As I biked past total strangers walking their dogs, or chatting with their neighbors, they unfailingly looked up and waved, like we were in a small town. Maybe that’s the best way to sum up what I saw in Detroit. One part urban blight. One part something like buried treasure. And really, really friendly.

You can head on over to the New York Post here and read the full story.

[jdetroit-blog]

What's next for Detroit's transportation infrastructure?

Thanks to Translogic, we're able to take a closer look at some of the possibilities of future transportation infrastructure in the city.

Most of us already know the story of how Detroit became the Motor City after it fell in love with roads and highways thanks to the car boom of the 1950s. Thanks to that subsequent shift in mindset, and promotion of the very industry that put Detroit on the map, options and ideas regarding mass transportation were neglected. 

But with Chrysler's recent announcement of financial support for light-rail in the city, it's apparent this conversation about where to go from here in regards to mass transit, will be something we'll be talking about for quite some time to come.

Check out the video below for more.

[jdetroit-blog]

Detroit Self-Portraits

The Detroit Free Press has started a pretty cool new project on their website. Dubbed Detroit Self-Portraits, and deriving inspiration from the DIA "Detroit Revealed" Exhibit, the site allows Metro Detroiters to upload and share their views of the city.

Visitors can then go on and vote for their favorite images and leave comments. Head on over to the project here and check out the collection so far. 

Photo by Steve Hauptman

[jdetroit-blog]

Corktown Gets a Burger Bar

After the Mercury Bar failed to catch on with the coffee crowd, the recently renovated venue has now reopened withe a new menu and a new vision. 

Burgers!

Right across the street from Slow's BarBQ on Michigan Avenue, the Mercury Bar officially opened this past Saturday. The restaurant features a beer drinking room on the lower level aptly named Corktown Cellars. The interior of the place features a huge mural by local artist Jerome Ferretti, along with a pretty cool full-wall Fathead of a classic Mercury car grill. And of course, what I'm sure will be one of the biggest draws come summertime, the restaurant has a huge adjacent patio overlooking the old Michigan Central Station. 

Check out Curbed Detroit for the gallery of the restaurant. 

Picture from Curbed Detroit

[jdetroit-blog]

Light rail in Detroit is dead

For better or for worse, the plan to bring light rail to the city is history...at least for now, anyways.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting the plans were scrapped in favor of a new system of high-speed city and suburban busses.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Detroit Mayor Dave Bing that doubts Detroit could pay operating costs over the long term for the Woodward Light Rail line because of it and the state’s financial problems swayed him against the plan. 

It was a plan that had been four years in the making, and while it's tough to see it fall through, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely surprised and not all that disappointed. 

The idea to bring light rail and more public transportation to the city is an idea I have loved and supported since all this talk first began. BUT, the reality is that a line that runs solely up and down Woodward and doesn't cross north of 8 Mile, just isn't the best use of scarce funds and resources right now.

There's been much debate about just exactly who this rail line would be benefitting, and many times it was compared to Detroit's other infamous rail system the People Mover. I've personally talked with many people about the plan over the course of the past couple years, and more often than not, they were less than enthused by the idea. Truth be told, the more I thought about it, the more I started to feel the same.

Detroit doesn't have the money, or the people, or the right amount of business yet. It comes down to the chicken or the egg debate: do you build the rail to bring the people and the businesses? Or do you wait for the people and the businesses and then build the rail?

I think the latter option is going to be the best option going forward. It will be interesting to see how this decision is received around the city and region.

Read the full story here.

Freep

[jdetroit-blog]

Huffington Post: "Detroit," Meet Detroit

Didya hear? The Huffington Post is launching a new website called HuffPost Detroit that will be completely dedicated to countering the narrative of national media that "parachute in to cover the declining metropolis."

Pretty cool, right?

And also, I couldn't not blog about the column in today's Huffington Post by Toby Barlow where he discusses something that I always seem to be talking about with people I know. 

"Why do people who aren't from Detroit (i.e. the suburbs) say they're from Detroit?!?" is the usual whining question I receive from certain co-workers, friends and even some family.

My response, much like Barlow's, usually goes something like this: if you're from Southeast Michigan, which for all intents and purposes is Metro Detroit, you are in fact from Detroit.

But Barlow, goes a step further to explain just how important that tie is between the suburbs and the city itself, and why the sooner we all realize that Detroit and it's surrounding suburbs are inseparable, the better off we will all be, and the better off the region as a whole will be in the end. 

