Free Outdoor Summer Concerts in West Dearborn
Residents, businesses and visitors to Dearborn are encouraged to reserve Friday evenings to attend a free outdoor mini-concert series sponsored by the West Dearborn Downtown Development Authority (WDDDA).
All concerts take place in the Muirhead Plaza, adjacent to the Bryant Library on Michigan Avenue. The concerts will begin at 6:30 p.m. and conclude at 9 p.m., unless otherwise noted.
Here is this year’s lineup:
• June 17: The first concert features the Big Band Sound of Al Tedrick Combo Featuring Bill Heart.
• July 1: Concert goers will be entertained by a return performance of the “Beat Club,” a Beatles Tribute Band. This band looks like and sounds like the lads from Liverpool.
• July 15: Big Will and the 360 Degree Band with be entertaining. Big Will is the former lead sing of the Sun Messengers.
• July 29: Justine Blazer’s Modern Country Sound will be featured.
• August 12: Metro Jazz Voices will perform selections from all eras of the Great American Songbook .From standards like “Pennies from Heaven” and “Over the Rainbow” to modern classics like “Me and Julio, Down by the Schoolyard.” The sound is comfortable and yearning, the harmonies sweet and fascinating.
• August 26: “Crush,” bringing the sounds of classic rock and more, will entertain from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
In case of rain, the concerts will be held in the Henry Ford Centennial Library auditorium.
The WDDDA recommends that concert-goers bring chairs and blankets for outdoor seating while they relax and enjoy the music.
Maps and other information are also available online on the WDDDA’s web site at www.DearbornwestOnline.com
May 23rd, 2011 at 12:38 am
Thanks Mayor. You fully fund, organize and implement an Arab Festival, requiring only a fig leaf of sacrifice from the Arab Chamber and then lie and backstab the kids who raised real cash to offset the cost of the pools. What a disgrace and a spineless wreck of a human being we have as a mayor. I think that what this city needs is more city funded cool jazz in west Dearborn, city funded Arab Festivals, and socialized construction that benefits Oakwood healt systems.
May 23rd, 2011 at 10:27 am
Why not have these summer concerts at the pools? This could be wonderful for the whole family. Boss Hogg stop trying to be a bully, it’s getting rather sickening.
May 23rd, 2011 at 10:58 am
Reality – Go easy on our leader. He just paid for new, expensive, conference rooms in the library, new street sweepers, a ‘rain-soaked beer bash’ he calls Homecoming, the Arab Festival, gave HF PREFERRED STATUS as a developer (multiple times), helped to sign an uninsured deal w/BK and lost it all, helped built an eyesore – – TWO HUGE parking structures that take up a ton of space, and kicked-off paid parking & increased the number of parking enforcement officers!! Why would he want the kids to have a nearby pool to swim in during their Summer Vacation?
May 23rd, 2011 at 6:38 pm
So, where is the money coming from to pay for these concerts? I love the ideas of having the concerts at the pools. You notice how all the concerts are at the Bryant library WHERE YOU HAVE TO PAY TO PARK? What happened to when they used to be at different parks all over the city.? I’m not going to pay to park to go to a “free” concert.
May 24th, 2011 at 1:46 am
So they can continue having these little concerts (which I am sure aren’t cheap) but they can continue to downsize the number of workers who help keep this city looking good? Or how about cutting back on various other services?
Oh and for those who want to know, those street sweepers were bought to replace a fleet that was falling apart. They weren’t bought just for public service days (which makes things a lot easier for the work crews to maintain streets….sweeping, patching, small paving jobs, etc.) or some kind of agenda.
As far as I am concerned, we can go back to the way things were four years ago. Start at one end of the city and continue to the other side. That goes for a lot of things DPW and other departments used to do.
May 24th, 2011 at 10:59 am
When I see the name “Reality Bites” on a ballot I will surely vote for you sir or madame because you seem to have all of the answers. I’m sure the multiple games of SimCity and the Sims you play have better outcomes than what is happening in the city of Dearborn. But in the real life city of Dearborn, life happens. Other things happen as well and I truly believe you when you say that it’s all the mayor’s fault, because his only agenda is to annoy an angry annonymous constituent hammering gripes away at a keyboard.
