Kiernan’s Steak House and Silky’s are hosting a fundraiser for the Dearborn Animal Shelter. One hundred percent of the proceds raised will be given directly to the shelter. The event takes place on Thursday, August 27 from 4:00 – 9 p.m.
Contact 313-565-4260 for more details.
Over the years, Tarick Seifeddine and his father Adel have patiently waited to get approvals from the city of Dearborn to transform a long-vacant service station at the corner of Military and Cherry Hill into something more than the current eyesore that it is.
An artist rendering of the proposed new building at Military and Cherry Hill.
It has been a sometimes arduous process but the family now has the needed approvals from the city (and residents) to construct a very tasteful looking office building.
But their dream building could be delayed, due in no small part to telecom giant and bully AT&T.
With no regard for residents or business owners, AT&T is installing ugly, refrigerator-sized new video boxes (known as U-verse boxes) throughout Dearborn on lawns, easements and curbs as it races to upgrade its services to offer video for the first time.
In the case of Seifeddine, the boxes were simply plopped right smack in the middle of his planned parking lot driveway entrance of the family’s new building, a design already approved by the city.
AT&T plopped its large boxes along the sidewalk of Cherry Hill, right in the middle of planned driveway. AT&T says it will cost as much as $200,000 to move them less than 10 feet.
Seifeddine has asked AT&T to move one of the boxes just less than 10 feet so he can construct his driveway. AT&T said unless Seifeddine is willing to pay between $150,000 and $200,000 for the move, the box isn’t budging.
Cleverly, AT&T installed its tan-colored monster boxes less than four inches off of Seifeddine’s property line, so technically the boxes are on a city easement. But had AT&T contacted Seifeddine prior to installing their boxes, the two could have worked out a better location. AT&T also could have installed the boxes underground but chose above ground as a cost save and because no one from AT&T has to live near these noisy eyesores.
“We were never contacted about the installation,” Seifeddine said. “We could have tucked the boxes on another part of the property and then hidden them with some nice landscaping.”
Seifeddine said demolition of the current vacant building could begin in less than a month. But what happens after that really hinges on what AT&T decides to do. The family has contacted Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., who told Seifeddine he will contact AT&T to see if this is something that can be resolved.
This isn’t the first time AT&T has pulled such a stunt. All across America, AT&T is installing these unsightly boxes and angering, residents, city officials and businesses along the way. A few years ago in Geneva, Ill., city officials passed a 180-day moratorium that effectively stopped installations of AT&T’s boxy cabinets. AT&T sued Geneva and six other Illinois municipalities for restricting its plans, claiming it had the right to use public rights of way for its telecom network.
In Tulsa, an AT&T employee is even leading protests against the above-ground boxes, rightly arguing that these large, ugly boxes lower the aesthetic appeal of a neighborhood.
The boxes can be dangerous, too, as some have caught fire and even exploded, according to some news accounts. AT&T has said it has fixed those earlier problems.
If you’re a homeowner and wondering whether a box will appear in front of your home or in your yard, Dearborn city officials should be able to provide a map of all box locations. It’s worth looking into because if you don’t have one now that doesn’t mean you are in the clear.
Step back in time to 1867 as vintage baseball clubs from around the country compete by the game’s early rules in the greatest two-day exposition of historic baseball ever seen! And only at Dearborn’s Greenfield Village.
No gloves, bunting, sliding, cursing or spitting – this is baseball by 1867 rules! Catch the Lah-De-Dahs and Nationals playing 24 clubs in the 7th annual World Tournament of Baseball. Huzzah!
Clubs engage for two days in throwing, batting, and spitfire competition until only one is left to be declared champion of World Tournament of Historic Baseball. Add music food, drama and legendary sports artifacts and you’ve got everything that made baseball our great national pastime.
The World Tournament of Historic Baseball is free to members and free with Greenfield Village admission.
For more information, click HERE.
Morris Goodman, a Dearborn attorney, resident and a regular reader of Deepsaidwhat.com, sent this letter over to us the other day, a piece he mailed to the New York Times in hopes it might run in their Letters to the Editor section.
We thought it was fitting to post here because the issues raised by Mr. Goodman apply to what is happening here in Dearborn. You can substitute the New York Times with the Dearborn Press & Guide, the Dearborn Times Herald and The Detroit News. It applies to them, as well. As a former newspaper writer and a voracious reader of newspapers, this is a topic that is near and dear to my heart.
We can all complain about what news isn’t getting covered or what business might be closing but we all really have a role in their preservation.
