The Metro
"The Metro" covers local and regional news and current affairs, arts and cultural events and topics, with a commitment to airing perspectives and uncovering stories underreported by mainstream media in Detroit.
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Oakland and Wayne County voters pass millage for historical museums
This week, voters in Oakland and Wayne Counties approved the Southeast Michigan Public Historical Museum Authority Millage Proposal.
It passed by a fairly wide margin in Wayne County, with 63% of voters approving it. In Oakland, about 53% of voters said ‘yes’.
Macomb County was not included in the proposal.
That means the millage will be in place for the next 10 years. It will tax residents 20-cents for every thousand dollars of taxable property value. For a home that costs $300,000, that would come out to about $30 a year.
That funding will cover the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Historical Museum, and the Dossin Great Lakes Museum. Beyond that, there’s also a 15% allotment for other historical museums throughout Wayne and Oakland Counties.
Assistant Director of the Michigan Museums Association Melissa Ford joined The Metro to discuss the millage with Tia Graham.
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'The Savage Mind' Ojibwe author on the violence America inherited
What if America’s violent past isn’t really in the past? What if it still lives in all of us today? Those are the questions at the heart of a new book, "The Savage Mind: An American Legacy."
Ojibwe author David Treuer began the book as a letter to his three children. Treuer argues that violence of the American frontier never really ended. It lives inside of us.
Treuer is the son of a Jewish father and an Ojibwe mother. He and his brother grew up on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota.
He earned his PhD in anthropology at the University of Michigan and he teaches at USC. His previous book, "The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee," was a national book award finalist.
This weekend, there are two Q&A’s and book signing events for the book in metro Detroit.
Treuer will speak at The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation Saturday Nov. 7. On Sunday, Nov. 8, he'll be at the Detroit Public Library main branch alongside public historian and published author and member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Heather Bruegl.
Detroit church leader urges El-Sayed 'Do not abandon the message'
After the August primary, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed had momentum. But his narrow defeat of Haley Stevens made some of his supporters nervous. How was he going to pick up enough voters to win the general election?
After the primary, The Metro spoke to Bishop James Williams about the people he knew who were excited to vote for El-Sayed, and about those who were less certain.
Bishop Williams is the founder and senior pastor of Spirit and Truth Christian Ministries in Detroit. He’s also the second vice president of the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity. That group supported El-Sayed during the primary.
Williams spoke to host Robyn Vincent about what El-Sayed’s victory—and this broader political moment—means for his congregants.
Michigan voters reject data centers in midterm elections
Data centers were on the mind of many voters during the 2026 midterm elections. In Michigan, Democratic challenger Will Lawrence campaigned on a data center moratoriam and defeated incumbent Tom Barrett, flipping the 7th Congressional District seat.
Opposing data center construction is a national trend. According to a recent Gallup poll, nearly 71% of Americans don't want them in their neighborhood.
Tech policy expercy Darrell West, a senior fellow in the center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution, says the ongoing battle to develop new data centers has "upended politics as we know it." He adds that the economic output of data centers isn't enough to outweigh the costs for residents as they increase local energy bills and deplete natural resources.
West spoke about data centers and their effect on Michigan's midterm elections with Robyn Vincent.
When anti-Muslim politics stopped being a whisper
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed will be the first Muslim to sit in the U.S. Senate. He got there through a campaign in which his religion was the case against him — from his Republican opponent Mike Rogers, from sitting members of Congress and from President Donald Trump, who stood on a stage in Port Huron nine days before the vote and said he was there to stop a “jihadist.”
Independent journalist Ali Harb covered the race from inside Michigan’s Arab American and Black communities. He joins Robyn Vincent to talk about why that language travels so easily now, why it so rarely costs the people who use it, and what a campaign like this leaves behind for Michiganders who were never on a ballot. Have thoughts? Email the show at metro@wdet.org
What the Republican Party could look like without Trump
Democrats won huge last night. That was in part because of the populist bent of many Democratic candidates. It was also because Republicans and President Donald Trump, in particular, made decisions — war and tariffs — that have angered voters and led to a higher cost of living.
