Investment
Investment has always been something that I view as vitally important. Investing in your physical health, investing in your mental health, investing financially for your future and even things like investing in travel - the experiences that bring lessons and exposure to other people, places and things. There is always something worthwhile to invest in. Starting with yourself, your home, and financially for your future.
Take house flipping, for instance. Many people think it’s an easy way to make a quick buck. Turns out it’s not so easy. Matt Bazner and Justin Bercheny of Max Broock Realtors give us valuable insights on what makes a house flippable—and skippable. Read their insider’s guide, ‘Flipping Mythbusters.’
Would my mother invest in this? That’s the approach taken by Michael Cayen with Ohana Wealth Advisory. Michael walks us through the history of the boutique investment firm in Royal Oak and the ohana (extended family) approach of helping clients reach their financial planning goals. We also have a conversation with Susanne Scott of Firefly Spa and Some Peace & Quiet, whose determination to track down a lost family member was the inspiration for her unique day spa, an effective investment in self health.
Finally, be sure to check out the Business Monthly section, featuring some exciting new changes that are coming to Fifth Avenue in Downtown. A new 3-story restaurant is finding home in Royal Oak, brought to us from KISS members focusing on music and great food. Additionally, Fifth Avenue itself is getting the investment of a makeover through an outdoor park and gathering space.
Thank you for investing your time with me by reading ROCL monthly.
Best,
April 2026
PUBLISHER
Amy Gillespie | amy.gillespie@citylifestyle.com
MANAGING EDITOR
Marshall Zweig | marshall.zweig@citylifestyle.com
Corporate Team
CEO Steven Schowengerdt
President Matthew Perry
COO David Stetler
CRO Jamie Pentz
CoS Janeane Thompson
AD DESIGNER Rachel Kolich
LAYOUT DESIGNER Kirstan Lanier
QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Brandy Thomas
Proverbs 3:5-6
city scene
1-7: Restaurant week in Downtown Royal Oak sponsored by the DDA had Alchemi, Ale Mary’s, Bar Louie, Bigalora, Blind Owl, D’Amato’s, Fifth Avenue, Fourth Street Brunch and Bistro, Great Dane, HopCat, Iron Horse, le crepe, Lily’s Seafood, Mesa, North End Tap Room, Oak City Grille, Rock on Third, Royal Oak Brewery, Tom’s Oyster Bar, Da Luigi and Ye Olde Saloon participating in the week-long cuisine event.
8-12: Restaurant week in Downtown Royal Oak sponsored by the DDA had Alchemi, Ale Mary’s, Bar Louie, Bigalora, Blind Owl, D’Amato’s, Fifth Avenue, Fourth Street Brunch and Bistro, Great Dane, HopCat, Iron Horse, le crepe, Lily’s Seafood, Mesa, North End Tap Room, Oak City Grille, Rock on Third, Royal Oak Brewery, Tom’s Oyster Bar, Da Luigi and Ye Olde Saloon participating in the week-long cuisine event.
13-17: Restaurant week in Downtown Royal Oak sponsored by the DDA had Alchemi, Ale Mary’s, Bar Louie, Bigalora, Blind Owl, D’Amato’s, Fifth Avenue, Fourth Street Brunch and Bistro, Great Dane, HopCat, Iron Horse, le crepe, Lily’s Seafood, Mesa, North End Tap Room, Oak City Grille, Rock on Third, Royal Oak Brewery, Tom’s Oyster Bar, Da Luigi and Ye Olde Saloon participating in the week-long cuisine event.
business monthly
Rock & Brews: restaurant founded by KISS members
Rock & Brews, a restaurant founded by KISS members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, is bringing live music, made from scratch dishes, signature cocktails and Michigan craft beer on tap to the former Hop Cat 3-story building on Fifth Avenue this spring. An atmosphere rooted in great music!