The letter begins below.
In a box at the very top of every issue of the New York Times is the historically famous slogan: “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” Perhaps in order to keep printing the Times should also run the slogan: “Patronize our advertisers. They think it’s fitting that we print.” Perhaps the American Newspaper Association should counsel all of its members to print each day the equally famous 1787 quotation from Thomas Jefferson:
“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Instead of continually lamenting the seemingly unending decline of American newspapers and magazines, perhaps the beleaguered print media should be pro-active. It should tell its readers and advertisers how important they are to the preservation of democracy in America by their buying and advertising in newspapers and magazines. They need to be encouraged to get more readers and advertisers for America’s print media.
The reasons for the steep decline in print media readership and advertising have been chronicled for years.
Major advertisers such as the auto industry, home builders, and retailers of all kinds with falling sales have drastically reduced or altered their advertising budgets.
Clearly, there are more and more ways – the Internet and TV’s expanded cable offerings – people get the information they want about news, sports, sales, jobs, apartment rentals, etc. that they used to get from newspapers and magazines.
So people and advertisers are gravitating to these new outlets which are accessible, constantly updated, and cheaper for both the reader and advertiser to use.
But many consumers and advertisers do not consider who will do the investigative reporting that keeps our government and businesses honest if the print media either continues to cut back or even ceases to exist. However, I believe there are enough readers and advertisers who do understand the importance of a healthy, independent press that can be effectively harnessed to insure the “beacon of freedom” – a free press – is preserved, and even enhanced.
The July 8 Detroit News had an article about an effort by Birmingham, Michigan community activists to preserve the 131 year old Birmingham Eccentric weekly newspaper which was slated to close along with 4 other Oakland County, Michigan, Eccentric weeklies published by the Gannett Corporation. These activists grasp the reality that there can only be a constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press if there is a press to begin with. So do millions of others, but they need to be constantly reminded of this concept.
Union tell their members to only buy union made products. Ethnic and religious publications encourage their readers to buy from their affinity groups. Americans are exhorted to buy American made products. Accordingly, newspaper and magazine readers should be encouraged to patronize the advertisers whose payments make the continued publishing of the printed word possible. Probably of more impact would be if readers told retailers of all kinds – restaurants, merchandisers, auto dealers and manufacturers, banks, etc. – that they will only buy from those who use the print media, if not exclusively, at least significantly in their advertising budgets.
Newspaper and magazine publishers have shown great ingenuity over the years to get people to buy their offerings. Hearst is purported to have contributed to starting the Spanish- American War to sell his papers. Now these publishers need to show the same ingenuity in getting new readers and new advertisers. Emphasizing the preservation of our democratic American way of life is not a bad place to start.
Dearborn made world news Thursday, this time related to a 56-year-old man who kept some 103 dogs — mostly Chihuahuas — in a home that from the outside looked generally well kept but inside was filled with feces and trash, Dearborn officials said. The story has been picked up by media outlets as far away as New Zealand.
Crews remove some of the nearly 100 dogs Thursday in this AP picture.
Dearborn city workers, along with Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter, removed 42 ailing and feces-covered dogs from the home on the 7800 block of Orchard Wednesday. They then returned Thursday and found about 60 more dogs.
The Detroit News reported that the home belonged to Kenneth Lang Sr., who currently resides in Florida. Officials say a 56-year-old man, Kenneth Lang Jr. lives alone in the home. Neighbors told The News he was known to mow lawns meticulously and was protective of his home, trying to keep children off his property.
Lang was taken to a local hospital for observation. His family was involved in his care and cooperating with officials.
According to the Associated Press, the man’s sister told officials that she believed he initially had two dogs in the home and that they may have reproduced, said Nick Siroskey, director of residential services for Dearborn. Misdemeanor animal cruelty charges were possible, but Siroskey said the man appears to have mental health issues that could be a factor in the case.
Neighbors and investigators said the smell of urine, noticeable from the street Thursday, may have been contained previously because windows were closed and covered.
“There was a little bit of a smell, but it was just like a … person that doesn’t keep their house up,” Abe Baydoun told an AP writer. “He didn’t take care of himself, personally, but he took care of the outside of his house.”
Baydoun, 25, lives across the street and said he only had seen two of the man’s dogs outside.
The dogs, which were being examined at the animal shelter, appear to have been unattended and were in various stages of health.
Crews pulled bags full of trash from the home to clear pathways inside. The house was deemed unfit for human habitation and the city likely will seek to tear it down, Siroskey said.
