Downtown Newsmagazine | Birmingham/Bloomfield

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SCHOOL DIGITAL CURRICULUM HAS ITS DETRACTORS

Some countries have limited digital learning platforms to high school students and school districts of all sizes in Michigan and other states are taking the cue and getting back to basics in the classroom out of concern that setbacks in learning could be a result of too much reliance on computers and other devices.

A recap of select categories of crime occurring in the past month in Birmingham, Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Hills, presented in map format, plus a reminder about our online interactive map with story details on public safety incidents.

More conflicting political polls; what the prediction markets say about the races; Stevens-McMorrow catfight; Perry Johnson-John James square off; plus more.

Birmingham to buy The Community House; two tax renewals on August ballot; commission remains deadlocked on vacancy; city grapples with short-term rentals policy; community survey set; new water and sewer rates’; plus more.

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OAKLAND CONFIDENTIAL

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PUNCHING POLLSTERS: The polls for the marquee races for August’s primary are coming in fast and furious, often with conflicting determinations on who could prevail to be the party’s candidate heading into the November general election for senate and governor. Twiddling the numbers is especially notable amongst the three Democrats fighting to be the standard bearer to replace retiring U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Township).

Depending on the day and the poll, any of the three running – Congresswoman Haley Stevens, state Senator Mallory McMorrow or Abdul El-Sayed – are leading in the polls. According to Republican strategist Dennis Darnoi, the latest Glengariff poll, which currently shows as the presumed Republican leader, former Congressman Mike Rogers, narrowly leading all three Democrats, with Stevens at 41.5 percent to Rogers’ 43.8 percent, McMorrow at 40.7 percent to Rogers’ 42.8 percent – each a statistical dead heat –and El-Sayed at 39.8 percent to Rogers’ 44.7 percent. A competing poll, by Mitchell Research, upended Glengariff’s, with El-Sayed in the lead, with 28 percent of Democrats responding versus just 18 percent supporting Stevens and 17 percent supporting McMorrow – but a full 38 percent undecided. “Glengariff polls, especially in gubernatorial years, tend to be very reliable,” Darnoi pointed out. Of note, he said, is that the Mitchell poll, like a previous Emerson poll, indicated they gave 30 percent of the vote to 18-40 year olds, which Darnoi said, “We have seen that age group is about 16 (percent) of the vote, and in a competitive primary, maybe up to 19 percent of voters. The reason that is important is El-Sayed is doing better with that demographic, while Haley is doing better with older voters,” who traditionally have a higher voter turnout. He noted that “McMorrow does well in a social media universe, but actual primary voters in Michigan (may) have a different perspective of her than primary voters.” Democratic consultant Joe DiSano was blunter. “This Mitchell poll was a farce. It was conducted by text, which is answered by more liberal and young respondents. This is all predicated on turning out youth in the August primary.” He continued, prognosticating, “Progressives are outliers. They will continue to be loud and not win other than in small enclaves.”

THE PREDICTION MARKET: Ten weeks out from absentee ballots being released, and prognosticators bemoan the high numbers – anywhere from 15 percent up to as much as 36 percent – of undecided voters in political polls for the more competitive races. Add to the mix, the prediction markets for those who would wager actual dollars on events like who would win a primary race this August and the general election come November. Prediction market betting has been around for decades but it took a federal court decision in 2024 to open up elections as a legitimate event on which to cast bets. As some trivia – prediction platforms now bring in $2 billion annually but are projected to generate $10 billion a year by 2030. And there are some academic types who maintain that some of the major prediction platforms actually match the more reliable polling that takes place since 2024, but count us among the skeptics on that one. Make of that what you will, here’s what the Polymarket platform shows about the hotly contested race among Democrats for the U.S. Senate position that appears on the primary ballot. On April 20, Abdul El-Sayed led the pack with 51 percent; MalloryMcMorrow, 35 percent; and Haley Stevens at 15 percent. On May 17, El-Sayed still ruled and his position

increased to 56 percent; McMorrow decreased to 25 percent; and Stevens dropped to 13 percent. Over in the Democrat primary for the U.S. House 11th district, the post Stevens is giving up to run for the U.S. Senate, state Senator Jeremy Moss clocked in at 91 percent, with Aisha Farooqi from Troy and Don Ufford of Bloomfield Township both at five percent. Yes, we will revisit the Polymarket platform just before election night this August. You can bet on that.

CAT FIGHT: As the three Democratic Senate candidates battle it out to be the standard bearer moving past the primary, the two female candidates, Haley Stevens and Mallory McMorrow, are particularly vicious towards each other. They attack one another over issues large, and small, while Abdul El-Sayed, who has increasingly been facing calls of antisemitism and investigations into his background and truthfulness over his continual labeling of himself as a physician, when he never completed his residency nor sat for his medical license, a violation of medical ethics. As for Stevens and McMorrow, McMorrow unearthed a June 2025 congressional vote where Stevens, one of 75 Democrats, voted in favor of a resolution praising law enforcement, including ICE, following an antisemitic molotov cocktail attack in Boulder, Colorado. Stevens spokesperson Arik Wolk told Punchbowl that Stevens has been “fighting back against ICE and Trump’s abuses of power since the start of this administration.” In retaliation, the Stevens campaign has highlighted a series of tweets after CNN discovered thousands of them that McMorrow would be happy to see disappear –she actually had deleted them, which included innocuous items like her complaining about Michigan’s weather after moving from California to tweeting that “cars are dead,” not a very good move in Motown, with Stevens constantly pointing out she was “chief of staff for the auto rescue.” Worse, it appears she voted in California in 2016, a mere two years before she ran for Michigan’s Senate, even though she was living in Royal Oak...and registered to vote here. “McMorrow is only going to go after Haley,” said one knowledgeable source. “Her base is progressive so it doesn’t benefit her to go after her base, which is why she is not going after El-Sayed as much.”

MONEY STILL TALKS: Haley Stevens got a minor amount of negative publicity but also considerable help from outside money sources after one of her primary opponents, state Senator MalloryMcMorrow, unleashed criticism over the Congresswoman’s support for a 2025 resolution thanking law enforcement and ICE. The Center for Democratic Priorities, a mystery group of sorts that was just recently formed, immediately pledged and began spending $5.3 million in the Detroit and other markets across the state to promote on television Stevens proposed regulatory legislation to crack down on ICE. The pro-Stevens commercials even showed during the Pistons games. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that has become a center of controversy in the Senate race, also unleashed at the same time emails attacking Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Relative to AIPAC, a member of Congress has now called for the pro-Israel group to be labeled a foreign lobby group. Since 2022, it has been reported tht AIPAC has donated $1.2 million to the election efforts of Stevens, although as one Republican observer noted, it’s a race that will generate over $200 million when it is all said and done, so “if you want to stay in the game, you need to raise the funds to compete.”

WHAT WILL WIN: With all of the polling ups and downs and tits-for-tat, what will really get voters motivated for a candidate? Each of the candidates are racking up endorsements, which we have noted can influence primary voters as much as 13-16 percent. Abdul El-Sayed has long been endorsed, and campaigned with, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Mallory McMorrow recently received the endorsement of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, and recently announced a slew of former Macomb and St. Clair county leaders endorsing her. But Haley Stevens received the seal of approval from Michigan’s big kahuna, former Senator Debbie Stabenow, who originally said she would not

endorse. “The stakes are too high right now,” as to why she changed her mind, noting that Stevens has “grit,” and will fight for Michigan the way she always did. While the man the three are seeking to replace, Senator Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Township), has not endorsed, his wife, Colleen Peters, also endorsed Stevens, after Oakland Confidential had heard she was sighted attending some of Stevens’ fundraisers. Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm also just endorsed Stevens. Will Stabenow’s or Granholm’s finger on the scale make a difference in this tight race? One politico isn’t sure in 2026, noting that Michigan Democrats are where the Republicans were in 2010 with the Tea Party. “Will a traditional candidate with traditional endorsements be able to carry the day like they did in the past? No one should be surprised if El-Sayed becomes the candidate. I don’t think Haley will be outworked, because she won’t. But primary voters seem to want something different.” Democratic consultant Joe DiSano pointed out that Stevens’ strength is with older voters and African Americans. “Anyone who discounts Stevens does not understand African American and elderly voters. They are reliable and they come out.”

TIT-FOR-TAT: While Dem gubernatorial candidate and current Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has her party’s nomination basically all sewn up, the Republicans are currently eating themselves alive. Witness the back and forth vitriol between leading Republican candidates Congressman John James and businessman Perry Johnson. While most polls acknowledge James is in the lead despite his lackadaisical campaign – rarely showing up with other candidates or at Republican events, fundraising stalling, and barely commenting to media or on social media about the campaign for governor as if it’s something he’s crossing off a list – Johnson continues to swamp the airwaves with selffunded commercials, saturating his image before voters. They each have lobbed accusations against one another that signatures on their petitions to appear on the primary ballot are fraudulent – reminiscent of the scandal which kept Johnson off the 2022 ballot. A Republican expert noted that Johnson’s peitions were “improper in size, and the rules are very specific.” The complaint against Johnson includes duplicate signatures, improper jurisdictions, signature errors and “obvious forgeries.” The complaint against James asserts forgeries, dead people, duplicate signatures and “numerous address and jurisdictional errors.” The board of state canvassers will rule on the petitions at their meeting on May 28. Johnson did take a win against James in a lawsuit where he alleged James had a logo at a campaign event which indicated he is the incumbent governor, with “John James Governor.” The James campaign, the judge said, has to add ‘for Governor.’ “Technically it’s illegal, but likely it was done lazily,” said one politico. “Perry can claim a victory.”

NEPO BABY: It’s the way of the world. We all want to help our kids start out in their careers. For Michael Bouchard Jr., that parental assist may just take him all the way from Birmingham, where he grew up and attended Brother Rice High School, to the military, and now to Congress, where he is running for the 10th District as a Republican to replace the ever-restless John James. According to reports, his recent campaign finance report indicates that more than half of the donations to his campaign came from people who know his father as well as an outside group of donors who know his dad, long-time Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard “I absolutely love the support my father and some of our lifelong friends have brought,” the former Army paratrooper told The Detroit News. “Nepo baby’s going to nepo,” said one politico. “It’s the normal thing to do.” Competing Republican Robert Lulgjuraj is complaining to all who’ll listen that he feels like he’s running against both Bouchard’s...but that’s just the name of this game. On one side, voters may feel comfortable with a recognizable name. On the con, many voters today resent a political dynasty. As for Lulgjuraj, he just prevailed against two lawsuits challenging his eligibility to remain on the ballot, with courts determining he had enough valid signatures to run. See you in August.

FACES

Lucas Senic and Luao Yang

Bloomfield Hills High School students and award-winning fencing champions

Lucas Senic and Luao Yang began their journey as young boys at the Renaissance Fencing Club.

“I started at (Renaissance Fencing Club) when I was eight-years-old,” said Yang. “I thought (fencing) was interesting. It was like a puzzle or a game to see who would make the next right decision.”

Senic, a 15-year-old sophomore at Bloomfield Hills, was a sports enthusiast from an early age.

“I was six-years-old when I started fencing,” Senic said. “My parents were both coaches at the Renaissance Fencing Club.”

Yang and Senic recently returned from the Fencing World Championship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“We won the team under-20 event,” said Yang.

Senic earned the top spot on the under-17 roster.

“I was on the World Championship Team and the number one fencer for the U.S. this year,” he said. “It was amazing.”

Senic also won medals at all four International Cadet Events this season. He won silver in Warsaw, Poland, and in Cabries, France. He won bronze in Nuremberg, Germany, and gold in Sofie, Bulgaria.

“It was a very good feeling to win those medals for the United States,” Senic said. “It was very emotional.”

Yang, an 18-year-old senior at Bloomfield Hills, has been going to the national competitions since he was 10-years-old. He represented the U.S. in 2024, 2025 and 2026 at the Junior and Cadet World Championships. He also won gold in 2025 at the Cadet Men’s Individual Foil in Wuxi, China.

“It was really amazing to finish gold,” Yang said. “I was so proud. I was over the moon and it was a great feeling. I just want to fence my best and represent this great country.”

While both Yang and Senic dedicate copious hours each week to the sport of fencing, they also recognize the importance of academics.

“When I have to miss school, my teachers will give me the work in advance,” Senic said. “The teachers are very supportive and accommodating. I have a 3.7 grade point average.”

Yang maintains a 4.0 grade point average.

“My mindset is school first. My parents and coaches agree with that,” Yang said. “I value both, but academics is very important to me.”

In addition to achieving high academic scores, both young men spend a lot of time honing their craft at the Renaissance Fencing Club.

“I practice five times a week,” Senic said. “And, I take a lesson every single day.”

Yang trains six times a week.

“In total, I train for about 15 hours a week,” Yang said.

Both gentlemen are especially grateful for their parents' dedication in helping to propel them to success.

“My mom, especially, has been my biggest inspiration,” Senic said. “My mom was an Olympian in 1992, 1996 and 2000.”

Yang’s parents have traveled with him to nearly every tournament.

“My parents commit a lot of time and money to this.” Yang said. “I appreciate my grandma so much, too. She cooks for me and drives me to and from school and practice.”

The exceptionally gifted young men have grand plans for their bright futures.

“I’m going to Stanford University,” Yang said. “I’m going to fence for the Stanford University team.”

Senic has his sights set on the Olympics.

“I want to make the Olympic team for the United States.”

Story: Katey Meisner

Photo: Laurie Tennent

TECH AND EDUCATION

MORE TEACHERS CALL OUT THE DOWNSIDE OF DIGITAL CURRICULUM

BY STACY GITTLEMAN

Mark, a veteran English and journalism teacher in an Oakland County school district, has just about had it. In his 18 years of teaching, he has witnessed the ever-increasing reliance on curriculum delivered digitally and its impact on teaching in classrooms where every student has their own device. Technology has become a barrier between his lessons on writing, literature, grammar, and sentence structure and the students who need to learn them.

When his students are on their laptops or other devices, they are constantly tempted to open another tab on their web browsers that has nothing to do with the lesson. They have learned to work around the filters installed, even on school-supplied laptops, iPads or Tablets.

To supervise device use, Mark uses a software program called GoGuardian. GoGuardian runs either on his laptop, enabling him to watch what every student is doing on their screens, or on the class Smartboard, where every student can keep an eye on what the others are doing.

“That way, every student can see what every other student is looking at on their laptop, and no one wants to be called out or told on for playing a game or watching a YouTube video during class,” Mark said.

But all this monitoring and supervising what their students are doing – or not doing – while on their screens is one more layer that gets in the way of teaching.

“By the end of the year, (the teachers) have had it,” Mark said. “If I have to always be monitoring what students are doing on their individual laptops, I cannot walk around the room and give support and guidance to individual students. And how is that teaching? You just end up spending most of your instruction time making sure your students are staying on task.”

There was a time when the introduction of screen technology was thought to be the most common-sense approach to modernize the American classroom and bring students the skills they needed to thrive in the 21st century.

If your district could afford to purchase wired and then wireless technology as an on-ramp to the information superhighway, it was seen as an asset. But modernizing the classroom in some districts was also viewed as an inequity by others who could not afford the upgrades.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and with it, months-long lockdowns and remote learning that pivoted completely to screens. And for families not fortunate enough to have a dedicated device for each child, or a decent Wi-Fi connection, it cut off a lot of kids from learning.

To increase accessibility, the federal government passed the $7.2 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund in March 2021 to help America’s families without home internet. It also helped schools and libraries increase their capacities to conduct online and remote learning. The money was used to pay for laptops, tablets, modems, Wi-Fi hotspots, routers, and other broadband devices. By February 2022, the program had provided more than 10 million electronic devices and nearly five million internet connections, totaling $4.62 billion, to more than 11,000 schools and 900 libraries.

ix years out of the height of the pandemic, educators, child development experts and psychologists are wishing that our children’s lives were not so wired. All this screen time is negatively impacting every aspect of child development. The federal government that enabled our school districts to get all this technology into our children’s hands is now reversing course.

On January 15, 2026, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, chaired by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), held a full hearing titled “Plugged Out: Examining the Impact of Technology on America’s Youth.” The hearing presented correlations between a child’s mental, cognitive, and social growth and how these factors are impacted by habitual screen time.

According to the committee, children aged eight to 12 years use screens for over five hours daily, and teens use screens for over eight hours daily. That is about half their waking hours.

Overall, teens were sleeping less than the recommended minimum of seven hours a night, and this sleep loss was also attributed to the amount of time they spent at night on screens.

As smartphone usage hit saturation points by 2012, there was a sharp rise in teen mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. Between 2011 and 2019, mental health experts said there were increased emergency room visits for self-harm. It doubled among 15- to 19-year-old girls and young women and quadrupled among 10 to 14-year-old girls. The suicide rate in these adolescent age groups doubled over this same time. By 2023, one out of five

children had a mental or behavioral problem diagnosis, and there has also been a rise in teen suicide rates.

Academically, the congressional hearing pointed to 2012 as the year of a global decline in test scores and literacy rates among 8th and 12th graders.

Expert witnesses referred to a study showing that high school students in the United States are using their phones for about an hour and 10 minutes during the school day, mostly for social media and watching videos.