Fifth Avenue Plaza conceptual design plans approved by city commission
Royal Oak has been exploring options for transforming the spaces between Center and Washington, and Washington and Lafayette, into an area where people can walk, dine, and relax. Several versions of designs for Fifth Avenue have been reviewed by both the Downtown Development Authority and the city commission, including the most recent renderings, which were approved by the DDA in the fall before heading to the commission for a vote.
Chris Leone Receives Planning Advisor and Merging Advisor of the Year
What Chris said about the awards: "I’ve been recognized as the 2025 Emerging Financial Planning Advisor of the Year and the 2025 Emerging Risk Management Agent of the Year. Four years ago, none of this existed. But what I did have was a foundation built in places people don’t usually see. That my reputation would matter more than revenue. That I was playing a 30–50 year game, and I would act like it." Congrats Chris! leonefinancialservices.com
We have such amazing, innovative business leaders in our community who are proud to serve you, our residents, with class and quality. We’ve compiled some of our top company picks for the services that might be on your mind this month in an effort to make your lives a little easier.
Finance and Insurance
Ohana Wealth Advisory ohanawealthadvisory.com | 248.246.8080
Real Estate and Mortgage
TWO MAX BROOCK AGENTS ARE DONE WATCHING GOOD HOMES RUINED BY BAD FLIPPERS — AND NOT SHY ABOUT SAYING SO
FLIPPING MYTHBUSTERS
Before they were Royal Oak Realtors, Matt Bazner spent 25 years as a licensed contractor, and Justin Bercheny was an interior designer.
Together, the two Max Broock agents bring something most real estate professionals simply can’t offer: they’ve seen inside the walls. Literally. That backstage access makes them unusually, refreshingly candid about house-flipping myths that are costing buyers and investors serious money.
MYTH #1: RENOVATIONS ARE FAST, CHEAP, AND MOSTLY COSMETIC
HGTV’s greatest lie is about what a renovation actually involves. “Renovations don’t happen in a 30-minute episode,” Justin points out. “And if you’re renovating a kitchen, there’s way more involved than taking a cabinet out and putting one back in.”
What the cameras skip: the electrical panel that can’t handle a modern kitchen load. The galvanized plumbing that will get your buyer denied homeowner’s insurance. The sagging subfloor that takes three days to sister and level before a single cabinet goes in. “They don’t show you the forty-five other people working 24/7,” Matt says. “Or the month of living in dust while you’re fixing structure nobody’s ever going to see.”
Justin frames it as a foundation problem. “The foundation of the home needs attention always. Most people would rather DIY and make something pretty. But the scary things for buyers are the roof, the windows, the furnace, the plumbing. Those are the things that matter.”
MYTH #2: “NEWER” MEANS VALUABLE
Few words bother Justin more than “newer.” In real estate, “newer” too often means “done within the last decade,” which is a far cry from what appraisers, insurers, and buyers actually value.
“THEY DON’T SHOW YOU THE FORTY-FIVE OTHER PEOPLE WORKING 24/7”
“A house built in 2000 with 2000 design aesthetics? That house is completely out of date,” Justin points out. “It’s the same cost to renovate as something done in 1970. It does not matter if the cabinet is newer, if I have to remove it.”
Matt puts a number on it: “If you redid your kitchen ten years ago, you’re still thinking it’s new. But the guy next door who just did his kitchen and listed his house? That adds more value.” Appraisers and banks see it the same way.
MYTH #3: EVERY UPGRADE ADDS VALUE
Justin draws a sharp line between “emotional value” and “financial value.” While both are crucial, Justin warns that confusing the two is one of the most expensive mistakes a flipper or seller can make.
“Application matters,” Justin notes. “Every single person who pulls up has an expectation that the house will have a roof. So when you redo a roof, you lose some of that financial value automatically — because every house has one.”
Matt and Justin also agree that the upgrade’s “function” is key. Justin explains: “How people will live in the space is vital to the design. Focus on the project as a whole… do not get caught up in the value of every dollar.” Matt nods: “Just because you spent the money doesn’t mean you spent it wisely.”