On Friday, Siroskey said police were called to the home by a neighbor who spotted some kittens in a hole in the backyard, and the officer who responded reported that it seemed like there were many dogs inside. Animal control authorities got the case and, after obtaining a warrant, investigators went inside Wednesday.
With such a sudden influx of dogs, the Dearborn Animal Shelter will be needing our assistance. Those wanting to donate funds can contact the shelter by clicking HERE. or sending checks to the shelter at 2661 Greenfield Road, Dearborn, MI 48120.
Fans of Harry Potter who haven’t seen the new movie “The Half-Blood Prince” should mark their calendar for July 29. That’s when the movie magically transform into a larger-than-life experience as only Dearborn’s Henry Ford IMAX can do.
If you have never been to Dearborn’s IMAX you’re missing out on what is easily one of the most amazing movie experiences in Michigan. And it is right here in our own Dearborn backyard. The technology behind what makes IMAX so special begins with its million dollar projector, which is about the size of Ford Focus.
It is worth the wait to see Harry Potter, Dumbledore and Hogwarts at the Henry Ford IMAX because it simply won’t be the same anywhere else, including having the chance to experience the film’s explosive opening in IMAX 3D on Michigan’s largest IMAX screen.
You can view the movie trailer and order tickets by clicking HERE.
If you haven’t had a chance to read Dearborn resident Dan Howes’ column in The Detroit News about the closing of Annam, one of Metro Detroit’s top-notch Vietnamese restaurants, it’s worth a read. Dan, a former colleague of mine during my years as a reporter at The News, writes that the closing of Annam is “one more casualty in a city accumulating empty storefronts like boys collect baseball cards.”
A note posted on the door of Annam tells it all. Dearborn resident and owner Phuong Nguyen tells Deepsaidwhat that if the economy improves she might one day reopen in another location. Making rent became much too difficult with her decline in business, she told us.
Dan hits on many of the topics we have heard from other businesses in town about fewer Ford workers at lunch, owners haggling with their landlords and paid parking.
” . . . the city’s on-again, off-again, can’t-make-a-decision dithering on paid parking and this summer’s construction on pock-marked Michigan Avenue and it’s a wonder all operating in the business district from Brady to Military aren’t out of business,” he writes.
Annam owner Phuong Nguyen tells Dan that “Dearborn is dead. It’s sad. Dead is when you drive and not every corner is fully leased. This is not normal for a downtown.”
No, it isn’t “normal for a downtown” but these aren’t normal times either and every city in America is struggling. It’s just in a short section of road in a city like ours that it’s a whole lot easier to count the vacant buildings. Nguyen’s words about Dearborn are more frustration than fact.
My neighbor sent me an e-mail with Dan’s article attached early this morning with just two words: “Oh, no!”, she wrote. Indeed. But Dearborn will survive this latest casualty. From where we sit, it is far too early to be writing the obituary for West Dearborn.
For Dan’s full article, please click HERE.
The East Dearborn Downtown Development Authority (EDDDA) has partnered with Smooth Jazz V98.7 to present a free summer concert series on Wednesday evenings in July and August. The “Jazz on the Ave” outdoor concerts will be held at Dearborn City Hall Park at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Schaefer Road.Scheduled to appear on Wednesday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. are:
July 29 – David Myles & the Mylestones
August 12 – Jesse Coleman
August 19 – Penny Wells
August 26 – The Brothers Groove
For more information about East Downtown Dearborn and upcoming concerts, click HERE or call the EDDDA at 313-943-3194.
The East Dearborn Downtown Development Authority (EDDDA) has partnered with Smooth Jazz V98.7 to present a free summer concert series on Wednesday evenings in July and August. The “Jazz on the Ave” outdoor concerts will be held at Dearborn City Hall Park at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Schaefer Road.
Scheduled to appear on Wednesday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. are:
July 22 – Alexander Zonjic & Friends
July 29 – David Myles & the Mylestones
August 12 – Jesse Coleman
August 19 – Penny Wells
August 26 – The Brothers Groove
Families and those young at heart should plan to make their way to the Players Guild of Dearborn’s presentation of “Seussical the Musical”, which begins Friday, July 17.
Produced in cooperation with Music Theatre International, Seussical the Musical runs from July 17-19 and July 24-26. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are just $5.
This is a great event and it helps support our talented youth as they tell the tale of some of Dr. Seuss’ greatest stories. The Guild describes the show as being for audiences young and old, making this a good event for the family.
Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling the theatre box office at 313-561-TKTS, at the door or by ordering online by clicking HERE.