GERAK: SOCIAL SCENE • HEALD: BILL ROBERTS’ CAFÉ ML
TEEN DATING VIOLENCE PROBLEM NOT ALWAYS REPORTED; AGE OF VICTIMS GETTING YOUNGER
WHO MANAGES THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES? ENDNOTE: THE ISSUE OF CITY TRUCK TRAFFIC
Summer 2013
Fargo sofa from $2,895. Ogi chair from $995.
Marie in Copenhagen
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COMPETENCE, INTEGRITY AND PERSONALIZED ATTENTION
Birmingham $1,785,000
Bloomfield Hills $1,750,000
Stunning new custom-designed construction by Hunter Roberts Homes. 5100 sq. ft. 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, finished lower level with daylight windows. Fabulous master suite with dressing room. Dream kitchen and breakfast room plus walk-in pantry. Still time to make custom choices. Home sits on a hill-top overlooking large, private yard.
Dramatic openness in this extraordinary newer contemporary. Unique towering windows, soaring ceilings, dual staircases and a series of decks and balconies contributes to the home’s majestic feel. Features include 5 luxurious bedroom suites, 4 fireplaces, a grand DeGuilio kitchen, au pair/guest suite plus a finished walk-out lower level.
Birmingham $1,295,000
Bloomfield Hills $879,000
Newer built in-town beauty with bright, open floor plan perfect for entertaining. Hardwood floors, all stone surfaces, premium hardware and fixtures, gorgeous mill work, abundant natural light. Granite and stainless kitchen opens to breakfast room and windowed family room. Huge master suite, 2nd floor laundry. Perfectly finished lower level includes au pair suite.
This exceptional site condo in the City of Bloomfield Hills features classic and elegant design by Perlmutter Freiwald. Bright, open floor plan with custom detail and quality finishes and material throughout. 3 bedrooms, 4 baths and a finished lower level with projection TV and office. Prime location with privacy. Back up generator.
Elizabeth Lake $659,000
Birmingham $599,000
Rare full-acre lakefront lot with panoramic views of Elizabeth Lake. Beautifully landscaped. Open floor plan with vaulted entry, dining and great room. First floor master suite features huge bath and closet area. Six sliding glass doors provide full lake access throughout the house. Southwest orientation for gorgeous sunsets. Sandy beach.
Classic brick Tudor nestled in friendly neighborhood. Living room with restored charm, natural fireplace, built-ins and leaded French doors to 3 season room. White kitchen with stainless appliances, bayed eat-in area. Formal dining room with natural light. Large master bedroom with private bath. Finished lower level, professional landscaping, 2 car garage and more!
248.644.3500 t HallandHunter.com 442 S. Old Woodward, Birmingham, MI 48009
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THE NEW STANDARD OF CARE Shades Optical is the first in Michigan to utilize advanced retinal imaging technology to scan the layers at the back of the eye and view the entire depth of tissue. This allows for early detection of potentially threatening conditions such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetes and hypertension. This advancement allows us to diagnose early-stage conditions and promote healthy vision.
DOWNTOWN05.13
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33 51
Teen dating violence Dating violence, including rape, among teens is a major issue, although for a variety of reasons it is not always reported to authorities.
CRIME LOCATOR
13
FACES
107: Karin Katz
109: Lauren Evans
113: Deborah Gillespie
127 131
BUSINESS MATTERS
For those not residing in the free mail distribution area, paid subscriptions are available for a $12 annual fee. Phone 248.792.6464 and request the Distribution department or go to our website (downtownpublications.com) and click on “subscriptions” in the top index and place your order on-line or scan the QR Code here.
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Birmingham Farmers Market, located on N. Old Woodward just north of Booth Park, runs May 5th - October 20th, every Sunday. Downtown photo/Hayley Beitman.
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DOWNTOWN • WESTEND • BLACK BOOK • THE GUIDE 124 WEST MAPLE ROAD BIRMINGHAM MI 48009 P: 248.792.6464 downtownpublications.com facebook.com/downtownpublications • twitter.com/downtownpubs
Publisher: David Hohendorf Ad Manager: Jill Cesarz Ad Sales: Jacqueline Galvin Graphics/IT Manager: Chris Grammer News Editor: Lisa Brody
News Staff/Contributors: Allison Batdorff, Hayley Beitman, Hillary Brody, Sally Gerak, Eleanor & Ray Heald, Austen Hohendorf, Garrett Hohendorf, Kathleen Meisner, Victoria Mitchell, Laurie Tennent
DOWNTOWN
Society reporter Sally Gerak provides the latest news from the society and non-profit circuit as she covers recent major events.
ENDNOTE
THE COVER
The Cronin law Firm; Sam & Lola; Lil' Rascals; Shore Mortgage; Francesca's; Floyd's 99; Watch Hill Home Interiors; SHE; and more.
DISTRIBUTION: Mailed monthly at no charge to homes in Birmingham, Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Hills. Additional free copies are distributed at high foot-traffic locations.
Bill Roberts' Cafe ML has a contemporary look but hospitality, food quality, consistency and value are still key.
SOCIAL LIGHTS
Liquor licenses renewed; First Thursdays for shoppers; library director retiring; police chief will remain, Ducati lawsuit; Rail District development; November charter questions; plus more.
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Fresh, crisp and fruit-driven wines are best for warm weather and here's some recommendations.
AT THE TABLE
CITY/TOWNSHIP
91
A number of road construction projects are planned for the year in Birmingham, Bloomfield and Bloomfield Hills.
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47: William Jones
89: Lee Reitelman
2013 barrel alert
FOCUS ON WINE
A recap of select categories of crime occurring in the past month in Birmingham, Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Hills, presented in map format.
14: Paige Mobley
Municipal managers
If you have ever wondered who manages the municipalities, here's a look at those who are running the show.
Finding a solution for the truck traffic question will be tough; Rail District still needs attention from Birmingham.
INCOMING: We welcome feedback on both our publication and general issues of concern in the Birmingham/Bloomfield community. The traditional Letters to the Editor in Downtown are published in our Incoming section, and can include traditional letters or electronic communication. Your opinions can be sent via e-mail to news@downtownpublications.com; or mailed to Downtown Publications, 124 West Maple Road, Birmingham MI, 48009. Letters must include your full name, address and daytime phone number for verification.
05.13
available at
A Touch of Lace 4036 Telegraph Rd., Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302 phone: 248.645.5223 | fax: 248.645.5227 email: atouchoflace@aol.com | atouchoflace.com Monday - Friday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Evenings and weekends available upon request
FROM THE PUBLISHER
M
y second son, Austen, will be graduating from Michigan State University in a couple of weeks with a Bachelor of Arts in Advertising, with an emphasis on the creative side, along with a specialization in Public Relations. His attempt to enter the working world full time brings back the realization that for the last several decades we, meaning for the most part the leaders of the state, have failed this new generation when it comes to providing an opportunity to make their mark in the world where they grew up. Austen has certainly paid his dues in terms of public relations internships, paid and unpaid, at Team Detroit one summer, the Detroit Zoo another, and last year at Nickelodeon in Manhattan, a couple of publications in metro Detroit, plus volunteer stints helping with special events during the school year . He has been focused on building his wealth of knowledge and experience while getting his degree. But his search is taking him outside the confines of the state, like so many others in recent years who have left Michigan once they graduate. Why? Because for several administrations in Lansing, leaders have paid lip service to diversifying the business base in this state, even though dating back several administrations it was generally agreed that Michigan could no longer be tied solely to a manufacturing (i.e. automotive) base of businesses. For sure, manufacturing, and in particular automotive manufacturing, has been Michigan's claim to fame and it has allowed for the development of a stronger middle class here. But it had also lulled us collectively into a false sense of security without much thought about the future if the bottom ever fell out, which it did with this last recession.
For too many years and administrations in Lansing, we have lacked a consistent vision of what needed to be done in terms of diversification. Part of leadership must entail being a visionary, but no governor, in one or two four-year terms, can change the nature of the state's business community. So every change in leadership brings with it a different vision, which for the most part means starting all over every four to eight years in terms of what the direction of the state should be. Couple that with the fact that beginning with the Jim Blanchard administration, almost every administration has had to expend considerable effort and time attempting to right the financial ship of
state, leaving precious little time to pursue visions of what the future should hold. Then throw into the mix an almost vitriolic dose of politics from both parties, and you basically have a stalemate when it comes to moving the state forward. The end result is no change in our reliance on manufacturing to fuel the state, and a never ending (and worsening) roller coaster ride as the fortunes of manufacturing ebbed and flowed. Little wonder now that state university graduating classes in the last decade have been seeking out other states when it comes to finding employment. Graduates in the last 10 years have been looking at careers that are not necessarily tied to one industry - the auto and manufacturing - and they seek a more diverse economy for stability reasons. The new generation also has a different set of goals and desires, as evidenced by the growth of Zip car rentals rather than car ownership, the desire for mass transportation, walkable communities, vibrant city nightlife, and the list goes on. Unfortunately, few of these items have been addressed or are just starting to hit the radar screen of government leaders in this state, although probably too late to stem the tide of the brain drain we have been experiencing. Is it any wonder that major corporations, in many fields, from other states are aggressively pursuing college graduates here? In my case, I am adjusting to the idea that my second son could likely follow our first son, Garrett, a supervising producer for MTV in Manhattan, who called me several years ago to ask whether there was any future in the Michigan film industry if he desired to return home. My answer then was the same advice I gave him when he graduated college five years ago – make your mark somewhere else. For those of us still remaining here, all of us must address these issues, whether or not we still have children at home. The future of the state demands it.
David Hohendorf Publisher DavidHohendorf@downtownpublications.com
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INCOMING City golf courses Thank you for the timely article on Lincoln Hills and Springdale golf courses (April/Downtown). The good weather and class C liquor license obviously contributed to a healthy season, along with the outstanding efforts of Jacky Brito and Lauren Wood. Just one suggestion to help the city of Birmingham pay off the $650K for the new Lincoln Hills Clubhouse, parking lot, and other related improvements: open up the fall golf season to the general public starting September 1 instead of October 1st (the current policy). When one looks at the historical number of rounds at both courses, there is a dramatic fall off around September 1st due to two reasons: UM, MSU, and the Detroit Lions seasons start and school starts, with the associated fall season after school activities. By opening up the course to the public one month earlier, Birmingham can take advantage of open golf capacity, beautiful September golf weather, and generate additional income to pay off the new clubhouse. Thanks again for the outstanding article. Terry Gates, Birmingham
SPEAK OUT
Specializing In Hard To Fit Sizes ––––– Gift Certificates Available ––––– Mother’s Day May 12th
We welcome your opinion on issues facing the Birmingham/Bloomfield communities. Opinions can be sent via e-mail to news@downtownpublications.com or mailed to Downtown Publications, 124 West Maple Road, Birmingham MI 48009. While we don’t have a specific word limitation, we reserve the right to edit for length.
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Judie Jones interview Make a Difference Rescue would like to thank you for interviewing Judie Jones (March/Downtown). We appreciate the time and effort it took to do this article and I am hoping it will help your sales and help bring foster parents and donations to our rescue cause. Terri Wiechert, Make a Difference
The Tradition Continues.… Celebrating 65 years in business Rolex / Patek Philippe / IWC Panerai / Omega / Cartier Tudor / Audemars Piguet Breitling / Tag Heuer Vacheron Constantin Jaeger-LeCoultre and many others… working or not.
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DOWNTOWN
11
Living Beautifully Beyond Four Walls
, , and Staff h my n y L , n le elpful wit and h d n Dear G a l u f eer ed eing so ch k with such a talent b s y a lw a ave a to wor u all for hen you h pleasure w Thank yo t a d e o r o g g a . It is Life is yn Duffy. landscape L s a r e n esig gracious d ine to enjoy. em rst started to fi e garden lik w n e tion 5, wh since 199 as been your atten tinues d e g n a h con nt h have c ne consta e has evolved and o A lot may t u b r, e room scap ogeth my living . My land working t d m r o a r y f y w olor m ie ail in cope of c ar. The v s e o y id h c le every det a a r e k y couch o me more changing m t r h e m g v li o e r e f n d a to is view x. such joy. It nd I can enjoy the e m s ce to rela g la in p r t A b c e r. f a r e e ap ut the y garden is y m througho ; a e r e a sitting ine was th m t a h t out in the e tell m and ntinue to r ’s house o a c e y le t p s o la e at I had a it that p rden on h a t m g d g m a e t in s h t m u ll Im elco d te am. nd most w up” with pride an a t s ie tt a good te e e r k ff p a u m p “ e I think w ur and garden to om Four Seasons. I fr family for s n o s a e lot of help S our with my F g in k r o w orward to Looking f rs. many yea
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Offices in Birmingham, Oak Park and Traverse City By Appointment 248.543.4400 fourseasonsgardencenter.com
CRIME LOCATOR
NORTH
Map key
Sexual assault
Assault
Murder
Robbery
Breaking/entering
Larceny
Larceny from vehicle
Vehicle theft
Vandalism
Drug offenses
Arson
These are the crimes reported under select categories by police officials in Birmingham, Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Hills through April 20, 2013. Placement of codes is approximate.
FACES
Paige Mobley
P
aige Mobley has a promising modeling and acting career which has only just begun. At 18 years old, the rising performer and college student has appeared in magazine spreads, starred in the series finale of Gossip Girl, and has modeled on BET. Growing up in Birmingham, Mobley walked right across the street to school at Holy Name. “It was the most wonderful place to grow up in. I have a lot of midwest manners that I learned from growing up in Birmingham,” she said. Her first moments on stage came as a competitive dancer. “After I was done with dancing, I realized I didn't like to dance. I more liked to be on stage.” Mobley began performing at the Village Players and the Community House in Birmingham, where she performed lead roles in a dozen shows. “That’s where I sort of learned to be an actor,” she said. Attending Academy of the Sacred Heart was a pivotal time for Mobley. “It was the best experience I think thus far of my life,” she said. “I was a theater kid and a dancer. I did a few plays at school, but I was really involved in extracurricular activities outside of school.” Her dad’s profession as a photographer was the reason she first contemplated modeling. “I was around that my whole life. When I woke up one day and was 5’11’, I was like, what am I going to do? It was one of
those things where I tried it a little bit with my dad and really liked it.” Mobley applied to Pace University in New York City in hopes of getting into their musical theater program for college. “I had to fly out, audition at every single school, sing, do a monologue. I was thrilled when I got into Pace because out of 1,500 kids, only 20 get in, 10 girls and 10 boys. It’s a very selective program. I was honored,” she said. Recently, Mobley starred on the Gossip Girl series finale as Chuck Bass’ date to a party. “I was only expected to be in the background and was giddy to be there anyway. I started to meet everybody, and they were like let’s give you a little part, so I got there and got myself a part,” she said. Mobley is no stranger to television performances, having appeared on 30 Rock and modeled on BET’s Rip the Runway. She is going out for more auditions, hoping to land a role on a new ABC family show. “Every time I’m on TV my parents make a huge deal of it and put it on every TV in the house and watch it three times over and DVR it and rewind it,” she said of her support system. “Some of my friends are very shocked; other friends don't even care and just treat me the same as they always have which keeps you very grounded in a very vain business. I think it’s very important to be surrounded by friends who are so normal. I’m just Paige.” Story: Hayley Beitman
Photo: Irene Mahmud
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C: 248-770-3114 | jgoodman@cbwm.com
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Brad Madding C: 248-255-8809 Mary Frances McCaleb C: 248-760-4807
WHO'S MINDING OUR MUNICIPALITIES?
THE MANAGERS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BY LISA BRODY Left to right: Bloomfield Hills City Manager Jay Cravens, Birmingham City Manager Robert Bruner, and Bloomfield Township Supervisor Leo Savoie.
Downtown photo: Laurie Tennent/Laurie Tennent Studio
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05.13
Whether or not we were great students in our 8th grade civics class, most of us have somewhat of an idea of what the President of the United States does, regardless of his party affiliation. He's the guy in charge of the country, both the head of the executive branch of the federal government, the head of state, and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. We have a little bit murkier concept of what our congressmen and senators do, which is, hopefully, to create the laws which the president will sign into effect, ultimately governing our country. On the state level, the governor is the individual who runs our state, with state legislators, the state representatives and senators from local districts, working to develop laws on the state level. n the county level, we have an Oakland County Executive, L. Brooks Patterson, who is the chief executive of the county, followed by the Oakland County Board of Commissioners, often compared to a board of governors for the county. It is comprised of representatives of 21 districts around the county. And every city, township, and village has someone operating their local governmental body. In our local cities, it's a city manager; in townships, it's a township supervisor; and villages have presidents or administrators. But do you know who runs the governments of Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills or Bloomfield Township? And do you have any idea what they do? Unlike in large cities like Detroit or New York City, it's not an elected mayor who's leading the municipality. Birmingham is managed by professional city manager Robert Bruner, who was hired by the city commission. Bloomfield Hills also has a city manager, Jay Cravens. Bloomfield Township is run by township supervisor Leo Savoie, who was first appointed by the township board of trustees (of whom he was one) and then later, elected as supervisor. In either form of local government, the position is an executive level administrator in municipal affairs who is the chief executive of their municipality. “A lot of people aren't too familiar with the workings of their local government,” Cravens pointed out. “I always take it from the standpoint that people do not know or understand how things work, and I explain it. Residents never come in and say 'I am this person.' They just want to be treated fairly.” “A local municipality, in my mind, delivers five major things: police, fire, roads, water, and sewer,” Savoie said. “And people want those needs met. “The problem I see for many is people's frustration with government, and I get that,” Savoie continued. “They're frustrated primarily with state and federal government, but they don't have the ability to walk in at the federal or state level. But here they can call or just walk in.”
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Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills are cities, with professional city managers running their cities, followed by non-partisan city commissions which are elected by the public. Mayors in Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills are considered “ceremonial”, chosen from amongst their fellow commissioners for a year to primarily run meetings and marry people, rather than be the power of the city, as in New York City or Detroit, where they are elected as mayor. “The mayor in a council form of government can do two things more than any other city commissioner: they can chair the meeting and they can officiate at weddings,” said Bruner. “The mayor is not directly elected, they're chosen by their peers, which I believe encourages more of a teamwork approach. This is a team sport. I consider myself the conductor of a symphony. The commission is writing the music, and I'm the conductor leading the orchestra.” Bruner said he particularly likes that metaphor because, “I do not play any instruments, and I don't shovel any snow. I don't write any tickets, and I don't collect any money. Being a chief executive officer is similar to being the conductor – I coordinate everything. I make sure that our staff gets the resources they need and are able to do everything the commission asks us to do.” He said he believes it's the most corporate structure of government. “It allows the local government to be run like a business,” he said, noting that it's the most common form of government in Michigan. City managers are responsible for the oversight of all administrative tasks necessary for the operations of a city. They take their direction from the city council or commission, and then in turn oversee the city's employees, craft and maintain the city's budget, and they represent the city at community functions. In smaller cities, a city manager may have to perform planning or financial tasks, as well. A key job specification for a city manager, which Bruner and Cravens actively perform, is to carefully determine each year what the city's budget needs are for each department. They sit down with each department head and analyze if the department heads' requests are consistent with the city's goals and direction, and if the financial expenditures desired for the department match the revenue targets for the city. A city manager must make sure, by working with their department heads and the city commission, that the city finances remain balanced. “I manage an office and all of the department heads, by city charter,” said Cravens. Because the city does not have a separate head of their department of public works or planning director, Cravens also acts as head of those departments. “I oversee the guys who mow, do the snow removal, plow, fill in the potholes, do all of the basic works, but a
foreman manages the day-to-day activities.” Cravens' background is in planning; he has a Masters in Urban Planning. “The theory of urban planning is decision-making, which is what I do,” he said. The theory of urban planning, he said, is more architecture and engineering focused versus public administration and organization-based, which he has learned in his various positions. Prior to becoming city manager of Bloomfield Hills, he was city manager of Cascade, Michigan, a charter township of 17,000 approximately 10 miles southeast of Grand Rapids. “It's a community that is very similar to Bloomfield Township, so I'm very familiar with demanding residents,” Cravens said, noting the similarity of Cascade to Bloomfield Hills. “The key is to listen. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time.” A key to being a city manager in any community, Cravens said, “is you have to be willing to look into issues and problems.” Bruner, who was previously city manager of Ferndale after being an assistant manager in Oak Park and Ypsilanti, and has a Masters in Public Administration, noted that as city manager, he answers to three main constituencies. “I'm dealing with the city commission, the city departments, and the public,” he said. “I'm the only one who deals with all three – I'm the glue – the conduit between the city commission and city employees. It makes it interesting.” runer said it's rarely a contentious or combustible combination, at least in the current configuration. “The city commission provides us with the direction, and we do the work,” he said. “The only time there's any contentiousness is before we know the direction, before we know what they want, before a decision is made. Even if it's not a decision staff would make. Our staff understands that the city commission calls the shots. Residents don't understand that. They really don't understand that the city commission is who calls the shots; they think the staff makes the decision. Often, they're confused over who makes the decision.” In fact, Bruner said one of his biggest irritations is when a resident or business owner doesn't come directly to staff to handle a problem they might have. After all, in the city, it's staff's responsibility to take care of situations residents encounter. “The single biggest pet peeve I have is when they don't call us but they come to a (city commission) meeting and complain without knowing who to contact,” he said. “I hate to see someone suffer with a problem because they think they have to talk to the mayor or city commission, all when I or staff can help them with it. And we want to help them. Instead, I urge them to pick up the phone and call or email me.” According to Michigan Local Government
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05.13
Structure, Services and Practices, prepared for the Michigan Civics Institute Local Government Curriculum Development Project in 2002, the council system of municipal government consists of a council (commission), of which its members have been elected in a non-partisan election, and a city manager who has been appointed by the commission. “In this system, the council determines city policy and the mayor merely presides over city meetings,” the report states. “The executive branch is administered by the city manager, who is a professionally trained administrator. The city manager appoints executive officers, supervises their performance, develops the city budget, and administers programs. Theoretically, the city manager cannot make policy, but as a practical matter, the recommendations of the city manager are usually given great weight by the council.” The objective of the council-manager form of government, this report emphasizes, is to take “politics” out of local governments by turning the government over to the administration of a professional manager. It came about because it was noted that there was nothing “political” about cleaning streets, picking up garbage, building parks, and doing the work of a locality. “Most Michigan cities have this form and range all over the state,” the report says. “City managers have tenets,” Cravens said. “You cannot politically support a candidate for office. You have to subscribe to the tenet of manager/commission form of government, which is completely not political. You serve five – or seven – people, whatever that composition is. That's the job.” ravens said he reports to the Bloomfield Hills city commission on all matters weekly on what is going on. “I report more day-to-day to the mayor to keep that person apprised,” he said. “I do have a set of goals for the past couple of years and that has been very helpful, so I know what is expected. There are some things I would like to do. I'd like to work to make a statement, do some more beautification projects, not just on Woodward and the main entry points to the city, which have been improved. I'd like to work to have Kensington and the Lahser/Long Lake intersection fixed up, and the minor entrance to Cranbrook improved. I would like to decrease our electrical consumption, and I'm working with a consultant from Hubbel, Roth & Clark to see about changing the lights on Woodward to LEC, but the payback is huge. I'm also trying to get the underpass at Long Lake and Grand Truck Railroad spruced up.” Another area that is a priority as city manager are the roads. “We're being proactive about roads. For residents, wherever they're from, it's a tangible. There's a road right outside their door,” Cravens pointed out. “I like those types of projects because you work with the residents.” He said he and the commission “are now
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sitting down and hashing out common goals for the coming year. It's gives great direction for our staff.” Unlike in a city in Michigan, where a city manager is a professional position, necessitating a professional degree, township governments in Michigan are partisan, and supervisors, along with treasurers and clerks, and four trustees, are elected by their fellow citizens, and must live in the township. There is no professional requirement of the job other than to live in the township and to be at least 18 years of age. However, to be a good supervisor requires much more than that. “Somebody who is a supervisor is in a elected position and is not educated in the field, like a city manager, so they can have a learning curve,” said Bloomfield Township's Savoie, who sat on the township's board of trustees for several years before being appointed supervisor in July 2011. He also sat on the Board of Review for assessments for both Bloomfield Township and Birmingham, and chaired the township's Zoning Board of Appeals for many years. Further, Savoie has owned his own private appraisal company, with partners, since 1980. “Because of my experience, I understand planning. I didn't have a learning curve when I started this job,” he said. The role of a township supervisor is often likened to being the chief executive officer of a public sector organization, with the guidelines set up by a board of directors, which in this case is the board of trustees. Like a CEO, a township supervisor helps formulate the policy direction for the township, lead in determining ordinances, and supervises their enactment. Unlike a city manager, who does not have a vote on their city council or commission, a township supervisor casts a vote as a full member of the township's board of trustees. A good supervisor not only manages every department head, but also directs the planning and development of the community, develops the annual township budget, manages that budget, and hires many of the township's employees. As the legislative leader of the municipality, township supervisors are responsible for setting the policies for the municipality, levying taxes, and creating the ordinances for the board of trustees to pass, other resolutions, and all budgetary concerns. They are the individuals who run the board meetings, recognize speakers, and determine the flow of the proceedings. “I attend all of the board of trustee meetings, all of the planning meetings, and all of the ZBA (Zoning Board of Appeals) meetings, so that I can see first hand what is going on,” Savoie said. In the last year, he has also attended at least 35 neighborhood association meetings to talk about roads and special assessment districts. “By going to all of the meetings, I am able to make my responses from a first-hand perspective.” Savoie said he feels its important to be
accessible to the township's residents “because most people do not want government unless there is a problem. We might not agree, but they are appreciative to have someone listen to them.” He said a lot of what being a supervisor is about is being able to meet with residents and understand their issues and concerns, and address them appropriately. “It's being able to answer a phone call and say, 'That's not how I read it,'” he said. “Everything is open to the public. We try to do the right thing for everyone. People do have issues and challenges, but I think when they are wrong, and if I think we're right, we have to do the right thing.” avoie has been a business leader and resident of the township for many years, and lives by the motto of doing the right thing, whether for residents or township employees. “The township has about 240 employees. Every person in Bloomfield Township works for me. I'm the head of HR. I understand that every decision has ramifications. The onus is on me to get all of the facts and make the right decisions,” he said. “We can have personnel issues and some things to deal with, and we have unions here, so it's very important for me to listen to the department heads and labor experts and look at the ramifications.” He emphasized that the people working in Bloomfield Township are not “government workers”. “They all really care for their jobs,” he said. “I love our fire department 's motto: We own it til it's done.” The biggest problem a resident may have is usually because of real estate, he noted, and “I have such a broad knowledge of real estate and how you can solve a problem with that knowledge, and the valuation of assessments, I'm usually able to help people with their problems.” A recent article he wrote in the township newsletter helped explain an average tax bill, and has received a lot of positive response. “I noted that an average tax bill for our residents is about $6,000, with about 25 percent staying within the township,” Savoie said. “I use the analogy, that for $1,500, a resident gets fire, police, roads, sewer, a cable station, a senior center, plus all the things a municipality is required to provide by law, such as elections and other services. That's a pretty good bargain. But all they see is a $6,000 tax bill.” Neither a township supervisor's job, nor a city manager's position, is one that is for someone who likes to work 9 to 5. The expectation from both positions is early morning meetings, several late commission and committee meetings a week, receptions, coffee meetings, and numerous other commitments. “I've been in this position for 19 months, and I work 60 hours plus a week doing it,” Savoie said. “I love it. The beauty of this job is I get to make a difference.”