Researchers said that since the 1800s, when academic and cognitive achievements were first recorded, each generation surpassed the one before it.

Until Generation Z.

This is the first generation, on a global scale, that has underperformed their predecessors at every benchmark, testified neuroscientist and educator Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath.

“Gen Z is the first generation of modern history to underperform us on basically every cognitive measure we have, from basic attention to memory to literacy to numeracy to executive functioning to even general (Intelligence Quotient), even though they attend school for more hours each week than previous generations,” Horvath told Congress. “The answer appears to be the tools we are using within schools to drive that learning. Across 80 countries… once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly to the point where kids who use computers about five hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over two-thirds of a standard deviation less than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school.”

Horvath said that because of these findings, some Scandinavian countries have limited digital learning platforms to high school students. “Those countries just looked at the data [on ed tech] and said, ‘Let’s go back to learning,’” Horvath said. “Whereas the United States says, ‘How can we make it work better?’ I could ask you, ‘How do I make Anthrax better?’ Maybe the answer is you don’t. You go back to not using it.”

Whether or not they tuned into the congressional hearing, school districts of all sizes are taking the cue and getting back to basics in the classroom.

The Los Angeles Public School District, one of the nation’s largest, announced in late April that it would eliminate the use of laptops and tablets in all elementary grade levels.

In tiny Mesik, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the elementary school rolled out a no-screens policy for its 250 elementary school students. They are going back to notebooks, pencils, and only printed books after their literacy rates fell to the bottom 20, 30, or 40 percent on recent national test scores.

As of December 2025, Michigan ranked 44th in the nation in terms of childhood literacy rates.

Debbi Daniels is a longtime eighth-grade language arts teacher in Southfield Public Schools and has seen this literacy decline firsthand.

Daniels said she has noticed among her students a shrinking capacity for imagination. They struggle with creative writing and storytelling assignments, even if they are given writing prompts and cues. She attributes this deficit to screen time exposure.

Also disrupting the flow of learning in the classroom are all the glitches that come with a high-tech classroom. Daniels said many of her teacher colleagues are tired of fiddling with bad Wi-Fi connections or iPads or Tablets that quickly run out of battery life.

They want to bring back learning handwriting and cursive that improves fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and has proven to be a brain booster. They also notice that because of screens, kids do not know what to do with themselves during lulls or downtime in class.

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“Sometimes, I’ll be setting up for a lesson in class, and kids will ask me, ‘What should I do?’ I tell them to take out a book or talk to their friends until I am ready,” Daniels said. “But these kids don’t even have this social skill because they are so used to talking and texting through their phones. They are so programmed to watch short videos on TikTok or Instagram. Their attention span is shot. The kids do not know how to be bored, and for creativity, boredom is a good thing.”

To counter this, at least 33 states and the District of Columbia now require schools to ban or restrict students’ use of cellphones in school buildings, according to a report in Education Week.

On Feb. 10, 2026, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Senate Bill 495 and House Bill 4141, designed to improve focus during class time by minimizing digital distractions. The bipartisan-supported legislation requires all Michigan school districts to create action plans to keep cell phones away during class, with exceptions for emergencies and academic use. The legislation aims to help students focus more on their schoolwork and encourage healthier habits with screen time and social media use.

Since Whitmer passed the law, Daniels said her school’s principal has purchased boxes where students place their phones as soon as they enter class. This will be officially implemented beginning in the fall, Daniels hopes. But for now, even with the law in place, a phone in a backpack or jacket pocket will still sometimes buzz or ping in the middle of class, even during an exam.

“The kids get annoyed when I ask them to give me their phone,” Daniels said. “And when they complain, I tell them that this is now the law.”

The Michigan Department of Education (MDOE) is strongly supportive of the new policy.

“The Michigan Department of Education recognizes the challenges that smartphones can pose in our classrooms,” said Ken Coleman, MDOE spokesman, in an emailed statement to Downtown. “Data released last year from the National Center for Education Statistics showed us just how significant the problem of cellphones in schools has become. Nationally, 53 percent of public-school leaders feel that their students’ academic performance has been negatively affected by cellphone usage. More than two-thirds feel that cellphones have hurt their students’ mental health and attention span. We are grateful that the legislature and the governor also recognize these challenges and that they have taken this step to help our educators and students succeed in the classroom.”

Dr. Tiffany Munzer, a developmental behavioral pediatrician and digital media researcher at the University of Michigan, said the youngest children from ages zero to five must be read to and spoken to as early and often as possible to foster literacy and stay away from screens to benefit their overall cognitive and physical growth.

Her work is driven by the questions that families often present with related to digital media, parenting, and young children’s development.

Munzer is the lead author of the 2026 policy statement Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

It recognizes that in today’s commercialized and addictive “digital ecosystem,” there are consistent links between more time spent with digital media and less optimal child development, learning, social relationships, and emotion regulation.

Munzer became interested in this line of study during her 20132019 medical residency, when parents visiting the clinic asked questions about their very young children’s exposure to digital media and what it meant for their development.

“At the time, we didn’t have the answers to those questions because it was such a novel form of technology,” Munzer said. “At our clinic, we work with the youngest children, from infants up to age five, and their parents. When it comes to developing a child’s brain socially, emotionally and cognitively, parents and caregivers are in constant communication with that child, either by talking to them, or reading a book to them and talking about what’s in the book as you read, from counting animals on a page or mentioning shapes and colors.”

Though Munzer’s expertise does not lie in educational research, she said teachers are answering their professional calling and are always trying to do what is best for their students. It is not the fault of teachers, but the technology and software programs marketed and sold to school districts as educational tools that can be linked to distractions in class and declines in literacy.

“Even if this software is running on school-approved laptops and other devices, children find ways around the firewalls and other prevention mechanisms and can load games and other applications that are not part of the prescribed educational materials,” Munzer said.

She said this is an even greater challenge for patients coming to her clinic with attention deficit disorders or who are on the autism spectrum.

Their brains are just more curious, and they explore their digital environment more deeply,” Munzer said. “It is just easier for them to fall into avenues of content that are not aligned with the classroom material. It is the biggest problem that we’ve heard from our patients and families. It is very tricky to navigate learning in an online digital environment when so many extraneous distractions are so easily accessible.”

Munzer continued: “We have designed these systems that rely less on a student’s own impulse control and more on a teacher’s limited ability to watch over the screens of 25 students, and that teacher is just trying to teach the content of their day’s lesson. They don’t have the bandwidth to monitor every child’s laptop.”

Munzer is also the medical director of “Reach Out and Read Michigan,” an evidence-based national intervention program that provides free books for at-risk young children across the country.

She added that Michigan’s low ranking in childhood literacy can be attributed to poor investment in early childhood education and family support, and it needs a multi-pronged approach.

The first steps can be as simple as reading a book to the smallest of babies, making eye contact with them, and speaking to them to create a language-rich environment at home.

To Munzer, books are diagnostic tools that should be included in every well-child visit. She regards their importance just as much as vaccines, height, and weight measurements. At every well-child visit to her clinic, a family receives, at no cost, a developmentally appropriate book to bring home. And because there are seven checkups in a child’s first year, that means seven touchpoints to monitor the caregiver-child relationship in terms of appropriate cognitive and language development.

“Handing a book to a parent and child often unlocks this ‘magic moment’ between them that we’re privileged to observe. We can see how they naturally interact over the book and then affirm, ‘You’re doing an amazing job talking with your child—this is exactly how they learn best.’”

When technology is used in the right way, it can be a boon to a student’s love for learning.

Elizabeth is a special needs teacher in Birmingham schools for middle school students and a mother of children in the district.

She said technology can be helpful for children on the autism spectrum or those with attention deficit disorders. For example, children can get an extra boost from computer applications that record and capture their thoughts when speaking into a device as they brainstorm ideas for a writing assignment.

Speech-to-text applications can also help children with their executive functioning skills, helping them organize their schedules to stay on top of assignments and deadlines.

Other platforms, when coupled with a printed novel or textbook, can be read aloud to a student while they follow along to reinforce audio-visual reading comprehension. There are software platforms that can even take books geared for higher reading levels and make them more understandable at that child’s grade or reading level.

“Technology in the schools is a double-edged sword,” Elizabeth said. On one hand, it is a tool to support a student’s learning. For the kids who come to me, technology, when used properly, supports their confidence and independence.”

Elizabeth is also a believer in traditional methods of learning, such as copying notes off a board to reinforce the connection between the mind and the body.

Even in a technology-heavy world, she said the multi-sensory act of handwriting, which requires physical and mental acuity, supports learning and is an important part of brain development. And though it may slow some students down, it is overall a better way of retaining new information.

But social media applications, videos, and games pose tempting diversions from learning, Elizabeth added.

“Many of my students become extremely distracted very quickly,” she said. “I will tell them to be on one (website), I’ll turn my head, and in a second, they are on a completely different site they should not be on, and that’s on a school-sanctioned device. It is hard for them to stay focused and engaged. We don’t have the technology to block every single website they should not be on, and even if we did, they would find ways to get around it.”

Elizabeth also warned about the emotional pitfalls of social media. She has seen bullying, peer pressure, and the dreaded perception as a middle schooler that you are being excluded from a party, outing, or clique, commonly known in the adolescent world as Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO.

“Technology should not be eliminated in the schools, but as educators, we need to be more intentional and clearer with the structures in place,” Elizabeth said. “In Birmingham, phones are not supposed to be out, but not every teacher follows this policy, and really, what are the consequences? It is so hard to enforce.”

Joe Leibson, a middle school Spanish teacher at Birmingham Covington Middle School, has steered away from centering his lessons around computers. His students prefer it that way.

At first, he was excited to try out new customizable educational software products, such as Nearpod, to customize language lessons. He even presented at an educators’ conference back in 2015 on how computer software programs could be incorporated into teaching foreign languages.

These days, his students prefer to learn how to speak Spanish offline.

“Often, they tell me that they have been in front of a screen a lot of the day, and they need a change,” Leibson said. “As a language teacher, a lot of kids would tell me, I don’t want to do something on a screen right now. So my approach has been a lot more just communicative, so a lot more speaking and listening. After all, this is a class where kids are learning how to have a conversation, listen, and respond to each other in a different language. So being off a screen for my class makes sense.”

Administrators at Bloomfield Hills Schools are paying close attention to national trends and viewpoints regarding technology in the classroom and are reviewing changes and usage policies for the 2026-2027 school year.

Bloomfield Hills Schools officials released several emailed statements to Downtown

“Technology use in our classrooms is an important and evolving topic, and one we are actively discussing within our school community,” said Bloomfield Hills Schools Superintendent Rick West. “As part of our strategic planning process during the 2025–26 school year, I have spent time visiting schools and engaging with students, staff, and families. A consistent theme in these conversations has been the importance of finding the right balance with technology, particularly in the younger grades.”

West is also watching what directions are handed down from the state level as legislation concerning technology use by grade continues to be introduced.

“Being thoughtful and intentional about how technology supports teaching and learning is a key component of our strategic plan, which will be launched for the 2026–27 school year,” West said.

Todd Bidlack, assistant superintendent of learning services, said the district remains grounded in research and responsive to the evolving needs of its students. Personal electronic devices such as cell phones are not allowed for elementary and middle school students during the school day. At the high school level, students store their cell phones in a designated area during instructional time.

Bidlack said the district’s libraries show the value of reading fiction or doing research with physical books while at the same time making available digital resources.

“Especially in our younger grades, hands-on learning and the use of physical materials, such as workbooks and manipulatives, remain an important part of daily instruction,” Bidlack said. “As an example, over the last few years, our district has heavily invested in our classroom libraries to ensure each classroom is outfitted with rich texts that support our instruction. Additionally, our Bridges math curriculum in elementary school is highly hands-on and rich in the use of manipulatives, ensuring students build deep conceptual understanding through active learning experiences.”

Bidlack added that the district will never move away from reading physical books. Instilling the enjoyment of sitting alone with a book, from the time a kindergartener settles in their favorite corner of the classroom to read to a high school student who gets immersed in a novel, will always be a core mission for the district.

Technology is only one of many tools that support academic instruction in Bloomfield Hills Schools.

“Our focus is on using it thoughtfully to enhance, not replace, strong teaching and learning practices in an inclusive manner,” Bidlack said. “For example, we have seen the meaningful impact of assistive technologies that help meet the diverse needs of our learners, including students at Wing Lake Developmental Center, allowing for more personalized and equitable learning experiences.”

Samer Alsayed Suliman, the district’s director of technology services, said at the elementary grade level, the district is reevaluating the balance of technology use and traditional hands-on learning. Starting in the fall of 2026, K-2 classrooms will move from a one-to-one device model to a two-to-one model. This reflects how instruction is delivered in these grades and enables more purposeful use of the technology.

“Across all grade levels, technology supports instruction; it does not drive it,” Suliman said. “Teachers have flexibility in how and when devices are used, and expectations are in place to keep

students focused and engaged. We recognize that managing attention in a digital environment is a real challenge, which is why we combine classroom practices with technology controls to support appropriate use.”

Suliman said in the lower grades, the district utilizes filtering and security systems on devices like iPads and Chromebooks designed to promote a safe and age-appropriate digital environment for students and staff, in accordance with applicable laws and guidelines.

At the high school level, students typically bring their own devices, with district-provided options available to ensure access for all students.

“We also recognize that students are growing in a digital world, and part of our responsibility is to prepare them to navigate it successfully. That includes developing the ability to use technology productively, stay focused, and apply it in meaningful ways that support learning,” added Suliman.

In an interview with Downtown, Sharon explained that she has been a social worker in many public-school districts for 29 years and now works in Bloomfield Hills Schools. From her observations in working in schools in the age of increasing digitization and online environments, Sharon said children are way more distracted, anxious, and less engaged than children she taught decades ago.

She has observed a steep drop off in creativity and curiosity, and the loss of abilities to independently seek information and apply critical thinking for written assignments. Grammar skills have “gone out the window.”

“Students are always thinking about what’s on their cell phone,” Sharon said. “Even if the phone is away, tucked into their jacket pocket or backpack, they are missing the fact that they cannot check on it. They are just not as fully present anymore because they’re thinking about what they’re missing on their device.”

Sharon said this lack of being present even occurs during one-onone sessions with students, who may peek at their phone in the middle of their conversation.

“Even though students are not allowed to have their phones out during class, there is this anticipation of waiting for the time of passing between classes that they cannot wait to get their hands on their devices,” Sharon said. “So, students come off as if they have attention deficit disorders. I think they are addicted to their phones and other devices.”

Troy School District has always attempted to be on the leading edge of useful implementation of technology in its classrooms, according to Dr. Richard Machesky, Troy superintendent of schools, in an interview with Downtown

“But we have also been sensitive to technology’s challenges and are trying to strike a balance.”

Machesky said about a year and a half ago, the district’s board of education, some staff, and community members read The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Like the witnesses at the January congressional hearing, Haidt pointed to 2012 when smartphone ownership became pervasive, and childhood migrated from unstructured indoor and outdoor play to something that was mainly experienced through a screen. According to Haidt, it has detrimentally rewired the brains of a generation of children.

“After reading that book together, we are constantly thinking and balancing the presence of technology in the classroom, its advantages and drawbacks,” Machesky said. “We bring into consideration what keeps their attention span and think about anything that may negatively impact a student’s ability to learn.”

Machesky said that there are many advantages to accessing information via the internet in older grades. He said that more educational publishers are releasing exclusively digital products, although they are beginning to offer more products in both digital and analog formats.

“In some ways, our hands were forced because many educational resource publishers shifted away from textbooks and would only offer digital resources,” Machesky said. “This pushed school districts to revolve classes wholly around technology, because that’s where the resources were headed.”

Machesky said when the board of education reviews curricula for purchase, they now look at products where they can bring both digital and printed versions into the district.

“We have also moved towards making available hard copy resources in all our classrooms to balance things out,” Machesky said. “But the value of having curricula on a digital platform is that teachers and students can personalize the material. It allows students to be more creative. And understanding how to use technology as an educational tool is an essential skill for students to build for succeeding in higher education and for their careers.”

Joseph Krajcik, who is the Lappan-Phillips Professor of the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University’s College of Education, agrees that technology is merely a tool. Its effectiveness to help or hinder a child’s education depends on how it is used.

Krajcik has received national accolades for his contributions to science education. From 2015 to 2023, he was commissioned by the George Lucas Foundation to author a multiple intelligences science curriculum that integrates a child’s lived experiences in the world with scientific experimentation. The curriculum, distributed in both digital and printed formats, is intended to spark a love of science learning through experimentation, reading, and discussion.

Krajcik said it does not matter whether a student is reading from a printed book or on a screen. What is most important is the quality of the materials and the level of investment and engagement that the student has with the learning material.

In fact, Krajcik argues that reading about the sciences online may be a preferred way of getting information. In that medium, a teacher can take a base lesson and add hyperlinks for further exploration and reading on a topic.

“I see technology as tools, and I do not think the tools are the problem in education; it is the way they are being used,” Krajcik said. “Using the tool to just push information to kids is not a productive way of teaching. But if we use the tool to engage our students in productive work and let them struggle and problem solve, it can be beneficial. I would never paint this as a black and white picture.”

