Just a friendly reminder, the third and final installment of 2008 Summer Tax Bill is due Jan. 14, 2009. Homeowners should make checks payable to the City of Dearborn. Late payments will be charged 1 percent per month on unpaid balance from July 1, 2008.

Public Invited to Take Part in Jan. 21 Brainstorming Session

Are their ways to make the Dearborn Homecoming better? Now in its 30th year, the City of Dearborn is inviting the public to take part in a brainstorming session on Jan. 21 to generate new ideas to make the annual event at Ford Field Park even better.

One idea the Homecoming Committee is looking at is whether to change the schedules of some existing activities, including considering offering the fireworks on Friday and Saturday.

The public brainstorming session will run from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, in the City Council Chambers, 13615 Michigan Ave. The idea session is open to service clubs, community organizations and charitable groups that staff the food and activity booths at the festival. Also invited are the businesses in west Dearborn that benefit from the traffic generated by the festival each August.

The City is looking forward to a lively discussion from the audience about possible updates to the successful festival.

“We always have to consider our finances and staff resources when we are thinking about new activities,” said Dearborn spokeswoman Mary Laundroche, who also is the Dearborn Homecoming co-chair. “But we know our residents love Homecoming, and they must have terrific ideas that can help keep our community festival fresh. Suggestions that have a general appeal and are affordable will be pursued for 2009, or beyond.”

Residents can also email their ideas for new Homecoming activities to mlaundroche@ci.dearborn.mi.us, or call the Department of Public Information at 313-943-2285.

Dearborn residents with fallen branches or other yard waste from recent wind storms can drag them to the curb for pickup on their normal trash collection day beginning today and running through January 9.

Depending on weather conditions, Dearborn Department of Public Works crews will collect the storm debris as close as possible to residents’ regular trash pickup day.

Dearborn residents may also call the Department of Public Works at 313-943-2085 to request a pickup of storm debris, which must be placed at the curb.

There has been a lot of talk lately on DeepSaidWhat.com in our comments section about what type of businesses would or wouldn’t work in Dearborn. Given that, we thought it would be worth reposting a story we wrote on this topic May 28, 2007. The story centered around the results of a Dearborn Chamber of Commerce survey and the types of businesses Dearborn residents wanted. Kohl’s rated in the top three, for those wondering.  While not entirely scientific, we thought the survey was a good effort by the Chamber. The results likely would still hold up today.

Below is the repost:

Say what you will about the Fairlane Town Center but Dearborn residents rate the mall as their favorite place to shop, ahead of Southland and Twelve Oaks, according to an informal online survey conducted by the Dearborn Chamber of Commerce.

That answer was one of 17 gleamed from the online survey designed to pinpoint the type of businesses people want to see come to Dearborn. The Chamber administered the survey, while the questions were developed by Steve Guile, Dearborn’s deputy director of economic development and Chamber board member Sandy Boulton, who runs her own marketing company.

While I agree that this unscientific survey is about as accurate as licking your finger and holding it up in the air to determine wind direction, it does provide a glimpse of what people are thinking. Not just on the types of retail stores but whether Dearborn residents want boutique shops, large chain stores, malls or main street-style retail shops in our city. Interestingly, the majority of survey respondents were women (60 percent) and the majority of all of those who took part in the survey were in the 48124 zip code.

When local residents, workers and business owners were asked what shopping mall they most frequented the Fairlane Mall topped the list with 24.2 responding it was their top shopping spot. Rounding out the top three was Southland (15.4 percent) and Twelve Oaks (14.6 percent).

Dearbornites also want to see more outdoor concerts, festivals and art shows in their city, according to the survey results, which explains why our Dearborn Homecoming is such a hit each year. Overall, Dearborn residents are quite happy with their city, the survey revealed. What they are searching for, however, is something to do between the eating and drinking that takes place on any given day. What can be done, say, in a four hour block between the time dinner is over and the nightcap? Filling that four hour window could be a movie, a museum, a few boutique shops strung together that people can stop in to shop.