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TEEN DATING VIOLENCE INCIDENTS NOT ALWAYS REPORTED
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BY ALLISON BATDORFF
t’s the morning rush at the Sykes home, and the girls and their mom rev up for the day ahead, dividing attention between homework, breakfast and the Today Show. You can put this scene on “repeat” most mornings, but not “Steubenville” day, remembers Karlyn Sykes. That morning, the 15-year old Bloomfield Hills Andover High School student saw her easy-going, even-tempered mom get extremely angry.
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“She was MAD,” Karlyn recalls. “She was like ‘what are those people thinking?’” The television story told of Steubenville, Ohio, where two teenaged male football players were convicted last month of raping a 16-year-old girl after an under-aged drinking party. The number of videos, pictures and texts before, during, after and about the assault vaulted the case into the national spotlight, as did the small town’s protection of the football players and incidents of cyber-bullying the victim. The girl was from West Virginia and was so intoxicated she could not walk. Sharolyn Sykes didn’t mince words with her daughters. “Right is right and wrong is wrong. That girl could’ve walked around that party buck-naked, and it still doesn’t matter. As soon as she says 'no' or she’s too drunk to say it, then it’s rape, and no one – no matter what they’re wearing or how much they’re drinking -- deserves to be raped.” Sharolyn also spoke to her children about dating violence, the role of social media in their family’s life, adding the cautionary note about how Steubenville could happen right here in Oakland County and likely has. “We can’t act like things like that don’t happen here,” Sharolyn said. “Those boys in Ohio just got caught.” Trenton Mays, 17, and Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, the convicted perpetrators, will serve juvenile prison sentences of at least one year. Mays got another year for taking nude photos of the unconscious girl. That might be just the first round of punishments. Ohio’s Attorney General Mike DeWine already has brought charges against two teens who posted online threats against the victim in the wake of the conviction and has convened a grand jury to find out who knew about the assault and either didn’t report it, or actively covered it up. But it won’t be just teens, parents, school officials and football coaches in the courtroom this month. The whole teenage sexual violence mindset is on trial. Steubenville is just the name on the map. “This kind of thing doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” says Christy Cardinal, Director of Prevention and Education at Oakland County’s Haven. “Unfortunately, it happens everywhere, every weekend, and the community responses we’ve seen in the news are pretty typical.” Haven is the Oakland County Center for sexual assault treatment and counseling. Cardinal additionally reaches out to area schools, talking to 8,000 to 12,000 students a year about dating violence, sexual consent and respect. “We know that teens using their cell phones to take a picture of an assault is valuable in terms of gathering evidence. But we’d rather see them use that cell phone to dial 9-1-1,” Cardinal said. The ideal is to make consent, sexual or otherwise, a part of character education from pre-Kindergarten forward, to help children and adolescents understand themselves and each other, and give them confidence to speak up when situations go awry, Cardinal said. “Consent can be as simple as asking ‘would you like to go to a movie or to dinner?’ instead of assuming,” Cardinal said. “We’d like to see a new model of behavior where respect is the minimum, and consent is just the starting point.” But there’s a long way to go from here to there, she said. “I do believe that it is possible to stop attacks like this if we work towards a culture where we respect each others’ bodies,” Cardinal said. “But I don’t know that we’re doing a good enough job or reaching the right people yet.” Nationally, there are about 200,000 rapes, attempted rapes, and sexual assaults in the U.S. every year, and 44 percent of these victims are under 18
years old. Teens especially – more than 80 percent - know their attackers. In Michigan, which ranks fourth on the state list of criminal sex cases, the largest group of victims fell between the ages of 15-19 years old, according to the Michigan Incident Crime Report of 2010. The second largest group falls between the ages of 10-14 years of age. The third highest batch of victims is under ten years old. Ninetyseven percent of victims were women, and 88 percent knew their attackers. That said, where teenagers, sex and violence intersect, numbers are notoriously hard to come by. Incidents usually happen behind closed doors. Sexual shame and fear of humiliation or retribution means crimes go unreported more often than not, at rates between 60 to 95 percent. Plus, teen incidents often happen when drugs and alcohol are being used, so crimes go unreported because of concerns about getting in trouble for illegal drug use or underage drinking. As someone who grew up in this area, Birmingham Groves High School social worker Susan Rogers says that “shame” plays a significant role in keeping local teens from reporting what they’ve seen or experienced. “It’s not a socioeconomic issue because we see teens from a variety of backgrounds,” Rogers said. “It’s more of a shame issue, and the desire to maintain that impression that everything is always fine.” Cardinal sees the same thing at Haven, she said. “People won’t come forward because they don’t want to cause a problem or rock the boat,” Cardinal said. “Or they’re afraid no one will believe them.” One disturbing local trend is that those seeking Haven’s services are getting younger, Cardinal said. “In Oakland County, our numbers are skewing younger,” she said. “We’re seeing more patients who are 13-15 years old than before.” After 25 years in the Birmingham public school district, Rogers’s trends are more psychological, as students now are pretty well informed about what criminal sexual conduct entails and the age of consent. “They know and are taught that alcohol is the number one date rape drug and information like that,” Rogers said. But most cases have “a strong psychological component,” she says. “It’s more like ‘this is normal for me. This is what I’ve grown up with. This is what I’ve seen with my parents and I don’t deserve any better than this,” Rogers said. “Or maybe they believe it’s the only way to have a relationship is to hang on to what they have, no matter what that is.” Indeed, the teenage dating world is a confusing place these days. Teens know their life expectancy is much longer, and are not in the market for “’til death do us part” in high school, and often, college. More career options and less focus on having children lends itself to a more “casual approach” in general. The term “hook up culture” has been used to describe this, and while television depictions of this are laughable, Karlyn says that concept is spot on. “People don’t want a relationship anymore,” Karlyn said. “No one feels like they’re looking for a life partner in high school, so it’s all about experimenting.” A friend was recently dumped via dramatic text message saying, “I’m too young to settle down. I want to be free.” “We laughed at it, but that’s partially true for all of us,” Karlyn said. “I can’t think of a role model couple right now that’s considered a ‘healthy relationship.’ There’s no cutesy couple at school that everyone wants to be like. Maybe for a few days or something, but then there’s always a party, a hook up, and you hear all about it.”
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Dating is different these days, affirms Rogers. “There’s a casualness about sex, and a tolerance for dating around and not being with one person,” Rogers said. “Yet it’s often mixed with this ironic drive to have a girlfriend/ boyfriend ‘because everyone else has one.'” About 72 percent of eighth and ninth graders are “dating,” according to "love is respect," a teen-centered collaboration of Break the Cycle and the National Dating Abuse Helpline. Yet there can be violence within even these casual relationships. Nearly 1.5 million high school students nationwide experience physical abuse from a dating partner in a single year. Girls and young women between the ages of 16 and 24 sustain almost triple the national average of violence caused by their intimate partner. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Center said almost 10 percent of high school students said their partner hit, slapped, or physically hurt them on purpose in the 12 months prior to the survey. Being a teenaged victim can hurt later in life, as one in five women and nearly one in seven men who ever experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner, first experienced some form of partner violence between 11 and 17 years of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. Violence can also lead to poor academic performance, drug and alcohol use, eating disorders, depression and suicide. Teens also struggle to keep perspective in the over-sexualized and permissive media landscape. It influences the teenage view of what sex is really like, Cardinal said. “Pornography makes sex look a lot different from reality, giving adolescents a skewed view of what sex looks like and even feels like,” Cardinal said. Also disturbing are sexualized depictions where consent is questionable, leaving teens to wonder if it’s less of an imperative, Cardinal said. There’s also no real “safe sex” scare tactic used anymore, a change from the HIV/AIDS threat in the eighties and nineties, she said. “Teens think they’re invincible,” Rogers said. The constant barrage of social media also poses challenges, as 24-hour access to peers makes it hard for teens to establish boundaries and parents struggle with how much is too much independence, virtual or otherwise. “Kids now are just so available,” Sharolyn said. “I’m lucky because my girls aren’t too crazy with it, but even then…” Teens, of course, adapt and exploit the digital world much easier than their parents. While their long-in-the-tooth parents look up old friends on Facebook or Skype with so-and-so’s grandkids, today’s teens actively incorporate social media into their persona. It’s about connection, sure, but it’s also “show-and-tell” who you are, and because it’s high school and college, it's about how cool you are. Your pages tell the tale of your popularity. How many friends do you have? Are you checking in from cool places? How funny are your captions? What’s your status? Are you tweeting something juicy? How fast can you throw up a snarky Instagram page? “You have to be able to show what’s going on,” Karlyn says. “That you have friends, that you go places, do things.” Twitter adds a new element into the equation, one that Karlyn isn’t big on, but she has some friends that tweet every thing they do - from the moment they awake to the moment they enter Dreamland.
“You Tweet every minute of your life so you can prove that you have one,” Karlyn said. And then there’s the “subtweeting,” an act defined by the Urban Dictionary as the "subliminal tweet", or directly referring to a particular person without mentioning their name or directly mentioning them. Like this: “So-and-so is talking to my boyfriend. It’s so annoying!” All of your followers know who it is but you haven’t mentioned anyone by name. It’s talking about someone behind their back in front of them, and can get totally out of hand, Karlyn said. In relationships, social media and texting can be the glue that holds relationships together and/or the wedge that drives them apart. Knowing your love interest’s every move can be fodder for jealousy, but it can also be a way to get in some friendly banter in a free moment. And once a relationship is announced on social media, then it’s legit, Karlyn said. And social media now offers nearly unparalleled access to your love interest, a fact that teenagers take advantage of while parents stay in the dark, according to a survey conducted by Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU). The survey found that nearly one in four teens in a relationship (24 percent) communicated with their partner via cell phone or text every hour between midnight and 5:00 a.m. One in three teens (30 percent) say they are text messaged between 10-30 times hourly by a partner. The report also found that 82 percent of parents, whose teens were emailed or texted 30 times per hour, did not know this was happening. But the opportunity has a dark side. Almost two-thirds of teens say their boyfriends/girlfriends spread rumors about them on cell phones and social networking sites. Another 68 percent say their partner shared private or embarrassing pictures/videos pictures of them. In potentially abusive relationships and stalking, cell phones and social media give power brokers more access to their victims, Cardinal said. “Before social media, if the teen was being abused by someone at school, when the school day ended, access to the victim ended. Now that access doesn’t end, and that can be increasingly psychologically damaging,” Cardinal said. In recent headline cases, social media played a part in perpetuating tragedies, as victims were terrorized by the continuous and cruel dissemination of the images and video of their attack. Fifteen-year old Californian Audrie Potts woke up to “Blank (NAME) was here” written on intimate parts of her body after becoming intoxicated at a friend’s sleepover. Humiliating photos of her circulated around school. She committed suicide and her parents are lobbying to get the three 16-year old boys facing charges of sexual battery to be tried as adults. A funeral was also held in Nova Scotia in April for 17-year-old girl Rehtaeh Parsons. The teen committed suicide after being allegedly gang-raped as a 15-year old, and pictures taken of the attack circulated at her school. Social media also played a prominent role in the Steubenville case. One kid’s video shot that night showed an intoxicated teen joking about the rape. Text messages introduced at the trial may implicate the high school’s head football coach’s awareness early on. Other adolescents posted videos and comments on Facebook about the intoxicated girl or tweeted them on Twitter. There were flurries of text messages. In a quote widely publicized, the victim’s mother told the two convicted boys at the trial, "You were your own accuser, through the social media that you chose to publish your criminal conduct on.”
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On the flip side, the social media coverage in high-profile cases like Steubenville often prompts a spike in sexual assault reporting, Cardinal said. “Our numbers go up, which means more people are seeking services, which is a good thing,” Cardinal said. “We have to be aware that it’s not the rape numbers rising but an increase in help-seeking behavior.” In Steubenville, a blogger and “hactivist” Anonymous used social media to fight the good fight, gathering tweets, postings, texts and pages to catch alleged criminals red-handed and advocate for halting the cruel treatment of victims. Though the group makes no stand for vigilante justice, information gathered and posted by Anonymous played a role in several recent cases, including naming possible suspects in the Rehtaeh Parsons case. No one believes that documenting a criminal activity and posting it online is smart. But there’s still a baseline gap in understanding that emotional or hurtful outbursts in the social media can become part of their permanent record. “Kids put all kinds of things online. At a party, if two kids leave together, someone is posting ‘so-and-so is hooking up with so-and-so.’ The boundaries are getting blurred, sadly,” Rogers said. Karlyn said she’s heard numerous head-shake worthy stories, from a fellow student who recently got into trouble for posting sexualized images of a spring break trip on a school page to an Instagram page constructed for the sole purpose of making fun of a girl in school. “People are too carefree about that kind of thing,” Karlyn said. “You just want to say, ‘Hello. There are consequences, people.’” Some of those consequences can mean violating child pornography laws, if the teen possesses or sends naked photos of minors, as well as privacy and defamation violations. There’s nothing inherently “evil” about social media, but teens do need to be careful, Cardinal said. Rogers agrees. “Teens absolutely have to consider everything they put online or text,” Rogers said. And at the end of the day, it's imperative that parents are engaged, teaching teens to do the right thing.
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“Steubenville was the perfect storm,” Rogers said. “The alcohol, the party, and the lack of parental supervision and limitations were important factors in that situation.” That several community rallied around the boys who committed the rape because of their athletic affiliation is “unfortunate, but it happens sometimes,” Rogers said. Mentoring responsible behavior means a lot to teens who have an eagle eye for hypocrisy. “Teens need to talk to people with credibility,” Rogers said, adding that a good mentor can help kids see things differently. “The term ‘self esteem’ is so overused and archaic anymore, but it really does start there,” Rogers said. “Teens need to know that they’re worth it to take the next step.” But in general, most adults are still trying to understand this issue, as teenage dating violence has only recently come to the forefront of our social consciousness, pushed there by the telling statistics and horrific events. And adults trying to understand the issue through an adult framework will likely miss the key differences between teen and adult relationships. Until that day, the CDC asks parents to watch for signs of dating violence, like trauma, anxiety, isolation and withdrawal. On the perpetrators side, parents need to watch their children for risk factors that could lead to violence, including friends who believe that sexual violence is okay, emotional trauma, alcohol use, problem behaviors, exposure to harsh parenting, inconsistent discipline and a lack of parental supervision, monitoring and warmth. Talking to her girls before school that March morning is probably the best any parent can do. Sharolyn spoke freely and frankly, sharing stories from her own adolescence and her own experience at a frat party in college where a guy followed her home and tried to pull her in the bushes. Because, then as now, the world can be a dangerous place for teens. Only now, they may have to face this danger in the digital world as well as the physical one. “We’re going to see more cases with this kind of exposure,” Cardinal said. “We’re going to see more cases like Steubenville.”
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fter a prolific career with Chrysler and Chrysler Financial, Birmingham resident William F. Jones Jr. is lending his efforts as CEO of Focus: HOPE in Detroit, and making a vast difference across Southeastern Michigan. Jones, who grew up in Hampton, Virginia, remembers his hometown fondly. “It was a decent neighborhood at the time, a working class neighborhood. It was a typical southern town. The neighborhoods were segregated until I was in high school. I rarely think about it anymore, but that's just the way things were,” he recalls. Like many children, Jones especially enjoyed playing sports when he was younger. He was also a boy scout and was actively involved in local church projects. He attended elementary school near his home and found great pleasure in math, reading and history. “My early teachers were pretty good. I didn’t know anything different,” he said. “I just liked school. In high school, I was a basketball player and did alright with that too.” On an academic scholarship, Jones studied psychology at Columbia University and played on their basketball team. After Columbia, Jones went to work for Metropolitan Life in a small group that did internal and external consultant management. Eight years later, he returned to Columbia to earn his MBA. “My first job after getting my MBA was with Chrysler Corporation in Highland, Michigan,” he said. “I continued to evolve to various positions at Chrysler.” Jones eventually was recruited by Nissan on the west coast. “I learned a lot by that, and was recruited by Chrysler after 18 months at Nissan.” After 26 years with Chrysler, finishing as COO of Chrysler Financial, Jones retired and became involved with Focus: HOPE as a member of the board of directors. “I always had an urge to be involved with an organization in the community to see if I couldn’t lend some expertise and learn a lot at the same time. I really wanted to see Detroit do well and this seemed like an ideal organization.” Since Jones became CEO in 2009, Focus: HOPE has made many advancements, including expanding its food, education, training and development programs. “Both personally and professionally, you have to remember it’s not about me; it’s about the people who are affected by what I do or what I cause to be done. That’s important,” Jones said. “I’m extremely fortunate to have this opportunity to serve and I look at it as a gift to me personally in that regard.” As a member of the Focus: HOPE Board of Directors, the Governor’s Talent Investment Board, Walsh College Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors for the Detroit Regional Chamber, Forgotten Harvest, and Eastern Market, Jones is focused on the community. He mentors and guides youth as an assistant scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 1034. “My wife and I have three sons and they’re all good people. They’re good, strong people. That’s something to be proud of,” the Birmingham resident said. “My goals are tied in with those of Focus: HOPE. I don’t see a professional future necessarily after Focus: HOPE. I think that when I’m done here, I’m done,” Jones said. “Coming from Virginia, I’ve got family there and at some point, I have to spend more time with family back home.”
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Yet, we really should look at road work in a totally different way. It's actually a positive reflection on our local governments, that they're taking a proactive stance, caring for our communities, putting local tax dollars back into neighborhoods and cities and maintaining the infrastructure of water mains and sewers. When you look at it in that fashion, it can make the act of reconfiguring your way to work, or your walk, a little bit more tolerable. Maybe. In Birmingham, Bloomfield Township, and Bloomfield Hills, there is regular road maintenance conducted in all three communities performed by their Departments of Public Works. Each community budgets for road and sidewalk upkeep, which consists of roadside mowing, median maintenance, asphalt patching of pot holes, crack sealing, street sweeping, sidewalk repairs, gravel road grading, dust control, roadside litter cleaning, guardrail and post maintenance, catch basin cleaning, and select trimming of trees and bushes which can impact the roadway. “Our DPW (Department of Public Works) is always out there making sure the streets are safe,” noted Birmingham engineer Paul O'Meara. pdating an old and decaying infrastructure system is also a critical part of the equation when road work is determined, and is often the reason that a particular road is ripped up and reconstructed. In the Birmingham and Bloomfield communities, water mains and sewer lines are often 50 or 60 years old, or even older, leading to rot and decay and water main breaks, which are extremely costly to repair for communities, and the worry that sewers will fail before they can be repaired or replaced. “We've been working on sewer rehabilitation projects and sewer relining projects since 1994,” said Wayne Domine, director of Bloomfield Township's Engineering and Environmental Services Department. “Because of the age of our system, we're always doing something.” Domine noted that the township's infrastructure, consisting of water mains and sewers, covers approximately 500 miles. In 2004, the township began a long term capital improvement program for the township's water supply system. “Our infrastructure and supply systems are getting very old. There are too many water mains bursting,” he said. “In 2004, the average age of our water system was 40 to 50 years old alone, and the pipes have been corroding. Further, the size of the water and sewer pipes are really inadequate for the water which is flowing in the pipes.” While the average age of the water system is 50 years old in the township, there are areas which are much older. For example, Domine
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points out, Bloomfield Village, which is bracketed by Maple on the south, Quarton on the north, Cranbrook to the east and Lahser on the west, was a neighborhood developed with water and sewer hook ups early on. “The (water) mains in there are more than 85 years old,” he said. And they're showing their age. Some more western areas of the township were developed in more recent decades, and some other areas received hook ups to water and sewer later on. Yet at some point, all need the maintenance work of sewer relining and water main reconstruction. “The road program generally drives most of the city's infrastructure improvement program,” said Jamie Burton, an engineering consultant to Bloomfield Hills from Hubbell Roth & Clark, regarding Bloomfield Hills' road projects. But that statement is true for all municipalities. “If we are going to repave a street, we are going to look at all of the utility needs within that project's limits. The last thing we want is to go back after we've paved and have to redo the infrastructure underneath,” Burton said. “If we catch sewers (and water mains) before they become a major problem, we can avoid having to dig them up and replacing them.” And that saves the city money from having to repave the road after that reconstruction. He said Bloomfield Hills does not plan any water main improvements outside of the road program unless there is a significant problem, such as a major water main break, which would necessitate repairing or reconstructing the road after repairing the water main. “There is one major exception, and that is annually we do sanitary sewer rehabilitation throughout Bloomfield Hills,” Burton said. He explained that they are able to do this work via trench list technology, which is accomplished without digging through the city's streets. “We attempt to do it all through manholes,” he said, explaining that they perform the repairs of the manhole linings, sewer linings, repairing any leaking joints in the system, cleaning out the sewer system and manage tree root controls by going down to the sewers through open manholes. Bloomfield Hills has a proposed budget for 2013-2014 of $385,000 for the sanitary sewer rehabilitation work, plus they received an additional $100,000 grant to perform sewer rehabilitation work in the northeast corner of the city this coming year, “in the Whitehall in Bloomfield Sites subdivision, between Eastways and Kensington, north of Long Lake Road,” Burton said. “They had a sewer collapse in that subdivision last year, so we thought it would be prudent to investigate all of those sewers in that subdivision this year and clean them all out.” Burton said the sewers and water mains in Bloomfield Hills were built in the 1950s and 1960s, so their age is showing. “The city is
under a mandated consent order to reduce the inflow and infiltration of clear water into the sanitary sanitation system and seal it up,” he explained. “It's a process of collecting lake water, rain water,and clear water. We have to pay to have that treated downstream.” loomfield Hills City Manager Jay Cravens said that when assessing which roads to repair and reconstruct, they do not necessarily only go after the ones in the most inferior condition. “We're not just going after the worst roads. We look at the state of the road deterioration so we don't have a worse situation down the road,” he explained. “We look at roads at different stages of road maintenance. Some need to have crack sealing done, or others have a section that is bad, and if we take it out and reseal that part, we can push off doing more for several years. We also work a lot at the 'cracking' phase. That's where there are those surface cracks on the asphalt. We crack seal it, and it helps mitigate water from going into the road bed, heaving with the cold and thaw cycles we have, which causes potholes and other problems. Our approach is 'triage'. We're trying to catch roads before they become severe.” Bloomfield Hills allots $60,000 to their crack seal program, and $25,000 to $30,000 is in the annual budget for dealing with potholes. Bloomfield Township's Domine said, “I'll be busy with a lot of infrastructure work. We have quite a bit of work we're undertaking this year.” His department is responsible for road projects and road reconstruction projects, water, sewers, safety path construction, and some of the tree beautification projects the township is undertaking. Bloomfield Township only handles road projects and road reconstruction work for local township roads; the main roads are the provence of the Road Commission of Oakland County (RCOC). Some work is done using TriParty funds, an annual program involving onethird funding from the Oakland County government, one-third funding from RCOC, and one-third funding from the local government. The road work is chosen by the local community on RCOC roads with the approval of the RCOC. Bloomfield Township has a construction budget of $6.5 million for the 2013 construction season. Of that, $3 million will go to the water system capital improvement program; $1 million for sanitary sewer rehabilitation program; $1.5 million for road paving special assessment districts and contracted road maintenance repairs; and $1 million for the safety path construction program. Birmingham's O'Meara said that all of the costs for this year's road construction projects have not been finalized, although the projects
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themselves are determined and many are underway. Anyone who has visited downtown Birmingham since mid-March is likely aware that Pierce Street from Maple to Merrill, and Merrill to S. Old Woodward, is undergoing a complete reconstruction, which is anticipated to be complete, weather and unexpected infrastructure surprises not withstanding, in mid-June. O'Meara said the cost for the project is $1 million, which consists of a complete upgrading of the sewer and water main system, estimated to be approximately 100 years old, new street pavement, new manhole covers, new sidewalks, new streetscaping, lighting, crosswalks, curb cuts, and approaches to the alleyways. In the southeastern portion of the city, in the city's Rail District, a half-mile block of Cole Street and two blocks of Torry, adjacent to the Rail District, will also be the focus of a complete reconstruction. O'Meara said the project, beginning in late April and complete in October, will cost $1.6 million. It will upgrade the water mains and sewers, followed by a complete road replacement with new pavement, and have new driveway approaches for each house affected by the construction. lso in Birmingham this 2013 construction season, a section on Derby Road in front of Derby Middle School from Adams to the railroad tracks will receive a new water main and all new concrete pavement. The time frame, O'Meara said, is to begin in late June and July, after the school is over. “That's our goal, to get it done while school is out,” he said. “It's a pretty simple project.” He said there is no cost for the project yet as it is still in the bidding phase. O'Meara said that other projects the city's engineering department has on its agenda this construction season are water and sewer plans, where little is done to the pavement, and resurfacing projects. The water and sewer projects will occur from May to November, and O'Meara does not yet have costs. The first round of water and sewer work will be on Dorchester and Yorkshire streets from Eton to Coolidge; the second round is on Edinborough from Windemere to Maple. “They are water and sewer upgrades. Once the work is completed, we will chip seal coat the streets, but we're leaving the curbs and drives in place,” O'Meara said. Another project Birmingham performs for its residents is resurfacing, going from street to street each construction season to maintain its local neighborhood roads. O'Meara explained that workers grind up the street's asphalt and then replace the street with fresh asphalt. This year the slated streets are Wallace, from Southfield to Stanley; Purdy, from Brown to Landon; and Landon from Purdy to Ann. They will take place during September and October, 2013, and costs are not yet available.