Speaking from a science and mathematics standpoint, Krajcik said there has always been the presence of technology in classrooms.

Take the humble calculator, for example. Krajcik said it is a great tool to solve more complex problems. But before it is introduced to a student, they must have a grasp of how to perform simpler equations manually, understand the process of how to solve an equation, and gain mastery of that on their own before incorporating the calculator or other computing capabilities to solve more complex problems in math and the sciences.

“Kids learning math and science need to engage in the process and struggle a bit to understand how things work,” Krajcik said. “For example, when studying water quality and phosphorus levels and how they affect water quality, you can run the numbers

through a computer modeling tool, or you can introduce this experiment in real-world environments first. The teacher needs to let the student explore, struggle, and solve that problem in a realworld environment and then run their models and theories on a computer.”

Krajcik said literacy lies at the core of scientific exploration and problem-solving. Science demands the ability to read a text to glean information. Krajcik said the fact that the state’s reading levels are far below where they should be also contributes to a child’s lack of understanding and enthusiasm for the sciences.

Krajcik continued: “As an educator, I find it strange that a great emphasis is placed on literacy, but there is no effort made in how to integrate that literacy into all the disciplines, such as science. Students don’t really have a formal science education until the sixth grade. And if their literacy skills are not adequate by the time they reach the sixth grade, that is when they can fall behind in the sciences.”

One way to entice that spark for a love of reading is to present that student with something in the sciences that sparks their curiosity, prompting them to want to read and learn more.

“What I see in science education at the elementary grade level blows my mind,” Krajcik said during his field research and classroom observations. “What should be happening at the elementary school level is harnessing a child’s curiosity about the world and using that to find out more through reading for context and information. But that is not happening. Teachers are not integrating the learning of science with reading, where you are reading for a purpose – to glean information. But we are not seeing that happening.”

Krajcik said what would be ideal would be to let elementary children experience a “phenomenon” in science, such as discovering something in nature or the weather, and then returning to the classroom eager to read about it to learn more.

“Experiencing science gives kids a little bit of a background in something that will make them want to learn more and give them a reason to read. But we don’t see that pattern happening in the way we teach our students now.”

Elizabeth Keren-Kolb, a clinical professor of education technologies and teacher education at the University of Michigan’s Marsal Family School of Education, said educators have been either working with the latest technological innovations or pushing them off to the side ever since the days of the slide rule and the appearance of the typewriter.

As the author of several influential books, including Learning First, Technology Second: The Educator’s Guide to Designing Authentic Lessons, she reminds us that for over a century, there has always been technology in one form or another in American classrooms. evolution.

Keren-Kolb said when it comes to technology use in the classroom, from a historical lens, the pendulum shifts back and forth, from overuse of the latest and greatest technology to receding to tried-andtrue traditional methods.

From a practical standpoint, a lot of what drives this is recent purchases allocated in a school district budget.

“History has shown us that screen technology trends in the classroom tend to be very cyclical,” said Keren-Kolb. “The pattern goes like this: There is this brand-new or emerging technology that everyone gets excited about, and there is a push for schools to get it. So, schools acquire the needed funding for the technology, whether it be film strips and all the way up to today’s iPads and Tablets, and money is poured into it.”

She continued: “Then administrators tell the teachers they must use the new technology because, after all, the district just spent all

this money on it. Right away, teachers find glitches and problems. Kids cannot access the Wi-Fi from their devices, or the devices will not charge, for example. And that causes a lot of frustration.”

She continued: “Depending on the teacher, the tool may wind up pushed aside, unused in the heap of other technology tools that trended, or it may be central to a teacher’s lesson planning and classroom management.”

No matter what guidelines come down from state or district education administrators, or what technology is introduced into a school or district, Keren-Kolb said the teacher is the most important decision maker on how much or how little exposure a student gets to the technology.

“The other big important factor for me as a clinical professor is equity, and that is a hard thing for people of middle and upper socioeconomic classes to wrap their brains around,” Keren-Kolb said. “Access to screen technology at school can be a great equalizer for more vulnerable students and their families who do not have the same resources at home.”

Because of the equity factor, she believes in a smart approach to the availability of the use of screens in the classroom.

“The most vulnerable students in our schools need access to technology and gain exposure and a mastery of basic literacy skills to be productive in our society,” Keren-Kolb said. “There’s almost nothing in our society where you don’t need basic digital literacy skills.”

Still, at the youngest grades, Keren-Kolb acknowledges that reading printed books aloud, penmanship, writing things down by hand, copying notes manually, and computing basic math problems on paper are beneficial for brain development.

But at times, learning disabilities such as dyslexia and dysgraphia make it a struggle for some students to write things out by hand or capture their thoughts quickly enough on writing assignments, she countered.

“Students at times need to glean skills on technology alongside the skills gained by writing it down by hand, which are all foundational literacy skills,” Keren-Kolb said. “They must know how to read and write, and in their upper years (of high school) how to compose an email to a prospective employer,” Keren-Kolb explained. “They need to know how to type out a five-paragraph composition on Google Docs and use all the spelling and grammar features to review and correct their work. Right now, I have college students who do not know how to type and are lacking keyboard skills. They must be savvy in both digital and nondigital spaces.”

Keren-Kolb said even before the age of screens in classrooms, students have found ways to not pay attention in class. Some daydreamed or dozed off, passed notes to friends, or doodled in their notebooks. In the classes she teaches, and something she teaches to her student teachers as they head out into the field in local schools, she said teachers need to set an intention of proper use of screen time at the beginning of each class. For example, she has a “laptop lids down” policy whenever a guest lecturer visits their class or if they are having a classroom discussion that does not require referring to their digital device.

Modeling this behavior of not being distracted when in class or in the presence of a classroom community is an essential part of learning, Keren-Kolb stressed.

“Teachers are just as guilty of taking out their phones to check something in the middle of class, and I advise my student teachers to model behavior for students – check your phone on your break. Not having our cell phones out or our laptops closed shows each other we value one another’s time and opinions, and making eye contact and making connections in class is a very important part of learning.”

FACES

Bonnie Brennan

In early 2025, after nearly 30 years in the auction house business, Birmingham native Bonnie Brennan became the CEO of Christie’s, a worldwide leader in the global art and luxury business including auctions, art appraisal and international real estate.

Growing up in Michigan, Brennan attended Academy of the Sacred Heart for 12 years and currently serves on the school’s board of trustees.

Brennan shared that from a young age she was interested in art and still enjoys painting, although not as often as she’d like. Her interest in auction houses was piqued from a story she heard on the radio during a ride to school with her father.

Brennan attended Northwestern University where she earned a BA in both communication and art history. She started her work life in New York in the advertising industry at J. Walter Thompson. “It was a great training ground as you were always competing for business.”

In 1997, Brennan began her auction house career at Sotheby’s in New York which, at the time, was owned by A. Alfred Taubman and based in Michigan.

“Sotheby’s had many Michigan clients, so it brought me home frequently,” she reminisced, adding, “I’ve worked with great Detroit and Michigan collectors at both firms.”

She continued, “Some of the greatest art in the country comes from Midwest collectors…I love bringing European colleagues to the DIA [Detroit Institute of Art]. They are blown away by the quality of the collection.”

Brennan recalled a particularly memorable item from the estate of local philanthropist, art collector and the only granddaughter of Henry Ford, Josephine Clay Ford. After her death in 2005, the prominent Grosse Pointe home she and her husband shared was slated for demolition and an auction was held by Sotheby’s. One such object was a late 19th century verdigris copper weathervane featuring a figure of a noble Indian chief raising his bow - which unexpectedly sold at auction for nearly $6 million, becoming the most expensive weathervane in the world.

In 2012, Brennan joined Christie’s, working in a progression of positions, including four years as head of Christie’s Americas before being named chief executive last year. She is the first CEO at the British company to be based in the United States, which during her tenure has grown to nearly half of the company’s sales.

Brennan recently greeted King Charles III and Queen Camilla during their attendance at the annual King’s Trust Global Gala held at Christie’s New York during their state visit to the U.S.

Asked about her favorite part of her job, Brennan responded: “It’s the people –my colleagues and our team who are passionate about the work. We also have extraordinary clients, many of whom use their art collections thoughtfully to further their philanthropic pursuits…This is definitely a people business built on relationships, trust, expertise and knowledge.”

Despite a challenging work and global travel schedule, Brennan tries to “disconnect from devices” in her personal time, including while playing golf with her fiancé and gardening. She has a house in the Pennsylvania mountains where she has a room for painting. She enjoys visits to Michigan to see her brother and his family as well as her large extended family in the Detroit area.

“It’s great to come home to see all the old haunts in Birmingham – some have changed and some haven’t,” she said, adding, “I’m super proud and love walking around downtown Detroit seeing all the new growth and vibrancy.”

When it comes to career advice, Brennan acknowledged that internships and opportunities in the arts and culture industry are competitive, but encourages students to start by gaining relevant practical experience locally – at a museum, art center or by covering the arts for a school paper.

She advised, “Be brave. When you do what you love there’s a greater chance of success.”

Story: Tracy Donohue

Still no agreement to fill commission seat

By Grace Lovins

Following a contentious debate on Monday, May 4, over who should fill the vacancy on the Birmingham City Commission, the six remaining commissioners ultimately could not come to a consensus, opting to leave the seat open until the next regular city election in November 2027 unless the commission agrees that they’re ready to vote on the matter again in the future.

Like the past nominations, commissioner Kevin Kozlowski again nominated Debra Horner and commissioner Bill Kolb nominated Mary Jaye. Horner currently works as a University of Michigan municipal research program manager and serves as chair of the city’s environmental sustainability committee. Jaye is a retired Stellantis executive and a member of the city’s historic district commission

Two voting rounds were conducted for each candidate, resulting in four ties. Commissioners maintained the same positions as previous votes, with Kolb, Andrew Haig and Brad Host voting in favor of Jaye and in opposition to Horner, and commissioners Kozlowski, Therese Longe and mayor Clinton Baller voting in favor of Horner and in opposition to Jaye.

After neither candidate received a majority vote, city attorney Mary Kucharek explained that the commission will have to amend the rules of process going forward, including adopting a rule requiring all six commissioners to be present for any vote to be called going forward. All six commissioners voted in favor of adopting the new rule.

On top of that, Kucharek said the commission had the opportunity to decide if they wanted to allow the issue to be brought up again at a future meeting.

Haig suggested that the commission keep the same process for bringing topics up as potential agenda items: a commissioner would say they want to discuss the item at a future meeting and a vote would be called; at the next meeting, the commission would discuss if they want to put out notice that the city is seeking applications or if they want to work with the pool that they have. Ultimately, the commission voted 6-0 in favor of making Haig’s suggestion the official procedure going forward.

City buying Community House for $5.2M

The Birmingham City Commission on Monday, May 18, approved the formation of nonprofit foundation to take over running The Community House building now that The Community House Association has accepted an offer of $5.2 million from the city to purchase the building, and the following evening the commission formally voted to make the purchase.

The formal vote on the purchase also includes a provision instructing the city manger “to pursue and implement the necessary steps to keep the Community House operating and staffed during the ownership transition, including but not limited to ensuring the continued operation of the child care facility in the building.”

The City of Birmingham on its website announced that The Community House Association accepted the offer on Sunday, May 17. According to the city website announcement, “The foundation (The Birmingham Community House Foundation) is being created with the city as the sole member, ensuring the building will always belong to the city and its residents for the sole purpose of preserving The Community House as a community center for all residents, honoring the founders’ intent, and protecting public access to civic, social and philanthropic programming.”

The Community House Association filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in late March after a purchase agreement with the United Jewish Foundation of Detroit and the Jewish Federation of Detroit was terminated due to the fact that the city of Birmingham in 2025 filed suit in Oakland County Circuit Court to halt the announced sale of The Community House and refused to drop the lawsuit. The circuit court case was expected to drag on for many months beyond the proposed February closing date of the sale to the Jewish organization for what many said was an offer of $8 million, somewhat over the $7 million assessed value of the building.

Sale of The Community House was announced in early November of 2025 as officials shared plans to evolve into the Birmingham Area Community Foundation to continue with its work with other nonprofits in the general area. Funding from the sale, according to officials, would be used to clear several million dollars of debt by the end of this June and continue to pay staff, with any excess funds to be used as seed money for the proposed new foundation.

The city’s circuit court lawsuit was filed within weeks of the sale announcement and centered in part on original deed restrictions for the property at 380 Bates Street in the central part of downtown Birmingham. While the city maintained that the sale violated deed restrictions, officials with The Community House maintained that they were following the restrictions. The circuit court case has been stayed once the federal case was filed.

Financial problems were faced by The Community House for years in advance of the Covid pandemic which only increased the challenges.

On Monday, May 18, the city commission also voted to begin taking applications from those interested in serving on the board of The Birmingham Community House Foundation.

The federal judge presiding over the bankruptcy case will have to approve of the sale and, after a period allowing for due diligence, the sale is expected to close at the end of June.

Community survey questions approved

By Grace Lovins

A portion of Birmingham’s residents will soon be getting a community survey in the mail after city commissioners approved the final draft of the survey questions during the Monday, April 27, meeting.

The city has been working to develop a community survey since September 2025 when they approved an agreement with Cobalt Community

department and planning department. Questions included in the survey cover topics like residents’ experiences with the city’s roads and pathways, parking, parks and recreation programs and facilities, community events as well as their priorities outside of core municipal services.

Fairbairn explained that the next step is to have the consultant review the survey for spelling, spacing errors and the like before being sent out to a random sample of 2,000 residents.

Commissioners agreed that the latest draft was an improvement from their last review, and they are content to move forward to distribution.

With little discussion, the commission voted 6-0 to approve the survey questions.

Snap Taco bistro license moves ahead

By Grace Lovins

Snap Taco, one of downtown Birmingham’s newest Mexican restaurants located at 126 S. Old Woodward, is moving forward as one of the city’s newest bistros after city commissioners approved the special land use permit and final site plan and design review during the Monday, May 4, meeting.

After opening in December 2025, Snap Taco came before the commission in February for initial bistro screening to pursue a bistro license. The license would allow for on-site liquor consumption while also setting specific requirements for the restaurant including outdoor dining.

Planning director Nick Dupuis told the commission that Snap Taco was at its final stop in the special land use permit process with a final site plan and design review. Dupuis said the application met all bistro requirements, the designs showing 35 seats indoors and an outdoor dining area with eight seats.

Research to help create and conduct the survey. Written in a memorandum included in the meeting packet, assistant city manager Melissa Fairbairn said that the purpose of the survey is to collect data to inform future policy and budget decisions.

To develop this survey, Fairbairn said the consultants have been working with city staff as well as a workgroup composed of two city commissioners, two community members, and members of the city staff from the city managers’ office, communications department, finance

During previous meetings, Snap Taco had trouble figuring out how to work with the requirement for bistros to have outdoor dining. Dupuis said the restaurant’s proposal has the outdoor dining area in front of its neighbor, Faherty, which they received permission for from the property owner. The proposal also includes replacing an existing storefront window with a rollup garage door.

With little discussion from commissioners, the commission voted 6-0 to approve the special land use permit and final site plan and design review for Snap Taco.

Short-term rentals facing tougher rules

By Grace Lovins

Birmingham City Commissioners have outlined a new enforcement approach for short-term rentals during the Monday, May 4, meeting, one week after placing a moratorium on issuing new rental licenses for rentals of 30 days or less following a recent shooting incident at a rental property on E. Lincoln where a party took place.

The discussion mostly centered around how the city will enforce existing rental rules while the city’s planning board begins reviewing long-term regulatory options through zoning. At the commission’s previous meeting on Monday, April 27, the commission approved the moratorium, stopping issuance of new short-term rental licenses for six months, and directing city staff to look into stronger enforcement measures.

Mayor Clinton Baller and city attorney Mary Kucharek reiterated that historically the city code enforcement has approached enforcement with a “bring into compliance” mindset and the police department, while they may have been responding to calls, have not always communicated issues at rental properties to the building department.

Going forward, Baller said the police department will notify the building department and code enforcement of any issues or calls to a rental property for possible violations. He said the city will also shift from what he described as a more customer-service oriented approach to stronger accountability which would include possible revocation of the rental license.

Kucharek explained that the city cannot, without cause, retroactively revoke rental licenses that were legally issued but the city can pursue revocation when violations occur.

Commission reviews update on enforcement

By Grace Lovins

As directed by the Birmingham city commission, city staff presented a report on short-term rentals during the Monday, May 18, meeting, providing commissioners with an update of the city’s enforcement and work to identify short-term rentals in the city since the commission’s last discussion.

The city commission asked during the May 4 meeting that a report on short-term rentals be included in each meeting agenda packet going forward. City manager Jana Ecker explained that since the commission’s last meeting, city staff have been working to review the rentals offered in Birmingham, be it registered rentals or those found on Airbnb and Vrbo.

Over the two weeks between commission meetings, Ecker said staff from the building department, planning department and police department have worked together to identify 1,658 total rental units in the city. She explained that the number is a combination of both short- and long-term rentals, as the city doesn’t currently distinguish between the two.

