Detroit Warming Centers 2013-14

The warming centers in the city of Detroit for the Winter of 2013-14 are listed below.

Center Name with City weblink	Address	Open Hours
Crowell Recreation Center	16630 Lahser	11am - 7pm
Farwell Recreation Center	2781 East Outer Drive	1pm - 9pm
Heilman Community Center	19261 Crusade	1pm - 9pm

This map of the locations is from the City of Detroit website for all recreation / community centers.

Response to NY Times - Detroit Bankrupcty

Response to Detroit Bankruptcy Ruling, NY Times, Dec 3rd

I have a tough time watching the gentrification of downtown Detroit occur while the surrounding area has been shoved further and further out of view. Money focuses on what it knows and the marketing pulling into the city spins like a vortex on downtown & midtown. Detroit has beautiful areas that have been languishing, waiting and deteriorating, they need recognized and prodded forward.

The plan from Kevyn Orr (aka Bing's old plan, not quite the Future City plan) will be scrutinized in these ways most specifically:

1. Transparency - the city and state get failing grades on bringing the public in during pre-planning and planning. City Charter requirements from 2012 need to be fully implemented, including extending the council to interact with the neighborhoods (CACs were supposed to have happened in 2012 election). The Mayor (and EM) should be available to the public, not locked up in a office talking with the media offering well-timed press conferences on continued corporate domination of the city.



Check Revolve Detroit for info
about the "Avenue of Fashion"

2. Equality - the city has a lot of land for the number of residents. The people are asking for COMMONS to be formed that would not be corporatized or privatized. Places for gathering in education, entertainment, and exchange. We need community land trusts all over the city - so the people own it and have a place to gather.
3. Clean Up Pollution - corporations chose Detroit for polluting and willful destruction of environment. Public oversight on regulatory activities is needed - the people need to know and be cared for. Profit over people is a risky game. We need to reassess all tax abatements and the rationale for them - most need removed and taxes are what a city needs to operate.
4. Ensure Access - public transportation across a broad city is a MANDATORY NEED. Income levels, insurance red-lining, and continual redistricting/zoning makes mass transit vital. Mass transit must visit the community commons - not the corporate shopping malls.
5. Embrace New Ways - high tech infrastructure has been driven down in cost. Green energy is cheaper to produce than dirty energy. Bicycling & walking is healthier. Detroit needs walkable neighborhoods with full services - grocers, clothiers, shops, offices, and light portable industry scattered across the city. City gardens and farms need to be endorsed and supported - give them the watering and feeding needed to grow. That means commons for markets, resources, and growing young gardeners.
6. Education For All Ages - not just traditional education, this is knowing how to live in an progressive, forward thinking, creative realm. Learning how to work smarter with what you know you have and having access to find what you don't know, partnering it in. Stepping out of corporate mentality into community coops. Make sure our elders and youth discover lifetimes that last an eternity by learning together.

There is more that needs mentioned. There is an active movement around the city that is exploring and supportive of what is mentioned above and the "more" I've alluded to. It may be talked about as a focal few, but that number has been growing from hundreds to thousands who are putting their feet in the street, bodies in the chairs, and speaking their minds in public forums.

Streaming Video From a Pole

I've come up with a few crafty solutions as a livestreamer on events including marches and other very active stuff. Most of my highly portable streaming to date has been with an Android cell phone using the app Bambuser. This doesn't mean other phones or apps won't work - what I'm discussing in this note is the rigging for the phone. I have used the lessons with a camcorder on a monopod.

Any streamer would tell you - LEARN YOUR ANGLES when framing a scene. Practice before being called to action, it matters.

What you'll need: 

• A 2.5 meter (8' or taller) cardboard pole or PVC pipe (haven't used PVC but may look too "professional" / look like a weapon). The pole must be thick, sturdy, and lightweight - appearing "trashy" can be in your favor. 
• A monopod can be used or tripod (bulkier), though both appear more professional, depends on where you are going and if welcomed. 
• A bag of rubber bands with a mix of wide and narrow bands that all expand enough to go around your forearm. 
• A USB power cable that is about 3 meters (10'), long enough to go from the top of the pole to your power source. 
• A USB power source - can be a laptop or batteries
• Laptop with a small screen size (11" rather than 15"+) to reduce weight and size. Setup a power configuration which has it in sleep mode with screen and disk turned off but the USB connectors remain on. I've found at least six hours of continual life from my laptop setup this way.
• One or more USB batteries which are pre-charged or solar cell power pack. The battery solution can be much less obvious than a backpack. If using batteries be prepared and looking for power to recharge during long events. Enlisting a friend to scout for power is a bonus!