In the meantime, President Trump’s massive wealth has increased exponentially since he’s been back in office. All this has made Trump very unpopular. Still, he made the midterms all about him.
Is it time for the Republican Party to distance itself from Trump? If so, what should post-Trump conservatism look like?
Republican Andrea Bitely is the founder and principal of Bitely Communications. She was part of Mike Duggan’s campaign for governor. She recently wrote about her own discomfort with the Republican Party, and how she voted purple on her ballot. Bitely spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent.
Why Detroiters chose Democratic Socialists
Detroit’s politics have never been simple. This is the city that produced the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in the 1960s.
It’s also the city that voted for Haley Stevens over Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in the August primary, by over 60%. And yet, recently, Democratic Socialists have been gaining a lot of ground.
At the city council level, that includes Gabriella Santiago-Romero and Denzel McCampbell. At the state level, Chris Gilmer-Hill was just voted in. And, Detroit’s Congressional members — Rashida Tlaib and member-elect Donovan McKinney, are both members of the Democratic Socialists of America.
What accounts for this trend? And, what does it say about the political leanings of Detroiters?
Donna Givens-Davidson is the president and CEO of Eastside Community Network and co-host of the Authentically Detroit podcast. She was also part of Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield’s transition team.
Why Democrats are expected to make big gains
After President Trump was elected for a second time, Democrats had been described as “lost in the wilderness.” Today, on Election Day, polling suggests they may have found their way.
We won't know anything until all the ballots are counted. But Democrats are likely to take back power in the House. They could also do something that was unlikely just months ago: They could win a majority of Senate seats.
E.J. Dionne is a contributing columnist at the New York Times, a professor at Georgetown, and a senior fellow at Brookings. He spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent.
South Africa’s Poet Laureate talks exile, liberation and Detroit’s role in ending apartheid
50 years ago students in Soweto, South Africa stood up to apartheid and poetry carried the story across the world. We’ll explore how Detroit played a critical role in putting those poems in the hands of the people. South Africa’s National Poet Laureate Mongane Wally Serote joined the show alongside Laura Kraftowitz, co-founder of City of Asylum/Detroit and current president of Broadside Lotus Press Christopher Rutherford too discuss the power of poetry as a catalyst for liberation movements.
Oakland and Wayne County museum funding proposal leaves out Macomb
This election, voters in Oakland and Wayne County are deciding on the “Southeast Michigan Public Historical Museum Authority Millage Proposal.”
It’s a 10-year, $0.2 million property tax proposal that would guarantee funding through 2035 for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Historical Museum and the Dossin Great Lakes Museum. Beyond that, there’s also a 15% allotment for other historical museums throughout Wayne and Oakland County.
Missing from that proposal is Macomb County. That ties into a running narrative of Macomb not receiving the same level of funding for culture and the arts that its neighbors in Oakland and Wayne do.
While budget numbers do vary from-year-to-year, a study by a Macomb nonprofit found that the county received about $36 in grant funding per-resident, while Oakland and Wayne Counties receive over $200 dollars.
That means art and historical institutions in Macomb County face different fiscal realities compared to its neighbors.
Matt Matthews is the executive director of the Anton Art Center in Mount Clemens. He stopped by The Metro to talk with Alex McLenon about arts and culture funding in Macomb County.
How one Michigan farmer is navigating 'skyrocketing prices'
Farmers growing corn and soybeans are getting more for their crop than they did a year ago, but farm bankruptcies are up nearly 19% anyway. These workers are spending more on essentials like fertilizer and fuel. And, the Agriculture Department expects farm income to drop 5.5% once inflation is accounted for, and that’s with $47 billion in government payments holding it up.
What does this look like on the ground, in the field, for a Michigan farmer? Mark Zacharda is the manager of Zacharda Farms II in Owosso, which sits between Lansing and Flint. Zacharda spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent.
Grandma Bob’s Spread Dough invites culinary visionaries to create unique pies for charity
On the last Tuesday of every month, pizzeria Grandma Bob’s invites local culinary visionaries to create unique Detroit-style pizzas for charity in a collaboration called Spread Dough.
