Home January 2025

January 2025

  • 2025 Hour Detroiters: William Clay Ford Jr.

    The ground level of Michigan Central Station, Bill Ford’s near billion-dollar love letter to the city synonymous with his family name, is a before-and-after picture for the ages: a ruined, graffitied Beaux-Arts shell meticulously restored to glorious columned spaces with glowing limestone, enormous windows, and tiled vaulted ceilings. A futuristic light sculpture occupies the former […]

  • 2025 Hour Detroiters: Danialle Karmanos

    Walking the halls of Royal Oak’s Corewell Health Beaumont Hospital with Danialle Karmanos, one feels as if they’re in the presence of a celebrity: Nurses pop up to greet her as she passes their stations, people in the waiting room glance over at the glamorous woman in their midst, a Corewell employee is on standby […]

  • 2025 Hour Detroiters: Amy Good

    Amy Good was 11 when her family moved to Michigan from Pittsburgh in 1968, a year after the five-day Detroit rebellion that resulted in the death of 43 people. Although her parents were interested in moving to Detroit, she says, her father’s co-workers urged him not to, so they purchased a home in Farmington Hills […]

  • Burning Questions for 2024, Revisited

    Every year, Hour Detroit asks area experts to answer some of our readers’ top questions for the new year. Here, we take a look back at some of our experts’ predictions for 2024 to see what they got right. Curious to see what our experts think is coming in 2025? Click here to read this year’s predictions.  […]

  • Hour Detroit: January 2025 Digital Edition

    Are you done with your holiday shopping yet? Chances are the answer is no, and that’s OK. Fortunately, our annual December Gift Guide issue is here.

  • Burning Questions for 2025

    2025 is here, and it’s hard to know exactly what it will look like for Michiganders. But we can sure as hell speculate. For our annual feature, we asked three political consultants, a political science professor, and (to keep it light) two sports journalists to help us make sense of what to expect this year. […]

  • 2025 Hour Detroiters: Courtney Ebonique Smith

    Between 7,000 and 14,000 children in Detroit are estimated to have been homeless in the 2017-18 school year, a University of Michigan analysis found. Approximately 12% of these kids were identified by Detroit public and charter schools. Courtney Ebonique Smith, founder and CEO of the Detroit Phoenix Center, Detroit’s first and only drop-in center that […]

  • 2025 Hour Detroiters: The 2024 Detroit Tigers

    At the July 30, 2024, trade deadline, with the Detroit Tigers mired in fourth place, 15 games behind Cleveland, in the American League Central, the franchise continued its seemingly annual tradition of giving up on the season and being sellers when they traded No. 2 starter Jack Flaherty to the Los Angeles Dodgers for two […]

  • An A-Z Guide to Detroit’s Music History

    A Aaliyah She was a transcendent talent, the ultimate D girl. Aaliyah Dana Haughton grew up on Detroit’s Warrington Drive singing gospel and appeared on Star Search at age 10. As a student at the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts (now Detroit School of Arts), she maintained perfect grades despite already […]

  • Six of Our Favorite New Shops on the Block

    This past year, metro Detroit’s retail shopping experience became more extravagant and sexier with the opening of a new lingerie brand, founded by a global music star, on Woodward and a few high-end additions at Somerset Collection in Troy. Locals can also peruse a new affordable option for fashionistas on a budget at Great Lakes […]

  • 2025 Arts & Culture Preview

    Six the Musical The six wives of King Henry VIII unite as a pop band in this hilarious musical comedy by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Sparring over whose marriage to the infamous king was most torturous, the queens take turns belting out autobiographical songs in an effort to win the coveted title of lead […]

  • Culture Convo: One City Under a Groove

    For too many years, Detroit has had a bad reputation. I’ve defended this city countless times against accusations true and false. The sad truth is there’s a negative stigma about this city that still sticks in the craws of most Americans. But there’s something we could do to change that perspective. We need to tell […]

  • Cars on Carpet: The Detroit Auto Show Then and Now

    “What’s in a name?” the Bard once asked. When it comes to the North American International Auto Show, that’s more than a rhetorical question. Come January, it will once again be known as the Detroit Auto Show, a name it hasn’t used since 1988. And that’s more than just rebranding. At its peak, NAIAS was […]