Over-renovating for the neighborhood is a related trap. Justin recently watched a friend plan an addition that would make his home 700 square feet larger than anything else on the block. “They will never be able to draw all of that money back,” he says. Matt nods: “I can tell you a bazillion people who said this was their forever home. Life happens.”
MYTH #4: FLIPPERS ARE DOING YOU A FAVOR
Both men carry visible frustration about what Matt calls “lipstick-on-a-pig flipping.” He describes walking through flipped houses as a contractor and spotting the shortcuts immediately: “Everything was pretty, but I know they didn’t do anything underneath the pretty.” CONTINUED >
Justin turns down listings regularly — “almost every week” — when the product doesn’t meet his standard.
“If you are using this to profit off of the backs of my friends and neighbors, I have a stake in that,” Justin points out. “If something goes wrong, they don’t remember who their loan officer was. They don’t remember who the inspector was. The renovator, the contractor, their subcontractors — they are nowhere to be found. I am their point of contact.”
“Flips are the scariest things for us as agents,” Matt says. “Six months after the sale, stuff starts falling apart because everything they put into this house cost five dollars. And if you’re trying to grow your business in a community, you can’t be listing properties that are subpar.”
MYTH #5: THE $29 FAUCET IS FINE
The cheap faucet. The refrigerator conspicuously absent from an otherwise renovated kitchen. Both Matt and Justin see these as warnings.
“If you’re spending $150,000 renovating a property, please spend $1,500 more on the refrigerator,” Justin says. “Your profit margin should not be so low that you can’t do that. Because every buyer who walks through is going to add the cost of a new refrigerator to their list of bills.”
Matt takes it further: “When I see no refrigerator, it raises a flag. Did they run out of money? And if they ran out of money, what else did they cut corners on? As agents, we can look up what
they paid for the property. If I only see a $50,000 investment and there’s a new kitchen and a new bathroom, I’m going to check whether permits were pulled.”
WHAT GOOD FLIPPING ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE
Neither man is anti-flip. They’re anti-bad-flip. And they’re clear about what separates the two: the willingness to do the invisible work.
Justin attends appraisals on his investment properties with documentation that shows not just the new cabinets, but the ripped-out plumbing and updated electrical behind them. “I want the appraiser to understand this wasn’t just a pretty makeup job,” he says. “I can make a kitchen look cute with some paint. I cannot restore longevity with paint.”
His builder agonizes over details most buyers will never consciously notice, like shelf heights in a wet bar calibrated to fit a Grey Goose bottle, with progressively shorter shelves above so taller bottles don’t get placed on top. “That,” Justin says with a smile, “is a real givea-d*** attitude.”
He also invites the surrounding community to see completed projects before they list: a well-done flip lifts comparable values for every neighbor on the block. “Tide raises all boats,” Matt says. “But only if it’s actually a good product.”
The bottom line, from two people who have seen more walls opened and closed than most: real estate investment isn’t something you wing from a tax-foreclosure website in another state. “There are much easier things to do with your money than invest in real estate,” Matt says. “And unfortunately, people go into it with blinders on.”
“Human beings will be living their lives in these houses,” Justin notes. “They deserve a wonderful place for their laughs and their tears. Please keep that in mind if you’re getting into this business.”
Matt Bazner and Justin Bercheny are Realtors at Max Broock (248-548-9100) on Woodward in Royal Oak
ARTICLE BY MARSHALL ZWEIG PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMY GILLESPIE
TRUST Over TRENDS
Michael Cayen brings aloha spirit and steady hands to investing
At 13 and Campbell in Royal Oak, there’s a hula girl silhouette on the side of a building, complete with palm tree and sunset. It’s the kind of image you don’t expect to see alongside the practicality of Little Caesars and 7-Eleven.
Michael Cayen put it up. His goal is simple: make something bright enough to maybe change a stranger’s mood at a red light.
“That’s the whole point,” he says. “If it brings a smile to somebody’s face… good.”