Ecker also said that several unregistered rental units were found and issued enforcement tickets. Per the meeting packet, 12 short-term rentals were unregistered and 17 long-term rentals were unregistered.

The police department has also been given a list of identified short-term rentals, Ecker said, so officers know which properties are “rumored to be” or the city has experience with being short-term rental units. She said that when the report included in the meeting packet was drafted, the city had only received one complaint on a short-term rental which came from a neighbor.

Building official Jeff Zielke and Ecker also said that they have not had much luck with contacting Airbnb and Vrbo to take down unregistered rentals, but that they are continuing to work on it.

No formal action was taken by the commission, but the city’s planning board will be discussing the topic during their next meeting on June 10. Both the commission and planning board will also be discussing the topic during the Monday, June 15, joint workshop.

city has the authority to revoke a license. Kucharek stressed that the city should make it clear to landlords that there are expectations that come with commercializing property in a residential area.

“I think the most important thing here is education, information and communication with landlords that we expect you to have responsibility and accountability to those people that you rent to,” Kucharek said. “If you want to continue to use your property in a commercial way, we have this expectation of you otherwise you're not going to get a license or permit from us.”

in the zoning ordinance for a restriction on short-term rentals and to introduce a minimum rental of thirty days. They were also asked to evaluate the impact of rental housing density in the city.

Dupuis included in the meeting packet proposed ordinance language to get the board started, including the creation of a “rent or rental unit” land use category to each zoning district where residential dwelling units are permitted as well as use of specific standards for “rent or rental unit” to each associated zoning district.

Board member Daniel Share kicked off discussions by pointing out the big picture: that the regulations are intended to address transience and accountability. He brought multiple items up that he said he believes the board should keep in mind during discussions, including owner-occupied rentals, and people renting out their homes while they are on vacation or on sabbatical.

Share also brought up the board keeping in mind accessory dwelling units and how those should be handled in the context of rentals.

Kucharek and city attorney Tracy Gaudenzi also explained that there is a new application for rental licenses going forward where potential landlords must acknowledge there is a moratorium, rentals 30 days or less are currently prohibited, and that the

No formal action was taken by the commission, but the planning board has started discussions of rental property regulations. City staff was also directed to start including enforcement reports in commission meeting packets going forward.

Commissioner Therese Longe, Baller and Kucharek also clarified toward the end of discussion that the commission does not intend to allow short-term rentals to return after the

moratorium is up and current rental licenses expire on April 15, 2027.

Planning board takes up short-term rentals

By Grace Lovins

At the directive of the Birmingham City Commission, the city’s planning board took up discussions of shortterm rentals during the Wednesday, May 13, meeting, kicking off discussions of how rentals should be regulated through the city’s zoning ordinance going forward.

The commission provided the board directive to review rental regulations after placing a six-month moratorium during their April 27 meeting on issuance of new rental licenses for rentals of less than thirty days. The move was a response to a recent shooting that took place at a short-term rental located on E. Lincoln Street where gunshots took place at party held there.

Planning director Nick Dupuis explained that the commission directed the board to find somewhere

Board chair Scott Clein and member Bryan Williams individually brought up the context of rentals when it comes to zoning districts and time requirements.. Williams said he feels the board needs clarification on housing in the entire city or specifically within residential neighborhoods, saying the complexity of the city could create cause for concern.

Clein pointed out that the city is left one bucket of rentals that could range from 30 days to 365 days. He pointed out that direction might be needed from the commission if rentals should be broken down even further into a “middle” timeframe covering 30 days to about six months.

In the end, the board asked Dupuis to clean up some of the proposed ordinance language, return with data about housing rentals, and, for the meantime, remove the question of density from the ordinance and add discussions on items like parking and the accountable party being within a certain number of miles from the property.

Clein informed attendants that the matter would be taken up again during the board’s next meeting on Wednesday, June 10. No formal action was taken during Wednesday night’s meeting.

Township police space needs talks continue

By Dana Casadei

The Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees met with James Gallagher, Bloomfield Township Police Chief, for the third time to discuss the police department’s space needs at their meeting on Monday, April 28.

The department’s space needs were originally brought up at the meeting on March 23, then again at the April 13 meeting.

The main reason Gallagher was back before the board was to discuss the recent conversations they have had with the RedStone firm about the Bloomfield Township court building and if that was also an aging infrastructure.

RedStone did the original police department space needs analysis and proposed a new layout that would include dedicated training rooms, defensive tactic rooms, simulator rooms, different holding areas, and an actual community room.

“Unfortunately, one of the things that we determined during that discussion was that the court needs more space than we anticipated initially,” Gallagher said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty with the court right now and how many judges will be there in the future. There are some infrastructure things there that I don’t think are really something that can be committed to at this time.”

The idea of using shared space among the existing township buildings had been brought up at the April 13 meeting by trustee Mark Antakli, and in doing that research, Gallagher and team determined there really isn’t a lot that can be shared, with one reason being the optics and wanting to keep the court systems and the enforcement systems separate, the other being the sheer amount of space both groups need.

“My recommendation to you as we move forward is to hopefully figure out a way to get us a new building,” Gallagher said. “This building cannot, and will not, based on the recommendations handle anymore remodels or additions to it. If we start tearing down walls… we may end up with some significant structural problems.”

One of the buildings the police department is currently operating out of was built in 1938, with

Start of police department renovation okayed

By Grace Lovins

Changes are coming to the historic Birmingham City Hall building, located at 151 Martin Street, as the city commission approved phase one of renovations to the police department during the Monday, April 27, meeting.

Phase one construction will include necessary safety improvements after concerns were raised by the department’s accreditation agency during a past accreditation process.

Police chief Scott Grewe said the first phase includes the design work for a new sally port to be added to city hall, renovations to the existing evidence and storage garage, as well as renovations to the building’s interview room.

When it comes to the evidence and storage garage, Grewe said that renovations to the existing evidence garage, storage area and former animal control area will expand the department’s evidence storage and current garage space. He explained that the only change from the renderings included in the meeting packet is that the garage doors will be black instead of white to match the department of public service garages.

During past discussions on renovations to the department, Grewe has said that the current interview room set up requires suspects to be walked through a clerical area, posing a safety risk. The new interview room design will prevent this from happening by creating direct access.

Designs for the new sally port, developed by MCD Architects, show the addition onto the south side of city hall will have a similar but not exactly identical look to the existing building. Grewe explained that the plans were reviewed and okayed by the city’s historic district commission as well as the planning board.

All of the phase one items were budgeted for the current fiscal year with phase two plans included in the 2026-2027 fiscal year budget proposal. Included in the meeting packet, a memorandum written by Grewe states that $1.3 million has been budgeted between the current and upcoming fiscal years to cover all renovations.

Commissioners ultimately voted 6-0 to approve the phase one renovations. The meeting packet memorandum written by Grewe explains that phase two of renovations are budgeted for the next fiscal year and include actual construction of the sally port and renovations to the department’s dispatch center.

additions added in the late 1960s and 1990s, and those additions are easy to spot, too. Typically anywhere there’s a brick wall – brick that needs to be fixed or replaced – is what used to be an exterior wall, which gives an idea of where the additions were put on.

The building has a flat roof that the water sits on and, according to Gallagher, the roof was not made for a vertical upgrade, which could have solved some of the space issue.

“It seems like we’re disjointed because different things are in different places,” said trustee Valerie Murray, who recently did a tour of the police department with Gallagher. “You need to have your department together.”

The police chief also noted that the department needs to be able to work with other municipalities when the chance comes up.

“This is what drew us to this issue about a year ago. We had an

be beneficial now and into the future, how do we do that for another 100 years?”

The police department has converted every conference room they could into another useful space, and in some cases, conference rooms that were once just for the department are now shared with other departments. There’s also no soft interview rooms or room for two additional cubicles to be added for traffic officers, the police chief noted.

Over the last year they’ve had to make some reactive changes instead of more planned growth, such as eliminating the supervisor workplace for dispatch expansion, the traffic unit was displaced by command functions, a conference room was converted to operational use, the patrol workshop was converted into a locker room with no bathrooms, and the administrative space was reduced, the chief said.

Other updates that will be needed include their current technology and operations gaps.

agency reach out to us with an ask if we could provide dispatch services to them and we weren’t able to provide that,” Gallagher said.

At the March 23 board of trustees meeting the police chief reminded the board that the police department is operating at about 22,00-squarefeet across two buildings. The square footage includes not just office space, but hallways and stairways as well. According to the space needs assessment conducted by RedStone, a police department of Bloomfield Township’s size should operate across 58,000-60,000 square feet to be the most efficient, including hallways and stairwells, and would put operation space at about 45,000square-feet.

“I’m not so worried about the size of the new building, but of the limitations we have in our current space now,” Gallagher said. “When we’re trying to modernize and build a police department that’s going to

There’s wiring bottlenecking which leaves no more room to run more wires for dispatch, being in two buildings brings limits to their ability to train effectively, and the location of their firing range – where they do shotgun and rifle training – makes it near impossible for the department of public works to work, when a training is happening. But shutting down their firing range for a whole day is an entirely different problem, the chief told the board. It has become pretty much useless during the day shift now that the police department is aware of the noise issue with DPW. Although they have made some modifications to be able to do training at the range.

There are also vital 911 vulnerabilities with their current setup, Gallagher said. Critical 911 equipment is housed in the penthouse, an area that is not designed for the environmental controls required by modern technology. According to the chief, the building has fire alarms but no fire sprinklers, and has limited ADA accessibility.

“If we have something major up there, a leak or something, we could lose our entire 911 system,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher said as they were talking through this space need with RedStone that the annex – the land that the township owns on Golf Drive which the fire department

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currently uses for training – was brought up as a potential option. The hope would be to use the annex to build a range with a storage facility as well, and Gallagher said that the fire department would benefit from that too.

The idea of building an off-site, specialized, dedicated training facility at the annex would include a state-of-the-art range, training rooms, defense and tactic rooms, everything they would need to train and work with officers. This space would remove some of the square feet that the police department would need on the township’s campus.

“We are limited in space on the campus that we have. So, 60,000square-feet is ideal, but that doesn’t include a range, that doesn’t include secure parking, which we don’t have now,” Gallagher said. “RedStone brought that idea to us… an off-site training facility.”

This would allow for training to take place all in once space, which it does not currently.

Trustee Chris Kolinski also noted that sometimes it’s cheaper to build something off-site when looking at the costs to modernize and bring things up to current standards. He said that he believes that’s what the township is looking at here – that it will be more fiscally responsible to build off-site.

“It’s just, how do we fund it? And how do we get you there?” Kolinski said.

While a project such as this would take years to complete, Gallagher encouraged that steps start being taken sooner rather than later for a multitude of reasons, one of the largest being cost.

He said if they had done this years ago when it was originally discussed it probably would have saved the township millions of dollars.

“We’re a community that deserves a modern facility,” Gallagher said. “I give great credit to those who take care of our buildings, the building has been well maintained, but we’ve outgrown it. This isn’t a wish, it’s a need.”

City looks at current use of Flock cameras

By Grace Lovins

Amid growing concerns over the use of Flock cameras county-wide, Birmingham City Commissioners

took a look at the topic during the Monday, April 27, meeting, with city police chief Scott Grewe advocating for the department’s use of Flock cameras and addressing general concerns about privacy and surveillance.

In a report, written by Grewe, included in the meeting packet, Grewe explains that the city entered into an agreement with Flock Safety in 2023. The city’s department only uses Flock’s License Plate Reader technology, which he said only collects a snapshot of the rear of a vehicle which shows the license plate, make, model and color.

Grewe also includes in the report that the snapshots collected are securely stored by Flock Safety and automatically deleted after 30 days. In the report and during the meeting discussions, he stressed that the eight Flock cameras placed throughout the city do not collect biometric or facial recognition.

According to Grewe, the department has the option to share their data with other departments if another department requests it. The data is not shared state-wide or federally, and when another department accesses the data, they have to log a reason for accessing it.

Grewe said he has not seen any wrongdoing or evidence of wrongdoing in the system, noting that the department’s audits of the system show a complaint number and reason for every time the data was accessed. He also added that the city department can decide to revoke another department’s access to their data.

Commissioners Therese Longe, Kevin Kozlowski and Clinton Baller each noted a concern they’ve heard about the type of data the cameras collect and how that data is used. Grewe affirmed that the way the city uses the cameras only provides a picture showing the license plate of a car at a specific time by a specific camera.

“The benefit we get from [Flock] right now is amazing. I think it has a direct impact on the crime that we’re having and our ability to catch criminals,” Grewe said.

He noted in the meeting packet that, in addition to helping with criminal cases, the data has helped the department located a missing 89-year-old, assist in locating a possible suicidal person and locating a missing person with dimetia.

No formal action was taken by the commission following their discussion of the report.

Two recall petitions approval appealed

Oakland County Commission Chair Dave Woodward (D), whose district includes portions of Birmingham, Royal Oakland and Troy, has filed a lawsuit in Oakland County Circuit Court in an attempt to overturn two recall petitions approved in April over his support for a public safety drone program for the county sheriff’s department.

The recall petitions have been put forth by a group entitled I Am Oakland. One petition is directed at Woodward’s support, at an April 9 commission meeting, of a ninemonth trial program offered by the national Flock Group, which is known for a widely used license plate reader surveillance program. The second petition is focused on the fact that the county board took a vote on the Flock program after a voice vote of the commission to not take public comment until after the issue was approved by commissioners.

The Flock trial program will involve seven drones to be used for response to 911 emergency calls and to assist in searches for missing persons or crime suspects. The sheriff’s department program would also be used to assist other first responder requests for assistance in local communities.

At the end of the trial program the county would then decide whether to enter into a two-year contract that would cost $2.5 million.

Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard’s department has been using drones as part of its public safety program for several years but the technology is constantly changing and could prove outdated. The department has most recently used its drone assistance in a bank robbery incident in the Bloomfield area and at the recent attack on a Jewish temple and school in West Bloomfield.

Preliminary plans for nine-story building set

By Grace Lovins

Anew nine-story building to be constructed across two properties at 34952 Woodward and 690 E Maple received preliminary site plan approval from the Birmingham planning board during the Wednesday, May 13, meeting.

The new development, on the Woodward corner across from Kroger, is anticipated to have a mix of residential, commercial and retail uses.

Planning director Nick Dupuis began discussions noting that the preliminary site plan review process is designed to give an applicant tentative approval on big, general items so they can begin to develop construction drawings. The board had previously reviewed the preliminary building proposal during their March 23 and April 22 meetings, during which the conversation mostly focused on parking.

During the April 22 meeting, the board opted to postpone discussion of the preliminary site plan until May to give the applicant additional time to address the parking deficit. The updated plans for the building showed a decreased parking deficit from originally being 120 spaces short of the requirement to being 85 spaces short.

Dupuis explained that the design of the building remains mostly the same, but the bonus floor area the building was allowed through the MU5 and MU7 zoning district as well as the number of residential units had been reduced to decrease the parking deficit.

The building is anticipated to have a total of 422 spaces with 173 of those spaces set aside for public parking, according to owner Sam Beznos, CEO of Beztak Realty Companies. Beznos said the plan would be to have an automated system in the garage where residents of the building will have a pass to park and the public will get a ticket to enter.

Project architect Victor Saroki also explained that he and Beznos will be bringing the plans for the city’s zoning board of appeals to obtain variances on two things: a three-foot height variance of the building along E. Maple and a mezzanine inside the building meant for parking. Several board members, including chair Scott Clein, stated that they would be in support of the zoning board of appeals granting the variance.

Board members voted unanimously 7-0 to approve the preliminary site plan review for the building with a handful of conditions. The applicant will need to return for final site plan and design review approval before construction can begin.

motion to approve the new trial program also includes language that assures any data remains the property of the sheriff’s department and will not be shared with the Flock firm which has been a growing issue on a national basis out of concern that the federal government will have access to the information gathered locally.

Opponents of the drone program spent nearly five hours commenting at the commission meeting after the board voted to enter into the Flock trial program. Comments generally focused on concerns about privacy violations if the drones were used for general surveillance and whether the drones would be assisting in immigration enforcement efforts.

The county sheriff’s program already has an 11-page policy that regulates use of drones for law enforcement and regulates how long surveillance data is retained. The

Woodward’s lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, May 6, by noted attorney Mark Brewer of the Goodman Acker firm, asks the court to overrule the petitions approved by the Oakland County Election Commission, members of which include county Clerk Lisa Brown, county Treasurer Robert Wittenberg and Chief Probate Court Judge Jennifer Callaghan.

Brewer’s court challenge basically rests on the argument that the two petitions mention a “miscellaneous resolution” referenced by its number, which would force petition signers to

evening operation hours. Birmingham City Commissioners voted Monday, April 13, to move forward with the business’ bistro application and permit the owner to apply for a special land use permit.

City planning director Nick Dupuis explained that Daycap’s application is part of the initial bistro screening process. He said two bistro screenings take place each year per the city’s ordinance, once in the spring and fall. Two new bistros and two existing establishments are permitted to obtain a bistro license per year, Dupuis noted in the meeting packet.