  • Enjoy Dinner Fit for a Queen at Vinyl Tasting

      Occasionally, a meal is so good you nod along to each bite, grooving to the pulsing rhythm of different flavors and textures. Maybe you even find yourself doing a little dance while seated in your chair, twirling your fork along to an imaginary beat only you can hear. Then there’s Vinyl Tasting, a bimonthly […]

  • My 10-Plus Years as a Rock Critic

    As my wife, Karen, is way too fond of replying whenever anyone inquires about my past, “He was a rock critic … in Detroit … in the ’80s! Anything you think he did — he did it!” That would be funnier if it weren’t close to the truth. The ’80s, for those too young to […]

  • A Look Inside Motown’s Legendary Hitsville USA Recording Studio

    On the last leg of the one-hour tour at the Motown Museum on West Grand Boulevard, where generations of music fans from around the globe make pilgrimages to see where Berry Gordy Jr. created an assembly line of stars and hits, the best is saved for last. Patrons are typically awestruck when they quietly and […]

  • Ray Parker Jr.’s Motown Connection

    When you hear the name Ray Parker Jr., chances are your mind goes to the Ghostbusters theme song, not Motown. But the writer and singer of that No. 1 hit from 1984 got his start in his hometown of Detroit. When Parker was attending Cass Technical High School and then Northwestern High School (class of […]

  • kate walsh hour detroit

    Editor’s Letter: Detroit History and the 2025 Hour Detroiters

    While January is a time for many to establish new habits, Hour Detroit favors a predictable routine. Every year, we kick things off with our Detroiters feature, which highlights the individuals who are making a difference in metro Detroit and beyond. We’ve honored as few as one person and as many as 24 people in […]

  • Downtown Detroit Development Projects in 2025

    Hotels The District Detroit development consists of 10 new builds and renovation projects, including the 14-floor Little Caesars Arena Hotel. It will have 291 guest rooms and be located in downtown Detroit just south of the arena. The developers are planning to break ground sometime in 2025. The Fox Theatre will also get guest accommodations […]

  • Chef Omar Anani to Open Two New Eastside Eateries

    Last year, Chef Omar Anani of Saffron De Twah purchased a property for two new east-side Detroit eateries set to open sometime in 2025. But it’s not just the restaurants, which are housed in the same building at 16620 E. Warren Ave., that he’s focused on. Anani wants to push the entire industry forward. It’s […]

  • Book Review: The Lions Finally Roar

    Days after the September 2024 release of his juicy new exposé about the Detroit Lions, author Bill Morris traveled from New York for the team’s season opener against the Los Angeles Rams at Ford Field. The Lions Finally Roar: The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions, and the Road to Redemption in the NFL represents three […]

  • A Look at Dearborn’s First PEACE Project Park

    A few years ago, while living in Dearborn, a friend asked me to join him and his family for a picnic. It was during the pandemic, and I figured we would sit on blankets somewhere in the grass, perhaps under a tree. Instead, we ended up meeting in the parking lot of a hotel, each […]

  • How Cliff Bell’s Became a Generations-long Home for Jazz

    Detroit’s musical heritage is unparalleled. Motown, electronic dance music, R&B, gospel, and more: They all have a home here in Detroit. But the city’s love affair with jazz has deep roots and a long history. One of the city’s premier spots for jazz for nearly 20 years, Cliff Bell’s is a downtown beacon for music […]

  • Latrice Delgado-Macon Cultivates Community Through Style

    Detroit-born Latrice Delgado-Macon got her fashion start in 1999 styling music artists (who during her career have included Royce Da 59 and Missy Elliot, she says) and has spent the last 25 years cultivating a multifaceted career that includes giving back and shining a spotlight on mental health. “Sharing my journey is essential to empower […]

  • The Way It Was — Detroit Radio, 1957

    1957 Pioneering Detroit radio and TV broadcasting legend Robin Seymour (born Seymour Samuel Altman) is credited with introducing white audiences to Black R&B and rock ’n’ roll while helping to launch the careers of numerous performers, including Motown icons and Bob Seger. After the Detroit Central High graduate earned a Bronze Star while serving in […]

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