Michael’s philosophy was shaped during the three years he spent in Hawaii after graduating from Michigan State. There, he learned the ohana (extended family) way of treating people, which impacted him so much that he named his boutique Royal Oak firm Ohana Wealth Advisory.
What’s an example of ohana at Ohana? Before Michael gives investment advice, he asks himself one question: Would I have my mother invest in this?
Beyond Hawaii’s laid-back spirit, which matches his own (“I’m a laid-back person,” he says), Michael loved the way people there look out for each other.
"It's the way they take care of their own," he says. "That stayed with me. I mean, I help people retire. I know what’s at stake.”
Michael's path started with a nudge from his father, a high school principal, when he returned from Hawaii. He spent 25 years at his previous Royal Oak firm before launching Ohana in 2022. His clientele includes many educators, planning for retirement on modest salaries.
Michael doesn't take every client. Some people can't be helped. They don’t want guidance; they want reassurance that their fear is fact.
"It's like going to a doctor who tells you to lose 20 pounds and quit smoking,” Michael explains. “If you don't listen, the relationship doesn't gel, and what’s the doctor going to do? You can’t save everyone.”
It’s a gutsy stance for a small firm, but it's core to Michael’s philosophy: his job is relationship management, not just money management. "I'm not emotional with your money," he says. "With my clients' money, we've got to stick to the knitting,” meaning stay focused on the plan, not the noise.
And there's a lot of noise. According to Michael, the biggest threat to most people's financial future is their own emotions— amplified by cable news and social media.
“I’m trying to get clients not to watch so much TV,” he says. “Because it’s not pretty. That’s why the average investor sells at the wrong time, buys at the wrong time. Having an advisor is there to help protect you against yourself."
When markets dropped twenty percent during last year's tariff talk, Michael's phone stayed quiet. His clients trust him to watch the dashboard while they live their lives. "My phone doesn't ring unless they need money," he says.
The younger generation, used to Robin Hood apps and three years of strong returns, “feels very confident that it’s easy," he says. "Until they get beat up. Then they don't know what to do."
“Ohana is the way Hawaiians take care of their own. That stayed with me. I mean, I help people retire. I know what’s at stake.”
When it comes to practical advice, Michael favors unsexy consistency over trendy tactics. His favorite habit? Increase your retirement contributions by twenty-five dollars every year.
"Every year. I don't care if you get a raise or not. Bump it up. You won't miss it.” Over decades, he's watched this simple rule build dramatically different account values. And start early, he says, before your paycheck gets absorbed into your lifestyle.
”We get stuck in, ‘Oh, I can't put any more money in because my grocery bills are too high,’” Michael says. “Well, if you really want me to see what you're spending, I could cut a lot of stuff. The reality is, if you have a hundred dollars, everybody you talk to wants a piece of it. Your job is to limit the people that can touch it."
As for long-term investing, Michael draws a hard line: if you need money within five years, don't put it in the market. Better to park it in a CD than risk needing it during a downturn.
His grounded truth about money? "Money gives you options. It's not evil—you can do good things with money." But when I press him on what money can't replace, he doesn't hesitate: "Time and health."
Or, as he puts it: "Everybody's wealth barometer is different. It's how much freedom you have and how much happiness you have. Money is just a tool for your happiness.”
Michael, fifty-four, is Royal Oak born and raised. He caddied for years at Red Run, had paper routes as a kid, and attended Bishop Foley. Now, three decades into his career—all spent in Royal Oak—he’s adding his own mark to the city.
Michael pulls up a recent Google review from a client he's worked with since 2009. "Michael is a valued member of our financial family," it reads. He emphasizes the last word: family.
"I can't control the markets," Michael says. "I can control providing good service, honesty, trust, transparency.”
“Everybody’s wealth barometer is different. It’s how much freedom you have and how much happiness you have. Money is just a tool for your happiness.”
So when you drive past that hula girl mural at 13 and Campbell, you’re seeing more than color against brick. You're seeing a philosophy as street art, from a guy for whom taking care of your own is a way of life.