“People want something to do in Dearborn beyond restaurants and bars,” says Jennifer Giering, president of the Dearborn Chamber of Commerce. “They want something to do between dinner and drinks.”

For instance, survey results show that the three most important features in a downtown were that it had to be walkable (88.7 percent), have ample parking (74 percent) and outdoor/patio seating at restaurants and bars (71.6 percent).

So what were the top three national chain stores residents would like to see locate in Dearborn? Specialty grocery store Trader Joe’s (56 percent), followed by Crate and Barrel (54.8 percent) and then Kohls (49.9 percent). Any of these stores would do well in Dearborn but we our city is competing against many others seeking to attract the same.

The survey is a good first step for Dearborn, even if it merely validates what our city leaders and businesses already know. At a minimum, it might help get people talking and perhaps shed more light on the types of issues facing Dearborn and then generate ideas that could help improve our city.

The complete survey can be viewed by clicking here: Chamber Survey Results

Dearborn businessman Kayed Bazzi will be thanking his customers with discounted gas beginning at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 7, at his B P gas station at 10601 East Outer Drive and Harper.

Mr. Bazzi thought the best way to show appreciation for his customers after one of them won a $1 million lottery prize in December was to sell 10,000 gallons of discounted gasoline at his Detroit station. Bazzi received a $2,000 commission from the state lottery for selling the winning ticket, an amount he plans to give back to his customers.

The discount will work this way: Bazzi will sell the gasoline for 20 cents per gallon below the cost to him from the supplier. “For instance, today the price is $1.69, my cost is $1.60,” he earlier told the Detroit Free Press. “I’m going to sell it for $1.40.”

At a time when many people are working hard to make ends meet, including business owners, Bazzi’s generous gesture is worth recognition. To that we say, well done!

If you are looking for a way to take that better photograph than mark your calendar for Feb. 6 for a free photography workshop at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.

The workshop, entitled “The Zen of Photography” runs from 3 – 5 p.m. on Feb. 6 in Wet Rooms 1 and 2 of the Center, 15801 Michigan Avenue, at the corner of Greenfield.

The Zen of Photography will allow participants to see life through the lens of a camera with award-winning photographer Teresa Lousias. The event is offered as part of the First Friday Artist Exchange Series, a collaborative project sponsored by the Dearborn Public Schools and the Dearborn Recreation Department’s Senior Services and Cultural Arts Divisions.

This presentation coincides with Dearborn’s 14th Annual Juried Photography Exhibition in The Center’s Padzieski Art Gallery, which runs from January 22 through March 8.

Class size for the free workshop is limited. To reserve a space, please call Dearborn’s Cultural Arts Division at 943-2190.

Happy New Year from the crew at DeepSaidWhat.com.
Here are some suggestions from The Detroit News for a better 2009 for our state.
To read the editorial, click HERE.

Detroit Free Press columist Ron Dzwonkowski says it is time to change gears and drive on. With all of the challenges our state faces and our great city, we all will need to find ways to turn adversity into opportunity. To read Ron’s column, click HERE.

Michaels Arts & Crafts store, a key anchor in a Dearborn strip mall just off of Michigan Avenue, is calling it quits, closing its doors and consolidating its operations into its newer Allen Park store.

Just when the store will officially close its doors isn’t known but all indications are that it will be soon since a good portion of the store is now packed in boxes. Even so, employees at the store say they haven’t been given an official date. “We are on a need-to-know basis,” said one cashier. “They haven’t told us when the store will close. Never mind it’s our jobs they are talking about.”

And so goes another tenant in a Norm Newman property to call it quits. For those of you wondering, the next-door, ACO Hardware store, one of our favorites to Duke’s Hardware, is not in a Newman-owned building. Same with the vacant store to the west of ACO that at one time housed Hancock Fabrics.

As an outside observer, the move by Michaels to Allen Park seems to be a pretty straightforward business decision, consolidating operations into the company’s newest location. Even the company’s Westland location is closing. However, moving to Allen Park is not without its challenges. Just ask Party City who left its Dearborn location at 22938 Michigan (near the then Farmer Jack grocery store) to move to the fancy new Allen Park site only to move back to Dearborn to its original location. Business just wasn’t good in Allen Park.