Daycap, considered an existing establishment per the bistro application review process, is looking to obtain a bistro license for a new business concept called Nightcap. Owners Valant and Shantel Jaddou explain in the meeting packet that the business would continue to operate as a daytime cafe, transitioning into a wine bar around 5 p.m.

Dupuis said the main question for the commission to answer was whether they believe Nightcap’s concept meets the qualification of a full-service kitchen that bistros are required to have per the city’s ordinance. City attorney Mary Kucharek added that a full-service kitchen is undefined by the ordinance and no definition is provided by the state.

have to look up the actual commission to fully understand the issue.

If the court does not dismiss the recall petitions, then the I Am Oakland group would have 60 days to collect signatures equal to at least 25 percent of the number of votes cast in the Woodward county district cast for the office of governor in the 2022 election. Once petition signatures are verified, the recall issue would appear on the ballot this November.

Triangle district cafe to pursue bistro license

By Grace Lovins

Daycap Coffee Bar, an existing cafe in Birmingham’s Triangle District located at 930 E. Maple, is seeking a bistro license for a new concept where the business would become Nightcap Wine Bar during the

The Jaddou’s explained that the establishment doesn’t have grills or fryers in the kitchen, but does have food preparation stations, a panini press, freezers and refrigerators.

Commissioners Kevin Kozlowski and Andrew Haig both expressed some reservations about the Nightcap concept meeting the intention of the bistro ordinance. Kozlowski said he believed the commission was “dropping the ball” on the bistro ordinance, noting he doesn’t believe the concept qualifies as a full-service kitchen.

Other commissioners and mayor Clinton Baller said they were in favor of the concept and were willing to allow the Jaddou’s to move their application to the planning board where the plans will be more thoroughly reviewed.

Ultimately, commissioners voted 61 to adopt a resolution allowing Daycap to move forward with the bistro application. Kozlowski was the lone vote against the motion.

Water and sewer rates set for 2026-2027

By Dana Casadei

A 3.5 percent increase to both Bloomfield Township water and sewer rates for 2026-2027 was approved by the Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees at their meeting on Monday, April 27.

Noah Mehalski, director of public works, came before the board again at the Monday night meeting. He also spoke at their last meeting on Monday, April 13 to discuss the rates.

While Mehalski’s approved increase is only 3.5 percent for both water and sewer rates, the estimated increase for the South Oakland County Water Authority (SOCWA) is at 7.5 percent and the Oakland County Water Resource Commissioner (OCWRC) is proposing a six percent increase.

Bloomfield Township distributes water to residents that is supplied by the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) through SOCWA, and sewer is provided by OCWRC.

“You’re still minimizing the cost to the residents versus what is being proposed to us. Kudos to you for trying to keep rates as conservative as possible,” said trustee Neal Barnett at the April 13 meeting.

Currently, the Meter Equivalency Unit (MEU) structure is used in the township, which allows for billing of fixed fees based on the potential draw of the system that is determined by meter size. There’s hopes that this will change to a tiered rate system after more data is collected from the new meter program, currently in its fifth year.

This sort of rate structure would work to achieve the goal of customer control of costs, and rewards water conservation with lower rates while those who use more water would pay a higher tier.

The meter replacement program was originally created to help replace the 52 percent of meters in the township that are over 15 years old, taking advantage of the technological updates to meters, therefore, giving the township the data to better accurately reflect the amount of water passing through the pipes.

There were also talks of beginning to implement monthly billing during the 2026-2027 rate year, something Mehalski said has been requested by customers.

Right now, the township bills one third of the residents each month. In total, the switch to monthly will cost an estimated $20,000 in set up and

Next building renovation designs approved

By Grace Lovins

Water and sewer rates for 20262027 passed 6-1 with trustee Mark Antakli voting no.

Birmingham continues inching toward relocating Birmingham Next Senior Services from its current Birmingham Public Schools location to the building at 400 E. Lincoln in the city, with the city commission approving architectural design plans for renovations to the Next building during the Monday, May 4, meeting at which city staff was directed to issue a request for proposals for a contractor to develop construction plans.

The city purchased the building at 400 E, Lincoln, the former home of the YMCA, for $2 million in June 2023 to serve as the new home for Next. Between June 2023 and May 2025, the city worked with Next and the Birmingham YMCA to find a way for the building to become a community center, housing both organizations..

Plans changed in 2025 and the city switched back to the original plan of renovating the existing building into a facility that could house Next, millage for which was approved by city voters.

Jim Stock, design director with the city’s architect Neumann Smith, explained that the plans cover the first floor of the building only, totaling an area of 15,828 square feet. He said most of the renovations included in the design plans incorporate barrier-free and life-safety compliant renovations.

Stock noted that the scope of phase one renovations includes new paint, floor finishing, tile ceilings, LED lighting, door hardware upgrades and the like.

Under the proposed layout, the existing entrance would remain in place. The former fitness area will be combined with two of the offices to create a multipurpose art room, and renovations will be made to existing office areas. There will also be a kitchen added to the building to serve the Meals on Wheels program.

Stock also explained that the former child watch area will be converted into a fitness room, the former cardio area would become additional multipurpose rooms, and the gym will be refinished and re-striped to include pickleball court striping in addition to basketball court striping.

“I think it’ll work out pretty well and we’re thrilled that we’re at this point now and we can see the end in sight,” executive director of Next, Cris Braun, said.

Multiple commissioners expressed that they were happy to see the plans coming along for the first phase of building renovations. Some also acknowledged that, while the lower level and second floor are not in the works right now, the city may look at a phase two renovation in the future once the space is available for Next to move in.

Commissioners voted 5-1 to approve the architectural design plans for the E. Lincoln Next building, with commissioner Brad Host the lone vote in opposition. Host said he would not support the plans because there is no ADA-compliant elevator included.

execution, and while it would be more work, all trustees seemed confident it could be handled by the team.

“We try to make sure that we have good pipes in the ground, and we continue to invest in the infrastructure,” trustee Chris Kolinski said in mid-April. “We do not want to be a community that continues to have sewer main breaks or rate instability. I believe what we’re doing is right.”

Some communities charge a flat fee for their water and sewer rates, but Bloomfield Township is not one of them, which is, in part, why residents often see rate increases year after year. Another reason is because Bloomfield Township has historically experienced a decline in water usage per customer account over the last 20

years, coming in at about one to two percent decreases each year, on par with a national trend of decreases in water usage.

Bloomfield Township members pay an often higher rate compared to others in nearby communities because of size, scale and scope as well. Since Bloomfield Township is such a spread out township there are fewer people on the system paying into each pipe. Fewer people paying into each pipe equals higher costs when comparing it to say, Birmingham, whose system is one-third the length of Bloomfield Township’s, which has 330 miles of water pipes that have to be maintained.

The township owns, operates and maintains over 500 miles of buried water main and sanitary sewer lines.

Two millage renewals put on August ballot

By Dana Casadei

Two separate Bloomfield Township millage renewals – one for the public safety millage (number 1), the other for the road millage – will be on this year’s primary ballot in August.

Clerk Martin Brook presented the renewal issues to the township board of trustees at their meeting on Monday, May 12.

“We have three public safety millages, and this is the third renewal that we’ve addressed in the last several years,” Brook said. “All three will have been put to the voters for renewal.”

The public safety millage request is for a 10-year renewal, with the current millage set to expire in 2026. It is a renewal of the already rolled back amount to continue the same process, trustee Chris Kolinski said. If approved by voters, the public safety millage will renew up to 1.8428 mills, which would result in the authorization to collect $11,014,437 in the first year. This millage would help continue financing the township’s public safety services, such as fire and police.

Adding the road millage renewal to the August ballot was also passed unanimously by the board. Much like the public safety millage, the road millage is a renewal of the current road tax for a period of 10 years. The current road millage is set to expire in 2026.

The road millage would help Bloomfield Township continue to fund road maintenance, and would renew up to .6575 mills. This would result in the authorization to collect $3,929,885 in the first year.

Brook, along with trustees Neal Barnett and Kolinski, emphasized that both of these are not increases but renewals of already existent millages.

“It can not be emphasized enough that it’s a renewal because there will be people in the community who will either intentionally or unintentionally claim that it’s a new millage or an increased millage, but it is a renewal,” Barnett said.

Both millages were last renewed in August of 2016.

Antisemitic display at school event

The Birmingham school district was forced to deal with an antisemitic incident at an event at an elementary school that was intended to bring together the community to appreciate the varied cultures represented in the area.

According to a community announcement issued by schools superintendent Dr. Embekka Roberson, the incident took place at an event during Beverly Elementary’s Multicultural Night on Tuesday evening, April 28.

According Roberson, “during the event, a table in one room included stickers that were inappropriate and offensive, including a sticker with an image of a gun and a sticker that stated “(expletive) Zionism. These materials were not on display during the principal's walkthrough prior to the event, and they do not reflect our district's values.”

The superintendent further noted that “as soon as the situation was brought to the attention of the school

administration, we took prompt, thoughtful steps to address it and keep the Beverly school community informed. We are handling this matter carefully and in line with our district policies.”

The announcement to the community also noted that “we recognize that incidents like this are hurtful, and we are sorry for the impact on our community. It is not what we want for our students or our families. We remain committed to ensuring that our schools are places where all feel safe, respected, and supported.”

Roberson also said that the district would be reviewing and planning to “strengthen safeguards for future events.”

Increased service calls in annual police report

By Grace Lovins

The Birmingham police department released its latest annual report showing an increase in calls for service from 2024 to 2025 by over 8,000 calls.

The report also includes statistics of the department’s arrests, traffic enforcement, investigations and community engagement.

According to the report, police responded to 28,611 calls for service in 2025, up from 20,421 calls in 2024. The report says calls for service are requests for police assistance ranging from emergencies and criminal activity to general public concerns.

Despite the jump in activity, the department reported a total of 378 offenses in 2025 with most incidents falling into categories such as larceny and fraud. The total represents a slight increase of four offenses compared to the previous year. On the other hand, 646 cases were assigned for investigation, showing a decrease of nine cases from 2024.

Data in the report also showed that juvenile arrest dispositions declined by almost 50 percent from 54 cases in 2024 to 28 cases in 2025. Adult arrests continued on an upward trend for a total of 229 adult custody arrests in 2025.

The report also provided statistics

on traffic and parking enforcement for the year. In 2025, officers issued 5,131 traffic citations, responded to 776 traffic crashes, and issued 34,974 total parking violations, mostly tied to meter violations.

In a message included in the report, police chief Scott Grewe emphasized that Birmingham continues to experience relatively low crime rates with reductions in key categories such as fraud and larceny over a multi-year period. He gave credit to both department personnel and community partnerships for maintaining public safety.

Throughout the report, the department outlined continuing investments in technology, including upgrades to the city’s camera system, and improvements to the police department’s facilities. The report also briefly touched on recruitment efforts which led to the hiring of three officers, one dispatcher and three parking enforcement assistants in 2025.

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BUSINESS MATTERS

Detroit Guitar relocates

Detroit Guitar, formerly located at 243 W. Maple Road in Birmingham, closed its doors on May 1 after serving the community for 15 years. Owned by Charlie Lorenzi and Eric Wolfe, the business has relocated to a new, significantly larger space—three times the size of its previous location—at 32302 Woodward Avenue in Royal Oak. The new location will continue to offer a wide selection of new and used guitars, along with guitar lessons and repair services

Fruition Açai & Coffee Café

Fruition Açai & Coffee Café, located at 856 N. Old Woodward Avenue in Birmingham, has closed. The health-focused café, owned by Lindsey Sayles, specialized in açaí bowls, smoothies, and coffee. Fruition Açai & Coffee continues to operate additional Michigan locations in Ada, Grandville, Grand Rapids, and Wyoming.

Max Surnow finalist

Max Surnow, founder and CEO of Cooper Street Snacks, has been named a finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year 2026 Michigan and Northwest Ohio Award by Ernst & Young LLP (EY US). Now in its 41st year, the Entrepreneur of the Year program recognizes leaders who drive innovation, economic growth and long-term business impact. An independent panel selected Surnow among 34 finalists representing 31 companies, evaluating candidates on entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, company growth and lasting value creation. “This recognition is incredibly meaningful because Cooper Street was built with grit, family values and a belief that better-

for-you snacks could succeed in a crowded market,” said Surnow. “What began as a small family business has grown into an international brand and manufacturing platform serving customers across retail, airlines, e-commerce and foodservice.”

Founded in Birmingham in 2011 by Max, Sam and Elaine Surnow, Cooper Street Snacks was inspired by a family recipe passed down from their greatgrandmother more than 100 years ago. Built without outside funding and still 100 percent family-owned, the company has grown from three employees to a team of 50. What started with a single recipe has expanded into more than 100 SKUs across multiple product lines. Under Surnow’s leadership, Cooper Street recently acquired and revitalized a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, transforming the company into a vertically integrated snack brand and manufacturing platform positioned for longterm growth. Regional award winners will be announced June 17 in Detroit. Winners will advance to consideration for the national Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in November.

30 years for Roma Sposa

An iconic bridal boutique in Birmingham is celebrating a milestone. Roma Sposa Bridal Atelier, located at 708 N. Old Woodward Avenue, was founded three decades ago by Anna Castaldi. Inspired by her upbringing in Rome, Castaldi brought a distinctive European sensibility and refined fashion expertise to the metro Detroit area. She quickly became known for her passion and her unique ability to reveal each bride’s inner radiance and personality through the perfect

gown. Roma Sposa offers an exceptional selection of wedding dresses sourced from around the world. The boutique also showcases its own custom collection, “Europa Couture,” designed for brides seeking a truly personalized experience. To complete the look, Roma Sposa carries a curated assortment of accessories and headpieces by Maria Elena, along with elegant eveningwear for special occasions. Castaldi moved to the Metro Detroit area in 1994 where some of her relatives lived and was immediately drawn to Birmingham for its vibrant retail scene and European charm. Reflecting on her 30 years in Birmingham, she recalls being something of a pioneer. When she purchased the building in the mid-1990s, she envisioned living above her boutique — a concept common in Europe but virtually unheard of locally at the time. Over the years, Castaldi has successfully navigated economic shifts, both domestic and global, as well as the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, she takes particular pride in serving a second generation of brides — daughters of the very clients she once dressed. “A wedding gown is a dream come true for a bride, said Castaldi. “We work with premium designers, premium quality and premium service. What we believe in the most is offering a premium experience for the bride. Regardless of if she buys or not, we want to educate the bride on all the elements — then she can make the right the choice.”

Business Matters for the Birmingham - Bloomfield area are reported by Gigi Nichols. Send items for consideration to GigiNichols@downtownpublications.com. Items should be received three weeks prior to publication.

Get the latest news online from the leading news organization for the Birmingham and Bloomfield area. Go to downtownpublications.com and register to receive our weekly and breaking news updates, oakland confidential, metro intelligencer, and the threatened planet newsletters from the local area's best website.

FACES

Dr. Petra Huck

Her former career as a premier climate scientist enabled Dr. Petra Huck to travel and explore all around the world.

But it is her current role as the inaugural Jennifer Caldwell and John Fisher Cranbrook Climate Science Fellow that keeps her where she wants to be and doing what she enjoys.

While earning her PhD in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, as well as an MS/BS in Meteorology and Climate Research from the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, Huck was a research scientist in climate conscious hot spots like New Zealand, Alaska, Boulder, Colorado and Toronto.

She took time off from her career to her raise her family in Switzerland before going on a year-long, 21-country jaunt around the globe with her husband Thomas Lotz, an engineer, and their three daughters, who were five, eight and nine years old at the time. They returned home to Switzerland to ride out the COVID pandemic, and in 2021, relocated here.

“We really love Michigan. I’m an outdoors person and enjoy all the lakes and seasons,” said Huck. The U.P. is a favorite spot.

When she discovered Cranbrook Institute of Science and the Cranbook campus, “It was love at first sight,” she recalled. She was soon sharing her scientific knowledge and experience as a volunteer museum educator. “It felt like home.”

Not long after, the Caldwell Fisher Climate Science Fellow opportunity presented itself and she didn’t hesitate. For this first-of-its-kind Michigan fouryear fellowship, awarded in 2025, Huck is tasked with advancing climate science education through classroom learning, faculty collaboration and placed-based study across the Cranbrook campus, including Cranbrook Institute of Science.

“The role sounded like it was meant for me,” she said. “It combines my new passion for education and my old passion for science.

“Climate change is more than just science,” explained Huck. “There is a very emotional aspect you have to keep in mind.” Integrating assorted opportunities like art and even sci-fi climate literature, along with traditional science lessons, extend a positive exposure to climate education.

“My goal is to teach climate science without a doom and gloom vision,” she said.

“For each part of bad climate news, you must counter it with two good ones. Focus on what we can do and what is being done.”

During the first year, she is observing all areas of teaching within Cranbrook Schools to find potential areas to pilot a few climate lessons. Planning has already begun for the second year of the fellowship with a goal of broadening the engagement of students, faculty and the public.

Huck is developing preK-12 curriculum for Cranbrook Schools, as well as for public school visits and other public events through the museum.

“It’s a very unique approach and so much fun,” said Huck.

One project involves creating weather and air quality stations and placing them around the campus.

“When I talk to students, they are happy to be involved,” she says. “The next generation is ready to do something and not just talk about it.”