Michael Cayen and Ohana Wealth Advisory are at ohanawealthadvisory.com or (248) 246-8080. Securities offered through Registered Representatives of Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a broker-dealer, member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Adviser. Ohana Wealth Advisory and Cambridge are not affiliated.
FOL LOWING
HER
VOICE LED SUSANNE SCOTT TO A MIRACULOUS REUNION — AND A CALLING.
ARTICLE BY MARSHALL ZWEIG | PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMY GILLESPIE
RECONNECTING
WITH YOU
"There's something familiar about that belly." It's a strange sentence to hear in your own head. Especially when you're walking along a seawall in San Diego, searching for an uncle you haven't seen in decades. But Susanne Scott heard it anyway. Clear as a bell. And she followed it.
The man with the familiar belly was leaning back on the seawall. When he turned his head, Susanne recognized his ice-blue eyes from her earliest memory of being loved: sitting next to him as a child while he strummed his guitar and looked at her like she mattered.
"Larry?" she said.
"Maybe," he answered.
She took off her sunglasses. "I'm your niece. Susanne."
He stared. Then his face opened.
"Praise Jesus," he said. "I have people.”
Two years before that, an elder at Larry’s church had asked: If God could do anything for you, what would it be?
Larry’s response: I'd like to reconnect with my family.
It was 2021. Michigan was still locked down, and Susanne and her husband Paul needed to feel normal again. So they booked a trip to San Diego.
Then Paul asked a question that changed everything: "Doesn't your uncle Larry live in San Diego?"
Uncle Larry. The one she hadn't seen since 1993. The one who’d had a full scholarship to MIT. The one who flatlined five times after a car accident at 19 cost him his math genius. The one who lived in a van, played guitar on Ocean Beach in San Diego, and prayed for strangers.
Susanne wasn’t even sure if he was alive.
They set aside two days to search. Knocked on doors using an old address. Left notes. Nothing.
On their last day, they drove to the beach, the place Larry used to call paradise. That’s where she found him, an hour before the rental car was due back. When she flew home, she cried the whole way.
But Paul found a surfcam that showed the seawall, and Larry — in a different colored shirt. "That's a good sign," Susanne said.
Larry’s church family of 28 years helped Susanne get him new prescription glasses and a flip phone; Larry would call Susanne and the rest of his family every Sunday after church. The following year, Susanne flew back and worked on song lyrics with her uncle, Susanne typing while Larry dictated. His lyrics were stunning. The genius hadn't disappeared; it had just transmuted.
One month later, Larry passed out in the hallway of his apartment. He was rushed into surgery. He never came out.
"God used me as an instrument to reconnect with him before He took him," Susanne says now.
On that same San Diego trip where she found Larry, Susanne also re-found herself.
She and Paul visited a Korean spa, with infrared sauna, cold plunge, massage, meditation rooms. They left feeling amazing: skin glowing, minds clear, bodies energized.
"I was like, what is this all about?" Susanne says. "What's the science behind sauna and cold plunge?"
Back home, there was nowhere she could go to get all of that in one place. So she started researching. Built a business plan. Studied the industry. Got graph paper out and calculated square footage. "I didn't know why I was doing this," she says. "But I was."
Then, in March of 2024, Susanne's ex-husband died. Their son Alex was listed on most of his accounts. But after 20 years of divorce, Susanne was surprised to find that she was too.
An inheritance. And as they were settling the estate, Susanne had been telling Alex: Be the employer, not the employee.
Alex said: "Let's do your plan."
Firefly Spa, offering contrast therapy, opened in March 2025 in Royal Oak. Upstairs, Some Peace & Quiet followed in October.
Walk into Firefly Spa on any given day and you'll hear no spa music. The sounds are themed daily: Meditation Monday. Back to Nature Tuesday (thunderstorms, lions, monkeys). Country Western Wednesday. Throwback Hits Thursday. Dance Party Friday. Smooth Jazz Saturday (“for the hungover,” Susanne adds with a smile), and Solo Artists Sunday.