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Bloomfield Hills has one major road construction project this year. That is the complete reconstruction of Orchard Ridge Road from Vaughan Road to Long Lake Road. Cravens said it is slated to begin after nearby Cranbrook Schools is out for the summer. Construction is scheduled to take place from mid-June until late September and cost $1,058,000. Cravens said parts of Orchard Ridge demand a complete rebuilding of the road, along with water system improvements and sanitary sewer improvements and manhole cover rehabilitation. Other areas just need to be resurfaced. Cravens said the city is able to tackle large projects, such as Orchard Ridge Road, by combining their major road fund and local road fund into an asset management plan. “We group them together, and by doing that where it makes sense, we're able to do more,” he said. The way a smaller municipality is able to do that, Cravens explained, is via Public Act 51, which is a transportation fund often referred to as the “gas tax.” A section of the act states: “For the preservation, construction, acquisition, and extension of the major street system as defined by this act, including the acquisition of a necessary right of way for the system, work incidental to the system, and an appurtenant roadside park or motor parkway, of the city or village and for the payment of the principal and interest on that portion of the city's or village's general obligation bonds that are attributable to the construction or reconstruction of the city's or village's major street system. Not more than 5 per cent per year of the funds returned to a city or village by this subsection shall be expended for the preservation or acquisition of appurtenant roadside parks and motor parkways. Surplus funds may be expended for the development, construction, or repair of off-street parking facilities, the construction or repair of street lighting, and transfer to the local street system.” There are numerous water, sewer and road projects scheduled in Bloomfield Township for this construction season. Under their water system capital improvement program, Domine said they will be renovating the underground pressure valve chambers at various locations in the township. “We just finished replacing control valves from the Detroit water supply at the borders of the township,” he said. They will be constructing a water main on Adams Road from Square Lake to Lennox Road. The purpose is to extend the water mains to complete a water system look in order to refresh them at Adams and Square Lake roads. A new 12-inch water main will be installed along Quarter Road, west of Chesterfield Road to Covington Road. This project is to connect
that part of the township to the Southeastern Oakland County Water Authority (SOCWA) water main of Oakland County. “It creates a new pressure district,” Domine said. The enhancement of water mains by replacing the water pipes and enlarging the small water around the Wing Lake and Maple road area will be done in late summer in the Wing Lake Shores subdivision, east of Wing Lake Road and north of Maple Road. “While we're in that area, we'll also do sanitary sewer rehabilitation work,” Domine said. “There's a sanitary sewer that goes all around the lake in the rear yards that is subject to inflow infiltration, which is extra unwanted water getting into the system.” Other sewer work will entail rehabilitating approximately 200 manholes in various areas of the township. loomfield Township will begin to enhance the water mains in Bloomfield Village in 2013, and continue into 2014. “We're still working on the details of replacing and enhancing the water system,” he said. This year, they will begin along Maple on the east side of Cranbrook Road, beginning on Tilbury Road. In 2014, they will continue the work. “Our plans show that the work on the water mains need to be done between 2013 and 2018,” Domine said. “We'll probably be focusing next year on this area the entire time.” Bloomfield Township offers road paving special assessment districts (SADs) as a service to neighborhood associations at a reduced fee, rather than having the county perform the services. In order to be considered and approved by the township board of trustees, a neighborhood association must write up a petition and turn it into the township's Engineering and Environmental Services Department, where it is assessed for need and costs. This year, the special assessment districts receiving road construction are Knob Hill subdivision, west of Franklin Road, between Lone Pine and Quarton Roads, with a $628,000 estimate; and Thorncrest subdivision, west of Telegraph and north of Maple Road, which has a $402,000 estimate. “We enter into a contract with the RCOC where they will do the engineering and design work, hire the contractors to do the work, and do the contract engineering with an agreement with the township,” Domine said. “Instead of us going to a contractor, we've contracted with them. But it's our project.” The township's maintenance crews will perform concrete pavement removal and replacement, as well as asphalt maintenance patch overlays, in various subdivisions throughout the summer, all as part of their routine budget. The last piece of the 2013 construction
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puzzle is completing the current safety path program. The safety path program is funded by a township millage, which is set to expire in 2014, unless there is a renewal. The township's safety path millage was first passed in 1998, and then was renewed in 2004 and 2008. It is currently a .4839 mill, which provides the township with approximately $1.5 million a year towards construction and maintenance of safety paths. Since the millage was first passed to the present, 67 miles of safety paths have been constructed in the township. This summer, a new path will be constructed on Maple Road, just east of Lahser to Bradford Drive. While only a third of a mile long, it will complete a contiguous walking and biking path from Birmingham to West Bloomfield, and in Bloomfield Township, from Cranbrook to Inkster roads. Another new path will be built on Square Lake Road, east of Opdyke to Bloomfield Crossings, on the Troy border. It is a half-mile long safety path which will complete the safety path on a more northern border from Adams Road to Opdyke. Bloomfield Township's costs for 2014 have been determined, with a price tag of $7.3 million; but all of the exact plans are still being ascertained. Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills' plans remain more fluid with still undetermined costs. Domine anticipates a sewer project in the Adams Corridor. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It will involve the Oakland County Water Resources Commission, and include Troy, Bloomfield Hills, and us, but we're just beginning to meet, so details aren't yet determined,â&#x20AC;? he said. He said all Tri-Party funds are being carried over to 2014 rather than spending them this year. wo Wabeek neighborhood subdivisions, Wabeek 5 and Wabeek 6, which are south of Long Lake Road, will likely have special assessment district road reconstruction in 2014. Domine said there is still time for others to come to the attention of the township. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have interest from three other subdivisions, but we don't have their petitions yet,â&#x20AC;? he said. Additionally, he noted that new buildings are being built in the township, and some of them will need new water mains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For example, the new Lifetime Fitness (at Telegraph and Long Lake roads); we'll be redoing their sewer when they need it. And who knows what's going to happen with the new Bloomfield Hills High School (building which will begin construction this fall). â&#x20AC;&#x153;Like I said, we're pretty busy.â&#x20AC;? Birmingham is planning a complete reconstruction, with water, sewer and new pavement, for N. Eton Road between Derby and Yorkshire roads, as well as Mohegan and Kennesaw from Oxford to Adams and Oxford and Poppleton between Mohegan and Kennesaw. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They come up high on our list of streets that need all three â&#x20AC;&#x201C; water, sewer and street reconstruction, so I can take care of all three problem areas at once,â&#x20AC;? said O'Meara. Yosemite and Villa, from Adams to Columbia, are slated for 2014 water and sewer work. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It's mostly a water main project, but we'll do some sewer work as well, and then chip seal repair (the street),â&#x20AC;? O'Meara said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That neighborhood has primarily water mains in the backyard, and I'm trying to phase out that program and move all water mains to the street and have homes connect to them there.â&#x20AC;? He explained that backyard water mains, common in many neighborhoods in Birmingham, including Quarton Lake Estates, were built in the 1920s, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and we can't repair them there because theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re on private property. It's part of the master plan that I got approved a few years ago to move all water mains to the streets.â&#x20AC;? At this point, Bloomfield Hills is looking at the southwestern corner of the city, the streets of Chestnut Circle, Chestnut Drive, Woodwind Drive, Manorwood, Renton Circle, and Pine Ridge, for reconstruction, but city manager Cravens said â&#x20AC;&#x153;it depends on how the roads hold up. Some residents are asking about Cranbrook Road south of Lone Pine. It's been bad for several years. It could be possible that Cranbrook Road supersedes the Chestnuts.â&#x20AC;?
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Bloomfield Hills $1,385,000 Custom built home by Oberti. Over $1 million in renovations since 2003! New kitchen, master suite, terrace room, new hardwood floors, custom trim work and windows. First and second floor laundry. Limestone and marble floors. Walnut paneled den, family room with hardwood floors. Large room sizes. Birmingham Schools. Four bedrooms with 4.2 baths. 213013178
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Oakland Township $2,450,000 Beautifully tucked within 7 plus acres of Oakland Township Grandeur. This spacious European Country House with premium appointments and highend detailing through out. Lovely guest quarters is complete with chefs kitchen. Nature, wildlife and ultimate tranquility are hallmarks of this magnificent estate. Beautifully developed outdoor areas include gorgeous porch and patios. Full complement of sophisticated mechanical/electrical componentry including elevator and 100KW generator. Six bedrooms with 9.3 baths. 213029894.
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Extraordinary private location in gated Oakland Township subdivision. Exquisite home with the exceptional appointments you would expect! Superb kitchen entertainment area. Lovely formal dining room with butler pantry. Two story living and great rooms. Five fireplaces. Fully finished lower level with media room, sauna, spa, bar, bistro area, game room and guest suite. Beautifully articulated grounds with gardens, pond, waterfall, gazebo and fabulous views. Five bedrooms with 6.2 baths. 213016749.
Franklin Village at its best! Beautifully nestled on an ultra private three acre site is this magnificent Cape Cod overlooking the Franklin River, wildlife and serenity. This spacious property includes four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, library and both family and large keeping room. Four car attached garage, walkout lower level, Cedar Shake roof, new HVAC, and expansive deck. All of this and close to the magic of the Village. 213025427.
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Bloomfield $1,150,000 Enjoy breathtaking views from this mini estate complete with shared lake lot across Franklin with deeded boat dock and lake privileges! Total renovation in 2002 includes custom moldings, hardwood floors, magnificent chef 's kitchen with oversized island and breakfast room overlooking patio and manicured grounds. Master suite with fireplace, elegant foyer, paneled library, spa room with sauna and jacuzzi! The 2,000 plus square foot lower level has kitchen, bedroom, living area, full bath and recreation room! Four bedrooms with 4.1 baths. Co-listor Cindy Obron Kahn.
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Birmingham $1,525,000 This custom built home by The Deneweth Company is a gracious central entrance Colonial situated on a wonderful private corner lot. Boasts flowing and open floor plan with superb features including soaring ceilings, bright gourmet cookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kitchen, and great room with fireplace. Magnificent lower level with full kitchen and spectacular entertainment/media area. Over 4500 square foot home with five bedrooms, 4.2 baths in Quarton Lake estates on one of the best streets!
Coventry Lake Frontage $1,275,000 Gorgeous Tobocman Contemporary on three beautifully manicured acres on Coventry Lake. This home features over 7500 square feet of living space with floor to ceiling windows that let in natural light and beautiful views. The open floor plan is perfect for entertaining or daily life. Interior details include beautiful wood trim, travertine floors, state of the art kitchen with wine cooler, two dishwashers, master bath with steam shower and large tub. Three bedrooms with 3.2 baths. Co-Listor Susie Sillman.
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Oxford $789,000 Beautiful large transitional Country Home on 20 acres in Metamora Hunt Country. Three or four bedrooms (library or 4th bedroom), massive master suite (1,250 sq ft) with vaulted ceiling and jetted tub, two bedrooms up, carpet, oak and tile floors throughout. Living room with two way fireplace into hearth room, dining room, spacious Chef 's kitchen with hearth room, beautiful all season room. Three car garage, decks, six to eight stall barn and paddocks. Geothermal heat pump, generator and tremendous gorgeous property views. Oxford Schools. Four bedroom with 2.2 baths. 213004011
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Lake Angelus Frontage $674,900
Fabulous Lake Angelus Shores Ranch home with sunsets and privacy. Move-in condition home with four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, six car oversize garage for all your toys. Over 3,000 square feet all on one floor with views of the lake from all rooms. Nicely updated with neutral colors. Granite kitchen opens to great room. Deck with beautiful mature landscaping on almost one acre. Everything you are looking for in a lake home. 212110702.
Nice price reduction on this beautiful newer construction on Pristine Lake Angelus with views from almost every room. Three bedrooms with possible 4th in upstairs bonus room. Decks off all rooms lake side. Almost 5,000 square feet including finished walkout lower level. Privacy and nature abounds. Perfect home for entertaining. Ready for summer just move in. New 16K natural gas generator. 213001852.
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Bloomfield Hills $4,199,500 History, grace, grandeur and beauty! A feeling of solidity, strength and impeccable English country style surrounds you throughout every step of this home. Unsurpassed workmanship, detail and quality are everywhere, awaiting your discovery. A few of the many updates include new wiring, heating, electrical and a spare no expense kitchen done to breathtaking detail by The Kennebec Company and will surpass every expectation. Generously sized rooms, sun light, storage, irreplaceable finishes, two swimming pools and a world class spa retreat. An Estate for the most discerning!
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Birmingham $1,450,000 One of a kind Contemporary European style home on a park like setting close to downtown Birmingham and Rouge River trails! Spectacular open floor plan, two story great room with stone fireplace, light oak floor and big windows. Large dining room, premium gourmet custom kitchen with top of the line appliances. Beautiful master suite with skylights, luxurious bath, sauna and terrace. State of the art patio with built in GE grill. Brick and stone castle on double lot. Just gorgeous! Five bedrooms with 4.5 baths. 213029613
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Upper Straits Lake Frontage $4,200,000 Exquisite waterfront and gated home on all sports Upper Straits Lake. Over 12,000 square feet of living space. Gym, steam room, wine cellar, kitchen/bar in walk out lower level. Prepped for elevator, six fireplaces with imported stone. Stainless steel appliances. Main floor and basement laundry. Bonus space above garage could be additional two bedrooms, kitchen and bath. Brazilian Cherry wood, marble and neutral carpet throughout. Furnishings all negotiable. Six bedrooms with 5.2 baths. 213034147
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Bloomfield Hills $3,400,000 Immaculate house on 3.4 acres with gorgeous landscaping! The grounds include in ground pool, spa and tennis court. Renovate and expand in '00 with 2,500 square feet addition including basketball court, gym, family room, sauna, and full bath. Exquisite study with cherry wood, 3900 square foot walk out with kitchen, wet bar, media room, wine cellar. Full house generator, new electric and security system. Six bedrooms with 7.4 baths. 212115390 Presented by Cindy Obron Kahn
Walnut Lake Frontage $3,399,900 Spectacular Updated West Bloomfield Lakefront Estate! An Entertainers' Delight. Gourmet kitchen, top of the line appliances, great room offers high ceiling, fantastic views of the lake and fabulous bar. Floor to ceiling windows. Possible first floor master, formal dining room, billiards room, nanny suite and your own private Night Club!! Guest house and attached garage, large enough to house five cars. Six bedrooms with 8.3 baths. 212092152 Presented by Nancy Beachum
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South Rockwood Village $3,995,000 Unique opportunity! This is the club house for Westburn Golf and Country Club. Home has living quarters on second floor and first floor could be converted to residential living space. Home has newer fabulous kitchen, pub room with $50,000 antique bar. Approximately 2,000 square foot caretakers home on property. Own your own 18 hole golf course. Formerly the Anna Dodge Estate. Endless possibilities. 212073459 Presented by Kathy Haack
Bloomfield $1,199,000 Custom Crafted Masterpiece built in 2006! Flowing floor plan adorned with custom carved wood walls, coffered ceiling and high end finishes. High end kitchen with gathering area, dramatic foyer and theater room. Two entry level bedroom for au pair or guests. Custom archways on second floor leads to extensive master suite with fabulous dressing room, morning bar, sauna and exercise room. Two spacious additional bedroom suites and second floor laundry. 212117120 Presented by Renee Lossia Acho & Marcy Sucher
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Bloomfield Hills $1,795,000 Stunning classic Tobocman Contemporary on over one acre. Impeccable grounds and gorgeous views. Master suite with view to lovely in-ground pool. Three large en-suites and huge great room with studio-ceiling, clerestory windows, wall of glass and overflowing natural light. Large modern kitchen with Subzero and Bosch appliances, granite counters, lots of custom cabinets. Fabulous lower level with party/median room. Four car garage. 213029572 Presented by Michael Sbrocca
Oxford $1,249,900 Spectacular Post and Beam home with 75 rolling, open, wooded acres. Designer perfect kitchen with Bosch Sub Zero, five star appliances, granite and maple floors. Two and half story great room with massive Fieldstone fireplace. First floor master, library, finished lower level with fireplace, bar, exercise room, sauna, in-ground pool, heated pool house and cabana. Six car garage, dog kennel, beautiful Morton barn, caretakers home, dairy barn and out buildings. Four bedrooms with 3.1 baths. 212107747 Presented by David Busch
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Bloomfield $1,499,000 Reduced! Captivating interior renovation! This reconfigured floor plan is absolutely perfect. Kitchen with fireplace features Bosch, Subzero, Miele and Thermador stainless steel appliances. Romantic master suite with spa bath, dressing table and fireplace. French doors lead guests from interior living spaces to beautiful brick terrace and yard. Third floor bonus room (30X20) with wet bar, skylights and storage area. Expansive finished lower level. Five bedrooms with 4.3 baths. 213006317 Presented by Darlene Jackson
Bloomfield $960,000 Immaculate and pristine home with access to Gilbert Lake! Private 1+ acre lot. Foyer with marble floor and circular staircase. Gourmet center island kitchen with granite, Brazilian cherry. Hearth room with fireplace. Family room with hardwood floors, vaulted ceiling, skylights, wall of windows to yard. Formal living room with coved ceilings and fireplace. Formal dining room and quaint study. Master bedroom with his/her closet areas and bath. All bedrooms are spacious with custom millwork. Four bedrooms with four baths. 213034755 Presented by Robert Gleason
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West Bloomfield $995,000 Exquisite Contemporary on the 18th hole of Wabeek Golf Course. Home is situated on a hilltop at the end of a cul-de-sac. Updated kitchen with granite counter tops. Spectacular natural lighting with picturesque views. Wonderful walk-out basement with wet bar and complete kitchen. Great for entertaining. Huge master bedroom suite on the first floor. Courtyard with fountain feature. Lots of privacy with a deck along the back of the house. Six bedrooms with 4.3 baths. 213030771 Presented by Maria Constante & Dawn Williams
Lake Oakland Frontage $795,000 Immaculate Lake Oakland Estate's lake front. Prestigious area of custom built homes. Almost 5300 square feet with two story great room, first floor master, spectacular granite kitchen with large nook. Lower level walkout with fourth bedroom, full bath, kitchen, pantry, custom bar, fireplace. Lakeside view with seawall, dock, lawn and pavers for entertaining. Pella windows and hi-end quality fixtures throughout. Brand new high efficiency furnace and newer air conditioning. Three bedrooms with four baths. 213030155 Presented by Michelle Yurich
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Oxford $975,000 Spectacular Equestrian farm on 14.66 acres, rolling, open and wooded views from the exceptional and unique main residence. Best described as rustic elegance, master craftsmen work through out, chefs kitchen, natural tree trunk and limb staircase, vaulted ceilings, massive split stone fireplace, master bedroom with balcony to great room, Generator, heated indoor arena with observation room, dressage arena, designer horse barn, natural free form pool, three paddocks, run-ins, and two garages. Four bedrooms with 4.1 baths. 213028513 Presented by David Busch & Susan Lozano
Bloomfield $799,000 Beautiful and spacious Brick Ranch on 1.49 acres. Huge master suite with walk in closet, master bath with separate shower, jetted tub and double sink. Both bedroom two and three are suites. Granite kitchen with breakfast room. First floor laundry. Partial finished basement. Stunning four seasons room leads to brick patio. Fenced dog run. Gilbert Lake privileges. Four bedrooms with four baths. 213011543 Presented by T. Gerald Etue
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Oxford $999,000 Beautiful 5000+ square foot home on 80 secluded acres with your own private lake. Large dining, family, library and chef 's kitchen with maple cabinets, granite, stainless steel appliances, perfect for entertaining. Spectacular theater room, wine cellar, two master suites. steam room, five car garage. Exceptional retreat for hunting, fishing, swimming or just relaxing. Minutes from Chrysler Tech Center, Rochester and Birmingham. Beautiful gardens. Lake Orion schools. Four bedrooms with 3.2 baths. 213017490 Presented by David Busch
Fenton $899,000 Beautiful custom built log lodge home on 13.44 wooded acres. Two story great room with custom stone fireplace, large country kitchen with granite. Finished lower level with recreation room, stone fireplace and exercise room. Stunning indoor pool with vaulted ceiling and door walls to 3,000 square foot deck that overlooks a large stocked pond. Attached three car garage, 40 x 60 Pole Barn and separate three car garage. Possible au pair or in-law suite on second floor. Four bedrooms with 4.3 baths. 212110689 Presented by Jim Casey
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Bloomfield $899,000 Elegant raised Ranch on over an acre in prestigious Wabeek North. Over 9,000 square feet with beautiful custom hardwood floors and gilded crown moldings. Perfect home for large family gatherings. Three bedrooms on main level, each with private bath. One bedroom and bath on lower level. Granite counters and stainless steel appliances in both kitchens. Walkout lower level has two additional possible bedrooms, billiard area, workout area, sports bar, sitting area and workshop. 213022890 Presented by Richard Perry
Commerce Lake Frontage $849,900 Scenic views on all sports private Commerce Lake with 136 feet of sandy beach frontage. Three areas of patio pavers. Gated community with tennis court and children's park. State of the art gourmet kitchen, sky-lights throughout. Four fireplace with hearth setting. Third floor in-law suite with kitchenette and full bath. Master suite with sitting/reading area and balcony. Over 6,000 finished square feet. New carpet. Five bedrooms with 3.2 baths. 213035006 Presented by Susan Johnson
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Bloomfield Hills $849,000 Completely renovated in 2004. New siding, roof, windows, copper gutters, furnaces (zoned heating), updated kitchen and bathrooms. Spacious room sizes and space for bonus room. First floor master suite with his/her closet over looking backyard. Finished basement with bar, bathroom and fireplace. Heated garage and situated on almost a 1/2 acre. Four bedrooms with 3.2 baths. 213035210 Presented by Erin Keating DeWald
Birmingham $845,000 Beautiful center entrance Colonial in Poppleton Park. Large updated kitchen with center cooking island/butlers pantry and ceramic/granite counters. Exceptional natural wood trim throughout house. Dual staircases. Master suite has large walk in closet and exceptional bath with jetted tub/steam shower. Third floor has 500 square foot storage space. Partially finished lower level. Home is in mint condition. 213021208 Presented by T. Gerald Etue