When Huck is not sowing general interest about the challenges and victories of climate science, she is looking forward to another adventure.

Locally, the family enjoys going for a stroll around Eastern Market and checking out any new developments along the waterfront. Belle Isle is also a favorite downtown selection. Even closer to home, Shock Gelato, the Argentinianstyle ice cream shop on Maple in Birmingham is their current go-to place. More broadly, the family takes an annual trip to Europe, with this year’s destination being Iceland.

Wherever her travels take her, Dr. Petra Huck will surely share them and any climate lessons learned with her newly-adopted community.

Story: Gretchen Van-Monette

NEXT NOTEBOOK

What began in 2023 as a vision for our senior community has finally found its footing.

When the YMCA decided to sell their Birmingham branch at 400 East Lincoln, the City of Birmingham committed $1.5 million toward the purchase. Next contributed an additional $500,000, with both entities providing additional funding for professional services.

After thoroughly exploring an expanded partnership with the YMCA that ultimately proved too large and too costly to bring to voters, in 2026, the City of Birmingham and Next returned to its original, community-centered plan: a dedicated facility where Birmingham's seniors will have a true home.

With a lease now agreed upon and a floor plan approved, the focus has shifted to the exciting phase of designing the interior spaces that will genuinely serve the needs of our 50plus community.

This isn't just construction. It's a commitment, and commitments like this matter more than most people realize.

Drive through Birmingham and you'll find an abundance of amenities for younger residents; a dozen playgrounds, a skate park, ice rink, robust youth programming, and state of the art schools with a multitude of extracurricular activities.

Throughout this process, I heard concerns from seniors. It was troubling to learn that our older residents felt that once they age, they became less worthy of community resources. Older residents want what everyone wants, a space designed with their interests in mind. A safe place to gather, learn new skills, stay mentally sharp, and find connection.

Older residents carry the history of Birmingham in their hands. They have raised children, built businesses, volunteered, supported city-wide initiatives, survived loss, celebrated milestones, and shown up, decade after decade for this community. A space designed with older adults in mind isn't charity, it’s gratitude, and overdue.

We are grateful that this city commission is seeing through one of their top priorities, a new, better suited space for Next. This will not only be a place that offers unique day-to-day activities our members love, but also programs that promote healthy aging while also serving our most vulnerable residents, whether or not they hold a Next membership.

The science on aging and community is well documented. People thrive when they feel they belong, when they have a place to go where someone knows your name, where you might learn something new, laugh at something unexpected, or simply sit with another person who understands where you've been. For older adults, that kind of connection isn't just nice, it's one of the most powerful forces in human health and happiness. We are all wired for community. When that community exists, people show up differently. They stay curious, stay engaged, and stay healthier, longer. That is what this new space will mean to our community; a safe, welcoming, purposeful place to show up.

As we continue designing the interior spaces, being deliberate and thoughtful about accessibility, programming and comfort, we are guided by a straightforward belief that community isn't something a city has. It's something a city does. It is creating spaces and opportunities to connect to one another.

Birmingham is doing that. Next is doing that. And we are closer than ever to making a new home for our 50+ community a reality.

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 listings include nearly all dining establishments with seating in the Birmingham/Bloomfield area, and then some select restaurants outside the immediate area served by Downtown.

Birmingham/Bloomfield

220: American. Brunch, weekends, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 220 E. Merrill Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.646.2220. 220restaurant.com

48302. 248.540.7220. cityscapedeli.com

Commonwealth: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. 300 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, 48009. 248.792.9766. gocommonwealth.com

Dick O’Dow’s: Irish. Lunch & Dinner, TuesdaySunday. Reservations. Liquor. 160 West Maple Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.642.1135. dickodowspub.com

Eddie Merlot’s: Steak & seafood. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 37000 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.712.4095. eddiemerlots.com

Einstein Bros. Bagels: Deli. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. 4089 West Maple Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.258.9939. einsteinbros.com

5th Tavern: American. Brunch, weekends, Lunch & Dinner daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2262 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, 48302. 248.481.9607. 5thtavern.com

Adachi: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner daily. Liquor. Reservations. 325 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham 48009. 248.540.5900. adachirestaurant.com

Andiamo: Italian. Lunch, Monday-Friday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6676 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, 48301. 248.865.9300. andiamoitalia.com

Beau’s: American. Brunch, weekends, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 4108 W. Maple Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.626.2630. beausbloomfield.com

Bella Piatti: Italian. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 167 Townsend Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.494.7110. bellapiattirestaurant.com

Bell Bistro: American. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Liquor. Reservations. 185 N. Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.829.7900. bellbirmingham.com

Beverly Hills Grill: American. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 31471 Southfield Road, Beverly Hills, 48025. 248.642.2355. beverlyhillsgrill.com

Beyond Juicery + Eatery: Contemporary. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 270 W. Maple Road, Birmingham, 48009; 221 Cole Street, Birmingham, 48009; 3645 W. Maple Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301; 4065 W. Maple Road, Bloomfield Township, 48301; 1987 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. beyondjuiceryeatery.com

Big Rock Italian Chop House: Steakhouse. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 245 S. Eton Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.275.0888. bigrockitalianchophouse.com

Bill’s: American. Breakfast, weekends, Lunch, Wednesday-Sunday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 39556 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.646.9000. billsbloomfieldhills.com

Birmingham Pub: American. Brunch, weekends, Lunch, and Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 555 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.885.8108. thebirminghampub.com

Bistro Joe’s Kitchen: Global. Brunch and Lunch, weekends, Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Liquor. Reservations. 34244 Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.594.0984. bistrojoeskitchen.com

Bloomfield Deli: Deli. Breakfast & Lunch, Monday-Friday. No reservations. 71 W. Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.645.6879. bloomfielddeli.com

Brooklyn Pizza: Pizza. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Liquor. No reservations. 111 Henrietta Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.258.6690. thebrooklynpizza.com

Café Dax: American. Breakfast, daily, Lunch, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 298 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.283.4200. daxtonhotel.com

Café ML: New American. Dinner, daily. Liquor. Reservations. 3607 W. Maple Road, Bloomfield Township. 248.642.4000. cafeml.com

Café Origins: Global. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 163 W Maple Road, Birmingham, 48009. 248. 248.742.4040. originsbirmingham.com

Casa Pernoi: Italian. Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 310 E. Maple Road, Birmingham, 48009. 248.940.0000. casapernoi.com

Churchill’s Bistro & Cigar Bar: Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 116 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.647.4555. churchillscigarbar.com

Cityscape Deli: Deli. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. 877 W. Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills,

Elie’s Mediterranean Grill/Bar: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. Liquor. 263 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.647.2420. eliesgrill.com

EM: Mexican. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 470 N. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 947.234.0819. embirmingham.com

Embers Deli & Restaurant: Deli. Breakfast & Lunch, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. 3598 West Maple Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.645.1033. embersdeli1.com

Flemings Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar: American. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 323 N. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.723.0134. flemingssteakhouse.com

Forest: Continental cuisine. Dinner, TuesdaySaturday. Reservations. Liquor. 735 Forest Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.258.9400. forestbirmingham.com

Greek Islands Coney Restaurant: Greek. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 221 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, 48009. 248.646.1222. greekislandsconey.com

Griffin Claw Brewing Company: American. Lunch, Thursday-Sunday, Dinner, TuesdaySunday. No Reservations. Liquor. 575 S. Eton Street, Birmingham. 248.712.4050. griffinclawbrewingcompany.com

Hazel’s: Seafood. Brunch, weekends, Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 1 Peabody Street, Birmingham. 248.671.1714. eatathazels.com

Honey Tree Grille: Greek/American. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, daily. No reservations. 3633 W. Maple Rd, Bloomfield, MI 48301. 248.203.9111. honeytreegrille.com

Hudson’s Place: Pizza/Coffee/Takeout. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, daily. No reservations. 1087 W. Long Lake Road, Bloomfield, 48302. 248.540.2266. hudsonsplacepizzeria.com

Hunter House Hamburgers: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 33900 Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.646.7121. hunterhousehamburgers.com Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse: American. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 201 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.594.4369. hydeparkrestaurants.com

IHOP: American. Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2187 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301. 248.333.7522. Ihop.com

Joe Muer Seafood: Seafood. Lunch & Dinner daily. Reservations. Liquor. 39475 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.792.9609. joemuer.com

Kaishin Izakaya: Japanese. Lunch and Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 176 S, Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248-731-7166. kaishinizakaya.com

Kaku Sushi and Poke’: Asian. Lunch, MondayFriday & Dinner daily. No reservations. 869 W. Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Township, 48302. 248.480.4785, kakusushipoke.com

Kerby’s Koney Island: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2160 N. Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.333.1166. kerbyskoneyisland.com

La Marsa: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner daily. Reservations. 43259 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.858.5800. lamarsacuisine.com

La Pecora Nera: Italian deli. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, daily. No reservations. 135 Pierce St. Birmingham, 48009. 248.940.5613. lapecoraneradetroit.com

La Strada Italian Kitchen & Bar: Italian. Lunch, Wednesday-Friday, Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 243 E. Merrill Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.480.0492. lastradaitaliankitchen.com

Leo’s Coney Island: American. Breakfast,

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 154 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.593.9707. Also 6527 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.646.8568. leosconeyisland.com

Lincoln Yard and Little Yard: American. Little Yard take-out hours: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Lincoln Yard hours: Brunch, weekends, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 2159 E. Lincoln Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.653.5353. eatlincolnyard.com

Luxe Bar & Grill: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 525 N. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.792.6051. luxebarandgrill.com

Madam: American. Brunch, weekends, Lunch, Friday-Sunday, Dinner daily. Reservations. Liquor. 298 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.283.4200. daxtonhotel.com

Market North End: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 474 N. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.712.4953. marketnorthend.com

Marrow: American. Butcher shop and eatery. Breakfast and Lunch, Tuesday-Sunday. No reservations. 283 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, 48009. 734.410.0405 marrowdetroit.com/restaurant

MEX Mexican Bistro & Tequila Bar: Mexican. Brunch, weekends. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6675 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, 48301. 248.723.0800. mexbloomfield.com

Middle Eats: Mediterranean. Lunch and Dinner, daily. No reservations. 42967 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield, 48093. 248.274.328. middleeats.com

Nippon Sushi Bar: Japanese. Lunch, MondayFriday, Dinner daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2079 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, 48302. 248.481.9581. nipponsushibar.com

Olga’s Kitchen: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2075 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.451.0500. olgas.com

Original Pancake House: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. 33703 South Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.642.5775. oph-mi.com

Phoenicia: Lebanese. Lunch, Monday-Friday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 588 S. Old Woodward Birmingham, 48009. phoeniciabirmingham.com

RH Rooftop: Brunch, Weekends, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 300 S. Old Woodward Avene, Birmingham, 48009. 248.614.6984 rh.com/us/en/detroit/restaurant

Roadside B & G: American. Lunch, FridaySunday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1727 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.858.7270. roadsidebandg.com

Salvatore Scallopini: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Beer & Wine. 505 North Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.644.8977. salsbirmingham.com

Shift Kitchen & Cocktails: Small Plates. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 117 Willits Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.452.1355. shiftbirmingham.com

Sidecar: American. Lunch and Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 117 Willits Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.792.2380. and 1952 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, MI 48302. 248-731-0087. sidecarsliderbar.com

Slice Pizza Kitchen: Pizza. Lunch and Dinner, daily. Liquor. 117 Willits Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.792.3475. slicepizzakitchen.com

Snap Taco Birmingham: Mexican. Lunch and Dinner, daily. No reservations. 126 S Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248731-7266. snaptaco-birmingham.com

Social Kitchen & Bar: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Brunch, Saturday & Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 225 E. Maple Road, Birmingham, 48009. 248.594.4200. socialkitchenandbar.com

Steve’s Deli: Deli. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Breakfast and Lunch, Sunday. No reservations. 6646 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield, 48301. 248.932.0800. stevesdeli.com

Streetside Seafood: Seafood. Lunch, Thursday & Friday, Dinner, daily. Liquor. 273 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.645.9123. streetsideseafood.com

St Roger Abbey: Patisserie. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, Wednesday-Sunday. No reservations. 215 N. Old Woodward Avenue,

Birmingham, 48009.

Sushi Hana: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 42656 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.333.3887. sushihanabloomfield.com

Sy Thai Cafe: Thai. Lunch, Monday-Saturday, Dinner, daily. No reservations. 315 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, 48009. 248.258.9830. sythaibirmingham.com

Sylvan Table: American. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1819 Inverness Street, Sylvan Lake, 48320. 248.369.3360. sylvantable.com

Tallulah Wine Bar and Bistro: American. Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 55 S. Bates Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.731.7066. tallulahwine.com

Terra Kitchen & Cocktails: New American. Lunch and Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 260 N. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.556.5640.dineterra.com

Teuta: Diner. Breakfast and Lunch, daily. No reservations.168 W Maple Road, Birmingham, 48009. 248.590.2113. teutabirmingham.com

Thai Street Kitchen: Thai. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. 42805 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Township, 48304. 248.499.6867. thaistreetkitchen.com

The Franklin: Oyster Bar. Brunch, weekends, Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 32760 Franklin Road, Franklin, 48025. 248.771.4747. thefranklinmi.com

The Gallery Restaurant: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Beer & wine. 6683 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.851.0313. galleryrestaurant2.com

The Moose Preserve Bar & Grill: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2395 S. Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.858.7688. moosepreserve.com

The Rugby Grille: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 100 Townsend Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.642.5999. rugbygrille.com

Toast: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily; Reservations. Liquor. 203 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.258.6278. eatattoast.com

Tomatoes Apizza: Pizza. Lunch & Dinner daily. Carryout. 34200 Woodward Avenue, Birmingham 48009. 248.258.0500. tomatoesapizza.com

Touch of India: Lunch, Tuesday-Thursday, Saturday & Sunday. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. No reservations. 297 E. Maple Road, Birmingham, 48009. 248.593.7881. thetouchofindia.com

Townhouse: American. Brunch, weekends. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 180 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.792.5241. eatattownhouse.com

Whistle Stop Diner: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily; Liquor. No reservations. 501 S. Eton Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.566.3566. whistlestopdiners.com

Wilder’s: American. Lunch, Monday-Friday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 458 N. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.771.0900. wildersbirmingham.com

ZANA: Modern American. Dinner, TuesdaySunday. Reservations. Liquor. 210 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.800.6568. zanabham.com

Royal Oak/Ferndale

Ale Mary’s: American. Brunch, weekends, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 316 South Main Street, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.268.1917. alemarysbeer.com

Anita’s Kitchen: Middle Eastern. Lunch and Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 22651 Woodward Avenue, Ferndale, 48220. 248.548.0680. anitaskitchen.com

Bella Limone: Italian. Dinner, TuesdaySunday. No reservations. Liquor. 100 S. Main Street, Floor 2, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.955.5725. bellalimone.com

Beppé: New American. Lunch, Saturday and Sunday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 703 N. Main St, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.607.7030. eatbeppe.com

Bigalora: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 711 S. Main Street, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.544.2442 bigalora.com

Blind Owl: International/American comfort. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 511 S. Main Street, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.216.1112. blindowlrestaurant.com

Blue Goat: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 321 South Main Street, Royal Oak, 48067. 248. 965.9955. bluegoatroyaloak.com

Cafe Muse: French. Breakfast & Lunch, Wednesday-Monday. Reservations. Liquor. 418 S. Washington Avenue, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.544.4749. cafemuseroyaloak.com

Como’s: Pizza. Brunch, weekends. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 22812 Woodward Avenue, Ferndale, 48220. 248.677.4439. comosrestaurant.com

Crispelli’s Bakery and Pizzeria: Italian. Lunch and Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 28939 Woodward Avenue, Berkley, 48072. 248.591.3300. crispellis.com

The Fly Trap: Diner. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. Dinner, Thursday-Sunday. No reservations. 22950 Woodward Avenue, Ferndale 48220. 248.399.5150. theflytrapferndale.com

Grand River Brewery: American. Brunch, Saturday & Sunday. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 1 E. 14 Mile Road, Clawson, 48017. 248.607-3631. grandriverbrewer

Gus’ Snug: Irish. Lunch and Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 38 S. Main Street, Clawson, 48017. 248.607.3631. gussnug.com

HopCat: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 430 S. Main Street, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.744.2544. HopCat.com

Howe’s Bayou: Cajun. Lunch & Dinner, TuesdaySaturday. No reservations. Liquor. 22949 Woodward Avenue, Ferndale, 48220. 248.691.7145. howesbayouferndale.net

Imperial: Mexican. Lunch and Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 22848 Woodward Avenue, Ferndale, 48220. 248.691.7145. imperialferndale.com

Inyo Restaurant Lounge: Asian Fusion. Brunch, weekends, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 22871 Woodward Avenue, Ferndale, 48220. 248.543.9500. inyorestaurant.com

JINYA Ramen Bar: Contemporary Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 129 S. Main St, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.955.4692. jinyaramenbar.com

Kacha Thai Market: Thai. Lunch and Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. 205 S Main Street, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.942-4246. KouZina: Greek. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 121 N. Main Street, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.629.6500. gokouzina.com

Kruse & Muer on Woodward: American. Lunch, Monday-Saturday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 28028 Woodward Avenue, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.965.2101. kruseandmuerrestaurants.com

Lily’s Seafood: Seafood. Brunch, weekends, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 410 S. Washington Avenue, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.591.5459. lilysseafood.com

Masala: Indian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. 106 S. Main Street, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.850.8284. food.orders.co/royaloakmasala

Mezcal: Mexican. Bruch, Sunday. Lunch and Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 201 E. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale, 248.268.3915. mezcalferndale.com

Noori Pocha: Korean. Lunch & Dinner, TuesdaySunday. No reservations. Liquor. 1 S. Main Street, Clawson, 48017. 248. 850.7512. nooripocha.com

Oak City Grille: American. Dinner, TuesdaySunday. Reservations. Liquor. 212 W. 6th Street, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.556.0947. oakcitygrille.com

Oak Parker: American. Brunch, weekends. Lunch & Dinner daily. No reservations. Liquor. 13621 W. Eleven Mile Rd, Oak Park, 48237. oakparker.com

One-Eyed Betty’s: American. Breakfast, weekends, Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 175 W. Troy Street, Ferndale, 48220. 248.808.6633. oneeyedbettys.com

Pita Post: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. No reservations. 2520 W. 14 Mile Road, Royal Oak, 48073. 855.535.5588. thepitapost.com

Pop’s for Italian: Italian. Brunch & Lunch, weekends, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 280 W. 9 Mile Road, Ferndale,48220. 248.268.4806. popsforitalian.com

Redcoat Tavern: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 31542 Woodward Avenue, Royal Oak, 48073. 248.549.0300. redcoat-tavern.com

Ronin: Japanese. Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 326 W. 4th Street, Royal Oak, 48067.