Spread Dough has been running for the last 3 years. Proceeds made from the pizzas go to the charity of the chefs choosing.
Tomorrow at Grandma Bob’s Corktown location, Detroit-style pizza gets a Korean American twist. From 3-9 p.m., customers can try a one of a kind pie.
Lisa Kim is co-founder of Detroit Asian Collective, a MoveDetroit ambassador and featured cook for this month’s Spread Dough at Grandma Bobs. John Kwiatkowski is co-founder and co-owner of Grandma Bob’s alongside his brother David.
Kim and Kwiatkowski joined The Metro to talk more about Spread Dough, Grandma Bob's and Asian American culinary experiences.
This local organizer is against Flock cameras. Here's why.
Flock Safety cameras read license plates. They photograph every car that passes — the plate, the make, the model, even the bumper stickers — and they put it all in a database police can search. Many people are against this national network of cameras. But police and some local leaders say the surveillance technology reduces crime and helps solve investigations. This week, Sterling Heights voted to renew its Flock contract. Inkster is moving forward with an expanded partnership with the security system. But other communities are pushing back. Places like Clawson, St. Clair Shores, and Madison Heights have recently canceled their Flock contracts or covered their cameras. Ferndale was one of the first cities in Metro Detroit to cancel its Flock contract. Prasad Venugopal was part of that effort. He’s a member of the Ferndale Inclusion Network, the Block Flock national coalition, and he’s working with Hazel Park residents to remove Flock from that suburb. Venugopal spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent.
The gap between the price index and your grocery cart
Grocery prices have almost stopped rising, and almost nobody believes it. Michigan State food economist David Ortega joins host Robyn Vincent to explain what that actually means: prices didn’t come down, they stopped climbing from a much higher place.
Grocery costs in metro Detroit are rising nearly twice as fast as the national rate. And the average that says food barely got more expensive doesn’t describe anybody’s cart.
Have thoughts? Email the show at metro@wdet.org
Italian performers featured in upcoming Concert of Colors show
The Concert of Colors Neighborhood Series is bringing a slate of Italian music performances to the Macomb Center for Performing Arts with a show this Saturday, Oct. 24 at 2 p.m. It comes during Italian American Heritage Month.
Once upon a time, there was an Italian community in the city of Detroit. And there are still residents across Michigan with Italian heritage.
Lisa Bica Grodsky from the NOI Foundation, which supports Italian Language Education in Michigan schools. Michele Ramo string virtuoso who will be among those performing in this weekend’s show. They joined The Metro to speak with Tia Graham.
The Baptizum Gospel Archive as a portal and a séance
The Bap-Tizum Black Gospel Archive built by Detroit artist, composer and essayist, Ben Hall, is one of the largest collections of Black and African American sermons, hymns and songs.
In 2019, a fire burned Hall’s home, destroying items, yet as if a miracle, a few gospel records survived.
Choir: The Theology of Preservation through sermons and songs from the Bap-Tizum Black Gospel Archive is an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
Each Wednesday through Dec. 16 from noon to 2 p.m., Hall plays records from the collection. The sessions take place inside the Mike Kelley Homestead at MOCAD.
Hall is a 2014 Kresge Artist Fellow, co-director of Catalytic Sound Collective, an experimental music streaming platform. And he’s currently working on the book called "A Black Liberation Music Guide."
He joined The Metro to talk more about the exhibition and music as a portal to the past.
Who gets to be college ready?
Only about a quarter of Michigan high school juniors test as college ready on the SAT. Younger students are struggling too — third graders just posted their lowest reading scores in the 12-year history of the state’s M-STEP exam.
Detroit is the exception, gaining in both reading and math while the state average fell, in a district where nearly four in five students qualify for subsidized meals.
Cyekeia Lee, executive director of the Detroit College Access Network, joins host Robyn Vincent to discuss what “college ready” actually measures, what it means to build meaningful access to college, and what she tells young people who come into her office saying they want to be influencers.