Detroit thread. Post Kwame, Monica, and $1 houses here.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Large tracks of green spaces. Won't that just become a shanty town or open air drug market?

[Savonarola]

Large tracks of green spaces. Won't that just become a shanty town or open air drug market?

A hundred homes is peanuts in Detroit; Bing plans to demolish 40,000.  There's no reason to build a shanty town on abandoned land or open air drug markets; there's plenty of abandoned houses and buildings to squat in or turn into a drug house if you so desire.  The more likely scenario is that they'll be used as illegal dumps.

[Caliga]

So Sav, are you ever planning on leaving Detroit?

[Savonarola]

So Sav, are you ever planning on leaving Detroit?

Not me, I like Detroit.   

[Caliga]

Well, I guess it's the place to be if you're into urban exploration.

[Malthus]

Well, I guess it's the place to be if you're into urban exploration.

Who knows, you might be lucky enough to find the frozen corpse of a street person.

[Caliga]

If that happened to me, I'd just push the body underneath the nearest pile of used hypodermic needles and hope nobody noticed.

[Savonarola]

Minn. college kids hit the road to save Detroit
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News
Detroit —It's 700 miles to Detroit. They have a full tank of gas, munchies and a plan to save a city most of them have never seen.

Five community college students plan to hit the highway from Bloomington, Minn., this morning in hopes of presenting Mayor Dave Bing with their strategy for turning around Detroit. It's a plan they've crafted this semester in their city politics class, studying Bing's Detroit Works Project to reshape the city by enticing residents to concentrate in viable neighborhoods.

"We said, 'Why are we talking about this and why aren't we taking action?'" said Marcus Page, 20, of St. Paul, Minn., a student at Normandale Community College who contacted The Detroit News this week seeking help reaching local leaders.

"The city was booming when my grandmother was a teenager and look at it now. I'd like to see it booming again. Cities all over are going to happen like this. We have to stick together."

The nontraditional road trip illustrates how Detroit has become a laboratory for urban reformers, with national groups pitching ideas to rescue the city whose population plunged 25 percent to about 714,000 since the 2000 census. The American Assembly public policy forum is coming to the Westin Book Cadillac on April 14-17 to discuss proposals.

Page and his peers think they have the answer: Rebuild from the core.

One key element of their plan is dramatically boosting the size of Wayne State University, making Detroit known as an education epicenter and turning Midtown into "the beating heart of the city," Page said.

It would be modeled after Dinkytown, a funky Minneapolis neighborhood of bars and streetcars near the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus.

The Detroit Police Department has committed to giving the students a tour, said their professor, Kurt Burch. That news helped persuade the last student's mother into giving permission for the trip — although the group had to agree to stay at a hotel in Farmington Hills.

"My parents were kind of iffy about staying in Detroit," said Page, who is alone among his classmates in having previously visited Detroit.

Bing spokeswoman Karen Dumas said her office will connect with the students, but didn't say whether they'll get an audience with the mayor.

Burch said studying the city has engaged his students unlike other lessons that weren't so "real world." He said the city's problems became "more puzzling and overwhelming" as they did research.

"A bit of this is, 'Let's go visit the moon,'" Burch said. "Is it really that different?"

I tried to give money to Wayne State this January, and they turned me down.     Usually I'd compliment them on their high standards, but they did award me a degree. 

[Slargos]

Oh lord, mr ford, I just wish that you could see
what your simple horse-less carriage has become. 

[Savonarola]

Highland Park schools' $400K: Where did it go?
District can't find evidence radio ads were even created

BY JOE SWICKARD
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER Filed Under
It was an unusual business relationship: no contract, no school board approval and no apparent oversight of how the money was spent.

Yet under that setup, the distressed Highland Park Public Schools wrote nearly $400,000 in checks from 2007 through last year to a company that was supposed to oversee a radio campaign aimed at attracting students to the struggling district.

Now the district's attorney and other officials wonder what they got for their money.

The firm, called Zenoco, was headquartered in Ray Township, 32 miles from foundering Highland Park, and operated out of a streamside Mediterranean-style home accented by ornate lamps and statuary behind a brick gate.

Records reviewed by the Free Press show that former school board President Robert Davis recommended Zenoco for the business, which was handled outside of normal contracting and review processes.

George Butler III, the district's lawyer, said school officials can now find no evidence that Zenoco developed the ad campaign as promised, and the district has run into dead ends trying to find out what ads were bought, and where and when they allegedly aired.