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Metamora $495,000 Tremendous opportunity, best value in "Hunt Country". Brick country home with Carriage House. Twenty acres, large eleven stall horse barn all on a spectacular elevated rolling and wooded site. Beautiful entrance, spacious living and dining room, comfortable Chef 's kitchen and large master suite. Full finished lower level, attractive Carriage House perfect for guests or in-laws. Gorgeous views, privacy, at the end of a country lane. Additional twenty acres available. Four bedrooms with 2.l baths. 212075834 Presented by David Busch
Rochester Hills $490,000 Former model deluxe with many custom features. Study and family room have traditionally timeless architectural paneling. Family room with wet bar and custom bookcases. Kitchen with granite, Jenn-Air 4-6 burner cook top, double ovens, wine fridge and trash compactor. Four bedrooms with 2.1 baths. 213007554 Presented by Susan Lozano
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Bloomfield $650,000 Amazing home with views of Oakland Hill and the signature 16th hole. Spacious and airy, this home is drenched with natural light showing off the gorgeous 5" plank oak floors. Redone in 2010. Kitchen with top of the line stainless steel appliances. Large open floor plan ideal for entertaining, yet has cozy reading areas for getting away. Family room in back of the house has a wall of sliding glass doors to backyard, two tiered deck. Beautiful views looking onto park like yard. Four bedrooms with three baths. 213024237 Presented by Kris Barich & Molly Henneghan
Bloomfield $599,000
Royal Oak $499,900
Beautiful, classic four bedroom Colonial situated on 1/2 acre professionally landscaped lot with paver patio. Lovely formal living and dining room. Ideal for entertaining. Updated, large eat-in kitchen opens to family room with brick gas fireplace which leads to sun-filled four seasons room. Hardwood floors throughout. Large master suite with updated bath. Finished lower level with ample storage. New furnace, hardwood floors, driveway and painted throughout in the last year. 213027420 Presented by Ann Greenberg
This Royal Oak home is a 10! RENOVATED to perfection! Remodeled kitchen with KitchenAid appliances, cherry cabinets, granite, cabinet lighting. All baths completely remodeled. All new trim and doors. Finished recreation room with built in entertainment center and gas fireplace. Hardwood floors, newer furnace and air conditioning, hot water heater, all new windows and doors. B-dry basement. First floor laundry. Too many amenities to list. Four bedrooms with 2.5 baths. 213023543 Presented by Kay Hartwell
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Bloomfield $499,000 Sprawling Ranch completely updated on almost two acres! Flowing, open floor plan, great for entertaining/family living. Large windows with Southern exposure. Eat-in kitchen offers premium appliances, granite and opens to family room. Also has dining room. Beautiful Oak floors throughout. Library with built-ins, first floor laundry. Master suite offers a bath with Euro shower and large walk in closet with vanity. Attached garage with large mud room. Three bedrooms and 2.1 baths. 213028415 Presented by Erin Keating DeWald
Royal Oak $275,000
Highland $289,900
Exceptional end unit! Hardwoods, dramatic ceilings and cool architectural details. Gourmet granite kitchen, attached two car garage, and first floor laundry. Kitchen boast huge eat-in area and pass through to the dinging room. Ample master with large bath and walk in closet. Two additional bedrooms up with another full bath. Great for entertaining and prime location for enjoying all that downtown Royal Oak has to offer. Stunning home! 213029695 Presented by Sara Lipnitz
JUST REDUCED! Four bedroom Colonial on a premium lot in the desired Timber Ridge Subdivision. Professionally landscaped half acre property with a private wooded yard. Large master bedroom and bath with an attached room for a nursery or library. Hardwood floors, formal living room with fireplace, dining room, spacious kitchen with island, and family room. An entertainer's delight. Trails for walking. 213033032 Presented by Dee Brooks
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Cass Lake Frontage $599,000 Eastern exposure with 75 feet of lake frontage. Two story Contemporary built in 1985. Vaulted great room, skylights, flowing open floor plan, large galley kitchen, hardwood and ceramic floors, hand painted Mexican tiled sinks and countertops in two baths. Two furnaces, two gas fireplaces, vaulted 20 x 23 master bedroom suite. All glass four seasons Florida room facing the lake. West Bloomfield Schools. Four bedrooms with three baths. 213031002 Presented by RW Watson
Independence Township $304,900
Royal Oak $235,000
Last new construction on prestigious Pine Knob Golf Course. Enjoy breathtaking views from your balcony or walk out patio. Customized your unit with high-end standard options. Blue ribbon Clarkston Schools, Easy access to I-75, close to parks, lakes, skiing, minutes to Great Lakes shopping and world class concerts and sport venues. Village of Clarkston lifestyle. Preconstruction prices and 1year free golf. Different models to choose from. 213033468 Presented by Carmen Mollicone
Walk into this Colonial home beautifully located in Royal Oak. Features of this home include; three bedrooms with a possible 4th off the master, 1.1 baths, gourmet granite kitchen with Subzero fridge and double wall oven. Screened in patio, updated Anderson windows, lots of living space, partially finished basement. Two car detached garage. 213032349 Presented by Dan Gutfreund
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Sylvan/Otter Lake Frontage $449,900 Fabulous updated Sylvan/Otter waterfront Cape Cod with open layout. Granite and maple kitchen with stainless appliances. Spacious master suite with view. Large bedrooms, custom tile and quartz bath. Hardwood floors throughout. Relax and entertain on your new Trex deck while you enjoy the spectacular views of the park like back yard, fire pit, private beach and vinyl dock. Finished walkout lower level has granite wine bar, bath, paver patio and hot tub. Four bedrooms with 3.5 baths. 213031880 Presented by Susan Kissick
West Bloomfield $379,900
Independence Township $239,900
Beautiful home on great cul-de-sac lot with fantastic custom patio and spacious open backyard. Stunning newer top-line kitchen with island adjoined by large breakfast room. Formal dining room opens into great room. Formal library with French doors. Spacious master suite with separate vanity and two walk in closets. Finished lower level with second kitchen and family room. Four bedrooms with 3.5 baths. 213028397 Presented by Dmitry Koublitsky
Beautiful, custom, one of a kind design and built home in a wonderful family, neighborhood with great schools. Beautiful kitchen, a cook's delight. Open, yet warm and inviting floor plan. Three bedrooms with 2.5 baths. 213028132 Presented by Amy Parker
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FACES Lee Reitelman
M
usician and lyricist Lee Reitelman has traveled all over the world playing his guitar. His interest in music first began with the Village Players in Birmingham and was nurtured throughout his time as a student at Cranbrook and Princeton. “My family moved from New York City when I was less than two, so all of my memories are from Birmingham,” he said. “From a pretty young age I was interested in music.” At Cranbrook Schools, Reitelman was a staple in the band. He continued playing the trumpet and guitar at Interlochen Arts Camp and in Cranbrook Jazz Trio, a group he formed with two other students. “Through all of that, it never really dawned on me that I might want to make a career out of music,” he said. Having cherished Cranbrook’s beautiful campus, Reitelman was drawn to Princeton University where he studied comparative literature. “It was a really important thing for me to be in a place that kind of inspired.” His first week of college, he was encouraged to audition for Princeton’s a capella group. “Low and behold, I got into the group. It turned out to be much more selective than I realized.” Four vocalists out of 80 were chosen, he said. Upon graduation, Reitelman began helping students with their writing as a way to support himself while he worked on a screenplay for Hollywood. With his guitar by his side, Reitelman traveled to India for a few months to teach English. “By the time I came back from India I had a pretty clear sense in my mind that what I wanted to do was unite my interests of music and writing.” Briefly returning to Birmingham, Reitelman formed a band called Ben Marklee before moving back to New York to pursue his music and a girl he had begun dating. “In early 2012, the owner of the Vagabond Cafe approached me after I played at his open mic and asked me to play there.” The initial invitation has opened many doors for Reitelman, who has since played his unique mix of jazz and blues at over a dozen venues in New York with a base player, backup female vocalist and drummer. “I write everything except covers by (Sixto) Rodriguez from Detroit. I play his music because he’s a Detroit guy and that means a lot to me,” he said. Out of all his fans, Reitelman says his most loyal ones are those from home. “The people with the very best attendance record are my old friends from Birmingham, which is so great for me,” the Brooklyn resident said. “The main thing is I really like to cook. I spend at least an hour or two, five days a week, preparing food with my girlfriend. You don’t necessarily get to enjoy the fruits of your labor until much later with music, so food and the preparation of food is a much more instant gratification-type of activity.” Reitelman is currently recording his first full-length album, which will be released this summer. “From there, I’d really like to try and expand my audience and hopefully be able to get into some bigger venues.” Story: Hayley Beitman
Photo: Deeva Green
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CITY/ TOWNSHIP Birmingham to host late night shopping For those shoppers looking to enjoy Birmingham's retail environment during the evening hours, Birmingham's Principal Shopping District (PSD) is creating First Thursdays, a shopping, dining and entertainment event the first Thursday of every month from May through September, beginning Thursday, May 2. First Thursdays Birmingham will be an evening where stores will be open until 9 p.m., with many offering live entertainment, in-store events, like trunk shoes, free drawings, special sales, hors d'oeuvres, music, prize giveaways, and more. Shoppers could win valuable store merchandise or gift certificates. John Heiney, PSD executive director, said he does not know exactly how many of downtown Birmingham's stores will participate and stay open on First Thursdays, but he said he hopes it will be most of the stores. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In our 2012 market study, customers kept requesting more consistency on store hours and later hours,â&#x20AC;? Heiney said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We cannot legislate later hours for our stores, nor would we, and every store is different, but we would encourage our stores to participate in First Thursdays.â&#x20AC;? The PSD is also encouraging Birmingham's retailers to stay open every Thursday night until 9 p.m. Heiney said he will be speaking to the city's restaurants and bistros to create cross promotional event tie-ins for First Thursdays. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It's mutually beneficial for the restaurants,â&#x20AC;? he said, noting many restaurant patrons look to shop when they are in Birmingham in the evening. Each month, First Thursdays will highlight a different theme, with May's
Studt receives Alaskan offer, but declines By Lisa Brody
B
irmingham Police Chief Don Studt, who flew out to Juneau, Alaska, early in April to interview as a finalist for the police chief job there, received an offer on Monday, April 15 to become the new chief of police in Juneau, effective this summer, but Studt decided to decline the offer and stay in Birmingham. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It went really well,â&#x20AC;? he said of the interview process in Juneau. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They made me an offer, and I feel really good. But I'm not going to take it. I'm gratified I received an offer. I've analyzed it, and I have declined it.â&#x20AC;? Studt was one of three finalists who flew to Juneau to be interviewed for the position of chief the week of April 8. Greg Browning, the current chief of police of Juneau, has announced he will retire effective May 31, 2013. Juneau launched a national search to replace Browning, and Studt said it made him feel very good to be one of the last three standing in the search pool. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I almost wish I had come in third,â&#x20AC;? he joked. Studt, 59, who joined the Birmingham force as a police officer in 1974 and became chief in 2010, has spent his entire career in Birmingham. While working for the Birmingham Police Department, Studt obtained his law degree from Wayne State University law school in 1983. He currently has been slated to retire from Birmingham in May, 2016, and he said his goal remains to retire then. Studt plans to hand over the reins of the department to assistant chief Mark Clemence. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That is my plan, and that is still a good plan, financially and family-wise,â&#x20AC;? Studt said. He said when he noticed the posting for Juneau, he felt compelled to respond. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My son is up there (in Juneau). He lives there and is a boat captain, and got married last summer,â&#x20AC;? Studt said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A few months ago I saw an ad for the Juneau chief's position, and I thought, 'what the hey.'â&#x20AC;? He acknowledged it was a family decision, and it was the right decision to stay put. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I do retire in 2016, I will find something to do, but not full time. I'll find something fun to do,â&#x20AC;? he said. Juneau, Alaska's police department is significantly larger than Birmingham's police department, which has 30 sworn officers. Juneau's department has 50 sworn officers, Studt said, along with 45 support staffers, for a department of 95 people. Juneau is also a larger city, with a population of 31,275 people. Birmingham, according to the 2010 census, has a population of 20,103, and is a suburban community, while Juneau is the state capital of Alaska.
event theme as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Spring Fling.â&#x20AC;? Other themes are still in formation, with September's theme, the final month, culminating with Birmingham's Fashion Night. In addition to hosting First
Thursdays and promoting the event, the PSD will employ small groups of street entertainers on downtown street corners to help generate excitement of a fun event. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think momentum will build and
evolve, with customers looking forward to it,â&#x20AC;? Heiney said. In July, the event will be held on the second Thursday of the month, July 11, as July 4 falls on the first Thursday.
Bloomfield library director to retire Karen Kotulis-Carter, director of the Bloomfield Township Public Library, has announced her retirement to the library's board of trustees, effective August 1, 2013. She said she gave the board of trustees six months notice to give them adequate time to find a suitable replacement. Kotulis-Carter is retiring with a sense of melancholy. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is the retirement time table my husband and I planned for me years ago,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Unfortunately, he passed away in 2011. It still makes sense for me to retire. You have to be open to what life throws at you.â&#x20AC;? Kotulis-Carter joined the library in 1987 as deputy director, a post she held for 10 years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I started the same year the library began a major expansion,â&#x20AC;? she said. She became director of the library in August 1997.and served for 16 years. The Bloomfield Township Public Library will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2014. It began in rented space on Long Lake Road in 1964, and moved into its current building at Lone Pine and Telegraph roads in 1968. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It's been a great run. It's the kind of job you hate to leave,â&#x20AC;? Kotulis-Carter said, noting that the library's 50th anniversary would be a good time for a new director to celebrate. The library's board of trustees has begun a national search for a new director, which can take several months. Kotulis-Carter said that the library's current assistant director, Carol Mueller, â&#x20AC;&#x153;is very seriously considering applying for the position, and that's a good thing.â&#x20AC;?
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Lot split, new road set for Rail District The Birmingham City Commission on April 8 unanimously approved a lot split at 2400 E. Lincoln Road in the city's Rail District into four separate parcels, with dedicated land for utility easements and a road for access to the lot splits. The purpose of the lot split, according to city planner Matthew Baka, is for one of the parcels to become a medical office. The parcel of land, with over six acres of property, is currently vacant, without any road access to it or street frontage. It used to be the location of the Stanley Door industrial complex. The owner of the property, Pristine Properties, was seeking the lot split in order to successfully develop the site, and also sought a final site plan and special land use permit for a medical office building, to be used as a dental office, on the parcel, as well as 10 parking spaces on E. Lincoln, which commissioners also unanimously approved.
According to city planners, the sites are zoned for mixed use, with the minimum lot size in the Rail District determined by the number of residential units proposed. It was noted that this particular lot would not have any residential units, so the lot size was in compliance with all requirements. Baka also said that the proposed one-story medical building and access road would not hinder the development of any adjacent properties at any future time, but rather the road would provide the opportunity for those parcels to be developed. At this point, the parcel is a dirt lot. “It's a really good project,” noted commissioner Gordon Rinschler. “We really like that it's being developed incrementally. At this time, only the one lot slated for the medical building is being developed. “It's such an opportunity for the area. It should help the value of the adjacent properties. Hopefully it will spur on other development in the Rail District,” Rinschler said. “Everyone's very happy about this project.”
Charter amendments on November ballot Bloomfield Hills City Commissioners unanimously approved the adoption of ballot language for charter amendments to go on next November's ballot at their regular commission meeting on April 9. The first charter amendment regards changes to municipal elections, beginning with the November 2013 election and continuing in all future municipal elections. At this November's election, three commissioners will be elected for a two-year term, and beginning in November 2015, all five commissioners will come up for simultaneous election for a two-year term. Previously, commissioners have been elected in May for two-year terms, but their terms were staggered, with elections being held every single May. It will also change municipal elections from yearly to biyearly, on odd-years.
Design for all
Another charter amendment approved for the ballot was to change the day for conducting the city's organizational meeting from the first Monday following the election to the first Tuesday following the election to conform with the city's meeting schedule. A third charter amendment approved imposes a conflict of interest proviso on commissioners, so that they cannot vote on any contract or expenditure of city money if he or she has any interest in the outcome. A charter amendment changing language regarding when the city's budget must be completed was approved, altering the language from May 10 to the second Tuesday in May, was also unanimously approved by commissioners. Once the charter amendments are approved by the state's attorney general and the governor, they will be placed on the November 5 ballot for approval by residents.
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THE REAL DIFFERENCE IN REAL ESTATE Nanci J. Rands Associate Broker
248.701.9000
Meredith Colburn Associate Broker
248.762.5319
Franklin $3,995,000
Bloomfield $3,350,000
Bloomfield Hills $2,999,000
Exceptional 2001 Tringali-designed English Tudor replica on 2.48 acres. Gated drive opens to pond, fountain and walkways. Over 10,000 sq. ft. of luxury. 4 Bedroom Suites. Wine Cellar and Tasting Room. Exercise Facility and Dojo. Two heated garages with capacity for 8 cars.
Prominently gracing the North shore of Wing Lake, this 2000 built home has over 10,000 sq. ft. of elegance and style. 2-story Living Room. Island Kitchen. Library with screened porch. Incredible walk-out Lower Level. 6 bedrooms including private apartment. Boat dock. Also for lease $15,000/month.
An incomparable Post Modern Masterpiece on 3.3 wooded acres. Sophisticated and functional living spaces. Living Room overlooks Pool and Tennis Court. Private Master retreat. Finished walk-out Lower Level. 4 car garage. Spectacular in daylight and when illuminated at night.
LAKEFRONT BUILD SITE
Bloomfield $687,500 Sophisticated Contemporary Condo on Wabeek Lake, sweeping lawn and sunset views. Open floor plan. Large balcony overlooks lake. Sleek gourmet Kitchen with Breakfast Area. Library retreat. Elegant first floor Master Suite. 2 Bedrooms up. Finished Lower Level walk-out.
Bloomfield Gilbert Lake $749,000 Beautiful lakefront acre site with wide vistas of Bloomfield Hills’ Gilbert Lake, framed by mature trees. Gently sloping site will accommodate a large home with walk-out. Perk test and survey available.
Birmingham $1,150,000 Impeccable 2003 built Home in the Poppleton Park area. Spacious with a flowing layout. Wide crown moldings and cherry floors. Gourmet Island Kitchen opens to Family Room. Handsome 2-story Library. Outstanding Master Suite includes a private Office. Elevator. 3 car garage.
www.RandsColburn.com
®
®
442 S. Old Woodward Birmingham, MI 48009
NANCI J. RANDS & MEREDITH COLBURN
Bloomfield $2,995,000
Birmingham $2,495,000
On a private, landscaped hilltop overlooking Wing Lake, this historic property was restored and expanded in 2001 to extraordinary elegance and functionality. Molded plaster ceilings, tumbled travertine floors, carved beams and sculptures. Over 6,000 sq ft with an additional 4,000 feet in the finished Lower Level. 3 Bedrooms, 5 Full and 2 Half Baths. Grand entry Foyer with domed rotunda. The Living Room is highlighted by a mural depicting Edsel Ford’s 1st transcontinental Model T journey. The Cook’s Kitchen features an octagonal island and casual dining area. 4-seasons Sun Porch. A 38-foot gallery leads to the 1st floor Master Suite. Two 2nd story Bedroom Suites. Lower Level houses an impressive Wine Cellar, Entertainment Room & Exercise Facility.
Remarkable 2004 built in-town home with exceptional features and amenities. Over 6800 sq. ft. of living space with additional 2900 sq. ft. in finished Lower Level. 6 Bedrooms, 6 Full and 2 Half Baths plus private apartment for 3 car garage. Stately Foyer over center staircase is flanked by the formal Living Room and elegant Dining Room. Gourmet Kitchen with oversized granite island. Sunny Breakfast Room surrounded by glass on 3 sides with French doors to bluestone courtyard. Spacious Family Room overlooks outdoor living spaces. Knotty pine beamed Library. Splendid Master Suite with Sitting Area, marble Bath and 2 custom walk-in closets. 2nd floor Laundry. Lower Level includes a Home Theatre, Rec Room and Kitchenette/Bar. Generator.
Nanci J. Rands
Meredith Colburn
Associate Broker
Associate Broker
248.701.9000
248.762.5319
www.RandsColburn.com
442 S. Old Woodward Birmingham, MI 48009
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
Ginny Fisher
Lynda Schrenk
Realtor
Realtor
248.593.0518
248.760.6026
GinnyFisherHomes.com
HallandHunter.com
Bloomfield $1,875,000
Commerce Twp $1,450,000
Birmingham $1,200,000
Pristine 4 bedroom, 4 bath executive retreat in a private gated enclave. 7,000+ sq.ft. Formal living room with vaulted ceiling, grand entry center hall, paneled custom-detailed library. Renovated Millennium cherry kitchen opens to spacious family room. Beautifully finished walkout lower level with potential 5th bedroom. Paver terraces, expansive decks plus 4 fireplaces.
Stunning views and gorgeous detail throughout this impeccable custom built 3-story Victorian overlooking private, all-sports North Commerce Lake. Elegant living room with 18’ ceilings, chef’s dream kitchen. Master retreat with fireplace and marble-tiled bath. Elevator to all 3 floors and garage. Fully finished walk-out lower level with heated floors, full bar and more.
This 4 bedroom 4 bath home was completely renovated in 2002. Gracious foyer, gourmet kitchen with large granite center island opens to two-story great room and paver patio. Wood floors on first and second levels. Paneled library. Finished basement with fireplace, daylight window, kitchen and full bath. The extra large, private backyard is beautifully landscaped. 3 car attached garage.
SALE PENDING
SALE PENDING
SOLD
SOLD
Birmingham $569,900
Birmingham $139,900
Birmingham listed at $749,000 Birmingham listed at $449,900
Elegantly designed, great location. Light-infused open floor plan. Hardwood floors, 9' ceilings, beautiful moldings. Cherry kitchen with granite. Serene master with dual walk-in closets and spalike bath. Quality finished daylight lower level.
Enjoy all the benefits of downtown Birmingham from this light-filled first floor condo. In-unit private laundry room. Some Pergo floors, private fenced patio, cheerful kitchen and new furnace. Carport. Elevator in building.
Designer perfect with urban flair! Gourmet kitchen with rich ebony cabinets and limestone counters opens to family room. Master suite with French doors overlooks private backyard. Extensive crown moldings, wood floors.
Completely renovated. Short walk to downtown. Sophisticated open floor plan with quality features. Gourmet kitchen opens to spacious family room. Cathedral ceilings, wood floors throughout.
