Pay-what-you-wish is expected to soon begin at Dearborn's Panera.

Dearborn’s Panera will soon become one of the company’s nonprofit restaurants where customers pay-what-you wish.

Panera, which operates 1,400 franchised and corporate-owned bakery-cafes across the country, opened its first pay what you wish restaurant in Clayton, Mo., earlier this year.

Dearborn is now preparing to join this small non-profit experiment and will now be called Panera Cares.

We aren’t sure what to make of this move but some employees at the Dearborn Panera aren’t happy with the switch. Perhaps worth noting is that in the first experiment of pay-what-you-wish, nearly all baked goods were day-old from other stores. We are not sure how that will sit here in Dearborn.

In Clayton, cashiers tell customers their orders’ “suggested” price based on the menu. About 60% to 70% pay in full, Panera says. About 15% leave a little more and another 15% pay less, or nothing at all. A handful have left big donations, like $20 for a cup of coffee.

Panera’s Clayton store is run under the company’s St. Louis Bread Co. banner by a nonprofit organization called Panera Cares that publicly traded Panera Co. supports. But Panera won’t bear the nonprofit’s losses if the experiment fails. In an earlier story, Panera said the nonprofit is considering locations that, like Clayton, are upscale but accessible to lower-income customers. In Clayton’s case, St. Louis County’s offices and court house are nearby.

An earlier news article said “The Clayton Panera has hardly turned into a soup kitchen. Its longtime business clientele kept the lunch hour busy last week, with well-dressed workers clustered around laptops and talking on cellphones.”

To control freeloaders in the Clayton store, signs remind customers that “You’re on your honor.”

If it moves forward in Dearborn, it should be an interesting experiment.

We have written here a few times about Artspace and the work the East Dearborn Downtown Development Authority (EDDDA) is doing with this organization to perhaps bring affordable living and work space for artists to Dearborn.

Well, we all can help in this project by spreading the word to anyone within a 50 mile radius of Dearborn. The bottom line is if this project even has a remote chance of taking place in our city, we need people to take the survey at www.artspacedearborn.org  The survey can be taken from now through Jan. 4, 2011 – and it only takes 10 minutes to complete.

Below is from the EDDDA, requesting our help:

At the request and on behalf of the EDDDA, who has partnered with Artspace projects (a national nonprofit developer) to study the space needs of the creative community in Dearborn and the surrounding Detroit Metro area, we’re reaching out to YOU to assist in the development of affordable new spaces where artists may live, work, and pursue their art as well as space where organizations and business can exhibit, perform, rehearse, teach, create, and conduct business in Dearborn .

If you’re an artist (or you know an artist) working in any discipline (graphic design, sculpting, dance, music, writing, fashion design, painting, theater, crafts, etc), you need to participate in this survey. The results will help Artspace developers understand the living, studio and business space preferences for the creative community in metro Detroit , and demonstrate to funders how important new space is to artists and organizations in the region.

And if you’re not an artist but work with a cultural arts organization or business that serves the creative community (coffee shops, art supply and paint stores, galleries, theater companies, book stores, publishers, design firms, social service organizations, etc), your two cents are wanted too!

So how do you take the survey? Go to www.ArtSpaceDearborn.org between now and Jan. 4, 2011

Please be sure to pass this email along and tell your friends and colleagues about these surveys.

The Dearborn Atrium, formerly Adams Jr. High School, apparently has been sold for somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.6 million.

Sold in 2005 for $19 million, the Dearborn Atrium is said to have sold for about $1.6 million.

Several city officials have now confirmed to DeepsaidWhat.com that the three structures – the school, a parking deck and a third building (also formerly a school) – were fetched for the bargain basement price of $1.6 million. This is the same building that in 2005 traded for $19 million.

The big question on the table is who purchased the building and what will move into the building.

There has been much speculation that the building would be used for a charter school, but the property currently is not zoned for such a use. That at least means the city would have control on whether to approve such a use or not. As it stands now, city planners would not be in favor of such a use.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., says the city understands the buildings will be used as the primary operations for a business that wants to move into Dearborn. O’Reilly couldn’t provide any more detail beyond that as the city apparently does not know much about the purchaser yet.