"We can't get answers," Butler said. He's urging a criminal investigation by the state attorney general. The FBI has jumped in, recently raiding Davis' home in search of financial records and information about Zenoco and its owner, David Vettese, court records show.

Zenoco representatives did not respond to repeated request for comment from the Free Press.

School board member Debra Humphrey has sued Davis and, as part of the legal action, has probed his relationship with Zenoco looking for improprieties.

Details prove hard to find in Highland Park district's radio ad deal
For Highland Park Public Schools in 2007, each student was more than an eager learner -- every kid was another $7,000 in per-pupil state funding.

With enrollment and the state aid money tied to it falling, the shrinking district set out to recruit new students through a promotional radio advertising campaign.

Or so it seemed.

Four years later, the threadbare district has seen its enrollment nosedive to 1,258 -- a drop of more than 50% after an upward bump in 2008 -- and the district is unsure what it got for the $387,000 paid to Zenoco, a Macomb County start-up company that was supposed to oversee the promotional campaign, yet had no apparent media-buying experience.

Beyond its own canceled checks and sketchy invoices from Zenoco, the district has little to show for its outlay. One order was even questioned by a school staffer who wrote, "Who is this company?" on the invoice.

Who indeed, officials wonder, because of the extraordinary relationship the district had with the company, as revealed through court documents and other records. Those show:

• Zenoco had no formal contract during its four-year run with Highland Park schools. And its services were never formally approved by the school board.

• There are no documents showing exactly what ads were purchased, on which stations or when they aired.

• No Zenoco company checks, which the Free Press reviewed, were written to any radio or broadcast companies. And school district payments into the company's account were routinely withdrawn after a few days.

• Zenoco President David Vettese filed for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy in 2008, listing the company's value at $1 for the name and $1,000 in its account. However, according to court records, in 2008 alone, Zenoco's account got $122,000 from the Highland Park schools and had more than $119,000 in withdrawals.

Legal efforts
Vettese and past school board president Robert Davis asserted their Fifth Amendment right in questioning for a civil lawsuit brought by a current board member.

The board member, Debra Humphrey -- who counter-sued Davis when he sued to overturn her election -- contends in court filings that the Zenoco dealings were a sham to shuffle school money to Davis.

Zenoco is a "shell company ... for the purpose of receiving thousands of dollars from the Highland Park School District ... he was not entitled to receive," according to her filings.

School board attorney George Butler III is frustrated by the dead ends and says it's time for a law enforcement agency with the legal muscle to go after the answers. Other school board members also have expressed concern and dismay at the lack of documentation or accountability.

Meanwhile, federal agents raided Davis' home last month looking for financial documents and information about Zenoco and Vettese. U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade declined to discuss any matters related to Highland Park.

Davis, an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees staffer and political enthusiast, declined to speak directly with the Free Press about Zenoco. And Vettese could not be reached by phone or in person at his home or listed businesses, nor through his listed attorneys, registered mail or e-mail.

A chance meeting
As told through Davis' lawyer, Carl Marlinga, fate brought the school district and Zenoco together in 2007 in a private suite at a Pistons game: The district was looking for a promoter, and Vettese was scouting prospects for his new business.

Highland Park's enrollment was rapidly declining in 2007, and Superintendent Arthur Carter wanted to stop the bleeding, Marlinga said.

"It was a matter of happenstance," Marlinga said. Davis passed along Vettese's name to Carter, "and beyond this, he really doesn't have much of a history with this company or the Vetteses," Marlinga said.

"At the time, they seemed on the up and up and very effective," Marlinga said.

In a deposition taken as part of the litigation with Humphrey, Davis invoked the Fifth Amendment when questioned about Vettese and Zenoco.

Carter, in his deposition as part of the Humphrey suit, said that the Highland Park-Zenoco relations started with Davis' recommendation "that this was a reliable firm."

Citing frail health, Carter declined to be interviewed by the Free Press and authorized his lawyer, Richard Convertino, to speak on his behalf.

"Dr. Carter had faith and trust in Robert Davis," Convertino said. "There was no reason to doubt the record of Robert Davis."

According to Convertino, Carter was swamped with cascading crises at the district and Zenoco, like other less pressing affairs, was delegated to others. Now, he said, it appears that "some people clearly did not have the good of the school district on the forefront of their minds."

Money patterns emerge
The Palace suite hookup turned out to be a boon for Zenoco. Vettese of Macomb Township started the company in January 2007, set up an account at a TCF Bank and listed his father's Ray Township home as the company's address.