There's no reservation required. The large infrared sauna fits up to ten people. There are also two cold plunge tubs (one at 55 degrees, one at 48), and complimentary electrolytes, mini Clif bars, and herbal tea in the lounge.
The first time someone gets in the 48-degree tub, Susanne tells them: "The first thirty
seconds are the worst. Every instinct says get out. But if you stay — if you move your arms, flip over, put your face in — something happens.”
That something is thermogenesis. Your vagus nerve fires. Dopamine floods your system. Inflammation drops. You're producing endorphins, epinephrine, norepinephrine. Your body starts flushing out old white blood cells, while in the sauna you’re growing new ones. You’re also producing nitric oxide, which relaxes your blood vessels, and increasing your metabolism. You’re essentially detoxing, reducing stress, and recharging at the cellular level. And for the next four hours, you're riding a neurotransmitter high.
"People walk out with what we call the dopey dopamine smile," Susanne says. "You're energized but calm at the same time. It's such a wonderful feeling."
One client came in facing potential shoulder surgery. His injury healed; he didn't need the surgery. But he kept coming back. He also told Susanne he'd been in a dark place, but that was in the past now: Firefly helped him mentally as well as physically. "He's in here almost every day,” Susanne says.
There's a runner who had hip pain; that’s now gone. There’s a woman whose brain fog lifts after every session.
"People come in and they can't look you in the eye," Susanne says. "And then they leave and they're making eye contact. They're smiling."
Some Peace & Quiet is, as the name implies, quieter. Three massage therapists, with complimentary hot stones and essential oil available upon request. A holistic room with sound bathing equipment. Reiki. LED light therapy. And if you book a massage, you get half off a daily drop-in at Firefly.
"I don't want to nickel-and-dime people," Susanne says. "I want them to heal."
Susanne recalls a spiritual reading she got once in Sedona that said, You’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.
"I kind of lost who I was for a number of years," she says. "Baseball mom. Basketball mom. Field trip mom. I lost Susanne.”
Now she knows what her purpose is: helping people come back to themselves. That's what Firefly Spa and Some Peace & Quiet are really about. When you go into discomfort — whether it's 48-degree water or an against-the-odds search for a relative who once made you feel loved — something shifts. And you’re more ‘you.’
“You ignite the fire within," Susanne says. "So you can burn brightly in this world.”
Firefly Spa and Some Peace & Quiet are on 14 Mile in Royal Oak. First visit to Firefly Spa is free. Learn more at fireflyspa.net
ARTICLE BY ALLISON SWAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANIE JONES
Inquiring Chef
START WITH A VEGETABLE
Jess Smith is the founder of the popular food blog InquiringChef.com, which she started in 2010 after moving to Thailand with her husband. She explored Thai cuisine, took cooking classes, and documented her experiences on the blog. Over time, her passion for cooking grew, leading her to focus on quick, easy meals for families. Today, Inquiring Chef receives over 5 million page views annually and supports a small team. She shares new recipes weekly through email, her blog, and social media, helping home cooks simplify mealtime without sacrificing flavor.
Smith is now an author. Her debut cookbook, Start with a Vegetable, published in 2025 reimagines meal planning by putting vegetables at the center of the plate.
“Start with a Vegetable was the result of a natural transition in the way I started thinking about preparing dinner for my family. At the end of a busy day, I often didn't have the energy to think about dinner in parts by preparing a separate protein, vegetable, and starch,” says Smith. “I realized that if I put a vegetable at the center of the dish, the rest was easy to fill in.”
The book features 100 flexible recipes proving vegetables aren’t just a side— they’re key to simple, satisfying meals.
As chief recipe developer for the Cook Smarts meal-planning app, Smith worked closely with families struggling to get dinner on the table. She noticed a common challenge: people wanted to eat more vegetables but didn’t know how to build meals around them.
“As I started planning and testing recipes for the book, I just loved how easy it made dinnertime feel. Are there carrots in the fridge? Here are a bunch of ways to turn them into dinner. Nearly all of the 100 recipes are complete meals and include easy swaps to make them vegetarian. The book is truly flexitarian, with vegetable-forward recipes for all types of eaters.”