May 24th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
Good lord, the negativity and absolutely unconstructive criticsm and vitriol on this site has become god awful and downright laughable. It’s honestly a chore to take most of you even remotely seriously. Said should re-brand this website as a city- bashing gripe haven for all the malconents and whiners. Rarely a comment or discussion on any of the positive stories, yet when an opportunity comes along to butcher the city, it’s officials, or its policies, the grumpy underbelly of Dearborn is ready to pounce. The day any of you blow hard do nothings actually does anything constructive to improve the city will be the first.
May 24th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
From what I understood, the sweepers were purchased when public service days increased from every other week to every week. I don’t know why they can’t sweep every other week like they used to. The recycling only gets picked up every other week. THAT should be our day for street sweeping. Then they wouldn’t need extra sweepers.
You can’t justify sweeping every week when they are planning on cutting the pools and libraries and selling the towers in Florida.
If leaf collection costs us $600,000 per year and the pools cost $132,000 to operate for a season it should be a no brainer and we have enough no brainers around here to make that decision.
Does anyone know what this whole public service day program costs us? We could go back to sweeping the streets at random like we used to and then have a public service day every few weeks and move all the cars and get a good sweeping.
I see no difference in the cleanliness of the streets with them being swept every week.
Save our pools and libraries at whatever cost!! We’ve managed without leaf collection and public service days for years but we’ve always had the pools and libraries. That is what makes Dearborn. Not finding busy work for the snow plow guys to do during the off season.
May 24th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Keep the concerts, the libraries, the pools.
Outsource all legal work like other communities.
May 24th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Jason, it is not the grumpy underbelly of the city or persistent whiners, that are asking questions. It is everyday citizens engaged in the messy process called participatory democracy. Simply accepting the Mayor’s solutions without asking questions or engaging in healthy debate is a recipe for corruption, and decline. The problems Dearborn face were not created in a day or a year but long term and with many small mistakes compounded overtime.
There really is no positive way to spin a corrupt building department, sleazy land dealings with a known tax evader and supporter of Terrorism, and the complete mismanagement of the CSO project and west Dearborn development. These objective acts of negligence and incompetence all took place while the current mayor was the chief legislator of our city.
It is truly an act of cognitive dissonance and self delusion to believe that the first priority to close a twenty million hole is with a $100,000 patch. The mayor continues to spend money on new recreation projects, yet let’s existing ones diminish and deteriorate. Sorry I don’t believe the problem is as dire as he says, and accept his million dollar boondoggles as “life happens”. Furthermore these problems we face are the direct result off poor legislative and executive leadership by our current mayor. Who should I hold accountable the city lamplighter? Lastly the mayor should not interpret peoples indifference with their acceptance. What is now a slow simmer can quickly become a rolling boil. Sorry Jason your rank acts of apology fall flat on their merits, and my military service far exceeds any public contribution O’Reilly ever made. I could go further but I will stop here.
May 24th, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Why don’t you whiners stand up at a city council meeting or run for mayor? It costs next to nothing and even less if you get a couple hundred signatures. I watch the council meetings and there is usually nary a peep, despite calls of “viva la revolution” from the 5 of you. The 5 of you who want to vent seem smart enough to log on to a computer but too dumb or apathetic to do much else….While telling us that the guy who consistently wins by a landslide shouldn’t be assumed to have the peoples’ will because they’re so uninformed and apathetic. Get a life already and stop with the mental masturbation.
May 24th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
It’s funny how you can tell which posts are made by city workers and which one by average citizens.
