The door-to-door trick-or-treating that many of us remember so fondly from our childhoods has been replaced in many Detroit neighborhoods by trunk-or-treat and organized parties. Not so for the Audubon Block Club.

I was at Trader Joe’s in Grosse Pointe a few weeks ago, where a young man outside the store was collecting signatures on a ballot initiative sponsored by Americans for Citizen Voting. It would require Michigan voters to provide proof of citizenship to vote.

All you need is one disaster, like a basement flood or a tree falling on your house, to know how important homeowners’ insurance is. But more than one quarter of Detroit residents simply can’t afford the high insurance rates we pay – often significantly higher than our suburban neighbors. O

If you’ve been to any large outdoor gatherings this summer, chances are someone has approached you about signing one of several ballot initiatives to amend the Michigan constitution. These questions will go on the ballot a year from this November if their supporters gather enough signatures statewide in the next few months.

Ever since the Cannon Recreation Center near E. Warren and Cadieux was demolished in 2006, District 4 residents have been the only City Council district without an indoor recreation center. Thanks to $14 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, we now have a place for year-round recreational activities.

Lawrence Purifoy might very well be a Ford Motor Company executive today instead of Commander of the 5 Precinct if he’d gotten a different phone call back in the summer of 1996.

Something special happened when the skies opened up last month in the middle of our third annual Summer Sizzler. Instead of running for their cars, most people huddled together under the picnic shelter, chatting and laughing as they waited out the storm.

When you treat violent crime as a public health crisis rather that a problem you can arrest your way out of, you can make communities safer. That’s what Detroit and other cities around the country are learning through community violence intervention (CVI) programs like ShotStoppers.