Unlike most cookbooks, Start with a Vegetable is organized by ingredient. Each chapter focuses on a different vegetable, offering multiple ways to turn it into a meal.
“The concept is resonating with many readers who tell me they love that the chapters are organized by vegetable, making it easy to use whatever they have on hand.”
Smith went through a rigorous testing process, starting with over 300 ideas before narrowing them down to 100.
“I always have running lists of recipe ideas. I started sorting recipes into categories, making sure there was variety for each vegetable. I wanted different cooking methods and types of dishes, so each chapter might have a soup, a salad, a roasted dish, a stove-top dish, and a sandwich or pasta.”
After perfecting the recipes in her own kitchen, she passed them to a trusted friend, an everyday home cook, to ensure they worked under realworld conditions.
“I want to know how these recipes worked for a home cook who was shopping at regular grocery stores and trying to make dinner for a family on a weeknight. She sends me feedback on any ingredients that are hard to find, anything that is unclear in the recipe, and tracks how long it takes her to make it with real-life interruptions.”
To further refine the book, Smith enlisted 30 volunteer home cooks through Instagram and her email list to test the recipes.
“My goal was to ensure that the recipes in this book are reliable, easy, and adaptable. I wanted this to be a cookbook for real home cooks. I'm so grateful to that team of volunteers for helping to ensure that it is.”
To order a copy of the cookbook visit: InquiringChef.com
events
A SELECTION OF UPCOMING LOCAL EVENTS
APRIL 3RD
Bunnyville: Ready, Set, HOP
Detroit Zoo | 9:00 AM
Bunnyville, presented by Meijer, is the best way to celebrate springtime. Whether you want to meet the Easter Bunny, have whiskers painted on your face, search for golden eggs, give back to the community or simply explore all the Zoo has to offer, this event is sure to put a hop in your step.
APRIL 8TH
Waterways, Trails, Artifacts and Wild Rice: Indigenous Connections to Oakland County
Royal Oak Public Library: Friends Auditorium | 6:00 PM
Carol Bacak-Egbo is an award-winning historian, researcher, educator and strong advocate for the appreciation and preservation of local history. She is the historian and archaeology consultant for Oakland County Parks, and serves as historian for Oakland County in general.
APRIL 11TH
SHAKEN AND STIRRED
Royal Oak Farmers Market | 6:00 PM
The Spirit Industry's Biggest Annual Sampling Event of the Year! Presented by The Michigan Spirits Association, Shaken And Stirred is an immersive cocktail experience featuring dozens of industry suppliers showcasing samples of the industry’s finest brands—neat, on the rocks or mixed as an innovative or classic cocktail.
APRIL 11TH
Greenfest: Celebrate Sustainability
Detroit Zoo | 9:00 AM
Greenfest, presented by Consumers Energy, invites guests of all ages to explore how simple actions can support a healthier environment for people, animals and nature. It’s two days of hands-on learning, creative exploration and community connection that promises to spark curiosity. Greenfest activities are located throughout the Zoo.
APRIL 12TH
All Things Detroit Day 2026
Eastern Market | 10:00 AM
Each year, Crawford-Williams gives the event a fresh look and theme. This spring, she’s taking us all back in time to prove “The More You Know, The More You Shop Small.” Discover new brands and grab your favorite Detroit-made products April 12 as Crawford-Williams gathers the community to create a most memorable day in Detroit.
APRIL 18TH
Royal Oak Schools Student Art Show - Opening Party!
Royal Oak Public Library | 2:00 PM
Join Royal Oak Public Library for its 3rd Annual Opening Day Party on Saturday, April 18, celebrating Royal Oak Schools’ Student Art Show! Come see the artwork and creative talents of artists in grades K-12! (Refreshments will be provided while available in the Friends Auditorium.) Student artwork will be on display at the library through Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
A GOOD INVESTMENT KNOWS