®
®
442 S. Old Woodward Birmingham, MI 48009
THE INTEGRITY OF HALL & HUNTER, THE POWER OF CHRISTIE’S
Amy Zimmer
Tiffany Glime
Christine Drinkwater
Realtor
Realtor
Realtor
248.469.6430
248.930.5656
248.318.4745
HallandHunter.com LAKEFRONT
Sylvan/Otter Lake $499,900 Lakefront living at its finest! Premiere private locale in Harbour Pointe. Large deck overlooks wetlands and bird sanctuary. Dramatic 2-story entry. Island Kitchen and Breakfast Room open to Family Room with stone walled fireplace. Spacious Master Suite with balcony, oversized walk-in closet and spa-like Bath. Walk-out Lower Level includes sauna, 2nd Kitchen, full Bath and Rec Room with access to patio and hot tub. Sound system. 2nd floor Laundry. Gorgeous hardwood floors refinished March 2013. Deeded boat dock on Sylvan/Otter Lake.
SOLD
Birmingham $1,595,000 Royal Oak listed at $220,000 Move right in to this outstanding Vinsetta area Bungalow filled with charm and amenities. Updated: Electrical, Furnace, Windows and Vinyl Siding. Newer Kitchen with slate floor and stainless appliances (including 5-burner gas range with double ovens and refrigerator with icemaker). Master Bath with skylight and tumbled marble shower. Finished Lower Level has Living Room wired for Surround Sound and Insulated Room for Wine. Oversized garage. Landscaped yard. Large deck with outdoor speakers. Sprinkler system.
Stunning brick and limestone four story townhome located in the heart of Birmingham. The just-completed interior is distinctly elegant and beautifully appointed with a spacious floor plan and five fireplaces. Gourmet kitchen overlooks the bluestone patio. Luxurious master suite with tray ceiling and marble bath. Elevator to all four floors. Three bedrooms, four baths plus a two car attached garage.
cdrinkwater@hallandhunter.com
®
®
442 S. Old Woodward Birmingham, MI 48009
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6000 Williams Lake Road Waterford, MI 48329 www.thermalshieldwindows.com 05.13
CITY/ TOWNSHIP Original franchise seeker sues Ducati By Lisa Brody
Daniel Cable, who originally sought to open an exclusive Ducati motorcycle franchise in Birmingham, but eventually lost out to Charles Knoll, another dealer applicant, has filed suit against Ducati North America and Knoll in Oakland County Circuit Court, seeking $2.2 million in damages. Cable, who is a former automotive dealer general manager, said he had been approached in September 2011 by Ducati North America to establish a dealership in and around Birmingham, and in his lawsuit, said that on October 25, 2011, he entered into a letter of intent with them to establish a franchise. He acknowledges in the suit the letter of intent expired March 31, 2012, yet “nevertheless authorized representatives of Ducati not only encouraged Cable but made specific representations with respects to plaintiffs becoming the exclusive Ducati franchise in the Detroit metropolitan area. Despite the
expiration...Ducati through its authorized officers and representatives consistently and most earnestly encouraged Cable to pursue the franchise opportunity and expressed in no uncertain terms that the expiration date...was inconsequential.” Cable references numerous phone calls and e-mails with specific executives. He states in his lawsuit that it was not until October 4, 2012, that he received a phone call from Tyler Dollard of Ducati stating that “...despite considering another applicant...you are still the front runner...be patient.” On November 6, 2012, he was informed that Ducati was going with the other applicant, Charles Knoll. An initial proposal to the Birmingham planning board and city commission for a Ducati dealership, which Cable was involved with, in the former Azar's location on S. Old Woodward was denied in 2012 because of its close proximity to a residential neighborhood. In January 2013, the Birmingham City Commission unanimously approved a proposal for a Ducati dealership for 33828 Woodward Avenue, where it will take over the
center and southern portions of the building currently occupied by AutoEurope, proposed by Knoll with support from Ducati North America. Jason Chinnock, sales and network development director for Ducati North America, flew in from California for the commission meeting. “What once was a dream of bringing a project like this to the area, and satisfying a personal passion of mine, which is the love of these motorcycles, has turned into a major disappointment,” Cable said. “After a full year of bringing all the things together that are required for a project of this magnitude, business plans, investors, site searches and locations, architects, lease negotiations, city approvals, etc. After constant enthusiasm and encouragement from Ducati throughout the process, they went in another direction. Consequently, I have decided to bring a lawsuit against them seeking damages. It was extremely disappointing and embarrassing after all the hype.” Knoll and Ducati of North America could not be reached for comment.
Township approves licenses for one year The Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees, on March 28, unanimously approved the renewal of all of the township's liquor license holders for another year, per recommendations made by Bloomfield Township Police Captain Scott McCanham. There are currently 14 liquor license holders in Bloomfield Township, including Fuddrucker's of Bloomfield, Honey Tree Grill and The Wine Guy, which have Tavern Licenses, permitting the license holder to only serve beer and wine; and Steve's Deli, whose Class C liquor license is not operational. Bloomfield Township has also approved a full Class C liquor license for the upcoming Mex Restaurant, in the former Big Boy location on Telegraph, expected to open sometime this summer, and The Gallery Restaurant, for a Tavern License, but it is not yet operational. The transfer of a Class C liquor
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license from JS Holdings, to G&J American Grille, to do business as Fifth Tavern, in the former location of Mountain Jack's restaurant on Telegraph, just north of Target, was tabled from the March 28 board of trustees agenda, and was approved at the trustees' April 8 meeting. During the license renewal, only the Rusty Bucket Corner Tavern on Woodward had any incidents during a police sting operation. A waitress was caught serving a minor alcohol, and management gave her a written reprimand and further training as a first time offender. McCanham also reported to trustees that Rusty Bucket received two Michigan Liquor Control Commission violations in 2012. One violation was a failure to provide the proper documentation for training, and the other involved serving beer in improper glasses. “They were using Stella Artois beer glasses, which are considered advertising,” explained township clerk Jan Roncelli. “In Ohio, where they have other restaurants, it's ok to do that, but not in Michigan. They said they wouldn't do that again.” Trustees did not view those violations as worthy of stripping the restaurant of its liquor license, and along with the other 13 establishments in the township, they unanimously renewed all of the liquor licenses for another year.
Retailers urge city to change traffic pattern By Lisa Brody
Seven store owners, a property owner, Principal Shopping District
(PSD) Executive Director John Heiney, along with Birmingham Police Chief Don Studt and Assistant Chief Mark Clemence, held a meeting on Monday, April 22, to address the current state of the truck traffic on Maple Road in the downtown area. The meeting was called by Heiney in response, he said, to growing complaints by Birmingham merchants that heavy, multi-axle traffic, including gravel haulers and cement trucks, are clogging up Maple Road through downtown Birmingham. Maple Road is the main east – west thoroughfare in the downtown area. Heiney noted that the PSD is not an advocacy group, and was merely acting as a conduit for its merchant members to help them investigate whether this was an issue that warranted a review by the city. Studt informed the assembled group that beginning in the mid1970's, there was a concerted effort to remove heavy truck traffic from the downtown area to Ring Road, which was altered by the 2016 Master Plan after 1996, when city government stopped pushing the bypass option. Since then, Studt pointed out, parking has been added on several downtown streets, such as Brown and Chester; a retirement community, in the form of Baldwin House, has been built on Chester; and the Willits, a luxury condominium high rise, was developed. Studt did emphasize to the group that whatever plan the city or urban designers determined for traffic changes, the city's police department
would be able to handle and work with. Barbara Boz, owner of Barbara Boz Boutique at 205 E. Maple, stated she believes there is now “an incredible number of heavy trucks moving down Maple Road.” She said the city is considered a shopping and dining destination, and the heavy truck traffic does not fit that image, pointing out that in the PSD's recent market study, traffic was listed as one of shoppers' main complaints. “A quality shopping experience is not fostered by the noise and exhaust fumes generated by larger trucks,” she said. Karen Daskas, co-owner of Tender at 271 W. Maple, and Chuck Krause of BluArch Collection, 142 W. Maple, concurred. Retailers gathered at the meeting brainstormed with Heiney, Studt and Clemence, throwing out ideas, such as bringing back the Ring Road bypass concept; limiting, by city ordinance, the weight and number of axles trucks traveling on Maple would be permitted to have; or banning trucks not making local deliveries from traveling on Maple. Clemence emphasized that if changes were made, they must not be so onerous or complicated that they could not be enforceable by the police department. Heiney said he would speak with city manager Bob Bruner following the meeting, and discuss the merchant complaints and concerns, as well as ask if the planning board or the multi-modal transportation panel would be the appropriate avenue to pursue for continued discussion of the possibility of making changes.
Office, retail plaza gets planning okay A new office and retail plaza designed for the southwestern corner of Square Lake and Telegraph roads received unanimous approval from the Bloomfield Township Planning Commission on April 15, after months of contentious conversations with neighboring residents. The developer, Arkan Jonna, purchased the buildings at 2510, 2520, and 2550 Telegraph Road, over the last few years, with the goal of creating an office and retail complex. The building at the corner, which is a two-story office building, was rezoned in 2006 to permit Fred Astaire of Bloomfield, a dance studio, which was considered retail, to operate on the second floor. The parcel is now zoned office retail. The other two parcels, which currently have two-story office buildings on them, are zoned just office. Patti Voelker, township planning director, wrote in a memorandum, that the township Master Plan for Future Use recommends office and commercial uses with the mixed use overlay option at Telegraph and Square Lake roads. The major purpose, she wrote, “is to provide areas of the township that create an office environment with retail uses similar in character to the office character.” However, since last summer, 2012, some residents in neighboring communities “have been up in arms,” according to township supervisor Leo Savoie. “Jonna's original proposal was to move the building back from Square Lake
NO WAITING! BUY / SELL FOREIGN MONEY
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Magnificent Bloomfield Hills Estate
260 Guilford Bloomfield Hills $2,100,000 Situated on 1.5 acres of pristine landscape located in the most well sought after area in the City of Bloomfield Hills. This estate features over 6,500 square feet of living space with five bedrooms, four full baths, four half baths and five fireplaces. The home includes a gourmet kitchen which features a Wolf range, Sub Zero refrigerator, center island overlooking large family room surrounded by French doors – perfect for entertaining. Refinished hardwood floors, freshly painted throughout, crown moldings and an additional bonus room on the second floor. The exterior grounds include a park like setting with a blue stone patio, in ground pool, pool house and magnificent gardens. A true gem! 213037841
Back View
Living Room
Gourmet Kitchen
John and Bridget Apap japap@hwwbrealtors.com Cell: (248) 225-9858
HWWB, Realtors® 880 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, MI 48009 Office: (248) 646-6200 • www.HWWBREALTORS.com
Road, creating parking in front, but he would need rezoning for that. We had about 100 residents show up at a planning meeting.” The proposal was tabled, and Jonna redesigned the complex to not require any rezoning. The approximately 20,000 square foot project, which will have about 450 parking spaces, 50 more than required, is now positioned on the property closer to Square Lake Road, with parking to the rear, closer to local neighborhoods. Bloomfield Township attorney William Hampton informed Savoie that since Jonna does not need any zoning variances, if the project is not approved because neighbors do not want it, he would rightly sue the township for damages, “and the damages would be egregious,” Savoie said. “We met with all three of the neighborhood associations, and I told them I will not vote against it because it is not in the
best interest of the township to do that.” “It will be a dynamic addition to that intersection,” Voelker said. “That corner had been lagging behind. It will be new and have beautiful landscaping.” Jonna told the township he does not yet have any tenants, since he did not want to approach and sign any until he knew working plans were approved. Savoie said he believes tenants could include a chiropractor, sports medicine doctor and a family dining restaurant. According to Bloomfield Township zoning ordinances, if the new development seeks to sign a retail or restaurant tenant in the office area of the development, Jonna will need to return to the township for a special land use approval. The project will now need to come before the township board of trustees for final approval on Tuesday, May 28.
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Max Broock Realtors Bloomfield Hills 248.644.4700 4130 TELEGRAPH ROAD BLOOMFIELD HILLS MICHIGAN 48302
Bloomfield Hills $850,000 Spectacular new construction home. Private enclave with exceptional attention to detail. 2 story foyer, curved staircase with iron railings, stone & hardwood floors. Custom granite & stainless island kitchen, crown moldings & solid core doors. Open flowing floor plan for entertaining & luxury living. Daylight basement. Walk to Cranbrook from this premium location backing to wooded area. Ready to Go! 213033367
Bloomfield Hills $729,000 Bloomfield Hills beauty in desirable Chestnut Run! Spacious open floor plan with soaring ceilings, large formal living and dining rooms. Kitchen opens to eat-in area, family and sun room, 3 gas fireplaces, spacious master suite. Remodeled upper bath, & upstairs laundry. Finished daylight basement. Deck with multiple seating areas. Large private wooded lot. 3 car garage. 213033649
Forest Lake Lakefront, Bloomfield Hills $999,000 Spectacular 1998 addition! Elegant, traditional family home, with East coast & historical influences. New roof, furnace, water heater. Panoramic view of Forest Lake, 1.5 acres. Access 3 lakes: Forest, Lower & Upper Long! Boat/walk to Forest Lake. 3 terraces, 6,250 sq ft, 5 fireplaces. Finished Lower Level walkout, with wine cellar. 212099821
Max Broock Realtors Bloomfield Hills 248.644.4700 4130 TELEGRAPH ROAD BLOOMFIELD HILLS MICHIGAN 48302
Island Lake Lakefront, Bloomfield Hills $1,995,000 Breathtaking newer construction located on a private cul-de-sac on spectacular Island Lake. Intricately built with custom millwork, arched entry’s, gleaming hardwood floors & dramatic cherry ceilings. Cherry staircase, premium kitchen cabinetry, granite counters & panoramic lake views 2 master suites up & down, upper sitting room, Jack & Jill & private suite. Finished walkout, stone floors & wine cellar. 213004843
Bloomfield Hills $1,250,000 Newly added 4th bedroom & gorgeous quartz kitchen counters in spacious white kitchen. Soft contemporary in prestigious area, rebuilt in 1990, perfect for entertaining & luxury living. 5,616 sq ft Estate, nestled on 2 private acres w/ manicured gardens & buffered from street with wooded areas, evergreens & flowering trees. Master Ste: 1,000+ square feet with his/hers bath. Many designer features. Bloomfield Hills schools & Beach privileges on Chalmers Lake. 213033849
Forest Lake Lakefront, Bloomfield Hills $1,495,000 This is a “WOW” house! “Beautiful” must see to believe! You don’t have to drive hundreds of miles for serenity. It’s right here! A 24/7 vacation spot! A bit of heaven on earth! Swimming, fishing, golfing! Swans, herons, water lilies! Your own private paradise. Extraordinary one of a kind contemporary masterpiece. Over 8,000 square feet of entertaining delight, party for over 100 or dine for 50! Private drive over the bridge. 213013560
Custom Homes & Renovations
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BETH SINGER
INTERIOR DESIGN BY AMW DESIGN
FOUNDED IN 1996 P: 248.203.2036 • F: 248.203.2037 725 SOUTH ADAMS RD, SUITE L100 • BIRMINGHAM, MI 48009 WWW.STERLINGDEVELOPMENTCORP.COM
FACES Karin Katz Sherman
K
arin Katz Sherman is a mother, children’s book author and mentor who travels to schools spreading messages of respect, tolerance and honesty, virtues she learned from her mother and father, who was a Holocaust survivor. “I had a really wonderful childhood,” Katz, an Andover High alum, said about growing up in Bloomfield Hills. She discovered her passion for writing at a young age. “It was always an outlet for my feelings and the way I communicated best. I remember writing cards to my parents or first boyfriends. I was always able to communicate very well via writing.” After high school, Katz made her way to Boca Raton to attend Lynn University. “I wanted to spread my wings a little bit, but not too far,” she said. Her junior year, she transferred to Michigan State University to study sociology and psychology, and got married six months after graduating. “I moved away to Grand Rapids because of my exhusband, and was kind of thrust into leaving home and getting married really fast and finding what my passion was besides being a wife,” Katz said. Her ability to write evolved into a career as a corporate speechwriter. “Family and friends would always ask me to write speeches for them. Eventually, after doing it for free for so long, I said maybe I can make some money off of this and make it a career.” For 14 years, Katz wrote speeches for bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings, and birthdays through her business Treasured Rhymes for Treasured Times. “I was just a creative writer that started charging for my work,” she said. “I was writing children’s books at the same time and putting them aside. I would hand write them with a pen and paper and read them to my kids when they were really young.” Katz wrote her first book, One to Ten and Over Again, at the age of 24 to read to her daughter. “My kids were always my source of inspiration. I never really had the confidence to get them published.” After a divorce, Katz put her writing on hold for a few years. It wasn’t until meeting New York TV personality and advertising executive Don Deutsch that she gained the confidence to get her books published. “He really helped to give me pointers and ideas on how to get these books published.” Katz published her second book, There’s a Fly in My Soup, which teaches tolerance and respect. “That is really for my dad and the family he lost. I wanted to do something that gives back because he’s a hero to me.” Free of charge, Katz travels to local schools to read her books to children. “It’s very personally fulfilling to go to these schools,” she said. A portion of the proceeds from her books goes to Defeat the Label, which promotes respect and a judgment free society. After publishing her first two books, Katz has many ideas for future projects, including a blog and possibly more books. “I see myself with a New York Times best seller. That’s my goal. This is just the beginning.” Story: Hayley Beitman
Photo: Laurie Tennent
Renee Lossia Acho Experience The Difference Between An Agent And An Expert New Listings Coming Soon… • Masterpiece on over 1.5 acres in the Heart of Bloomfield Hills • 7600 Sq Ft • 5 Bedroom Suites • 1st flr Master • 4 Car Garage Bloomfield Hills
$3,500,000 • Spectacular New Construction Steps from Downtown Birmingham • 4 Bedroom Suites • Extra Deep Private Lot • 4200 Sq Ft • Will Build To Suit
Birmingham
$1,499,000
$25 Million Under Contract YTD 2013 Over $30 Million Sold In 2012
Bloomfield
SKBK Top Producer 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Top 1% Realtors Nationally
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$1,150,000
• Fabulous New Construction • 2600 Sq Ft • 4 Bedroom, 4.5 Baths • Finished Lower Level • Transitional Design w/Fantastic Open Floor Plan
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Birmingham
ReneeAcho.com
• Mini Estate with Breathtaking Views • 4300 Sq Ft • 4 Bedroom, 4.5 Baths • Deeded Pine Lake Access • Finished Lower Level w/Kitchen and Daylight Windows
$699,000
248.310.1414 415 S. Old Woodward | Birmingham, MI 48009
FACES
Lauren Evans
N
ews anchor for WILX-TV (Channel 10), Lauren Evans first began her broadcast journey in Birmingham, creating talk shows with her younger sister Caroline. “When I was little, my sister and I put together a newscast in my family’s kitchen. We had my dad film it and had an atlas map behind us as a background like you’d see on the nightly news and gave our own Birmingham newscast,” she said. “That was I guess my first taste of broadcasting in that capacity.” At Seaholm High School, a forensics class that Evans took sparked her interest to compete in the broadcasting category all four years. “I realized I was going to miss broadcasting after high school, and my counselor at Seaholm said I should think about pursuing it as a career.” Evans double majored in broadcast journalism and political science at the University of Southern California (USC). She interned in California for USC’s newscast Annenberg TV News, Good Morning America, MTV, KNBC (Channel 4), and for WJRT-TV in Flint her first summer out of college. Not expecting to find a job in Michigan, Evans heard of an opening for the weekend reporter at WILX-TV in Lansing and sent her tape to the news director. “It was pretty quick right after I graduated from college, and I’ve been there ever since,” she said. After 10 months, Evans was promoted to the weekday morning anchor, and in January 2012, was promoted to her current position anchoring News 10 at 5, 6 and 11.
“It totally shocked me. I didn’t know that was happening,” she said. “I’m pretty proud to be in my 20’s and be the main anchor of a television station. I never really thought that would happen. I never thought when I was hired as a weekend anchor four-and-a-half years later I’d see my face on a billboard.” Much of Evans' free time before work and on the weekends is spent volunteering. She is a member of the Junior League of Lansing and is actively involved with the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, and Community Partners in Health. Evans said her family has remained extremely supportive of her career. “My parents love that I’m only an hour away in Lansing so I get to see them all the time.” Having lived in the same place since she moved to Lansing in 2008, Evans enjoys living relatively close to the station. “When I’m home, I love to walk through Quarton Lake and walk to Starbucks in downtown Birmingham. Quarton Lake is a place I’ve been going to ever since I was really little,” she said. Her future ambitions include a successful career and hopefully a family of her own, possibly in Lansing or Detroit. “I love being in Lansing and love working at WILX, and one day I hope to make it to a top market or big city, or maybe the network and have a job that I love coming to everyday,” she said. “I see myself being happy like I am now, working, volunteering a lot and being a big part of the community, whatever community that may be.” Story: Hayley Beitman
Photo: Laurie Tennent
I CAN
DG
SELL YOUR HOME FIND YOUR DREAM HOME
DAN GUTFREUND R E AL
SKBK
E STAT E
SP EC IA LIST
A passion for finding your dream home
415 S. Old Woodward
248.731.1030
Birmingham, MI 48009
dan@skbk.com
LAKEVIEW - BIRMINGHAM Located walking distance from downtown Birmingham, Booth Park, Holy Name and Quarton Lake, this 4 bedroom 2.1 bathroom home has the design integrity of the original home with today’s modern twist of updates throughout. Updates include new windows, newer roof, 2 car attached garage, large bonus room, large master bedroom, WIC closet, white marble master bath, deep soaker tub with separate shower. Open flow from the kitchen to the family room. Partially finished basement. Professionally landscaped with pergola in the backyard. The perfect home for entertaining!
$975,000
THE NEXT 30 DAYS WILL BRING A LARGE UPSWING OF BIRMINGHAM PROPERTIES IN THE $400,000 TO $1M RANGE. PLEASE CALL ME TO GET IN ON THESE EXCITING OPPORTUNITIES.
VINEWOOD - BIRMINGHAM Great in-town location just steps from everything Birmingham has to offer. Welcome to this 3700 sq ft, 4 bed, 3.1 bathroom, reclaimed brick colonial home. Walk into a grand cathedral foyer with domed LED lit ceiling accented by a curving stairway. Hardwood floors throughout. Many upgrades to this contemporary home to include, a new kitchen with culinary grade appliances, fully finished basement with lower level kitchen, home theater room both on the upper and lower levels. 1 block to Booth park, great in town location!
$1,039,000
DG
DAN GUTFREUND R E AL
SKBK
E STAT E
SP EC IA LIS T
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Deborah J. Gillespie
B
loomfield Township resident Deborah J. Gillespie is a direct descendant of Solomon Sibley, the first appointed mayor of Detroit. She spends her days volunteering at Christ Church, Detroit (CCD) and has made it her mission to restore Sibley House in honor of her family and more importantly, the city of Detroit. After growing up on the east side of Detroit, Gillespie attended the University of Colorado Boulder to become an elementary teacher. She then moved to Boston where she worked for WGBH-TV public television for nearly ten years. “It was exciting to be around people who were inspired and told stories. It opened that door for me of possibilities to tell stories visually and I really took to it.” Returning to Detroit, Gillespie worked on LateNight America with Dennis Wholey on PBS. “That continued my passion and interest in story telling and just the whole world of television.” In 1982, and after having her first child, Gillespie moved from Detroit to Bloomfield Township. It was then that her niece Elizabeth discovered forgotten documents and photographs as part of a high school genealogy project and used them to share her family’s history. “Those stories stayed with me for years. Years later, I got involved with tours that visited many of Detroit’s houses of worship,” she said. The combination of stories and tours inspired Gillespie to create interactive posters showcasing these houses of worship. Roughly 2,000 posters were distributed to every Detroit elementary school in 2001 for Detroit’s 300th birthday.