A new business moving into that building would be great news for business owners that surround that area. Business owners near the school took a big financial hit when automotive supplier Plastech closed shop and filed for bankruptcy.

There are lots of possibilities for this building that was built in 1916. The former school was completely renovated to the shell in 1994.

The property consists of two three-story office buildings and a covered parking structure consisting of 90,774 square feet and 307 parking spaces. The two office buildings consist of 133,001 net rentable square feet and 154,104 square feet of gross building area and sit on 4.09 acres.

Dearborn Schools Supt. Brian Whiston, who, among other things, needs to find a way to negotiate a new contract with Dearborn school teachers, took some time out to pen the column below and send it here to DeepsaidWhat.com

With the Dearborn teachers union already filing a complaint with the state, alleging the district is no longer trying to negotiate a new contract, the timing of his column is curious.

Whiston’s column begins below:

Supt. Brian Whiston

A big Detroit parade, a classic football game, and a traditional family dinner; these are just a few November events that I enjoy. However, events like these don’t just happen, they require planning! Even a big family meal must be planned in advance. Great events, big achievements, and sustained traditions don’t just occur they require a process to ensure they happen and keep getting better each year.

In Dearborn, we too have a process in place to make sure that the long tradition of excellence in the classroom continues. The School Improvement Plan is a year long course of action that all schools embark on in the fall and complete in the spring. Because one size doesn’t fit all, students learn differently, and for every student who needs extra help there is a student that needs to be challenged beyond the curriculum; a School Improvement Plan, that utilizes data and other indicators of student performance, is a proven method to describe how a school will address the different learning needs of each student.

The first part of the school improvement process is the evaluation of goals. School goals for the year are determined by a team consisting of the building principal, teachers, para-pros, and, in most cases, parents. Each school improvement team meets with the District school improvement team, which is a group of central office and building administrators, to present their plans and goals.

Mid-year the District school improvement team will visit each school to talk with staff and visit classrooms. They will look for evidence that the school is working toward the goals set in the fall. If needed, goals are adjusted to better meet the academic needs of the students.

Finally, in the spring, a celebration takes place as all school improvement teams gather at one location to showcase their accomplishments to the Board of Education and community. At the celebration, schools will share ideas and programs that helped them meet their goals. They will also discuss practices or challenges that kept them from meeting a goal either in part or in full.

After summer recess the process begins again in the fall. This continuous cycle of school improvement has been going on in the district for five years and has had positive results in the classroom.

Great success happens when there is great planning. In classrooms throughout our district students are making academic gains because a dedicated staff is actively involved in a system of planning. A system that keeps our schools improving and student achievement the focus of all staff members.

Back in August after the primary election, we wrote that former Dearborn council-candidate David Bazzy would indeed be joining the city council, despite his earlier election loss.

That was because Dearborn Councilman George Darany and Councilwoman Suzanne Sareini were competing for the 15th District seat in the Michigan House of Representatives. With Darany’s victory on Tuesday, Bazzy will now join council in January. Bazzy you will recall finished just 548 votes shy of landing a seat on the Dearborn City Council in the last general election, finishing just behind Councilwoman Nancy Hubbard.

David Bazzy

DeepsaidWhat.com  caught up with Bazzy on the day of the election to get his thoughts on what he views are the biggest issues facing our city and what he hopes to accomplish when he finally does join city council. He says he is excited about joining the council.

”I ran because I felt I had some value to add to the city during these tough economic times, certainly the toughest in my 52 years living here in the city,” he told DeepsaidWhat.com.

Bazzy says while he may make some mistakes on council, he will always act and vote in a way that is best for the city.

He says the city’s two biggest problems right now include managing a huge budget deficit with a declining tax base and finding a way to fill the many vacant building in our city.

“These vacant buildings are detrimental to us being able to move the city forward. That is both vacant commercial buildings and residential housing. We have problems on both fronts.

“We need to focus on being a consumer advocate on individual owned homes,” Bazzy added, referring to how mechanisms in place today create an area of more foreclosures because of those who short-sale homes in our city.