248.546.0888. roninsushi.com

Royal Oak Brewery: American. Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. No reservations. Liquor. 215 E. 4th Street, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.544.1141. royaloakbrewery.com

The Modern Vegan: Vegan. Brunch, weekends, Lunch and Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. No reservations. 304 N. Main St, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.206-7041. tmvrestaurants.com

Three Cats Café: American. Brunch, weekends, Lunch, Tuesday-Sunday, Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 116 W. 14 Mile Road, Clawson. threecatscafe.com

Tigerlily: Japenese. Brunch, weekends. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 231 W Nine Mile Rd Suite A, Ferndale, 48220. 248.733.4905. tigerlilyferndale.com

Toast, A Breakfast and Lunch Joint: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. 23144 Woodward Avenue, Ferndale, 48220. 248.398.0444. eatattoast.com

Tom’s Oyster Bar: Seafood. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 318 S. Main Street, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.541.1186. tomsoysterbar.com

Trattoria Da Luigi: Italian. Dinner, TuesdaySunday. Reservations. Liquor. 415 S, Washington Avenue, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.542.4444. trattoriadaluigi.business.site.com

Vinsetta Garage: American. Lunch and Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 7799 Woodward Avenue, Berkley, 48072. 248.548.7711. vinsettagarage.com

Voyager: Seafood. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 600 Vester Street, Ferndale, 48220. 248.658.4999. voyagerferndale.com

Troy/Rochester

Antica Nova: Italian. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 1695 E. Big Beaver Rd, Troy, 48083. 248.422.6521. anticanova.com

Cafe Sushi: Pan-Asian. Lunch, Tuesday-Friday, Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 1933 W. Maple Road, Troy, 48084. 248.280.1831. cafesushimi.com

Capital Grill: Steak & Seafood. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 2800 W. Big Beaver Road, Somerset Collection, Troy, 48084. 248.649.5300.

CK Diggs: American & Italian. Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 2010 W. Auburn Road, Rochester Hills, 48309. 248.853.6600. ckdiggs.com

The Dime Store: American. Breakfast and Lunch, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 6920 N Rochester Road, Rochester Hills, 48306.248.963.0941. eatdimestore.com

Ernie’s on the Creek: Modern Mediterranean. Dinner, Wednesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 543 N. Main St #201, Rochester, 48307. 248.710.8808. erniesonthecreek.com

Firebird Tavern: American. Brunch, weekends, Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 4845 Rochester Road, Troy, 48085. 248.289.9650. firebirdtaverntroy.com

Grand Castor: Latin American. Lunch and Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 2950 Rochester Road, Troy, 48083. 248.278.7777. grancastor.com

Hudson’s Café: Diner. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. Reservations, Liquor. 700 W Big Beaver Road, Troy. 48084. 248.509.7695. hudson-cafe.com

The Jackson: Modern American. Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 184 N. Adams Road, Rochester Hills, 48309. 248.709.9453. thejacksonrestaurant.com

Kona Grille: American. Brunch, weekends, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 30 E. Big Beaver Road, Troy, 48083. 248.619.9060. konagrill.com

Kruse & Muer on Main: American. Lunch, Monday-Saturday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 327 S. Main Street, Rochester, 48307. 248.652.9400. kruseandmuerrestaurants.com

Loccino Italian Grill and Bar: Italian. Lunch, Monday-Friday, Dinner, daily. Liquor. Reservations. 5600 Crooks Road, Troy, 48098. 248.813.0700. loccino.com

The Meeting House: American. Brunch, weekends, Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. No reservations. Liquor. 301 S. Main Street, Rochester, 48307. 248.759.4825. themeetinghouserochester.com

Mon Jin Lau: Nu Asian. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1515 E. Maple Road, Troy, 48083. 248.689.2332. monjinlau.com

METRO INTELLIGENCER

Metro Intelligencer is a monthly column devoted to news stories, tidbits and gossip items about what's happening on the restaurant scene in the metro Detroit area. Metro Intelligencer is reported/created each month by Gigi Nichols who can be reached at GigiNichols@DowntownPublications.com with news items or tips, on or off the record.

Big Rock: A refined brunch buffet experience

Brunch just got a sophisticated upgrade at Big Rock Italian Chophouse, where Executive Chef Chris Mayer leads the culinary team in delivering a new dining experience. Sales Special Manager Sue Simich describes the new offering as an elegant, elevated buffet. Guests can start with made-to-order omelets, customized with selections like bacon, sausage, or crispy prosciutto, paired with fresh vegetables such as spinach, tomato, mushrooms, or asparagus, and finished with goat cheese, mozzarella, or parmesan. Buttermilk waffles are also prepared fresh to order and topped with indulgent options like Nutella, mixed berries, or bananas. Beyond the made-to-order specialties, the buffet showcases an impressive spread: prime rib, salmon, airline chicken, and a standout Parmesan cheese wheel risotto with bay scallops or shrimp. There’s also a wellappointed charcuterie display featuring assorted cheeses, hot and cold pastas, scrambled eggs with breakfast meats, quiche, chilled salads, and oysters on the half shell. To complete the experience, a lavish dessert table offers an array of decadent sweets. For those looking to elevate their brunch further, an extensive selection of classic cocktails is available for an additional charge, including mimosas, Bloody Marys, Amaretto Sours, White Peach Bellinis, and Tequila Sunrises. Alcohol-free “proofless” cocktails are also offered, ensuring there’s something for every guest to enjoy. Brunch buffet is served Sundays from 10 a.m.– 2 p.m.; Adults $55; Ages 6-12 $21; Ages 5 and under are complimentary; coffee, tea, or soft drink included. 245 S. Eton Street, Birmingham bigrockitalianchophouse.com

Marrow Brunch and consolidation news

And speaking of brunch, Detroit’s Eastern Market gains a fresh weekend draw as Marrow in the Market launches a new brunch program led by Chef Noelle Prater. Served Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the menu reflects the restaurant’s whole-animal philosophy with seasonal, shareable dishes. Chef Prater, whose background includes Detroit, Napa Valley and Savannah, brings an ingredient-driven approach that blends comfort food with creativity. Starters include deviled eggs with smoked paprika and coppa, a pastry platter with babka and hot cross buns, and “Million Dollar Bacon” with habanero candying and bourbon sweet potato purée. Lighter options include a bagel and lox plate with coffee-cured egg yolk, smoked whitefish with Calabrian tapenade and avocado Italiano. Hearty mains include steak and eggs, fried walleye and grits, and carrot cake brioche French toast, alongside signature brunch cocktails. In other Marrow news, founder Ping Ho announced that the company will consolidate its Birmingham and West Village operations to Eastern Market. “After a lot of reflection, I’ve made the decision to consolidate Marrow and put our full focus on Marrow in Eastern Market, along with the continued growth of Marrow Detroit Provisions. As part of this transition, our final day of dinner service at West Village will be June 7. Birmingham will run through Memorial Day weekend, after which the location will pivot to a new concept — one where Marrow will still have a presence. More details on that transition to come,” Ho said in a statement. 2442 Riopelle Street, Detroit marrowinthemarket.com

Who will be the first MICHELIN star?

Detroit has taken a significant step onto the global culinary stage. Visit Detroit announced that the city will be included in the MICHELIN Guide’s forthcoming American Great Lakes edition—an influential recognition that positions local restaurants for potential MICHELIN Star status pending the formal selection process. Anonymous MICHELIN inspectors are already conducting visits across the Detroit region, quietly evaluating establishments for inclusion. The full list of selected restaurants will be unveiled in 2027 at the inaugural MICHELIN Guide American Great Lakes Ceremony, details of which are expected at a later date. Local tourism leaders see the announcement as more than symbolic. Claude Molinari, President and CEO of Visit Detroit, called the inclusion “transformational,” noting that destinations featured in the MICHELIN Guide often experience measurable economic benefits, including increased visitation, longer stays, and higher traveler spending. For Detroit, the designation signals rising credibility as a food destination—and a potential boost across hospitality, retail, and related sectors. Globally, the MICHELIN Guide remains a benchmark for culinary excellence. Its distinctions range from one to three MICHELIN Stars,

Morton’s, The Steakhouse: Steak & Seafood. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 888 W. Big Beaver Road, Troy, 48084. 248.404.9845. mortons.com

NATA Detroit Kitchen and Cocktails: American/Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations, Liquor. 3946 Rochester Road, Troy, 48083. 248.247.7962.

NM Café: American. Lunch, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 2705 W. Big Beaver Road, Troy, 48084. 248.816.3424. neimanmarcus.com/restaurants

Oceania Inn: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. The Village of Rochester Hills, 3176 Walton Boulevard, Rochester Hills, 48309. 248.375.9200. oceaniainnrochesterhills.com

Ocean Prime: Steak & Seafood. Lunch, MondayFriday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 2915 Coolidge Highway, Troy, 48084. 248.458.0500. ocean-prime.com

O’Connor’s Irish Public House: Irish. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 324 S. Main Street, Rochester, 48307. 248.608.2537. oconnorsrochester.com

Orchid Café: Thai. Lunch, Monday-Friday, Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. 3303 Rochester Road., Troy, 48085. 248.524.1944. orchid-cafe.com

P.F. Chang’s China Bistro: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. Somerset Collection, 2801 W. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, 48084. 248.816.8000. pfchangs.com

Recipes: American/Brunch. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 134 W. University Drive, Rochester, 48037. 248.659.8267. Also 2919 Crooks Road, Troy, 48084. 248.614.5390. recipesinc.com

RH House: American. Brunch, weekends, Lunch and Dinner, daily. 2630 Crooks Road, Rochester Hills, 48309. No reservations. Liquor. 2630 Crooks Road, Rochester Hills, 48309. 248.586.1000. rh.house.com

RH Social: Pizza/Sports Bar. Brunch, Lunch, Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 6870 N. Rochester Road, Rochester Hills, 48306.248.759.4858. rochesterhillssocial.com

Rochester Chop House: Steak & Seafood. Lunch, Monday-Friday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 306 S. Main St., Rochester, 48307. 248.651.2266. kruseandmuerrestaurants.com

Ruth’s Chris Steak House: Steak & Seafood. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 755 W. Big Beaver Road, Troy, 48084. 248.269.8424. ruthschris.com

Sedona Taphouse: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 198 Big Beaver Road, Troy, 48083. 248.422.6167. sedonataphouse.co

Silver Spoon: Italian. Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 6830 N. Rochester Road, Rochester, 48306. 248.652.4500. silverspoonristorante.com

Stumblebum Beer Co.: American. Lunch, Friday-Sunday, Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. No reservations. Beer. 1965 W. Maple Road, Troy, 48084. 248.307.7204. stumblebumbeer.com

Too Ra Loo: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 139 S. Main Street, Rochester, 48307. 248.453.5291. tooraloorochester.com

Witch Topokki: Korean. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 300 John R Rd suite a, Troy, 48083. 248. 307.7587. witchtopokki.com

West Bloomfield/Southfield

Aurora Italiana: Italian. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6199 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield Twp., 48322. 248.782.3000. auroraitaliana.com

Aurora on the Lake: Italian. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 2323 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.360.6650. auroraitaliana.com

Cornbread Restaurant & Bar: Southern. Lunch & Dinner, Thursday-Tuesday. Reservations. Liquor. 29508 Northwestern Highway, Southfield, 48034. 248.208.1680. cornbreadsoulfood.com

Bigalora: Italian. Lunch, Monday-Saturday, Dinner, daily. No Reservations. Liquor. 29110 Franklin Road, Southfield, 48034. 248.544.2442. bigalora.com

The Fiddler: Russian. Dinner, Friday & Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 6676 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield Township, 48322. 248.851.8782. fiddlerrestaurant.com

Mene Sushi: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, Thursday-Sunday. No reservations. Beer &

Wine. 6239 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield Township, 48322. 248.538.7081. menesususi.com

Nonna Maria’s: Italian. Dinner, TuesdaySaturday. Reservations. Liquor. 2080 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield, 48323. 248.851.2500. nonamariasbistro.com

Pickles & Rye: Deli. Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 6724 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield Township, 48322. 248.737.3890 picklesandryedeli.com

Prime29 Steakhouse: Steak & Seafood. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6545 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.737.7463. prime29steakhouse.com

Redcoat Tavern: American. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. Liquor. 6745 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield Township, 48322. 248.865.0500. redcoattavern.com

Shangri-La: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, Wednesday-Monday. Reservations. Liquor. Orchard Mall Shopping Center, 6407 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield Township, 48322. 248.626.8585. dinesangrila.com

Stage Deli: Deli. Lunch, & Dinner, TuesdaySunday. No reservations. Liquor. 6873 Orchard Lake Rd., West Bloomfield Township, 48322. 248.855.6622. stagedeli.com

Vive: American. Lunch, Monday-Friday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 33080 Northwestern Hwy, West Bloomfield Township, 48322. 248.406.8065. viverestaurantmi.com

Yotsuba: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, TuesdaySunday. Reservations. Liquor. 7365 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.737.8282. yotsuba-restaurant.com

West Oakland

Volare Ristorante: Italian. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 48992 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393. 248.960.7771. ristorantevolare.com

North Oakland

Clarkston Union: American. Breakfast, Sunday, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 54 S. Main Street, Clarkston, 48346 248.620.6100. clarkstonunion.com

Kruse's Deer Lake Inn: Seafood. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 7504 Dixie Highway, Clarkston, 48346. 248.795.2077. kruseandmuerrestaurants.com

The Fed: American. Brunch, Saturday & Sunday. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 15 S. Main Street, Clarkston, 48346. 248.297.5833. thefedcommunity.com

Rudy’s Steakhouse: Steak. Dinner, TuesdaySunday. Reservations. Liquor. 9 S Main Street, Village of Clarkston, 48346. 248.625.3033. rudysprimesteakhouse.com Via Bologna: Italian. Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. Liquor. 7071 Dixie Highway, Clarkston, 48346. 248.620.8500. joebologna.com

Union Woodshop: BBQ. Lunch, Sunday, Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 18 S. Main Street, Clarkston, 48346. 248.625.5660 unionwoodshop.com

Detroit

Adelina: Italian. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 1040 Woodward Ave, Detroit,48226. 313.246.8811. adelinadetroit.com

Alpino: Alpine cuisine. Brunch, Sunday. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1426 Bagley Street, Detroit, 48216. 313.524.0888 alpinodetroit.com

Ash-Bar: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1509 Broadway Street, Detroit, 48226. 313.277.4736. ash.world/hotels/the-siren.com

Bar Pigalle: French. Brunch, Sundays. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 2915 John R Street, Detroit, 48201. 313.497.9200 barpigalle.com

Barda: Argentinian. Dinner, WednesdaySaturday. Reservations. Liquor. 4842 Grand River Avenue, Detroit, 48208. 313.952.5182. bardadetroit.com

Basan: Asian. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 2703 Park Avenue, Detroit, 48201. 313.481.2703. basandetroit.com Bucharest Grill: Middle Eastern. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2684 E. Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, 48207. 313.965.3111. bucharestgrill.com

Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails: Seasonal American. Lunch, Friday, Dinner, TuesdaySunday. Reservations. Liquor. 15 E Kirby Street D, Detroit, 48202. 313.818.3915. chartreusekc.com

Cliff Bell’s: American. Dinner, Wednesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 2030 Park Avenue, Detroit, 48226. 313.961.2543. cliffbells.com

Coriander Kitchen and Farm: Farm to table. Lunch and Dinner, Thursday-Monday. Reservations. Liquor. 14601 Riverside Boulevard, Detroit, 48215. 313.338.9466. corianderkitchenandfarm.com