May 25th, 2011 at 8:58 am
The fact is this mayor has failed in his fiduciary obligations as a private citizen and as a public officer. His scheming, backslapping, and micromanaging has created massive million dollar cost overruns at the CSO. His immature need to ham it up for the cameras exacerbated and inflamed the Terry Jones debacle, his mishandling of the Arab festival Christian missionaries resulted in the city losing a $150,000 in legal fees. The mayor authorized a 4 million dollar payment on a piece of toxic land bought from a terrorist supporter, tax evader and international fugitive. This mayor is in charge of the west Dearborn business development that is a total washout. Etc Etc. I voted for this guy, because he was the lesser of two evils. Well it is not mental masturbation to say Dearborn deserves the lesser of two evils. I would love to point to all the good this mayor has done, but community gardens and being a bit player in community theatre hardly makes up for his total incompetence. Lastly if the pools have to close so be it. The problem I had is why was this his first choice as a cut. If Dave Bing, Gov Schynder, county ex. Ficano, county commissioner Wronchack all took large pay cuts before asking for job cuts or elimination of services why couldn’t O’Reilly do the same? His very first proposal was elimination of services. The reason is he is simply in it for the money. His entire legal career was a flop and now he is looking for lifetime pension on the backs of children. What kind of logic dictates closing a 20 million dollar hole with a 100,000 patch. This is a prime example of a man bankrupt of vision. The burden of action is not on me I already gave my pound of flesh for this country, I am not being paid $160,000 yearly crying bankruptcy.
May 26th, 2011 at 7:26 am
I think it is time for some of you to leave Dearborn. And NO, I am not a city worker.
May 26th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Amen Barr. And by the way, Reality, you obviously only use “facts” when they suit you. although I have nowhere near the time or energy to waste arguing most of your other b.s., the mayor and council are both taking pay cuts, and I’m pretty sure although the mayor has a law degree, he NEVER attempted to practice it. When he was council president I believe he was working in the workforce development field. So his “entire legal career being a flop” is utter fabrication. I think you would fit in much better on Russ Gibbs website, Reality, I hear thats where all the old nutjobs in Dearborn get together to rant and complain.
May 27th, 2011 at 2:31 am
Jason, what part of O’Reilly’s record do you wish to defend? This 20 million dollar deficit did not happen overnight. He was at the ships helm for the last twenty years while these decisions that are bankrupting us were made. Now his first solution to cut the deficit is to close pools. His decision to take a pay cut was only recent, and after he was shamed into it. His legal expertise is evident in the city with Burton Katzman, CSO, Terry Jones, Hakim, and the Acts missionaries. So if you disagree with the mayor and his plans you are old cranks. I ll accept being a crank if you accept being a spineless apologist for an overweight, incompetent gasbag in over his head
May 27th, 2011 at 3:29 am
Jason: You are spot on. Our Mayor is doing all he can trying to clean up the mess he inherited. this didn’t happen in one term. I support Mayor O’Reilly and I would vote for him again.
May 27th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Hey Jason, Barr, and KC another example of our Mayors fine legal expertise.
Last Updated: May 27. 2011 1:00AM
Court throws out Dearborn leaflet ban
City violated man’s free-speech rights at festival, ruling says
Robert Snell/ The Detroit News
Detroit— A federal appeals court Thursday invalidated a leafleting ban in Dearborn, ruling the city violated a man’s free-speech rights when he was blocked from trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.
The 2-1 decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sends the case back to federal court in Detroit, where the city and Police Chief Ronald Haddad could be held liable for damages.
George Saieg, a Christian Arab-American from California, sued Dearborn for being prevented in 2009 from handing out literature at the annual Arab International Festival on Warren Avenue. The festival will be held again June 17-19.
The appeals court said the city’s ban is not reasonable and that the city and Haddad violated Saieg’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
In a statement, Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. said: “Since the festival chose to keep the sidewalks open for other business not related to the festival, the court ruled that the sidewalks had to be available for the material distribution,” he said.
May 28th, 2011 at 5:15 am
O’reilly was the president of the city council for 20 years, he and the late mayor worked together on meny of these issues. He has keep the same people on his staff as Mayor Guido had, Mark Guido, Jim O’Conner,Dave Norwood these three are part and parcel to this $20 million dollar problem, He appointed this Police Chief and now this chief will cost us more money after losing this second 1st amendment right case. How much is that going to cost us? we have’t heard from the upcoming third Pastor Jones case and how much will it cost us. Dearborns track record is doing poorly on federal law-suits these days and our city leaders are responsable, we elected them and thay are failing. who do we blame if not them? We didn’t mess up the CSO project but we are going to pay for it. We didn’t mess up the B-K downtown west dearborn project but we are paying for it and its two under used parking decks. The Mayor doesn’t control the money, the council does and this mayor didn’t keep the late mayor in check. This council hasn’t kept him in check.Shame on him then and shame on all of them now.