Advantages: 

• Phone uses automatic exposure compensation - the downward angle can eliminate bright sky in frame. Remember - similar brightness in a frame gives best viewing. 
• Pole keeps your arm and shoulder from tiring. 
• Pole can be rest on a solid surface (ground, chair, car, ...) to give steady shot. 
• Using what appears as trash to many keeps it from appealing to thieves. 
• Reaching across a crowd to get image in frame is much easier. 
• Cardboard tube is lightweight and sturdy. 
• It is possible to put a camera mount secured in the top if you need a traditional video camera up there. 

Disadvantages (most with solutions!): 

• Cardboard gets wet and dissolves - solution: use a sealer on the cardboard - it can also be painted with messaging on it. Mine says "The World Is Watching". It was exposed to water recently, so about 2 feet is lost (cutting that off, smaller pole). 
• Round object doesn't keep strapped on phone steady - solution: cut a square into the tube which is the width of the phone, this secures the phone better. 
• Can't see the screen (#1) - solution: strap the phone on the other way so the screen faces you and the camera shoots past the pole. 
• Can't see the screen (#2) when elevated - sorry I don't have a solution short of mounting a bicycle mirror to the pole and reflecting the image down. Haven't tried but seems possible. 
• Controls are hard to use with rubber bands covering them - solution: reposition the bands toward the outer edges. Use thick bands to provide much steadier mounting than thin. You may have to move a band back and forth at the start/end of your stream. Each phone has controls in different positions, find what works. 
• Long USB cord is flying around loose - solution: rubber band it to the pole with a "pin" (like a pen top or golf tee) 
• Laptop is huge and hard to carry in pack - solution: smaller screen laptop. Make sure your pack has wide straps and isn't digging into your shoulders. Use both shoulder straps to distribute weight and for comfort. 
• Laptop is heating up - solution: make sure power settings are for USB to remain on, disk off, screen off. Another solution is to use dry cooling packs with a towel barrier to catch condensation as they warm and protect electronics from getting wet.

Sample Stream 

http://bambuser.com/v/3380737 - event is the Forward On Climate rally in DC held Feb 17, 2013. Check out a variety of streams from that event with the tag #ForwardOnClimate.

More videos at http://bambuser.com/channel/occupydetroit

Treat Your Phone Well! 

The phone fell while mounted on the pole 8 feet onto asphalt road. It fluttered along a few more days then died. Moisture got into the cracked screen and shorted out the LCD beneath.

Phone Service

If you are looking for a phone service providing unlimited talk, text, and data - please consider my invitation link to Solavei. Specials are held frequently for new customers. You are not on a contract, it is monthly service. You can bring an existing unlocked GSM phone. Personally I bought a phone through eBay for $80 and service at this time is $49/month.

Advanced solutions for live coverage are being checked out, so watch for more blog posts tagged streaming video.

Detroit as a Kleptocracy

Imagine waking up and finding your city is no longer under a government structure we have known as Representative Democracy. What we are waking up to finding is Kleptocracy and elite capture through a Consent Agreement. These words are more common in third world countries as they strive to find democracy enabling the lower class equal opportunity to participate in government. Although now we have these here, in Detroit, and found in other Michigan communities, including our schools whom the State has placed a review team to determine their financial stability.

The first step is to qualify the community as financial unstable and that can be accomplished by bringing officials that are told to work within a system that supports elite capture. The review team commonly has members whom are affiliated with the organizations writing and litigating the law, seeing those persons as authority on the matter. Commonly missing from a review team are humanitarian industrial engineers that identify problems in organization and process as would be found through Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The underlying interest by the State Treasury is to maintain a debt burden through use of the Emergency Manager Law and Emergency Financial Manger Law (Public Act 72 of 1990, repealed May 2011 to allow Public Act 4 to be brought into law). The manner of working these laws is direct opposition to bankruptcy law which negotiates debt down during restructuring. Instead additional debt is added to "avoid the financial emergency", assets are sold off to corporate/foundation/state-controlled intersts, and the money disappears as one would expect in a kleptocracy. 

The State Treasury even went so far as to claim the Detroit Review Board was not a public body per the Open Meetings Act, however that claim was denied by Judge William Collette on February 2, 2012. The Detroit News reported the story incorrectly until a February 6 correction was released.

Once under control the new fascist regime established through the Consent Agreement departments can cook the books and remain unapproachable in process by the public whom are ruled. The city's assets in will be sold to corporate interests to cover a shortfall in finances that has been caused by leadership that has been cornered into reckless abandonment as they are placed in office. Quite often restructuring is not consistent with industrial engineering practices. This would include absence of organization charts and claims of urgency that evade defining processes existing to find flaws and waste. These restructuring practices are required through bankruptcy processes. This kleptocracy ensures the War on the Poor continues at an ever quickening pace.