Revisiting the story of her ancestors sparked her return to CCD to volunteer, she said. “Volunteering for the church was made even more special for me since the offices are located downstairs in the Sibley House,” Gillespie said. “I’m down there two to three days a week and I have other related groups that I belong to that have to do with genealogy or history.” She has volunteered at Gleaners and has joined several different groups that pick up trash around the city of Detroit. “I just enjoy that work. I think it really stems from loving Detroit and wanting it to be the Paris of the midwest once again.” The Bloomfield Township resident says her interests are centered on Detroit. “I love being downtown. I love seeing all the activity. I want to be become a part of that. That’s really my focus now,” she said. “It would be fun to have a view of the river. That’s sort of in the back of my mind.” Gillespie has considered moving back to Detroit and is fascinated by the resurgence of Belle Isle, which was once owned by the Campaus. “I think what sparked my interest was that I grew up hearing about my mother's side of the family, which included the Sibleys, Campaus and Macombs,” she said Looking at the refurbishment of Sibley House, she said, “Every check will help us repair the exterior of the Sibley House. Old houses remain old. They have surprises. We haven’t started the work yet but we hope to.” Story: Hayley Beitman
Photo: Laurie Tennent
HWWB, Realtors® Birmingham Office 880 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, MI 48009 www.HWWBREALTORS.com
NOW IS THE BEST TIME IN YEARS TO SELL YOUR HOME. CALL ONE OF OUR AGENTS TODAY AT 248-646-6200 TO DISCUSS YOUR HOME’S VALUE. WE BET YOU’LL BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED. Debbie Amato John Apap Bridget Apap Jackie Aubuchon Debby Beneker Debbie Berg Nickole Black Sharon Brockman Liz Cote-Butler Gerry Burke Jan Burke Ann Burns John Callan Sarah Cameron Emily Castleman Randy Cline Christine Cress Susan Darrow
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BUSINESS MATTERS SHE opening new store SHE at 4076 W. Maple Road in Bloomfield Hills is expanding and opening another boutique at 16888 Kercheval Place in Grosse Pointe Village on Thursday, May 9. The new store will feature designers Yigal Azrouel, Catherine Malandrino, Genetic Denim, Autumn Cashmere and Velvet, as well as jewelry and gift items. “Our team is excited to bring our collection of contemporary and designer fashions and accessories to the Pointes,” owner Sharon Eisenshtadt said. “We are thrilled to be a part of the new development taking place in the community and look forward to creating a personal shopping atmosphere in Grosse Pointe.”
Fitness membership presale LA Fitness opened a presale shop at the former Sanders Candy location at 745 E. Maple Road in Birmingham to sell early bird memberships for a new state-of-the-art LA Fitness that will open at 3501 W. Maple. The new LA Fitness Signature Club is projected to open between Eton and Coolidge in June. “The building is still under construction,” general manager Jordan Scott said. “The presale office will close when the club opens. We’re basically giving you an opportunity to sign early bird specials for cheaper rates than when the club opens.” Scott said they decided to open LA Fitness in Birmingham because of the demand. “Birmingham seems to be a great area as far as the experience of what it offers. They had a lot of success opening the club in Royal Oak. They heard a lot about Birmingham and the people and what it offers and wanted to open a club here as well. It seems to be very family-oriented,” he said. The signature LA Fitness will be different from other clubs for a number of reasons. “It will be the biggest as far as square footage,” Scott said about the 45,000 square foot club. Club amenities will include televisions on the equipment with remotes, iPod hook-up capabilities, Wi-Fi and the Nike challenge. Group fitness classes will include yoga, Pilates, dance, step and Zumba. “There will also be a separate cycling studio, basketball, volleyball, a café and juice bar, locker room with towels, shampoo, conditioner, two saunas, a whirlpool and kids club.” One of the most unique features of the club is the ability to take your membership to any LA Fitness Signature Club. “When you join this club, you can go anywhere you want downtownpublications.com
nationwide. It wouldn’t matter if it’s here, Arizona, Seattle. Your membership goes wherever you want to go.”
IT service, solutions Stratos Management Systems opened an office at 34631 Woodward in Birmingham. “Stratos Management Systems is an IT service and solution provider,” vice president of marketing Andy Fox said. “We opened an office in Birmingham and brought on a location team there to expand our presence into the Michigan area.” The region’s general manager is Paul Clem. “He’s currently heading up all operations in the region and being our growth contact for the area,” Fox said. “There’s a great opportunity in the Birmingham area and a great collection of enterprises in the Detroit region, as well as in the northern suburbs. We want to be close to our clients and our future clients as well so that was a great location and we saw it as well placed.” Fox said the Woodward location focuses on enterprise level businesses and is not generally open to the public. “Creating hybrid cloud infrastructure is our primary focus. We take enterprises beyond the cloud.”
10th anniversary High-tech data solutions firm Avalon Technologies, Inc. in Bloomfield Hills is celebrating its 10-year anniversary in business. “This was a very nice achievement we marked and we are very glad to be based here in Bloomfield Hills. We are hoping to continue on our success and we are hoping to keep building onto our great team,” founder and president Brian Flynn said. The offices at 39533 Woodward Avenue in Suite 125 feature a state-of-the-art data center test lab for situations such as disaster recovery, information storage and backup.
The Cronin Law Firm The Cronin Law Firm moved to a larger space at 21 E. Long Lake Road, Suite 250 in Bloomfield Hills in March. “I moved from Bloomfield Hills across the street. I was in another office space and I was outgrowing my space as I was growing. It started out with just me two years ago and then I added employees and have grown in a quick amount of time. I needed to move to accommodate my growing client list and growing employee list,” founder Sabrina Cronin said. “I literally moved kitty-corner from my old building into a space that was built out for me and my firm. We moved into a 3,400 square foot place from a very tiny office where we were crammed in.”
The Cronin Law Firm attorneys have combined legal experience of 25 years. The firm offers a no-obligation consultation program to clients and a variety of services, including criminal law, personal injury and medial malpractice, family law, estate planning, entertainment law, social security law, business law and appeals.
Mortgage company moves Shore Mortgage has closed its location at 555 S. Adams Road in Birmingham to open a new corporate headquarters at 1414 Maple Road in Troy. In February, United Shore Financial Services brought over 1,200-team members together under one roof at their new corporate headquarters to consolidate four locations in Birmingham and Troy into a single location on two floors with over 100,000 square feet of space. The current space at 555 S. Adams had 25,000 square feet of space. “The move helps us to deliver even better service to our clients nationwide,” Shore Mortgage president David Hall said.
Boutique relocates Sam & Lola, the women’s and children’s store formerly located at 580 N. Woodward, sold the children’s portion of their store and moved their women’s boutique four doors down to 568 N. Woodward in the former Delux Floral space. Owners Bridget Sagmani and Stacie Maier opened the women’s boutique at 568 N. Old Woodward in early April. “We didn’t open a new store. It’s the same store,” Sagmani said. “Our lease was up and we actually sold the kid’s store to Lil’ Rascals.” Sagmani said Lil’ Rascals, the new children’s store at 580 N. Old Woodward, will sell children’s clothes similar to what Sam & Lola’s used to have. “It will be pretty much the same but a little different.” As far as their new location “we tripled it in size. We’ve had the women’s store for about 10 years,” she said. “The build-out is modern and inviting. All of our clients are really excited. Our clients seem to be loving it.” Sagmani added she is excited to keep the store on the same block because of the accessible parking.
Danish modern furniture Danish furniture store BoConcept will be opening in the former Azar’s location at 670 S. Old Woodward this summer. “In a
DOWNTOWN
general sense, probably at the end of July to the first week of August,” owner Steven Syzdek said. “The whole concept of BoConcept is urban and customized urban design. When you look at the store inside, it’s all steel, and with the 18 foot frontage, it’s very urban to begin with.” The 6,800 square foot store features 21 parking spaces and will only require minor changes and updates, Syzdek said. “It’s going to be kept fairly intact, but to a BoConcept standard. It will be refreshed in every aspect.” Syzdek said he chose Birmingham because it is a vibrant community with an urban feel. “One of the reasons I wanted to open a BoConcept in an area like Birmingham is because Michigan has just got such a long history of some of the top designers and Michigan has a gap in the Danish modern furniture segment. When you want Danish furniture, there’s not really one place you can go to find that style of clean, urban, lifestyle furniture.” Syzdek has been accepting resumes and contacting architects and designers by word of mouth. “I’ve got a great launch team on the project. Ideally, I’d like to have a staff hired in the mid-tolate May time frame to begin training with the store assistants prior to opening,” he said. “The store’s really going to offer a unique, personalized approach. The overall goal of the store is we want to strive to offer a unique shopping experience to urban minded consumers.”
Marlaina Stone Marlaina Stone at 933 S. Eton Street in Birmingham’s Rail District has moved the store’s manufacturing and design studio to downtown Royal Oak. “We have grown and we are actually in two locations. We are creating a Marlaina showroom and separating our manufacturing and design house. We are excited and partnering with Mobili Now European Furniture store in Birmingham,” Marlaina Stone said in an e-mail. “You will see our sign in the windows and our recognizable logo, pink banners in the store,” after May 1. Marlaina Stone collections will be available to purchase at Mobili Now. “We are very excited to be in the high energy downtown and the city of artists.”
Natural Recharge Center Natural Recharge Center, formerly MigunLiving, opened at 4050 W. Maple Road, Suite 201 in Birmingham. The 2,200 square foot 115
space in the Maple Office Park building offers services to reduce pain, stress, and inflammation and to promote general health and wellness. The new location allows the wellness center to offer LiteCure Laser Therapy, functional movement training and Kangen alkaline water. “It is common knowledge that if our bodies are acidic we leave ourselves vulnerable to disease,” partner David Sherman said. “Kangen alkaline water helps to restore our bodies to a naturally balanced pH and is rich in anti-oxidants and mico-clustered, which no other bottled or tap water can claim.” Natural Recharge Center offers a free treatment with the LiteCure Laser, three complimentary sessions on the Migun Massage Beds or a 15-minute functional movement screening.
New boutique opened Francesca’s, a national women’s boutique which carries handpicked accessories and apparel, opened April 13 at 115 S. Old Woodward in Birmingham, boutique manager Danielle Larch said. “We have been looking for the
right location in Birmingham for some time. We are really drawn to the quaint feel of the downtown and we are excited about sharing Francesca’s with the community,” vice president of real estate and construction at Francesca’s Clary H. Groen said.
have them and greatly value their loyalty and dedication. They represent the very best of what our team is designed to do, exceed our guests’ expectations at every turn.”
Townsend anniversary
Floyd’s 99 will be moving into the former Highway Collision space at 33779 Woodward Avenue in Birmingham early this summer. “Detroit happens to be my hometown,” Joe Zemla, who is opening the store, said. “It also happens to be the home of rock n’ roll. It’s a perfect fit for my new shop.” The barbershop will play music from its own radio station and serve as a tribute to local artists like Bob Seger, Kid Rock and Eminem. Zemla expects the new shop will add culture to the metro Detroit area. Manager Stephanie “SK” Kozdron, who was born in Detroit and has worked for Floyd’s 99 for six years, is moving to Michigan to work at the Woodward location. “I love my family and I love Floyd’s 99,” she said. “Now I get the best of both worlds.” For the first month, all haircuts will be half off.
The Townsend Hotel will celebrate its silver anniversary of 25 years in Birmingham this June. “A silver anniversary is certainly noteworthy for a business of any kind, and we are grateful to our loyal, local customers and those guests from around the globe who have allowed us to host them for the past 25 years,” managing director Steven Kalczynski said. “As we approach this milestone, we look to honor the traditions that got us to this point, while we proudly integrate additions and improvements that will get us to the next one.” Since opening on June 1, 1988, loyal employees Kitty Adler, Joanie Sams and Dean Burnett have been employed by the Townsend. “Team members like Kitty, Joanie and Dean are the cornerstone and an outstanding example of the associate culture at The Townsend Hotel,” Kalczynski said. “We are lucky to
Rock n’roll hair salon
Boston Market gone The Boston Market at 42983 Woodward in Bloomfield Hills has
closed. The carry out and catering restaurant at the corner of Square Lake Road and Woodward has been vacant for about two weeks. The owner could not be reached for comment.
Antique store closing Watch Hill Home Interiors at 645 S. Eton Street in Birmingham will close this summer. Owners Tom and Julie Suspanich anticipate closing sometime in July. “The store itself is closing due to economic factors and other things. It’s sad, but it’s kind of just the way it goes these days,” Julie said. “Our affiliated finishing studio is going to remain in business. That part of our existence will still be around,” she said of the studio in Ferndale. The store will began its clearance sale May 4. “We still have one-of-a-kind antiques and reproduction pieces.”
Salon shuts down Sydney Blake Beauty Spaces at 330 Hamilton Row in Birmingham has closed. The owner declined to comment. Business Matters for the Birmingham-Bloomfield area are reported by Hayley Beitman. Send items for consideration to HayleyBeitman@downtownpublications.com. Items should be received three weeks prior to publication.
Custom Home Building and Renovations Kitchen, Bath and Whole House Renovation Exterior Modifications/Addition Historical Preservation Design/Cost Consultation Member National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Member Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan (BIA) BIA Builder of the Year Award BIA Remodelor of the Year Award NAHB Certified Aging in Place Specialists Greenbuilt Michigan Michigan Historic Preservation Network
81 West Long Lake Road Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
(248) 647-2228 Kelletthomes.com
Since 1978
116
DOWNTOWN
05.13
Celebrate Honor Thank
90 & Beyond Luncheon A celebration to recognize people 90 years old & beyond!
Thursday, June 13, 2013, 11:30am-1:30pm JOIN US TO CELEBRATE people who are 90 years old & beyond to thank them for being an important part of our community. TO REGISTER AND PURCHASE GENERAL TICKETS ($35 per person) go to www.tchserves.org. No charge for individuals 90 and older thanks to Bank of Birmingham. Complimentary valet.
Nonagenarian Sponsor: downtownpublications.com
Celebrating
The Community House 380 South Bates Street, Birmingham, MI 48009 248.644.5832 or www.tchserves.org development@tchserves.org
90 Years
The Community House 380 South Bates Street, Birmingham, MI 48009 248.644.5832 or kathien@tchserves.org www.tchserves.org DOWNTOWN
Celebrate Honor Thank
The Community House
SOUTHFIELD
117
FARMINGTON HILLS
HIGHLAND
LIVONIA
FARMINGTON HILLS
Well maintained Tri-level with many updates. Beautiful landscaping in front & back. Hardwood floors in bedrooms & hallway. Home warranty included. 213035456. $179,000
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Bring your finishing touches! This spacious ranch is located right across from the school and community pool ready for you to enjoy summer! 213023327. $169,000
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WEST BLOOMFIELD TWP
MILFORD
FERNDALE
FARMINGTON HILLS
Quality built ranch on 1.35 acres! Located well in popular Franklin Oaks Subdivision. This is one of the best lots in the area. Backs to stream and mature trees. 212101339. $299,000
Prime Milford Location for this beautiful country home on 3 acres. Many upgrades, finished lower level walkout, insulated Pole barn. 213012988. $429,000
Wonderful 1998 rebuilt Dutch Colonial. Specious kitchen leads out to pressed concrete patio and newer deck, fenced yard. 213008302. $124,900
Outstanding detached site condo in much sought after "Fairways of Copper Creek" golf community. 1st floor master suite. New Trax deck overlooking the golf course. 213033675. $340,000
PONTIAC
SOUTHFIELD
BLOOMFIELD TWP
ORION TOWNSHIP
Hardwoods through out most of home. Newer furnace & a/c, siding , windows, shingles. Seller will entertain land contract. 213010392. $34,000
Great starter home or downsizer! Land contract available! 212093560. $74,900
Beautiful setting for this classic brick home sitting on 1.12 acres in Bloomfield Township. Inground pool. 213024013. $425,000
Stunning Toll Brothers home backing to natural preserve with spectacular view. 2 staircases, crown molding, harwood floor & tile. 213004021. $415,000
One of the 10 largest real estate firms in Michigan with multiple offices serving Metro-Detroit
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Bloomfield Hills (248) 647-8888 | Farmington Hills (248) 855-2000 West Bloomfield (248) 360-9100 | Livonia (734) 462-9800
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SOUTHFIELD
PONTIAC
BLOOMFIELD HILLS
Charming 3 bedroom ranch in beautiful Southfield community. Large living room and spacious family room. Dining room and hardwood floors. 212107108. $64,900
Beautiful remodeled ranch. New kitchen w/oak cabinets, new counter tops, paint, new bath, roof, furnace, carpet thru out. 211040871. $89,000
Executive condominium in great location near Birmingham offers sophisticated living. Three gorgeous levels in neutral decor with tasteful upgrades. 213033253. $369,000
FARMINGTON HILLS
DEARBORN HEIGHTS
LIVONIA
Greeted by beautiful front entry doors, 4 bedroom 3 1/2 bath. Dream kitchen w/brazilian cherry wood floors. 4 season sunroom. 213028266. $329,900
Ranch with extra large lot. Hardwood floors thru out. New roof, spacious 2 car garage with separate work shop. 213029013. $89,900
Priced to sell! Condo with good location facing Robert St. 213030931. $34,900
RELOCATION SERVICES 1-888-21-HOMES WEST BLOOMFIELD TWP
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Enjoy this gorgeous & sophisticated architectural design soft contemporary with Darb Lake Beach privileges. 21209807. $349,000
OUR RELOCATION DEPARTMENT
Nice brick 3 bedroom bungalow with 1.5 baths, fireplace, newer roof, basement and garage. 213035018. $104,900
OFFERS LOCAL HOMEFINDING ASSISTANCE AS WELL AS NUMEROUS RELOCATION SERVICES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. CALL TOLL FREE 1-888-21-HOMES
One of the 10 largest real estate firms in Michigan with multiple offices serving Metro-Detroit Bloomfield Hills (248) 647-8888 | Farmington Hills (248) 855-2000 West Bloomfield (248) 360-9100 | Livonia (734) 462-9800
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LIVONIA
BRIGHTON
FARMINGTON HILLS
SOUTHFIELD
Beautiful large lot compliments this sprawling spacious brick ranch home. Large living room with natural fireplace. Entertaining size family room plus attached garage. 213034974. $119,900
Rare custom home in Dutchman Farms! Unparalleled quality throughout this 2990 sq ft home. This home is immaculate, neutral and ready to move into. 213017240. $549,900
Updated brick ranch on a private cul-desac. Kitchen w/maple cabinets & new flooring. Clean and neutral decor thruout. 213024067. $236,000
Cape Cod on large treed lot. Fireplace and built ins in living room. One car attached garage. Needs TLC. 212102686. $55,000
OCEOLA TWP
OAKLAND TWP
WIXOM
WATERFORD TWP
Nearly new and ready to move in! Located in much sought after Hidden Creek Community. Exceptional island kitchen with open floor plan to family room. 213027939. $234,900
Spectacular updated Goodison Place Colonial with updates throughout. Kitchen with granite & built in appliances, hardwood floors throughout first floor. Professionally decorated by top local designer. 213021591. $739,900
Spacious ranch on 1 acre lot. Complete with 2400 sq ft detached out building with furnace. Newer furnace and central air. 213034224. $245,000
3 bedroom bungalow in Waterford, nice size rooms. 213014102. $39,900
NORTHVILLE
NOVI
DETROIT
LIVONIA
One of a kind Northville estate on treed and professionally landscaped 4.5 acres with creek. A 6000+ sf stone tudor with custom details throughout. 211063530. $1,990,000
Spacious Colonial with 5 upper level bedrooms. Hardwood floors in entry, kitchen and family room. 3 car garage. 213037021. $420,000
Quality brick home, large rooms, two car garage. Land contract terms available. 213017082. $59,500
Freshly painted interior. Move in Ready! Bay window in living room, newer flooring in kitchen, covered front porch. Large treed lot. 213002445. $58,870
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BRIGHTON
HOWELL
HOWELL
Ranch home on quiet, private road, completely updated! Enjoy the finishe walk out basement and large fenced yard. Pristine condition. 213012203. $209,900
Historically Significant 1890 Victorian 95% restored. Original woodwork, floors, hardware and doors. 10â&#x20AC;&#x2122; ceiling, gorgeous parlors, updated kitchen and bath. 213012659. $269,900
4 years new! Large Windsor Model home in much sought after Hidden Creek Sub. This beautiful neutral home has it all! 213013768. $289,000
FARMINGTON HILLS
FARMINGTON HILLS
ROYAL OAK
Builder's own home with unlimited upgrades! Frank Lloyd Wright inspired. 200 feet on exclusive Coventry Lake. First floor in-law suite. Short walk to downtown Franklin. 213017409. $979,900
Welcome home to this charming 3 bedroom ranch in Farmington Hills. Nestled on over an acre of wooded land. Updated throughout. 213017948. $109,900
Gorgeous ranch condo end unit with huge custom kitchen and fantastic finished lower level. 213021371. $249,900
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BRIGHTON
Wonderful Chatham Hills brick ranch situated right on the park backing to 32 acres of parks, ponds and walking paths. 213036605. $226,000
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Turn key Lake front with lake views from most windows. Kitchen w/granite & corian counters, oak hardwood floors, adjacent to Hearth room overlooking lake and deck. 21303504. $450,000
OFFERS LOCAL HOMEFINDING ASSISTANCE AS WELL AS NUMEROUS RELOCATION SERVICES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. CALL TOLL FREE 1-888-21-HOMES
One of the 10 largest real estate firms in Michigan with multiple offices serving Metro-Detroit Bloomfield Hills (248) 647-8888 | Farmington Hills (248) 855-2000 West Bloomfield (248) 360-9100 | Livonia (734) 462-9800
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Expires 5-31-2013
PLACES TO EAT The Places To Eat for Downtown is a quick reference source to establishments offering a place for dining, either breakfast, lunch or dinner. The complete Places To Eat is available at downtownpublications.com and in an optimized format for your smart phone (downtownpublications.com/mobile), where you can actually map out locations and automatically dial a restaurant from our Places To Eat.
220: American. Lunch & Dinner, MondaySaturday. Reservations. Liquor. 220 Merrill Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.645.2150. Andiamo: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6676 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, 48301. 248.865.9300. Bagger Dave's Legendary Burger Tavern: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 6608 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, 48301. 248.792.3579 Bangkok Thai Bistro: Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 42805 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Township, 48304. 248.499.6867. Beau Jacks: American. Lunch, MondaySaturday; Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 4108 W. Maple, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.626.2630. Bella Piatti: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 167 Townsend Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.494.7110. Beyond Juice: Contemporary. Breakfast & Lunch daily; Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. 270 West Maple Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.594.7078. Big Rock Chophouse: American. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 245 South Eaton Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.647.7774. Birmingham Sushi Cafe: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. 377 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, 48009. 248.593.8880. Bloomfield Deli: Deli. Breakfast & Lunch, Monday-Friday. No reservations. 71 W. Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.645.6879. Brooklyn Pizza: Pizza. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 111 Henrietta Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.258.6690. Café ML: New American. Dinner, daily. Alcohol. No reservations. 3607 W. Maple Road, Bloomfield Township. 248.642.4000. Cafe Via: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 310 East Maple Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.644.8800 Cameron’s Steakhouse: American. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 115 Willits Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.723.1700. Chen Chow Brasserie: Japanese. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 260 North Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.594.2469. downtownpublications.com
China Village: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. 1655 Opdyke, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.758.1221. Churchill's Bistro & Cigar Bar: Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 116 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.647.4555. Cityscape Deli: Deli. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. Beer. 877 W. Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.540.7220. Commonwealth: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. 300 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, 48009. 248.792.9766. Cosi: American. Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Beer & wine. 101 N. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.203.9200. Deli Unique of Bloomfield Hills: Deli. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. 39495 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.646.7923. Dick O’Dow’s: Irish. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 160 West Maple Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.642.1135. Eddie Merlot's: Steak & seafood. Dinner, daily. Alcohol. Reservations. 37000 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.712.4095. Einstein Bros. Bagels: Deli. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. 176 South Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.594.9888. Also 4089 West Maple Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.258.9939. Elie’s Mediterranean Cuisine: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. Liquor. 263 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.647.2420. Embers Deli & Restaurant: Deli. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. Dinner, Monday-Friday. No reservations. 3598 West Maple Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.645.1033. Flemings Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar: American. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 323 N. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.723.0134. Forest Grill: American. Lunch, MondayFriday; Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 735 Forest Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.258.9400. Fox Grill: American. Lunch, Monday through Friday; Dinner, daily. Sunday brunch. Reservations. Liquor. 39556 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304. 248.792.6109. Fuddrucker’s: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No Reservations. Beer & wine. 42757 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Township, 48302. 248.333.2400. Greek Island Coney Restaurant: Greek. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 221 Hamilton Row,
Mother’s Day Brunch HOSTS
AT THE RESERVE AND DINNER AT BIG ROCK CHOPHOUSE
Treat your mom to a day of delicious food and fun by taking her to BIG ROCK CHOPHOUSE’S annual Mother’s Day Brunch on Sunday, May 12, 2013 at THE RESERVE. There will be two seatings, the first will be from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and the second from 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Brunch will begin with a champagne toast and will feature a variety of chef’s stations. Cost is $49 for adults, $24 for children ages 6-11 and $10 for children 5 and under. Cost excludes tax, tip and valet. BIG ROCK CHOPHOUSE will also be open for dinner that evening. Dinner menu begins at 5 p.m. Reservations are strongly suggested. For more information, call 248.647.7774.