“We have to get smarter and more creative to get younger couples to move into the city. We need to put things in place to attract them to move here and then work with them to help them become owner-occupants of homes.”

Bazzy said he will “work hard and I will listen” on council.

“Public service is not unlike a private business,” he said. “There is a process. The city has to move things at a faster pace because business is moving at a faster pace.”

Bazzy, 52, is a life-long Dearborn resident who graduated from Edsel Ford and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Wayne State Univesity. Today, he is the President of Kenwal Steel and Kenwal Pickling in the east side of the city. He and his wife of 26 years have three boys, all of them now in college (two of his sons graduated from Divine Child, one from Dearborn High School). He was elected to the Dearborn Charter Commission in 2005 and served as its president. He formerly served on the Zoning Board and Recreation Commission.

Bazzy wouldn’t say who he voted for State House because he said whatever the outcome, he will need to work with one of them on City council. “Whoever gets elected, I know they will do what is in the best interests of our city and the state.”

Spoken like a true politician.

Twenty-one.

That’s the margin of victory for James Schoolmaster, who just barely defeated Roxanne McDonald for his third term on the Dearborn School Board.

With all of Dearborn reporting, Schoolmaster was ahead of Roxanne McDonald by just 137 votes. Schoolmaster finished with 8,838 votes to McDonald’s 8,701 in Dearborn.

In Dearborn Heights, Schoolmaster lost to McDonald, 759 to 643 votes. Had 22 more residents living around the River Oaks school in Dearborn Heights voted for McDonald, she would have won the election. A good example of why every vote does indeed count.

The final total vote tally was 9,481 for Schoolmaster, 9,460 for McDonald.

The question now is whether McDonald will seek a recount.

Woronchak Retains Commission seat

Dearborn Councilman George Darany Tuesday night edged Councilwoman Suzanne Sareini for the 15th District seat in the Michigan House of Representatives.

Despite being outspent by Sareini by a fairly large margin, Darany squeaked out a victory, defeating Sareini by 2,122 votes, 12,408 to 10,220.

Dearborn Councilman Darany wins State House seat.

Darany was very statesmanlike in his victory Tuesday night, crediting his win to the many friends on his campaign who helped go door-to-door.

“I think the 17,000 doors we knocked on really made a difference. You can’t discount that,” he told DeepsaidWhat.com from his campaign victory party Tuesday night. “We went door-to-door and it paid off.”

The race between the two Dearborn council members turned ugly with just over a week to go before the general election.

Darany’s Democratic Party recently mailed a flyer to homes that labeled Sareini “Suzanne Chapter 7 Sareini,” claiming she had to file for personal bankruptcy twice. “And she thinks she knows how to fix Michigan’s economy?,” the flyer states.

On the other side of the ticket, Sareini’s Republican Party called out Darany for voting against a project in Dearborn (the Dearborn Town Center at Michigan and Schaefer that is nearly complete) “to keep and create over 500 jobs . . . Darany now claims that jobs are his top priority.”

While it’s difficult to determine just how much of an impact the attacks on Sareini from the Democratic Party really played in this election, the fact that a Republican candidate was unable to close out a victory in a year when Democrats are under fire suggests the mailings did indeed stick in the minds of voters when they went to the polls.

Following his victory Tuesday night, Darany said he only wanted to campaign on his credentials.

“I am sorry about the ugliness,” he told DeepsaidWhat.com. “Unfortunately, that is politics on the state level. When the two political parties got involved, it turned a corner that I didn’t like.”

An impressive 43.2 percent of registered voters in Deaborn cast ballots Tuesday.

In other races, Gary Woronchak was reelected, easily defeating J. Scott Saionz for the 13 District Wayne County Commission seat, 16,994 to 6,921.

In the Dearborn School Board race, it appears incubant James Schoolmaster could keep his seat. With all of Dearborn reporting, he was ahead of Roxanne McDonald by just 137 votes. Schoolmaster finished with 8,838 votes to McDonald’s 8.701 in Dearborn. It isn’t clear yet how the two did in Dearborn Heights. Residents living around the River Oaks school could determine the outcome of this race. As of 10 p.m., we did not have results for Dearborn Heights.