The fact is the suburbs have been trying to run away from Detroit for half a century and all it has brought is ruin and depression for all. It's time to stop running. It's time to embrace this place. Luckily for you, right now, it's a wonderful town to embrace.

The fact is that too many of the suburbanites cling to a past Detroit that was and never will be again, and in the process they fail to recognize the positive changes that are taking place there today, right now.

People will say, "Oh it's not like it was," they'll say they can't bear what happened to Detroit, but they're simply blind to the possibilities of the present. Nostalgia for an old bygone Detroit is fine, but it's not relevant to what is happening on Michigan Avenue, on Woodward Avenue, and in Eastern Market right now. 

I do have to make a point to say though that I don't necessarily agree with Barlow's blanket statement that "nothing good ever came out of suburbia." While yes, I would love to see more people ditch the suburbs to move back into the city center, I acknowledge the realities of the situation. City living isn't for everyone, that's the honest truth, and quite frankly I had a pretty damn good upbringing in the suburbs so I understand the appeal to some people.

However, while I'm not asking for a mass exodus from the suburbs to downtown Detroit any time soon, I am asking that people at least give Detroit a chance, because like Barlow said: "Luckily for you, right now, it's a wonderful town to embrace."

Read the full column here.

[jdetroit-blog]

Freep: 'People just love Detroit'

Jim Schaefer and John Gallagher write in today's Free Press about the increasing amount of positive press being given to the city of Detroit by national media outlets. Could the tide be permanently turning finally?

Yes, the narrative seems to be changing.  Those outside of Detroit are finally starting to come around and realize what many of us already knew.

But, here's where the biggest challenge begins, at least I think so. Because, for so long Detroit has been the underdog, the hopeless city, the forgotten town that always had to prove itself.

Now that we've finally gotten the attention we deserve, we can't simply declare victory because we're nowhere near the finish line. Truth is, there's a lot of work that still needs to be done. There's still unemployment, there's still a failing public school system, and Detroit's population is still not where it should be.

But at least now, the rest of the country, and maybe even the world is watching, and maybe now they're more willing and eager to root us on than tear us down.

And what sparked this latest wave of affection from afar? Growing signs of a rebound. And the same thing that so often draws the national spotlight: our sports teams. With an almost perfect storm of success, the undefeated Lions, the Yankee-killing Tigers and winning seasons for our two big college football teams are once again driving the deconstruction, reconstruction, explanations and excuses of an underdog town.

Check out some of the coverage the D has received recently:

Wall Street Journal - Detroit Sees Signs of Turnaround...

USA Today - Detroit Rising

Read the whole story here.

  Eric Milliken/Detroit Free Press

[jdetroit-blog]

Living & Investing in the D

Every year right around this time, Crain’s Detroit Business publishes their annual “Living & Investing in the D” magazine packed with tons of awesome info about all of the cool things going on in the city. From fantastic people and entrepreneurs to new businesses and housing projects, if you weren’t already convinced Detroit was worth investing in before you read, you’ll be hard pressed to not feel that way afterwards.

Being an intern and all over at Crains for the summer, I had the opportunity to produce all of the multimedia content for this year’s series.  It was an absolute blast going all over the city meeting incredible visionaries and essentially getting a front-row seat to what living and working in the D is really like.  

Some highlights from the 2011 issue:

The Changing Face of Detroit

Entrepreneur creates ‘hostel’ environment

Spreading Midtown’s Success

Value of Place

Conduit to College Grads

The Ultimate List

Plus, be sure to check out all the multimedia content as well. Below is one of the videos I worked on exploring the buzz in Midtown.

  Production by Josh Sidorowicz/Crain’s Detroit Business

[jdetroit-blog]

Loving Detroit despite...

Nolan Finley summed it up pretty well in this past Sunday’s Detroit News. Finley’s column this week discussed a subject that is far from original but one that still manages to stir some good emotion.

I know right here on this blog, I’ve talked several times about why I love Detroit and why I choose to blog about it and promote it and I know I’m not the first and definitely won’t be the last.

Finley borrowed a line from one of my favorite authors William Faulkner in his attempt to describe his love with the city.

William Faulkner wrote of the South, you don't love it because, you love it despite.

And ain’t that the truth. We love Detroit even when Detroit doesn’t love itself, even when it seems like every force imaginable is working against it there are still plenty of people out there who’s love affair with the city continues. We just continue to stick it out.

So maybe we love Detroit because it needs us so much.

Or maybe it's enough to just say there's a lid for every pot, and we're Detroit’s.

Read Finley’s full column here.