248.647.7774 • bigrockchophouse.com
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FOCUS ON WINE Best wines for warm weather By Eleanor and Ray Heald
resh, crisp and fruit-driven wines are best for warm weather drinking. For most red wines, subtle use of oak is appreciated as the weather heats up. We’ve tasted a host of wines and picked those that we deem best for summer enjoyment. They range in price so that you can choose wines for large groups on your deck or for a barbecue and not run up a huge bill. Then, there are special occasions, weddings and anniversaries, where you seek special bottlings. Below, you’ll find those too. Bubbles make any event more festive and fun. Italy’s prosecco category is experiencing an incredible growth rate. One brand, LaMarca, is at the center of the resurgence. Try the bright fruit flavors and lively bubbles of La Marca Prosecco $17, with mild cheese, summer salads and light pasta tossed in a lemon-accented sauce. Citrus accents are also the delight of sauvignon blanc. There’s a wide range of prices for this category, depending on growing region and type of aging: 2012 Kenwood $13; 2011 Edna Valley $15; 2011 Duckhorn $29; 2011 Grgich Hills Napa Valley Fume Blanc $30.
F
Chardonnay remains the number one white wine choice among Americans. Balance and vibrancy are the chief characteristics for the most enjoyable summer chard: 2011 Rodney Strong Sonoma County $15 – lively; 2011 KendallJackson Reserve $15 – fresh fruit, creamy texture; 2011 Kendall-Jackson AVANT $15 – subtle oak nuances; 2011 La Crema Monterey $20 - white peach flavors; 2010 Marimar Estate La Masia $35 – obvious yet elegant oak; 2011 Chappellet $35 – complex Burgundy-like character; 2010 Grgich Hills Napa Valley $42 – extraordinary balance. There are times when we like to experience a change of pace. This is not a catch-all category. One wine stood out and so it stands alone here to pair with seafood cooked with garlic and white wine or Asian cuisine: 2011 Marimar Estate Albarino $32. Served after a slight chilling, pinot noir is a most delicious warm weather red wine: 2012 MacMurray Ranch, Russian River Valley $27 – lighter style; 2011 La Crema Monterey $23 – ripe plum and dark chocolate; 2009 Marimar Estate “Stony Block” $47 – long aging potential; 2009 Marimar Estate “Mas Cavalls” $44 – round and seamless; 2009 Marimar Estate “Chico’s Run” $48 – great fruit intensity. Red blends are a relatively new category. Blending red varieties has been the standard for centuries in wine regions such as Bordeaux. However, with current winemak-
Birmingham, 48009. 248.646.1222. Hogan’s Restaurant: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6450 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.626.1800. Honey Tree Grille: Greek/American. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, daily. No reservations. 3633 W. Maple Rd, Bloomfield, MI 48301. 248.203.9111. Hunter House Hamburgers: American. Breakfast, Monday-Saturday; Lunch & 124
ers’ creativity, new blends are achieving consumer praises: 2010 Bogle Essential Red, another bargain at $11 as a blend of zinfandel, syrah, cabernet and petite sirah – ripe, luscious and juicy; 2011 Robert Mondavi Coastal Crush Red $11 – easy drinking blend of syrah, merlot and malbec. Serve slightly chilled; 2009 Bogle Phantom, a bargain at $16, blend of zinfandel, petite sirah and mourvedre; 2009 Dry Creek The Mariner, $45, blend of all five Bordeaux varietals. If you’re planning steaks on the grill outdoors, then your go-to wine is cabernet sauvignon: 2010 Bogle $11 – rib eye with blue cheese butter is an amazing combination for a bargain-priced wine; 2010 Rodney Strong Sonoma County $18; 2010 Franciscan Napa Valley $28; 2010 Rodney Strong Symmetry $55; 2010 Shafer One Point Five Napa Valley, Stags Leap District Cabernet $72 – outstanding for a splurge. Alfresco and Italian wine are a tasty match. First thought: Tuscany. So here’s your wine: 2009 Gabbiano Alleanza Rosso di Toscana $35. Thanks to its easy, approachable style, moscato is soaring in popularity. 2012 Rosemount Moscato $7 is named for the style, not the grape varieties which are gordo and white fronti. You were expecting moscato, after all there are only 200 different clones of moscato worldwide. Never heard of gordo or white fronti? You’re not alone. Forget the wine encyclopedia and enjoy this lusciously sweet but balanced wine at an easy-on-the-wallet price. If you’ve not yet found a source for Williams Selyem wines and have not established a winery affiliation to purchase them (707.433.6425), what are you waiting for? We agree with Director of Winemaking Bob Cabral that the 2011 vintage was marked as another cool year, perfect for both chardonnay and pinot noir to express their vineyard signatures: Unoaked Chardonnay $37 - ripe apples and mineral depth; Olivet Lane Vineyard Chardonnay $55 – baking spices , Granny Smith apples and citrus notes; Heintz Vineyard Chardonnay $55 - fruit filled and complex; Central Coast Pinot Noir $39 - bright cherry notes and rich texture; Sonoma County Pinot Noir $39 – cherry aromas enhanced by smoky notes; Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir $49 – raspberries, wild berries and cranberries with a long, satisfying finish; Russian River Valley Pinot Noir $49 – plums and blackberries express the wine’s origins; Westside Road Neighbors Pinot Noir $69 – one of the winemaker’s favorites; Terra de Promissio Pinot Noir $55 – new offering from the cool Petaluma wine gap area of the Sonoma Coast; Olivet Lane Pinot Noir $75 – from mature vines planted in 1974 that offer a mélange of aromas and flavors that build in the glass and invite myriad tastings. Eleanor & Ray Heald have contributed to numerous international publications including the Quarterly Review of Wines. Contact them by e-mail at focusonwine@aol.com.
Dinner, daily. No reservations. 35075 Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.646.7121. Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse: American. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 201 S. Old Woodward, Birmingham, 48009. 248.594.4369. IHOP: American. Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2187 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301. 248.333.7522. Kerby’s Koney Island: American.
Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2160 N. Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.333.1166. La Marsa: Mediterranean. Lunch & dinner daily. Reservations. 43259 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.858.5800. Leo’s Coney Island: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 154 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009.
DOWNTOWN
248.593.9707. Also 6527 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.646.8568. Little Daddy’s Parthenon: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 39500 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.647.3400. Luxe Bar & Grill: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily; Late Night, 9 p.m.-closing. No reservations. Liquor. 525 N. Old Woodward Ave., Birmingham, 48009. 248.792.6051. Mitchell’s Fish Market: Seafood. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 117 Willits Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.646.3663. Mountain King: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 469 South Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.644.2913. New Bangkok Thai Bistro: Thai. Breakfast, Monday-Thursday; Lunch, Monday-Friday; Dinner, daily. No reservations. 183 North Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.644.2181. Northern Lakes Seafood Co.: Seafood. Lunch, Monday-Friday; Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 39495 North Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.646.7900. Olga’s Kitchen: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Also 2075 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.451.0500. Original Pancake House: American. Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 33703 South Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.642.5775. Panera Bread: Deli. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 100 North Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.203.7966. Also 2125 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.253.9877. Peabody’s: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 34965 Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.644.5222. Phoenicia: Middle Eastern. Lunch, Monday-Friday; Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 588 South Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.644.3122. Pita Cafe: Middle Eastern. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 239 North Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.645.6999. Qdoba: Mexican. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 795 East Maple Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.988.8941. Also 42967 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Township, 48304. 248.874.1876 Roadside B & G: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 1727 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.858.7270. Salvatore Scallopini: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Beer & Wine. 505 North Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.644.8977. Sanders: American. Lunch, daily. No reservations. 167 N. Old Woodward, Birmingham, 48009. 248.594.3215. Social Kitchen & Bar: American. Lunch 05.13
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& Dinner, daily. Reservations, parties of 5 or more. Liquor. 225 E. Maple Road, Birmingham, 48009. 248.594.4200. Stacked Deli: Deli. Breakfast & Lunch, Monday-Saturday. Delivery available. No reservations. 233 North Old Woodward, Birmingham, 48009. 248.593.5300. Steve’s Deli: Deli. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 6646 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield, 48301. 248.932.0800. Streetside Seafood: Seafood. Lunch, Monday-Friday; Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 273 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.645.9123. Sushi Hana: Japanese. Lunch, MondayFriday; Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. 42656 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.333.3887. Sy Thai Cafe: Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 315 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, 48009. 248.258.9830. Tallulah Wine Bar and Bistro: American. Dinner. Monday-Saturday. Sunday brunch. Reservations. Liquor. 55 S. Bates Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.731.7066. The Corner Bar: American. Dinner. Wednesday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 100 Townsend Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.647.2958. The Gallery Restaurant: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 6683 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.851.0313. The Moose Preserve Bar & Grill: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2395 S. Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.858.7688. The Rugby Grille: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 100 Townsend Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.642.5999. Toast: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily; Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 203 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.258.6278. Touch of India: Indian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 297 E. Maple Road, Birmingham, 48009. 248.593.7881. Townhouse: American. Brunch, Saturday, Sunday. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 180 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.792.5241. Village Coney Island: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 653 S. Adams. Birmingham, 48009. 248.593.7964. What Crepe?: French. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday, Breakfast & Lunch, Sunday. No reservations. 172 N. Old Woodward, Birmingham, 48009. 248.792.5634. Whistle Stop Diner: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily; No reservations. 501 S. Eton Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.566.3566
AT THE TABLE premium cuts. Someone quite wise said, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” Roettele has added “a play off of a Cuban sandwich,” in his Cuban Burger with mustard mojo. “Veggie” is no By Eleanor Heald ordinary veggie burger. Laura Chanel Chevre takes it to “Staff hospitality is primary, yet equal with food quality new heights. Satisfyingly large offerings are dubbed Plates, $17-$36. and consistency,” says Bill Roberts, proprietor of the newly opened Café ML in Bloomfield Township’s Bloomfield Included among them is Skuna Bay Salmon, $24, probably Commons Plaza. To hospitality, he adds, “Diners must per- the most talked about Vancouver Island craft-raised fish. It has a mild taste and is tender and buttery. ceive good value.” Driving home the global food concept is Singapore Street In a former Blockbuster video store, Café ML forms the Noodles that can be served end cap facing West Maple with shrimp, $20, tofu, $17, or Road in the heart of a great chicken, $19. Another global neighborhood. It is a stuncontribution is Tacos. Yes, ning addition to Roberts’ four tacos, served with black other restaurants where dinbeans and quinoa (recall I ers also discover both hospimentioned healthier). Quinoa tality and good value. is super food. The décor removes any Filet Mignon Taco, $18, has strip mall association and fire roasted tomato salsa. offers a big city feel in a Veggie, $16, is tofu and Mahi smaller space. The contemMahi, $18, makes an outporary look is outstanding. standing fish taco with As warm weather makes a crunchy slaw. permanent appearance, outA must-try dessert is door seating for 46 adds to Popcorn Pot de Crème. Brulée the 77 indoors, including the is replaced with a soft, seabar stools. Well-camouflaged salted caramel topping. garage door windows are in Chocolate drizzled popcorn place to open the entire sits alongside. Every bite of restaurant to some of Mahi Mahi, Crunchy Slaw, Mango Papaya Salsa, Mexican Crema the creamy dessert deserves a Michigan’s most beautiful Downtown photo: Laurie Tennent/Laurie Tennent Studio popcorn palate treat. It is truly addictive. weather. Once chill returns in autumn 2013, the patio will gain an Beverage options enclosure and allow service through most of the winter. A superbly edited wine list is printed on the reverse side Because the space was not a former eatery, design architect Ron Rea of Ron & Roman LLC in Birmingham was free of the menu. Roberts is not shy about pointing out his to emulate a New York style from scratch. Upon entry, a favorites. Montaudon Champagne ($15/$60) is an easy starter. “Our sauvignon blanc selections speak to a worldlidiner strives to capture it all in a flash. First, let your eyes catch the copper globes lighting the ness,” Roberts says. He gives a nod to the Napa Cellars botshiny, demonstration kitchen. This is the new home of tling ($10/$40) and expresses his fondness for Paul Hobbs Corporate Executive Chef Patrick Roettele, who this coming with Crossbarn Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($15/$60) and Elk Cove “La Boheme” Pinot Noir ($75) from Williamette Valley. September, will celebrate 23 years teaming with Roberts. Six draft brews ($6-$10) showcase Michigan’s growing dominance in this category. A touch of magic One look tells the diner there’s cooking magic here under the guidance of Chef Roettele and his Chef de Cuisine For the future “We’re taking a deep breath,” says Roberts, when asked Shawn Wright, a Johnson & Wales culinary graduate. “We’ve cut a different path with the menu,” Chef Roettele about the future. “We’ve grown by 66 percent over the last says. “We’ve focused on healthier eating. It’s a good-for-you 14 months. It takes years to replenish depth.” Maybe, but reloading has gone astonishingly well! approach with a distinctly global feel.” It’s a departure from menus at other Roberts’ eateries. Don’t call it comfort food and don’t expect mac ‘n cheese. Café ML 3607 W. Maple, Bloomfield Township, Actually, the comfort distinction is on its way out in the 248.642.4000 (in Bloomfield Commons Plaza), open 4 vocabulary of creative chefs like Roettele. Healthy eating p.m. daily until 11 p.m. Monday-Thursday, midnight Friday smacks of vegan and vegetarian. Those terms are menu lim- and Saturday and 10 p.m. Sunday. Parking: surface. No iting. Roettele has transcended them, yet included them in reservations taken. gluten free and vegetarian offerings. Seafood is sustainable. QUICK BITES Beef and poultry are humanely raised. On April 16 this year, the recast Bella Piatti (167 Townsend, Birmingham, 248.494.7110) opened for lunch 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Menu categories Stale categories such as small plates and apps have Tuesday through Saturday. A simplified menu includes four been deliberately bypassed. Single word groupings panini, $6-$8, salads, pastas, six main courses, $12-$16, and stand out. There’s Small and its antonym Large. Raw, six desserts. A “Happy two Hours” begins at 4 p.m., followed Cool and Hot grab your attention. Burgers – a Roberts by dinner service. eatery must have burgers! ML has three, $12-$15. The Eleanor Heald is a nationally published writer who also writes the Premium Steak House Blend has some new twists from wine column in a double byline with her husband Ray for other Roberts’ eateries. But the blend remains ground Downtown. Suggestions for Quick Bites section can be e-mailed chuck, short ribs, flank steak and steak trimmings from to QuickBites@downtownpublications.com.
Creative in every aspect – that’s the new Café ML
John and Gayle Hannett John Hannett Gayle Hannett
248.939.3191 Email: gayle1993@gmail.com Cell:
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THE COMMUNITY HOUSE
Make A Change, Naturally
Town Hub Attracts the Notable The Community Town Hub of Choice: The other day I was in a meeting in our beautifully redecorated (thanks to a generous grant from the Americana Foundation) Ginger Meyer meeting room with a long-time Michigan resident who asked if The Community House started as a bed and breakfast. While a bit surprised, I felt this was a compliment because it conveyed a feeling of warmth, service and charm that is indeed The Community House. Of course, the answer was no. TCH was started in 1923 as a critically needed “town hub” for the community, where people could convene to help each other and the community become stronger. A place where diverse citizens could come through the doors to express themselves openly, learn, celebrate life and leave better equipped to face life. And 90 years later, they still do – to the tune of 200,000 people coming through our doors each year. TCH Attracts Famous Notables for All: To the Camille Jayne point above, in the space of five days, two of the most famous icons known in America chose to come to TCH to express themselves, and convene with local citizens. How many venues can boast they had Senator Carl Levin, invited by the Senior Men’s Club, and Mr. Bunny (who came for our Easter brunch) in the same week? Both honoring the audiences with their presence, and appreciated by those who came to see and visit with them. The Wallace ballroom was filled to capacity for both, each attracting over 400 people on their different days; both with important messages of bipartisanship, caring about children and families. We were proud to host them, and see the pride in the faces of all who came to be there with them, taking away unforgettable memories.
Join us For an evening of education Wednesday – May 8, 2012 – 5-8 pm (Please RSVP)
Learn, Sip and Shop
The important point here, is that TCH is one of the few places that welcomes such diverse guests, with ease and grace on almost a daily basis for such a wide variety of audiences. And why? Because for 90 years, TCH has been proud to serve as a resource for thousands of children, adults, and seniors who gather within our walls. We work hard to deliver on our promise to enrich those we touch with a unique combination of heightened learning, camaraderie, and the satisfaction of knowing they are helping others less fortunate. The Magnitude of Our Service Culture: As some know, I went through a successful procedure at Beaumont recently where I witnessed their culture of excellence (and the amazing skills of thoracic surgeon, Dr. Robert Welsh, and the entire Beaumont team.) I mention this only because not many people realize that TCH and Beaumont are kindred spirits in two ways. Even though the services we provide are vastly different – the magnitude of people we serve and, importantly, how we serve them, are very similar. As I lay waiting for the general anesthesia to take hold I thought: “TCH is not unlike Beaumont. Two nonprofits servicing our communities – each with over 200,000 people a year coming through our respective doors – promising to welcome everyone with compassion, striving to disappoint no one, while offering the highest quality and safe services.” Two community resources working hard to deliver on our promises to affect people’s lives for the better.
HOW LOVELY TO BE A WOMAN! New Trends and Beauty Secrets plus The 5 facts to know if you are thinking about “Making a Change”
Training + Talent + 30 Years Experience = TRUST
We are grateful that more and more of you are becoming aware that TCH is a critical part of this community, open to all, and reaching out to many. May Happenings at TCH •Bulletproof Your Success™ Lecture - Wed. May 8th : “How To Build and Manage a Great Team .” Learn how to build a great team to help you succeed – including virtual teams. David Stanislaw joins Camille, discussing Conflict Resolution. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. www.tchbulletproof.org. •Italy’s Calling: Join us for Travel Presentations on Venice, Tues. April 23rd, 7 p.m.; and Tuscany, Thurs. April 25th, 7 p.m. 248.644.5832. •16th annual Mother Daughter Tea: May 11th; 10-11:30 a.m. Adults, $16; children under 12, $12. 248.644.5832. Camille Jayne is President & CEO of TCH. downtownpublications.com
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SOCIAL LIGHTS/SALLY GERAK Here is the update on the recent social scene. Many more photos from each event appear online each week at downtownpublications.com where readers can sign up for an e-mail notice when the latest social scene column is Sally Gerak posted. Past columns and photos are also archived at the website for Downtown.
Brother Rice Irish Nite
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1. Kris Parke (left) of Bloomfield with honorary chairs Sallie and Mark Hogan of Birmingham. 2. BRHS alums Brad Simmons (left) of Birmingham and Bob Pulte of Bloomfield. 3. Jude (left) and Alicia Gillette Hart of Bloomfield and Rebekah and Bill Hanrahan of Birmingham. 4. Kate (left) and Larry Gladchun of Bloomfield and Joslin Crow of Bingham Farms. 5. Katie Berg Liesveld (left), Jennie Lunghamer and Judy Frasco Hildebrand of Bloomfield. 6. Sally and Leo Savoie of Bloomfield. 7. BRHS alum/teacher/coach Bob Stark of Birmingham.
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Temple Beth El’s Passover Tables
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1. Honorary chairs / table designers Jill Syme (left) and Carol Segal Ziecik of Bloomfield with event chair Karen Borenstein of Birmingham. 2. Table designer Annabel Cohen of Bloomfield. 3. Humble Design designers Liz Modell (left) of Bloomfield and Treger Strasberg of Birmingham. 4. Karen Simmons (left) of W. Bloomfield, Evelyn Rosen and Miriam Forman of Bloomfield. 5. J.J. Modell and Rabbi Daniel Syme of Bloomfield. 6. Designer Lindsay Finsilver (left) of Bloomfield with Emily Rosenberg of Birmingham. 7. Lori Barron (left) of Birmingham and Christine Lustig of Bloomfield. 8. Designers Stephen Knollenberg (left) and Joan Epstein of Birmingham and Robert Gauthier of Windsor, ONT. 9. Lil Erdeljan (left) and her daughter Nikki London of Bloomfield with cantor Rachel Kalmowitz of W. Bloomfield. 10. Stacy (left) and Ron Klein and Barbra and Joe Bloch of Bloomfield.
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Brother Rice Irish Nite The oldest local school auction began in 1978 and is still going strong. Like the school’s namesake - the Edmund Ignatius Rice who founded the Christian Brothers in 1802 in Waterford, Ireland the fundraiser has an Irish accent. It’s always held near St. Patrick’s Day and this year Mark and Sallie Hogan were the honorary chairs. More than 450 school loyalists willing to share their green attended. For silent auction bidding, event coordinators Michelle Lievois and Susan Reid scrapped last year’s electronic bidding, which may or may not be responsible for its revenue increase. Before auctioneer Christopher Aslanian started the bidding, a flash mob, the Marian High School Competitive Dance Team, raised the energy level. A ski trip for four to Utah’s Snowbird, assembled by seven members of the class of 1992, brought a bid of $6,250, and a Napa Valley wine excursion to the Celani Family Vineyards was the top bid ($7,750) item. The 35th annual Irish Nite grossed $285,000 which has been earmarked to renovate the school’s Academic Resource Center. Temple Beth El’s Passover Tables Jewish families remember the story of the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in Egypt over 3,000 years ago during the Passover seder dinner. The traditions of the dinner lend themselves to unique table settings and 15 of these were on display during a cocktail party at Temple Beth El. The more than 100 guests who were admiring the tablescapes also socialized, sipped and supped at the splendid culinary stations created by Zack Sklar’s Cutting Edge Cuisine. Karen Borenstein chaired the event and her husband Jon bought the drinks, i.e. he hosted the bars. Both the guest list and the table designers included people of other faiths. The warmly hospitable fundraiser added $13,000 to the education program account at Temple Beth El. Classical Roots Celebration Gala The 13th annual Gala celebrating the contri131
SOCIAL LIGHTS/SALLY GERAK TCH Annual Gala
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1. Event honoree Linda Orlans of Birmingham with Gerry Padilla of Grosse Pointe. 2. Bob and honoree Maggie Allesee of Bloomfield with Laurie and sponsor Bank of Birmingham’s Rob Farr of Beverly Hills. 3. Honoree Connie McEwan and her husband Ian of Birmingham. 4. Keith (left) and honorees Carole Deyer and Pierre Boutrous with his wife Beatrice of Birmingham. 5. Jack Krasula (left) of Bloomfield and honoree Pam Good of Birmingham. 6. Kathy Wilson and George Martin of Birmingham. 7. Jim Suhay (left) and Victor and Michelle Saroki of Birmingham. 8. Lori (left) and Ron Harbour with Tom and Sue Simons of Birmingham. 9. Jan and Lynn Evans of Bloomfield. 10. Bradford Jayne (left) of NYC, David Beddow of Santa Fe, NM and Mary Majzoud of Bloomfield.
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TCH Annual Gala The Community House President/CEO Camille Jayne and Director of Events Kathie Ninneman chaired the second annual TCH Gala which was sponsored by the Bank of Birmingham. It was sold out (254 at $250-per-person), including the 100 VIPs who started the evening at a reception in the Hackett Room hosted by Greenleaf Trust. The dinner party honored family business owner and philanthropist Linda Orlans. When this reporter first met Orlans some years ago, we thought she was “just another pretty face”. Google her and you’ll learn why she got a standing ovation. Nine more people were also honored for being Pillars of Vibrancy. They are: Dr. Carole Deyer, Pamela Good, Henry Lee, Maggie Allesee, Jeannie Hackett, Connie McEwan, Pierre Boutros, Ed Mamou, and Dr. Svetlana Mishulin. Judging from conversation after the evening’s keynote speech by Wayne County political insider/ turn around maestro Mike Duggan, it won him lots of suburban fans for his newest challenge – Detroit mayoral candidate.
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butions of African Americans to classical music attracted 250 people to the Max Fisher Music Center for a strolling dinner before the concert in Orchestra Hall. It saluted world renowned conductor James DePriest, who had died unexpectedly four weeks before the gala, and began, as always with the Brazeal Dennard Chorale leading the audience in “Lift Every Voice and Sing”. An afterglow featuring dancing to Motown hits followed the concert. The JPMorgan Chase-sponsored event raised more than $165,000 for the DSO’s music development programs, including the AfricanAmerican Fellowship.