To see how Dearborn residents voted overall, click HERE.

(Source: AMNM press release)

They originated in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Algeria and Tunisia. They have garnered honors in festivals around the world. And they won’t be popping up on the marquee at your local multiplex anytime soon.

The 2010 Arab Film Festival at the Arab American National Museum, Friday, December 3 through Sunday, December 5, presents a wide-ranging and thought-provoking selection of feature-length films paired with short films, in a variety of genres including stop-motion animation.

 Among the titles at this sixth annual festival is the crime drama Ajami, a 2010 Academy Award nominee in the Best Foreign Language Film category which also earned a Golden Camera – Special Mention at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Co-directed by a Palestinian and an Israeli, Ajami interweaves several powerful tales of residents in the melting-pot Tel Aviv neighborhood for which the film is named.

In conjunction with the 2010 Arab Film Festival, the Museum staged its first-ever national Short Film Contest, offering cash prizes to U.S. filmmakers between the ages of 18-30 whose work best represented the theme of “Trans-Ubuntu”: Trans indicating movement and Ubuntu, an African philosophy which sees individuals through their relationship with the larger community.

 First prize, including a cash award of $1,500, went to Brooklyn, New York-based filmmaker Joel Fendelman; second prize, $750, went to Los Angeles film student Michaela Wagner; third prize, $500, went to film student Pablo Torroella of Pasadena, California. All three films will be screened at 6 p.m. Friday, December 3 to open this year’s festival. Descriptions of the winning films and filmmakers appear below.

 This year, the AANM’s Arab Film Festival has also expanded to embrace and support those trying to further their film careers. Professionals from the Detroit branch of Screen Actors Guild (SAG) will present a series of free workshops on Saturday, December 4 at the AANM, culminating with an Open Casting Call for actors on Sunday, December 5. Details of the workshops appear below. The workshops and casting call are open to the public.

 “The Detroit Branch of Screen Actors Guild is pleased to work with the Arab Film Festival because we have never worked with a local museum or cultural institution before,” says Marcia Fishman, SAG Detroit Branch executive director. “It is our hope that these workshops will offer benefits to filmmakers and actors alike. We also hope to introduce Arab Americans to SAG, and SAG members to Arab Americans making films.”

 The 2010 Arab Film Festival is made possible in part by The Kresge Foundation; DoubleTree Hotel – Dearborn; Screen Actors Guild, Detroit Branch; Wayne County Film Initiative; Detroit Film Think Tank; Arab Detroit; and MFC Magazine.

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The Arab American National Museum documents, preserves, celebrates and educates the public on the history, life, culture and contributions of Arab Americans. It serves as a resource to enhance knowledge and understanding about Arab Americans and their presence in this country. The Arab American National Museum is a project of ACCESS, a Dearborn, Michigan-based nonprofit human services and cultural organization. Learn more at www.arabamericanmuseum.org and www.accesscommunity.org

 The Arab American National Museum is a proud Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Read about the Affiliations program at http://affiliations.si.edu.

 The Museum is located at 13624 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, MI, 48126. Museum hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday, Tuesday; Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Admission is $6 for adults; $3 for students, seniors and children 6-12; ages 5 and under, free. Call 313.582.2266 for further information.

For the full movie schedule and prices, click on the link below to continue.

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The City of Dearborn wants residents to know that homeowners can lease an additional 96-gallon trash or recycling cart from the city for a one-time $55 fee.

To lease an additional cart, residents must complete and sign a request form at www.cityofdearborn.org on the Department of Public Works page, or by calling the Department of Public Works at 943-2085.

Residents will be billed the $55 per additional cart when they return their completed and signed request form to City of Dearborn, DPW, 2951 Greenfield, Dearborn, MI 48120.

The city says carts, which remain the property of the City of Dearborn, will be delivered within two weeks from when the order is received.

There is no additional charge for weekly curbside pickup of an additional trash cart and no additional charge for biweekly curbside pickup of a recycling cart.