Dispatch from Detroit 5 | Searching for Seymour
I’m at 8 Mile Road and Wyoming Ave. This is the corner where my grandfather Seymour Wedes was killed on October 13, 1970. He was shot by robbers in his popular costume jewelry store ‘The Jewel Box’ at...
View ArticleSearching For Seymour | The Cemetery
On my drive home from family dinner tonight I passed by my Papa Seymour’s grave. It took me two city blocks to muster up the courage to turn around and enter the cemetery, an uncomfortable place for...
View ArticleVIDEO Dispatch from Detroit – #DetroitWater + Bankrupt-o-Mania
SUBSCRIBE to my channel + blog for more updates! Here’s the Tricycle Collective project mentioned above.
View ArticleMy Last Tweet: A New Chapter for Me and for @OccupyWallStNYC
“No bombs or bullets or rocks or guns. Just hashtags and voices at the tops of their lungs!” -Lupe Fiasco, To the Sep17 Occupiers “Moneyman” It is with hopeful optimism that I announce today my...
View ArticleDispatch from Detroit: Work is What We Want And Not Charity
“Ah, but SEE! He still has a TELEPHONE! And evidently, he has enough money for CARDBOARD and INK! Just as I suspected, another lying hustler! Get a job, loser!” Source: http://goo.gl/d6RW8q In a time...
View ArticleDispatch from Detroit: Let’s Put Detroit Back to Work
A boarded-up house next to the former Michigan Central Station building near downtown Detroit. Photo: Balazs Gardi This article originally appeared on JustinWedes.com Over the course of the last few...
View ArticleBringing Detroit Online: How New Social Network Tsu Could Help Close the...
The Detroit Water Brigade’s profile page on new social network Tsu. Last week on a visit to New York City, I met a polite, unassuming young man who has a plan that could bring down Facebook. His name...
View ArticleTurning Ms. Connie’s Water Back On
This article originally appeared on DetroitWaterBrigade.org With help from the Detroit Water Brigade and small donors from around the world, one more Detroiter has running water and peace of mind...
View ArticleHow a Detroit Homestead Act Could Fix the Motor City’s Housing and Revenue...
A green city block was once the site of John A. Owen Elementary School, recently torn down as part of a Detroit Public Schools initiative to demolish vacant schools, seen as safety hazards. Photo:...
View ArticleDispatch from Detroit: Debt-roit
Original Photo: NY Times Croatia, a small Mediterranean country of 4.4 million, just did an amazing thing: it wiped clean the debts of its 60,000 poorest citizens. Their Deputy Prime Minister, Milanka...
View ArticleDispatch from Detroit: I’m Quitting Facebook
Peace Out, Facebook. tl;dr version: I’m shutting down my Facebook profile. If you don’t care why and just want to know where I’m going instead, jump down to the big bold link below… I’m busting out...
View ArticleOde to the Social Gadfly
This one is dedicated to all those annoying gadflies out there. You know who you are. You’re speaking inconvenient or uncomfortable or economically-unprofitable truths on the daily. Your old friends...
View ArticleCome to the NYC Debut of A Dangerous Game!
A Dangerous Game Director Anthony Baxter finds himself on a journey to global hot spots where Donald Trump and other rapacious developers – often in cahoots with local officials – are using golf as a...
View ArticleDispatch from Detroit: Life After Facebook
Two months ago, I walked out of the Facebook factory. I was tired of spending countless hours every day checking notifications. I had become addicted to that nice feeling of a picture being “LIKED” 5...
View ArticleThis Year, Let’s Not Let Detroit Shut Off the Water
Demonstrators protest against the Detroit Water and Sewer Department July 18, 2014 in Detroit, Michigan. (AFP Photo / Getty Images / Joshua Lott) As the ground thaws, a now-familiar scene is beginning...
View ArticleDispatch from Detroit: Phones in the Hands of the Homeless
It’s difficult for me to stomach the news that Facebook is building a ‘Facebookville’ futuristic city in California. Why? Because I know homeless people who use Facebook in library computer labs. So I...
View ArticleWhy I’m Starting a Union in Detroit
A formerly homeless Detroiter painting the new office of the Detroit Workers and Builders in northwest Detroit. May, 2015 There is no power in the world that can stop the forward march of free men and...
View ArticleDispatch from Detroit: What’s In a Desk?
Last week I inherited a desk. It’s a beautiful Mahogany wood masterpiece with a stamp on the inner drawer that reads STOW-DAVIS: GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN. That seal dates it to around 1914, and set my...
View ArticleRebuilding Hope in the Motor City
Staff of the House of Help Community Center and Detroit Workers & Builders launching their joint $100,000 IndieGoGo Campaign I woke up this morning with a wide grin on my face, and instead of the...
View ArticleDetroit Workers and Builders: Rebuilding Hope
Click here to learn more & pitch in to the campaign! Justin Wedes is a community organizer, activist and the Founder & President of the Detroit Workers and Builders. Headquartered in the House...
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