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ORT’s Night of Trends with Friends Nearly 150 fashionable girlfriends, including several motherdaughter pairs and at least one three-generation trio, shopped, sipped, nibbled on Zack Sklar’s Cutting Edge cuisine and applaud05.13
SOCIAL LIGHTS/SALLY GERAK ed a runway show of spring fashions at Neiman Marcus. The evening was chaired by Michelle Blau, Nadine Farbman and Susan Gordon. ORT director Nicolle Miller explained to the crowd that ORT, which was founded by poor Jews in 1880 Russia, is an acronym for Russian words that “…nobody can pronounce.” But all in attendance knew that ORT provides opportunity through education programs locally and worldwide. To further the cause, many had also bought tickets for the 17 raffle prizes. The evening grossed $25,000 and got supporters in the mood for upcoming ORT fundraisers: Rub-ADub on Aug. 21, and Camp Hermelin on Sept. 15.Go to www.ortmichigan.org/events for information.
ORT’s Night of Trends with Friends
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1. Event co-chairs Nadine Farbman (left) of Bloomfield, Susan Gordon of Franklin and Michelle Blau of W. Bloomfield. 2. Jayme Kovacs (left) and her mother Nicole and grandmother Phyllis Newman of Bloomfield. 3. Bree Slavik (left) of Birmingham and Jackie Rosenzwig and Michelle Adamczyk of Bloomfield. 4. Linda Mossman (left) of Bloomfield and her daughter Brooke Wolf of Franklin. 5. Beth Lutz (left) of Birmingham and Julie Morganroth of Bloomfield. 6. Paige Hamburger (left) and her mother Wendy of Birmingham. 7. Karen Borenstein (left) of Birmingham and event sponsor Sharon Eisenshtadt of Bloomfield. 8. Stephanie Freedman (left), Lilly Jacobson and Susan August of Bloomfield.
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Project 1’s Whose Your Bartender?
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3 1. Ryan LaFontaine of Fenton and Gwen Vu of Franklin. 2. Tony Lamerato (left) and Harper Henderson of Birmingham. 3. P1 President Yvon Russell (left) of Rochester with Mitch Black and P1 VP Jerry Hall of Birmingham. 4. Cheryl Smith of Grosse Pointe, Stacey Kives of Beverly Hills and Sarah Gross of Birmingham. 5. Project 1 committee member Amy Ordona of Bloomfield.
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Project 1’s Whose Your Bartender? Four to five hundred fun-loving young professionals flocked to Dick O’Dow’s pub to toast a new nonprofit – Project 1. A group that originally got acquainted organizing National Kidney Foundation golf outings has started a local organization to “…benefit one person, one family, one cause at a time.” The officers are Yvon Russell, Jerry Hall, Kelley LaFontaine, Suzanne Alfastsen and Kirsten Mumma. Laura Beckeman and Jerry Hall chaired the pub party, P1’s first fundraiser. They recruited 15 people to tend bar. The three who got the most money (drinks plus tips) got to keep half their take for their own favorite charity. The top pourers were Ryan LaFontaine for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society; Gwen Vu for The Bottomless Toy Chest; and Stacey Kives for Humble Design. The scene was decidedly spirited and raised more than $28,000. For more information about Project 1 email Mumma at KMumma@eventnext.com. Volunteer Council’s Trumpeting Spring More than 250 Detroit Symphony Orchestra supporters made the trek to Rochester’s Royal Park Hotel for the Volunteer Council’s Trumpeting Spring luncheon fundraiser. During 05.13
the social hour they previewed the display of the live auction items, socialized, and sipped Cosmosa drinks, compliments of the current VC president Janet Ankers, president-elect-Deborah Savoie, and a past president Debra Partrich. The DSO Brass Quintet trumpeted guests into the dining room where brief remarks by event co-chairs Jill Jordan and Lori Knollenberg and DSO CEO Anne Parsons made everybody feel important. The latter was especially eager to invite all to go to NYC for the two DSO concerts at Carnegie Hall May 9 and May 10 sponsored by GM and the Davidson Foundation. (Go to www.dso.org/carnegiehall to learn about the stellar packages available.) Parsons also gave a shout out to “our First Lady”, Lauren Fisher, whose husband Phillip is the new DSO board chair. Following lunch, Devin Scillian got people to bid $7,600 on 10 items, including the $1,000 Diane DeNardis bid on Chef Lynn Miller’s cooking instructions and dinner for six in her Bloomfield Hills home. The midday event concluded with Ken Dewey commentating the Neiman Marcus runway fashion show of 30 great looks, including five modeled by DSO supporters. Girl Scout Cookie Gala Before all of the 350 supporters of the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan arrived at the DTE Energy Headquarters for the annual Cookie Gala, board chair Nancy Philippart welcomed nominees for the two new One Tough Cookie awards to a private reception. Most of the 22 nominees were able to attend and GSEM CEO Denise Dalrymple announced the winners: Leadership award - Comerica Bank’s Linda Forte and Community Service award - philanthropist Maggie Allesee. Allesee was also the event honorary co-chair with Irma Elder. The spacious DTE dining room was a perfect venue for the Gala. The 10 participating restaurant stations and beverage bars lined the room’s perimeter and the silent auction and dinner tables commandowntownpublications.com
Volunteer Council’s Trumpeting Spring
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1. Event co-chairs Jill Jordan (left) of Farmington Hills and Lori Knollenberg of Troy with past VC president Debra Partrich of Bloomfield. 2. Deanna Lites (left), Andrea Guttilla and Lauren Fisher of Bloomfield with Susie Sillman and Hilary Borman of Birmingham. 3. Past president Kelly Hayes (left) of Birmingham, pres. elect Deborah Savoie of Bloomfield and VC liaison Chelsea Kotula of Troy. 4. Rebecca O’Reilly (left) of Grosse Pointe, Cindy Garofali of Troy and auction chair Jennifer Gallagher of Birmingham. 5. Committee member Susan Lundal (left) of Birmingham with Priscilla Perkins of Troy and Lori Wathen and Joyce LaBan of Bloomfield. 6. Lynn Ferron (left) of Bloomfield and past president Gloria Clark of Grosse Pointe. 7. Mitzi Robinson (left) and Adele Farabi of Bloomfield and Doris Bauer of Novi. 8. Chef Lynn Miller (left) of Bloomfield and Diane DeNardis of Grosse Pointe. 9. Moira Prekel (left) of Birmingham, Mary Ann Peters of Milford and Lorri Lafferty of Highland.
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Girl Scout Cookie Gala
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1. GS board chair Nancy Philippart (left) of Troy with Tough Cookie honoree Maggie Allesee of Bloomfield and GS CEO Denise Dalrymple of Farmington Hills. 2. GS board member John DeFrancesco and his wife Molly of Bloomfield. 3. Tom McGrail (left) of Troy with Bob Allesee of Bloomfield and Don Austin of Farmington Hills.
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SOCIAL LIGHTS/SALLY GERAK deered the center. Pianist Bob Allesee provided music as people socialized and sampled both the sweets created with Girl Scout cookies that were competing for awards and the complimentary hors d’oeuvres being passed and served. Before Charles Wickins conducted a brief live auction, guests applauded top cookie seller Kyla Wright (5,400 boxes). After all the ballots were counted, the People’s Choice Award winner was the Savannah Smiles created at the Henry Ford Community Restaurant Fifty OneO-One. Other awards were: the CEO’s Choice – Macomb Culinary Institute; Judges Choice – Prime 29 Steaks, Seafood & Cocktails; Presenting Sponsor’s Choice – Gastronomy; and Scouts’ Choice – Sweet & Savory Bake Shop. The event raised nearly $85,000, including the auction proceeds of $15,000.
Variety’s Table Tops Benefactor Party
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1. Event hostess Kim Bondy of Birmingham with celebrity designer Mary McDonald of Los Angeles, CA. 2. Presenting sponsor Lincoln of Troy’s Paul Sabatini and his wife Rhonda with patron party sponsors Michael Coyne and Fleur Detroit’s Joe Nieradka of Bloomfield. 3. Past broad president Kelly Shuert (center) of Bloomfield with honorary co-chair Jeffrey (left) and David King of Birmingham. 4. Charlene Paglino (left) of Troy, Joe Keenan and honorary co-chair Lucy Earl of Bloomfield and Jane Synnestvedt of Birmingham. 5. Eric and Nancy Clark of Bloomfield. 6. Nancy DeAngelis (left) of Bloomfield and Nicole Withers of Grosse Pointe and Tina Cracchiolo of Troy. 7. Michelle Murphy of Sterling Hgts. and Dana Baskin Coffman of Bloomfield. 8. Richard Ross (center) of Royal Oak with Amy Weinstein (left) and Carrie Long of Birmingham. 9. Pianist Chad Coffman (left) of Bloomfield and bassist Ben Zang of Wyandotte. 10. Celebrity Mary McDonald (left) of Los Angeles, CA with event chairmen Michael Coyne of Bloomfield and Caroline Groeneveld of Bloomfield.
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Variety’s Table Tops Benefactor Party Kim Bondy hosted the Intimate Evening Reception for Variety, The Children’s Charity’s Table Tops Luncheon benefactors in her handsome Birmingham digs overlooking Booth Park. TT co-chair Michael Coyne’s design firm and Joe Nieradka”s FleurDetroit company sponsored the lively cocktail hours event. While guests awaited the arrival of acclaimed Los Angeles designer Mary McDonald they socialized, sipped and supped on comestibles like tenderloin, quail eggs with caviar and shrimp from How About Lunch. Some like Nancy Clark bought copies of McDonald’s book. All enjoyed jazz renderings by a DSO Civic Jazz Orchestra duet Ben Zang and Chad Coffman. The latter’s grandfather, Henry Baskin, is president elect of Variety. The guest list included event presenting sponsor Lincoln of Troy’s Paul Sabitini and his wife Rhonda, honorary cochairs Lucy Earl and Jeffrey King, and many of the latter’s fellow designers who had spent part of the day assembling their tablescapes for the next day’s luncheon. When the very personable McDonald did arrive she required about two sec05.13
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SOCIAL LIGHTS/SALLY GERAK onds to get into the spirit of the evening and made lots of new friends.
Variety’s Table Tops Luncheon
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Variety Table Tops Luncheon “When you walked through the door today you changed a life,” Variety, The Children’s Charity president Connie Beckett told the capacity crowd of 320 guests at Pine Lake Country Club. She was followed at the mike by Monica Gayle, who has emceed all six Table Top events, and second-year cochairs Michael Coyne and Caroline Groeneveld. There was an audible gasp when Coyne revealed that his co-chair had missed attending last year’s event because she had just given birth to triplets. Mary McDonald, a star of Bravo TV’s “Million Dollar Decorators” series, was the splendid featured speaker. She admitted that she was inspired by fashion and was self taught. “I’m really just a creative person…I love everything,” she confided, with her trademark exuberance. The designers who participate in this event are extremely generous. They not only created the spectacular luncheon table settings, they each also donated something to the Chinese raffle which raised $10,000. The big raffle winners were Katie Leibhan, Sharoon Atty, Victoria Valentine and Diane Wells. The latter works at Art Van Furniture, so, wouldn’t you know, she won the chair covered in one of McDonald’s designs for her new F. Schumacher fabric and trim collection. The popular luncheon event netted $40,000 for Variety, whose programs are life changing for the children it serves. For information, visit www.VarietyDetroit.com.
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1. Board president Connie Beckett (left) of Troy with event co-chairs Michael Coyne and Caroline Groeneveld of Bloomfield. 2. Event co-chair Caroline Groeneveld (left) of Bloomfield and celebrity speaker Mary McDonald of Los Angeles, CA. 3. Penny Persiani (left) of Birmingham and Maggie Allesee of Bloomfield. 4. Anne Strickland (left) of Birmingham with Cindy Carney and Cathy Wood of Bloomfield. 5. Peggy Kerr (left) and Missy Mark of Birmingham with Margie Hubacker of Bloomfield. 6. Stephanie Schwartz (left) and Lauren Eaton of Bloomfield and Brooke Fisher of Birmingham. 7. Amy Peash and Debbie Erb of Bloomfield. 8. Kristin Ashwell (left), Kim Williams and Angie Timko of Rochester and Janet Johnson of Northville. 9. Rima Belau (left) and Andrea Skupski of Plymouth, Michael Coyne of Bloomfield and Paul Canvasser of Birmingham. 10. Shirley Maddalena (left) of Bloomfield and Barbara Bilobran of Troy.
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Gleaner’s Women’s Power Breakfast Milestone events are often energizing, and Gleaner’s Community Foodbank’s signature fundraiser was no exception. The event, launched in 1994 by Dulcie Rosenfeld, who got 120 friends to come to breakfast at the Detroit Club, attracted an all time high 05.13
(600) to Shed 3 at Eastern Market. After Rosenfeld was introduced by retired Gleaner’s VP Ruth Ellen Mayhall, who called her a Pied Piper, and current president DeWayne Wells, who told her, “We wouldn’t be here without you,” Rosenfeld did not demure. “I’m blown away by your presence,” she enthused, vowing to keep fighting hunger “…the best way we can, as long as it takes.” She got a standing ovation from the crowd. It included influential executives, at least two former Gleaners clients who had given moving testimonials, and mentors and mentees in Gleaners new PowerUp program at Martin Luther King High School. PNC’s Ric DeVore wrapped up the program by announcing that the 20th Women’s Power Breakfast had raised $618,918, enough to provide more than 2 million meals for hungry children.
Gleaner’s Women’s Power Breakfast
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1. Past event chair Mary Lou Zieve (left) with event founder Dulcie Rosenfeld of Bloomfield. 2. Speaker/Proctor Financial’s Terri Lawhorn (left) of East Pointe, with event veteran Ruth Mary Mathall and event co-chair Cynthia Ford of Grosse Pointe and PowerUp mentor Dawn Rassel of Bloomfield. 3. Molly MacDonald (left) of Beverly Hills, Gleaner’s board member Ellen Rogers and Rachel Decker of Birmingham. 4. PowerUp mentees from Martin Luther King HS Kiarah Batts (left), Alexia Harris and Asia Maryland of Detroit.
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Café ML Charity Opening Bill Roberts invited CARE House and the Restore Foundation to raise some money by selling tickets to dine last Tuesday night at his Roberts Restaurant Group’s newest eatery - Café ML. The handsome bistro designed by Ron Rea is in the former Blockbuster space at Maple and Lasher Roads. The name is not a reference to the roads, as many suspect. ‘Tis a salute to the most important women in Roberts’ life. “My wife Maria and my mother Lillian,” Roberts said. The eclectic menu created by chefs Shawn Wright and Patrick Roettele garnered rave reviews from the 100 guests at the charity event. They totally wiped the kitchen out of the Crispy Brussels Sprouts before we could order some, but the guacamole with chunks of lobster and the Korean fried chicken we did sample were superb. Since CARE House uses Oakland County court resources and the RESTORE Foundation supports the Oakland County’s therapeutic drug treatment courts, many in the crowd were friends. For the time being, downtownpublications.com
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3 1. Una Jackman (left) and Maria Roberts of Bloomfield. 2. David Weinert and Bill Roberts of Bloomfield. 3. Diane Dietle (left) of Commerce, Cathy Weissenborn and Maryclaire Pulte of Bloomfield and Mary Dakin of Birmingham. 4. Judge Karen McDonald (left), Lynn Sirich and Liz Luckenbach of Birmingham, with Judge Jim Alexander and retired judge Ed Sosnick of Bloomfield. 5. Michael Shaben (left) and his mother Barbara Yolles with Judge Wendy Potts of Birmingham. 6. The restaurant designers Darrell Dinges (left) of Grosse Pointe and Ron Rea of Birmingham. 7. Sue Conway (left) of Birmingham and Vicki Celani of Bloomfield.
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Ted Lindsay Benefit Wine Tasting
they can salivate in front of Café ML’s large wine case after 4 p.m.. Eventually, the café and its covered terrace will be open for lunch.
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Ted Lindsay Benefit Wine Tasting Hockey legend good guy Ted Lindsay, who has turned his still considerable energy to defeating autism, hosted a Wine Tasting at Tre Monti Ristorante and 200 people (at $125 per person) attended. In addition to the splendid cuisine, guests savored the offerings at six wine stations mostly manned by celebrities like Tomas Holmstrom, Mickey Redmond, Trevor Thompson, Patrick Eaves and Craig Wolanin. They could also bid in a silent auction ($6,000), buy raffle tickets ($1,100) for a Ted Lindsay Foundation logo office chair and get their pictures taken with the Stanley Cup. The event brought many of the Lindsay loyalists for the first time to the restaurant. In addition to research, the foundation also provides financial support to the families touched by autism at Beaumont’s Center for Human Development.
2 1. Ted Lindsay (right) of Oakland with Beaumont’s Dr. Brian and Norma Berman of Birmingham. 2. Mara Hart Filo (center) of Beverly Hills with Alicia Gillette Hart and Sue Bixler of Bloomfield. 3. Dr. John and Genevieve Finley of Bloomfield. 4. Craig Wolanim (left) of Rochester and Beaumont’s Bill Dow of Birmingham. 5. Vince Buscemi (left) of Clarkston with sponsor Bill Pappas and Walt Oehrlein of Bloomfield. 6. Cathy (left) and Pete Treboldi of Troy and Tony and Sandra Treboldi of Birmingham. 7. Pat Flynn and Mike and Debby Flynn of Bloomfield. 8. Steve Eick (left) of Birmingham with Trevor Thompson of Troy and Michelle Dugan of Grosse Pointe.
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Good Samaritans’ Champagne Update Lisa Wilson hosted a champagne-splashed gathering last Friday at her Bloomfield Hills home for the Good Samaritans, a support group for Holy Cross Children’s Services. HCCS, which was established 65 years ago as Boysville, is now one of the largest, not-for-profit provider of children’s services throughout the state. Wilson’s guest list included Carol Shaya, Janet Forgione, Diane Roelant, Mia Materka and Sue Nine, to name a few, plus Holy Cross CEO Brother Francis Boylan. He thanked the ladies for planning an upcoming celebration. It includes dinner at Cuisine Restaurant on Wednesday, May 8, followed by a performance at the Fisher Theatre of “Catch Me If You Can”. For tickets ($150), call (517) 423-7556. Send ideas for this column to Sally Gerak, 28 Barbour Lane, Bloomfield Hills, 48304; email samgerak@aol.com or call 248.646.6390.
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ENDNOTE
Truck traffic solution could prove tough
R
ecently, some downtown Birmingham retailers have become concerned over the amount of truck traffic traveling on Maple Road between Southfield and Woodward roads during the business day, stating that the noise and heavy volume is inconsistent with a quality shopping experience and out of sync with the walkable environment the Principal Shopping District (PSD) and the city have worked hard to develop over the last two decades. A group of Birmingham store owners and landlords recently met with the police chief, assistant chief of police, and executive director of the PSD to discuss what city officials could do to possibly alleviate the traffic congestion, noise, smog, and disturbances that heavy, multi-axle trucks, including gravel haulers and cement trucks, are causing by driving through downtown Birmingham, as well as potentially clogging up Maple Road through the center of the city. However, the reality is, there may not be much that the city of Birmingham can do to stop, or even lessen, the passage of any size of trucks down Maple Road. From the mid-1970s to the late 1990s or so, there was Ring Road, which had a purpose to “ring” the downtown corridor and act as a bypass to the main roads of Maple and Old Woodward, rerouting traffic to Chester and Brown. It was discontinued as urban planners touted the 2016 Master Plan. Subsequently, residential and on-street parking
has been added to several downtown streets, including Brown and Chester; Brown has had many residential homes and townhouses developed and built in the interim; an independent living community, in the form of Baldwin House, has been built on Chester; and the Willits, a luxury condominium high rise, was developed on Willits, which was part of Ring Road. So much has changed in the last decade or so, it may be hard to put the genie back in the bottle. Those living along the streets that now house more residential will likely not enjoy heavy trucks thundering down their streets anymore than the stores and businesses on Maple like it. Some may allege that many residents leave their dwellings during the day to go to work; yet not all do, and while Birmingham is a vibrant, busy community, it's hard to determine whose street should be chosen to permit the truck traffic. After all, no one wants it along their frontage. It's always a case of NIMBY – not in my backyard. Perhaps city planners, be it through the multimodal transportation committee or the planning board, can recommend an ordinance to the city commission to limit deliveries to all businesses – including stores and restaurants in the downtown area, to before 9 a.m., as is done in Manhattan. That would hold in check the large delivery trucks, especially for food and beverages. But it's hard to tell FedEx and UPS to deliver at those slated times. It is certainly common at all times of
day to see their trucks idling along the curb along Maple, Old Woodward, or any other downtown street. They are part of the fabric of the commerce of the city, and businesses of all kinds depend on their deliveries. Yet, their trucks are noisy, noxious and prevalent. It is true there has been more truck traffic recently, but from our vantage point on the second floor overlooking W. Maple Road, much of it appears to be related to various road construction projects. Last summer, E. Maple Road, between Eton and Adams, underwent a complete reconstruction, resulting in not only the traffic from the large construction vehicles heading to and from that construction, but large multi-axle trucks seeking other routes in an effort to avoid E. Maple. This spring, Pierce and Merrill streets are undergoing complete sewer, water and road reconstruction, with construction vehicles accessing those two streets via Maple and Old Woodward. Without a question, there are more trucks, and rerouted delivery trucks, thundering along Maple, along with more construction noise, mud and dust. Yet, until the dust clears from the downtown construction projects will it be known if the heavy truck traffic is a long-term problem, or one that will vacate town along with the orange barrels. While the city is obligated to look at this issue, any possible change in how traffic is handled should await the end of major local road projects.
Don't forget importance of Rail District
L
ast summer, we took a look at Birmingham's Rail District, the industrial, off-beat, fun and funky area demarcated as south of Maple, north of Lincoln and east of Eton roads in Birmingham that has slowly been redefining itself from its once industrial roots off of the Amtrak rails, and urged Birmingham's staff and city commission to move forward with branding efforts, streetscaping, lighting, and development efforts to activate an area of the city which is ready for its close up. Since then, we have seen the development of Griffin Claw Brewery Company, a new microbrewery, restaurant, tasting room and beer garden at 563 and 575 S. Eton, which is hoping to open in late June; the approval of a lot split at 2400 E. Lincoln into four parcels, including a dedicated road, and the final site plan and special land use permit for a medical office building, to be used as a dental office; and two significant residential developments announced last year by established developers which will help to
continue the transformation from an industrial area to a live/work/play community. Both developers, Moceri Companies with Irongate, and Steuer & Associates with Villa Lofts, were excited to be part of what Dominic Moceri called “the Soho of Birmingham.” We regularly see the openings, and, unfortunately, closings, of fun and unique businesses and retailers. The area has attracted these distinctive entrepreneurs and retailers seeking a little off-beat area in which to flourish. Its artsy character and family-friendly atmosphere contribute to a uniqueness which separates it from other areas of Birmingham. Where else in metro Detroit can you find a place devoted solely to the creation of things using Legos? The Robot Garage located in the Rail District, with its accessible parking and family atmosphere, and is doing gangbusters. Whistle Stop Restaurant, a long time neighborhood favorite on Eton, was recently purchased and renovated, while remaining faithful to its heritage. There are florists
and artists, collision shops and architects, fitness training facilities and lawyers, all cohabiting. It would be really great to see a restaurateur choose the Rail District as a place for a bistro, and city planners should work harder to encourage them that the area is ripe and preferable to the downtown area. But we are disappointed that some promised improvements from the city of Birmingham have not yet been accomplished. Branding of the Rail District with appropriate signage and lighting has been under discussion for a long time, and it is imperative that it is implemented and becomes more than just talk. While there have been some sidewalk improvements, the streets are still not as accessible or navigable to those who are not intimately familiar with the district. Spend the minimal amount of money it would take to create clear directional and area signage, with excellent lighting, and beautiful streetscaping, for the district. All of Birmingham will benefit from the effort.
20
Years
Luke Marton
lmarton@mimutual.com (248) 214-1306 NMLS# 179915
Christian Newberry
cnewberry@mimutual.com (248) 895-8660 NMLS# 13314
*Underwriting Turn Times - Initial Underwriting Purchases/Refinances - 2 Days | Underwriting Conditions - Next Day
NMLS 12901 “Rail District” 2151 Cole Street, Birmingham, MI 48009 www.mimutual.com/retail425
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