Oscar Perry Abello

#Detroit’s Six Mile, aka McNichols Road. West side. Locals have never really stopped believing in their historic community. Starting out with just a barbershop at first, Metro Detroit Barber College owner Raymond Ware bought 7443 W McNichols back in 1993 for $75,000. Ware also bought the vacant lot next door (now in use as a pocket park) for $35,000 back in 1991. T-Mo’s BBQ owner Toriano Dotson bought its building at 7401 W McNichols back in 2000 for $31,500. The city finally started catching up over the past decade. In 2017, this area became part of the first three around the city targeted for investment under the @detroit_pdd Strategic Neighborhood Fund, managed by @investdet . The fund pooled city, state and private philanthropic dollars to make new investments in the streetscape, park spaces (like the nearby Ella Fitzgerald Greenway), housing and commercial corridors like this one. Here the local @live6alliance also helped shape the planning around those dollars. Invest Detroit began acquiring properties strategically along the corridor, including those surrounding the barber college and T-Mo’s. In 2019 Invest Detroit sold 7400 W McNichols for $208,000 to Speramus Partners, co-founded by @detroitspirit , who has also spent the past decade teaching fellow Detroiters how to get into small scale real estate development via @bcvdetroit . Invest Detroit also financed the buildout at 7400 W McNichols as part of the Strategic Neighborhood Fund. This stretch of the corridor also connects @detmercy at one end and the @marygroveconservancy at the other. The latter, a former college campus, is now under conversion to a mixed-use campus that is highly anticipating the eventual arrival of its new anchor tenant, @thekresgefoundation — which has been one of the big funders behind the Strategic Neighborhood Fund. The SNF has since expanded to a total of eleven areas throughout the city, and Invest Detroit is now raising SNF II, seeking another $40 million. They’ve got $25 million so far, but have stalled out a bit over the past year as public and private funders have hesitated to cough up more funding for some reason.

Though #Detroit’s 632k residents are 80% Black, from 2014-2023 the city did not have a single Black-owned grocery store. Now it has two, and here’s one of them. Located on Woodward Avenue, in the historic North End neighborhood, @detroitpeoplesfoodcoop occupies the first floor of the Detroit Food Commons project. The second floor includes four commercial kitchens, a banquet hall and the offices of the @dbcfsn_org . The whole project sits on land owned outright by DBCFSN, founded in 2006 by Malik Yakini. As the network’s name reveals, since inception it has always had a vision to restore food sovereignty for the Detroit’s Black community. That vision started with urban agriculture at D-Town Farm, the largest of Detroit’s 2,200 urban farms and community gardens. It took over a decade to raise the $22 million it ultimately took to build DFC & the co-op, which opened in 2024. DBCFSN ultimately partnered with @developdetroit , led by Detroit born-and-raised Sonya Mays, to develop the property using a combination of co-op member equity raised at $200 a share, philanthropic dollars, at least three allocations of federal New Markets Tax Credits and a direct loan from @nationalcooperativebank . Fun fact, DBCFSN had to pay the city $125,000 to acquire the property and the land bank another $162,000 for the empty parcels behind that serve as parking and outdoor market space in good weather.

Hey #Detroit this #indiebookstoreday get your copy of The Banks We Deserve at @sourcebooksellers just signed five today for the store and such an honor to meet founders and owners Alyson Jones Turner & Janet Webster Jones this week while I’m here for the #plannerwithapurpose #planningwhileblack Detroit Activation in conjunction with #NPC26

Hey #NPC26! Come find me tomorrow at the @island_press booth in the exhibitor hall from 11-12 to chat about my book and if you already have a copy (available here in #Detroit at the Black-owned @sourcebooksellers ) I can sign it for you 🖊️😊✨🏦🏙️ #independentbookstoreday

So nice catching up with @serenamaria36 today. We were sitting in the window across Woodward at @baobabfare and she pointed out some of the newer businesses across the street including a #FILIPINO BAKERY. In #Detroit! @jpmakesandbakes is about a year and a half old. Owner Jonathan “JP” Peregrino was working in corporate sales and marketing in Detroit when he decided to go the pastry school in the Philippines. Financed the startup with a mix of personal savings, crowdfunding, local grants and an SBA loan from a bank. Some of the menu items are straight from his family’s recipes while others take those recipes and put a new or more broadly appealing spin on them. Learned a little about the global Ube supply chain. Word to the wise: if it’s not a Filipino or at least an #AAPI-owned business, it’s probably not real Ube from the Philippines. Going back tomorrow for some CHICKEN ADOBO SIOPAO 🤯🤯🤯 only available on Thursdays

Ella Fitzgerald Greenway. #Detroit

Finally got to spend some time in #Boston’s #Chinatown. Just a quick stop on the way home to NYC.

Bensonhurst, #Brooklyn. One of New York City’s nine Chinatowns.

You know it’s serious when actual New Yorkers are walking through Times Square. #nokings

Bon appetit. #billionairesrow #nokings

🗽🗽🗽

@amtrak Empire Service train no. 244