Michaels may be making a similar mistake. Both locations have free parking. So take that off the table. The Dearborn store may look tired and old but it’s easier for people to get to at lunch and easier for seniors who may not like trying to navigate the poorly designed entrance and exits into the Fairlane Green shopping center. While we wish them well, we are sad to see Michaels leave Dearborn.

Challenges at West Village Commons
The West Village Commons in Dearborn, the Burton-Katzman project that still sits more than half vacant, suffered another unfortunate casualty, this time the au bon pain Café & Bakery, which appears to have closed its doors for good. The inside of the café has been gutted and a sign on the door reads the following:

“We have moved locations. Thank you Dearborn for your patronage. Please visit our other locations at Campus Martius Park, Renaissance Center and DMC Hospital.”

The departure of au bon pain now leaves a gaping hole in a key section of the West Village Commons. To the left of the café is a closed Caribou Coffee and to the right a closed Super Cuts. Hardly good for other remaining businesses at the location but it really is a sign of the tough economic times we are living in right now.

New Sushi Restaurant Opening
Even so, just down the street is a new restaurant opening simply called Sushi. The Sushi restaurant is located in a high visibility corner of Norm Newman’s mostly vacant property, just west of Michigan and Military.

The new restaurant brings to three the number of businesses selling Japanese cuisine along Michigan. The others are the newly opened Kabuki, at the corner of Michigan and Howard, and the upscale Crave restaurant at Michigan and Mason.

Just to pick up where we last left off following some changes that are almost completed here at DeepSaidWhat.com, the recount for the 19th District Court is over, the request by Candyce Abbatt withdrawn after just 28 of the city’s 58 precincts were recounted.

This of course means the outcome of the election for the district judge seat remains unchanged and goes into the record books as incumbent Judge Mark Somers as the winner with 17,077 to Abbatt’s 16,849 votes, same as on election night.

But guess who is now being asked to pay for the recount? You guessed it, the City of Dearborn.

Abbatt paid Wayne County the required $10 per precinct charge for a recount up front, totaling $580, but what is less clear is who will finally pay the people charges to actually get the recount machine up and running. Also does Abbatt get a refund of $300 for the 30 precincts that were never counted?

Consider this, the recount, according to City of Dearborn officials in the clerk’s office, required 27 people and looked like this:

– 20 state canvassers (2 people sitting at 10 different tables getting paid between $12 and $18 per hour)
– 2 Wayne County workers
– 1 corporate counsel person (Upwards of $120 per hour)
– 3 State of Michigan workers to oversee the counting
– 1 City of Dearborn worker

Dearborn City Clerk Kathy Buda says when she asked the State of Michigan employee in charge of the recount who would be picking up the tab for the work, the State worker’s response was that Wayne County would be paying.

But Buda says Wayne County will likely flip the bill back to Dearborn. That would mean one day pay for the group of workers for the first day of counting and two hours of pay the second day for showing up to do the remaining count only to learn the recount had been withdrawn by Abbatt the previous evening. The precincts counted in the district judge race included precincts 1, 2 (both McDonald School), 4, 5 (both Oakman School) 8 (Maples School), 20 (Salina School), 39 (Divine Child elementary); absentee boards 951 and 956. We requested a list of the 28 precincts counted but that wasn’t readily available.

“I have no doubt that the county will send Dearborn a bill,” Buda told DeepSaidWhat.com. “We recently received a bill from them for a recount resulting from the Aug. 5, 2008 Primary for State Representative – District 11. Three of our precincts were involved plus one absentee board. My deputy took our supplies downtown and the process took 1.2 hours. They want us to pay them $671.88. I am refusing to pay (with support of Council & Administration).”

It sounds like another bill from Wayne County will soon be on its way to Dearborn. Stay tuned.

Frank H. Bewick, editor and publisher of the Dearborn Times Herald newspaper, passed away earlier this week. May God rest his soul.