Corktown Taphouse: American and Mexican. No reservations. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Liquor. 1611 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, 48216. 313.362.8184. corktowntaphouse.com

Cuisine: French. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 670 Lothrop Road, Detroit, 48202. 313.872.5110. cuisinerestaurantdetroit.com

The Eagle: The Eagle: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 3461 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, 48201. 313.334.4530. eaglerestaurant.com

El Barzon: Mexican. Lunch, Tuesday-Friday. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 3710 Junction Street, Detroit, 48210. 313.894.2070. elbarzonrestaurant.com

Fishbone’s Rhythm Kitchen Café: Cajun. Lunch and Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 400 Monroe Street, Detroit, 48226. 313.965.4600. fishbonesusa.com

Freya: Price fixed. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations, Liquor. 2929 E. Grand Boulevard, Detroit, 48202. 313.351.5544. freyadetroit.com

Full Measure Brewing Company: Brew pub. Brunch, Weekends, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Beer. 2700 Orleans Street, Detroit,48207. 313.818.3977. fullmeasurebrewing.com

Giovanni’s Ristorante: Italian. Dinner, TuesdaySaturday. Reservations. Liquor. 330 S. Oakwood Boulevard, Detroit, 48217. 313.841.0122. giovannisrestaurante.com

Green Dot Stables: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2200 W. Lafayette, Detroit, 48216. 313.962.5588. greendotstables.com

HIROKI-SAN: Japanese. Dinner, TuesdaySunday. Reservations. Liquor. 1265 Washington Boulevard, Detroit, 48226. 313.597.8344. hirokisandetroit.com

Javier’s Downtown: Steakhouse. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1452 Brush Street, Detroit, 48226. 313.816.0007. javiersdowntown.com

Joe Muer Seafood: Seafood. Lunch, MondayFriday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 400 Renaissance Center, Detroit, 48243. 313.567.6837. joemuer.com

Johnny Noodle King: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2601 W. Fort Street, Detroit, 48216. 313.309.7946. johnnynoodleking.com

Leila: Lebanese. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1245 Griswold Street, Detroit, 48226. 313. 816.8100. leiladetroit.com

Lena: Dinner, Wednesday-Monday. Reservations. Liquor. 2720 Brush Street, Detroit, 48201. 313.262.6082. lenadetroit.com

Le Supreme: French. Brunch, weekends, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1265 Washington Boulevard, Detroit, MI 48226. 313.597.7734. lesupremedetroit.com

Lone Goat: British Pub. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No Reservations. Liquor. 33 John R Street, Detroit, 48226. thelonegoat.com

Mad Nice: Coastal Italian/American. Breakfast, Coffee Shop, daily, Brunch, Weekends, Lunch, Wednesday-Sunday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 4120 2nd Avenue, Detroit, 48201. 313.558.8000. madnicedetroit.com

Mario’s: Italian. Lunch, Saturday & Sunday, Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 4222 2nd Avenue, Detroit, 48201. 313.832.1616. mariosdetroit.com

Medusa: Italian. Dinner, Wednesday-Monday. Liquor. Reservations. 644 Selden St, Detroit, 48201. 313.798.3498. medusa-detroit.com

Mezcal: Mexican. Brunch, Weekends, Lunch and Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 51 W Forest Avenue, Detroit, 48202. 313.974.7441. mezcaldetroit.com

Midtown Shangri-la: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 4710 Cass Avenue, Detroit, 48201. 313.974.7669. midtownshangril-la.com

Oak & Reel: Italian Seafood. Dinner, Wednesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 2921 E Grand Boulevard, Detroit, 48202. 313.270.9600. oakandreel.com

Ostrea: Seafood. Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 536 Shelby Street, Detroit, 48226. 313.403.2111. ostreadetroit.com

Parc: New American. Brunch, Saturday & Sunday. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 800 Woodward Ave, Detroit, 48226. 313.922.7272. parcdetroit.com

Prime + Proper: Steak House. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1145 Griswold St, Detroit, 48226. 313.636.3100. primeandproperdetroit.com

Prism: Steak & Seafood. Dinner, ThursdaySunday. Reservations. Liquor. 555 E. Lafayette Street, Detroit, 48226. 313.309.2499. greektowncasino.com

Selden Standard: American. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 3921 Second Avenue, Detroit, 48201. 313.438.5055. seldenstandard.com

Sexy Steak: Steakhouse. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1942 Grand River Avenue, Detroit,48226. 313.403.1000. sexysteakdetroit.com

SheWolf Pastifico & Bar: Italian. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 438 Selden Street, Detroit 48201. 313.315.3992. shewolfdetroit.com

Sinbad’s: Seafood. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 100 St. Clair Street, Detroit, 48214. 313.822.8000. sindbads.com

Slows Bar BQ: Barbeque. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2138 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, 48216. 313.962.9828. slowsbarbq.com/locations/corktown

Soraya: Japanese. Lunch, Tuesday-Thursday, Dinner, Monday-Saturday. Reservations. Liquor. 160 W Fort St, Detroit, 48226. 313.262.6078. sorayadetroit.com

Sullivan’s Steakhouse: Steakhouse. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1128 Washington Boulevard, Detroit, MI 48226. 313.591.2495. sullivanssteakhouse.com

Sunda New Asian: New Asian. Dinner, TuesdaySunday. Liquor. Reservations. 33 W Columbia Street, Detroit, 482013. 313.462.4847 sundanewasian.com

Supergeil: Berlin Doner. Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. No reservations. Liquor. 2442 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, 48216. 313.462.4133. supergeildetroit.com

Tap at MGM Grand: American. Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 1777 Third Street, Detroit, 48226. 313.465.1234. mgmgranddetroit.com

The Apparatus Room: New American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 250 W. Larned Street, Detroit, 48226. 313.800.5600 detroitfoundationhotel.com

The Block: American. Brunch, Weekends, Lunch & Dinner, Wednesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 3919 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, 48201. 313.832.0892. theblockdet.com

The Dime Store: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 719 Griswold Street #180, Detroit, 48226. 313.962.9106. eatdimestore.com

The Peterboro: Chinese American. Lunch, Saturday, Dinner, Wednesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 420 Peterboro Street, Detroit, 48201. 313.462.8106. thepeterboro.com

Townhouse Detroit: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 500 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, 48201. 48226. 313.723.1000. townhousedetroit.com

Vecino: Mexican. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor. 4100 3rd Ave, Detroit, 48201. 313.500.1615. vecinodetroit.com

Vivio’s Food & Spirits: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2460 Market Street, Detroit, 48207. 313.393.1711. viviosdetroit.net

The Whitney: American. Tea Service, Friday & Saturday, Dinner, Wednesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor.4421 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, 48201. 313.832.5700. thewhitney.com

Wright & Co.: American. Dinner, TuesdaySaturday. No reservations. Liquor. 1500 Woodward Avenue, Second Floor, Detroit, 48226. 313.962.7711. wrightdetroit.com

Zuzu: Asian Fusion. Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 511 Woodward Ave suite 100, Detroit, 48226. 313.464.7777. experiencezuzu.com

awarded for exceptional cuisine, to the Bib Gourmand designation recognizing high-quality dining at accessible prices. Additional honors include the Green Star for sustainability and various professional awards. Inspectors evaluate restaurants using five criteria: ingredient quality, technical skill, flavor harmony, the chef’s personal expression, and consistency. These standards ensure that recognition carries equal weight worldwide, reinforcing Detroit’s opportunity to compete on an international level.

BESOS opens in Birmingham

After years of construction and anticipation, BESOS has officially opened at 239 N. Old Woodward Avenue in Birmingham. Helmed by celebrity chef Matthew Kenney, the restaurant offers a plant-based dining experience centered on bold flavors and artistic presentation. Kenney is the author of 12 cookbooks, founder of dozens of vegan restaurants across the U.S., and creator of Matthew Kenney Cuisine and Matthew Kenney Culinary, a plant-based culinary education company. The menu is described as “globally inspired comfort food with a very modern touch, featuring pizzas, rich pastas, vibrant share plates, and inventive signature dishes.” Highlights include the Heart of Palm Crab Cake with Brussel leaf slaw and Green Goddess aioli; Cauliflower “Steak” with pomegranate, pistachio, turmeric tahini, and black olives; and Heirloom Tomato Lasagna with pistachio pesto and macadamia ricotta. The beverage program includes handcrafted cocktails as well as curated non-alcoholic offerings. Named for the restaurant’s location, The Woodward Old Fashioned combines bourbon, maple syrup, fig jam, Angostura bitters, orange bitters, and smoked sea salt. BESOS’s stylish, intimate interior was designed by Ron & Roman. The playful space blends warm wood tones with hot pink accents, anchored by a long wood-paneled bar illuminated with amber underlighting that creates a cozy glow. Slim cylindrical pendant lights add a clean, minimalist touch, while bold black-and-white geometric flooring brings visual energy to the room. BESOS is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. 239 N. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham

New hours and menu at Mai Tiki

Mai Tiki in Ferndale is expanding both its menu and hours, introducing Hawaiian-style barbecue and a fresh lineup of poke bowls now available six days a week. Operating inside Tigerlily, the tiki bar–speakeasy hybrid has long been a low-key destination for tropical cocktails and intimate gatherings. To boost visibility, Mai Tiki has added Thursday evening service and broadened its carryout schedule, now offered Tuesday through Sunday from 4 p.m. to close. Dine-in hours run 4–10 p.m. Thursdays and 4–11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. The updated menu features a range of smoked meats and island-inspired dishes, including banana leaf-wrapped Kalua pork, dry-rubbed ribs, Korean sticky ribs, brisket, smoked chicken, and wings tossed in huli huli, Buffalo, or Korean sauces. Sandwiches are served on house-made Japanese milk bread, while customizable poke bowls offer lighter options with proteins like tuna, salmon, shrimp, tofu, and more. Executive Chef Bruce Allen, a veteran pitmaster who joined Hometown Restaurant Group in 2024, brings a fusion of Texas barbecue with Asian and Hawaiian influences. Meanwhile, Tigerlily has streamlined its dinner menu — removing ramen, sushi, and several entrees — to adapt to shifting costs and supply challenges while maintaining consistency for staff and guests. 231 W Nine Mile Road Suite B, Ferndale maitikibar.com

Whitney Garden Parties, new Sunday Garden Series

The Whitney has announced the return of its popular Thursday Garden Parties along with the debut of a new Sunday Garden Series featuring themed dining experiences and live music. The Garden Parties will take place on Thursdays throughout the summer season. The garden opens at 4 p.m. with live music beginning at 6 p.m. Guests can expect a diverse musical lineup of local bands featuring Americana, roots, blues, jazz, soul and rock and roll. General admission tickets are $10, and VIP table tickets are available for $20 each. Select June performances include: June 4- One Ton Trolley; June 11- Television City; June 18- Jeremy Porter and The Tucos; and June 25- The Whiskey Charmers. The new Sunday Garden Series will be held weekly from 4-7 p.m. Each event will feature live music alongside a rotating themed menu. Dates this month: June 14th - American Barbeque; June 21st - Father’s Day Event; June 28thSummer Sunday Seafood Boil; July 12th - New Orleans Feast; July 19thSummer Sunday Seafood Boil. The Sunday Garden events is $79 per person, with drinks and cocktails available for purchase. For registration, additional event details, and to view the full schedule, visit The Whitney’s event website: thewhitney.com/events-experiences 4421 Woodward Avenue, Detroit

The city purchase of The Community House

We may well be in the minority when it comes to the news that the city of Birmingham has decided to ante up $5.2 million to purchase The Community House building on Bates Street in downtown Birmingham. But then again, we know we are not alone in our concerns about this purchase, based on phone calls and conversations we have had with members of the community who recently reached out to us.

On the one hand, we wish we could be celebrating like some of the small but vocal groups who readily jumped on the bandwagon as the city squared off with officials at The Community House Association within weeks after it was announced last year that the iconic building was being placed on the market. We were among the first to suggest behind-thescenes that the city ask the Oakland County Circuit Court for injunctive relief when the first all-cash offer came in from a potential buyer. We at least thought then that slowing the process just a bit would allow for the city to consider possibly getting involved and at least make sure that deed restrictions on this property were being honored. We were thrilled when the Jewish Federation of Detroit offered to buy the ‘House’ and at the same time incorporate the deed restrictions into the purchase agreement. That supposed $8 million offer was above the appraised value of the

property and it is a well established and respected nonprofit that has the experience to continue managing the ‘House’ and the many activities that had been hosted there. The group’s offer would have wiped out several million dollars in debt and provided seed money to the TCH officials who planned to continue a community foundation that would work with other nonprofits in the area.

But with a February 2026 closing date, the group decided that waiting many months for the court case to unravel did not fit with their plans. We even at one point suggested to city officials that they withdraw the lawsuit but at least some commissioners seemed hell-bent on having the city own the ‘House.’

The Community House Association this spring filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to reorganize as it faced an end of June deadline on its debts.

Here’s our concern about the purchase of The Community House by the city, which has announced that it will be forming a nonprofit foundation, the board of which will be charged with overseeing the ‘House.’ At no point in recent months have we heard any public discussion of just how the city will be attempting to bring back the glory days of the ‘House,’ let alone how much it will cost to operate the building with a proper level of staffing.

We would have felt more comfortable with this

purchase by the city if more public discussion had taken place about what the game plan is for the ‘House’ beyond just wishful sentiment about basically bringing back the past, which we are just not sure can happen that easily, if at all. In terms of detailed plans, all we have heard is that the childcare educational component of the ‘House’ will be maintained and that the building will be the center of activities and community groups, many of which have already said they are reluctant to return from where they now meet on a regular basis.

Moving forward, we need a more transparent process when it comes to planning for the future. We understood during negotiations about the purchase that closed door meetings of the city commission made sense. But now, with $5 million of taxpayer funds on the line, we expect public discussion by the city commission and the board that it appoints as they determine how to fix the ailing ‘House.’ The new board for The Community House must be required to have open meetings, available by Zoom, so interested members of the community can follow what is being considered and acted upon. We also expect regular monthly activities updates from the city commission. If not handled properly, then we see the city coming to the community asking for more taxes down the road because of the failure to properly develop a game plan before purchasing this building.

A recall of Woodward that we can support

As an elected official it is often your job to make unpopular decisions. Our long held position is if you don't like what a politician does, go and vote in the next election and choose someone else.

We are not fans of recalls – where an election is held before a politician's term is up. We have always maintained differences are settled at the ballot box, and recalls must strictly be for crimes, malfeasance or misfeasance in office. Recalls are difficult to enact and are costly for municipalities. First, a group must successfully produce a petition, with appropriate petition language, to an approval board. Then they must get the right amount of signatures to schedule an election for voters to cast ballots on the removal of the elected official, and if removed, there is another election to replace the individual. All told, a lengthy and very expensive proposition. Recently, a group of dissatisfied Oakland County citizens has mounted a recall of Oakland County Board of Commissioners Chairman Dave Woodward, accusing him of “subverting the democratic process” during a recent board meeting when Woodward led a vote of the board's April 8 meeting to move public comment until after a vote to approve a drone fleet for the sheriff's office. A separate recall petition against Woodward for voting for the drones was also approved. The petitions were approved by the Oakland County Election Commission and

Woodward has filed a lawsuit in circuit court to have the petitions overruled. If the court lets the petitions stand, then the group will have 60 days to collect voters' signatures amounting to 25 percent of votes cast for gubernatorial candidates in 2022 in Woodward's district, which includes part of Birmingham.

The Flock drone system which county commissioners approved is a popular system used widely by law enforcement, and we agree with the vote to provide it for the Oakland County Sheriff's Department. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard is a model of propriety and discretion, never using drones for surveillance of citizens, but for emergencies within the county or for partner law enforcement assistance, whether for heinous crimes like March's assault on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, domestic violence situations, SWAT standoffs, search and rescues, among numerous other situations. Drones are another tool for first responders, and Oakland County must provide the sheriff's department with the most up-to-date technology to protect the public. We actually applaud Woodward for leading commissioners in that vote.

Voters should ignore that petition to recall him for voting for drones for the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.

Where we do not agree with Woodward's actions is in moving public comment to the end

of the meeting, after the commission's vote for the drones. Why would you do that, and what does that achieve? It is definitely a sketchy, and to our thinking, a totally inappropriate move. As leader of the board, he should have prevented this.

The public has a right to freely speak out on any item that is up for a vote by any elected board, whether they are knowledgeable on the item, a gadfly, or just an annoyance in the community. It doesn't matter. That is their right, and members of the elected board are obligated to sit and listen. They should take into account reasonable criticisms, praise and complaints. What they cannot do is not permit it to happen before the vote and move it to the end of the meeting after the vote has occurred.

And that is what Woodward and the board of commissioners did on April 8.

Normally, we would recommend voters choose to elect someone else this year. But there is a new issue with county commissioners – they lobbied the state legislature and had state law changed, and for the first time, their terms are now for four years instead of the previous twoyear terms. So the only choice voters have is to recall Dave Woodward rather than wait two more years for a regular election.

Freedom of speech is a right for everyone. And denying that is misfeasance in our book.