Planet Detroit is partnering with the Energy News Network (ENN), a news and information service published by Fresh Energy, and the Detroit Equity Action Lab in a joint imperative to recruit, uplift, and mentor Black, Indigenous, and other journalists of color through the Detroit Energy and Environment Reporting Fellowship program. This year’s selected Energy and Environment Reporting […]
Posted inUncategorized
From the Headlines – June 28-July 2, 2021
Flood recovery: WDET and Detour both have useful guides on where to find help after this past weekend’s historic flooding. WDET gives a good rundown on how to file a claim with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) and what you need to clean up your basement after flooding. Detour provides a list of contacts for government agencies and […]
Posted inVoices
OPINION: 5 ways to bring Detroit’s underground infrastructure challenges out of the dark and into the light
My grandmother always said what you do in the dark, will always come to the light. Well, in Detroit and other surrounding cities, what you DON’T do in the dark, will also come to the light. Water infrastructure is not something people really worry about until there is a crisis because most of it is […]
Posted inAccountability
What will it take to protect Metro Detroiters from basement flooding?
On the eastside of Detroit, car alarms alerted Terri Henderson to the water that was quickly overtaking her neighborhood in the early morning of Saturday June, 26. By the time she looked in the basement, the water was nearly up to the top of the stairs. “Outside you couldn’t get out the front or back […]
Posted inCommunity
PARKS REPORT: Nagel Park
Find your way to this park! View on Instagram>>> Nagel Park is a small recreation area located at 3100 Wabash Street right behind Burton Elementary School. This space features two soccer fields, baseball/softball diamond, picnic pavilion, and walking course that encircles the field. The park might lack some equipment but the community and local high […]
Posted inDeep Dives, Filling Our Plates, Solutions
Filling Our Plates: Detroit food security innovations
Lakisha King didn’t used to worry about how she would put dinner on the table. But last year, while on maternity leave after a surprise pregnancy, pandemic closures put her out of a job. Suddenly, she had to worry for two. “I wasn’t getting food stamps; I was paying cash for food. And I was […]
Posted inDeep Dives, Filling Our Plates, Solutions
With no stove, no car, no money for rent, a single mom found a neighborhood lifeline
It’s been more than two months since Maria Estrada has been able to prepare a home-cooked meal for her six children. The stove in her two-bedroom flat in Southwest Detroit doesn’t work, so she usually relies on cold cuts or heats up frozen meals in the microwave, buying provisions at a nearby corner store. Even […]
Posted inDeep Dives, Filling Our Plates, Solutions
This retired hospital worker started a free food fair on her block — with food that would have otherwise gone into a landfill
Every Tuesday morning around 9 a.m., Stephen Bentley pulls his black SUV to the rear entrance of the West Bloomfield Whole Foods, where he’s greeted by staff member Mario Davis. Bentley pops the hatchback while Davis brings out cartons of prepared salads, loaves of fresh-baked bread, vegetables, quiches, cans of peas and tomatoes and varieties […]
Posted inDeep Dives, Filling Our Plates, Solutions
Why pandemic-induced anxiety over food security sent many Detroiters back to the land
In Marcia Spivey’s backyard in northwest Detroit, a weeping cherry tree sits right next to a raised garden bed. Spivey’s mother’s ashes are buried beneath the tree, and she likes to think of her mom, who was an avid gardener, overseeing Spivey’s first attempts at growing her own food. Spivey, an attorney in solo practice, […]
Posted inDeep Dives, Filling Our Plates, Solutions
She lost her job while on maternity leave. A free online grocery store kept her and her daughter fed.
Lakisha King is standing in her kitchen in northwest Detroit, wielding a spatula and channeling southern-style YouTube cooking sensation Danni Rose, also known as StoveTop Kisses. That’s where King gets her culinary inspiration. “I absolutely love her,” she says. The evening’s dinner plan is seafood-stuffed salmon with broccoli and bread. Families First Marketplace, an emergency […]