Zenoco deposited its first check from Highland Park in July 2007, records show. The sketchy school records described the $92,000 as being for media consulting. Three days later, bank records show, $82,000 was withdrawn from the Zenoco account.

This was the start of a pattern, according to the bank records that were part of the Humphrey lawsuit: Deposits of checks from the Highland Park district went into Zenoco's account, typically followed in a matter of days by matching, or nearly matching, cash withdrawals.

In all, $152,000 went into the account from the school district in 2007. And withdrawals -- differentiated in bank statements from checks and transfers -- were at least $170,000.

The bank records in the court file show a distinction between Zenoco and Vettese's other interests, but no Zenoco checks were shown to have been written on the account to any radio station or broadcast company. Thousands, however, went to David Vettese and Vince and Kelly Vettese. Thousands also went to a V&V Investments, plus other money to real estate companies and restaurant suppliers.

The school district's records for 2007 show the money being designated for media buys, a school attendance count day performance and other advertising and promotions.

As for V&V Investment, in August 2007, David Vettese set up the company with plans to open a Big Apple Bagel shop in Rochester Hills. Again, it was family-based and Vince Vettese, a brother, was listed as a vice president with the Rochester Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The bagel venture failed, and Vince and Kelly Vettese filed for bankruptcy in 2008.

As for Zenoco, Highland Park school officials said they have been unable to find a contract or board authorization to cover the Zenoco dealings.

Superintendent Carter was hazy about the Zenoco arrangement in his deposition taken in the Humphrey suit.

"Well, I don't know if I would use the word 'contract,' " he told Humphrey's lawyers Ben Gonek and Peggy Madden.

Butler said a search of school records and board minutes yielded no contracts or authorizations for a campaign.

He said that Carter "did bring a request for radio advertising, but it was $25,000 or $30,000, and it was quite late in terms of what we are looking at."

Vague invoices
Zenoco's invoices were thin on details. Most had general information that the buys would be on urban audience-oriented radio stations run by Clear Channel Radio and Radio One. More than one invoice had incorrect or out-of-date station call letters.

Missing was any breakdown of how much each ad cost, and where and when it was played.

Humphrey and a few other school personnel recall hearing some radio ads and interviews with Carter. But Humphrey said she doesn't recall a concerted on-air campaign.

Butler said he was stonewalled by the radio companies and Zenoco in pinning down specific information: "We asked the company and the stations. None of them responded with any information."

Radio One officials did not respond to calls and e-mails from the Free Press.

John Ballard, a vice president and director of sales for Clear Channel in Detroit, said he could not find any record of Highland Park ads: "So, I'm not sure where the advertising or the campaign would have went to, but it did not go through Clear Channel Radio Detroit."

When asked to double-check the dates, he deferred to corporate headquarters. Wendy Goldberg, executive vice president for marketing and communications, then said its policy doesn't allow discussion of ad sales.

Media buying experts said the district should have access to ads purchased and other details.

"This should be relatively easy information to obtain," said Michael Bernacchi, a marketing professor at the University of Detroit Mercy. "Transparency is the verbiage of the marketplace these days.

He added, "$400,000 or so is a significant amount for a district like Highland Park. This is something that deserves specific data in much greater detail."

Highland Park is one of two cities completely surrounded by Detroit (Hamtramck, the Eastern European immigrant ghetto, is the other.)  At the beginning of the 20th Century it was on the outskirts of the city of Detroit.  Henry Ford built the first Model Ts there, later it was the headquarters of Chrysler; today it's not doing so well.  My brother once worked at the Detroit Science Center; the caterer for the center's cafeteria grew up in Highland Park.  One day a childhood friend of the caterer was in the Science Center and the two men reminisced about high school.  My brother said that everyone they had known from high school was either dead from a drug overdose or doing hard time in Jackson State Penitentary.

[KRonn]

More money scamming in Detroit? No way!  That has to be especially infuriating, for those few left paying taxes in economically distressed Detroit.

[Savonarola]

More money scamming in Detroit? No way!  That has to be especially infuriating, for those few left paying taxes in economically distressed Detroit.

Schools are funded by the state; so they're scamming everyone in economically distressed Michigan.

 

[Caliga]

Hamtramck

How in the hell do you pronounce that word? 

[Maximus]

Hamtramck

How in the hell do you pronounce that word? 

It sounds like something from a fantasy novel, complete with the city-within-a-city theme.

[Savonarola]

Hamtramck

How in the hell do you pronounce that word? 

Ham-tram-ik

It's named after Jean Francois Hamtramck

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Francois_Hamtramck