Public Radio - Harwood style

Public broadcasters at this Lab are ahead of the curve in creating local relevance and significance for their communities.

WDET's "Detroit Today" solicits audio essays of stories, memories and experiences from ordinary people. In April, students at Wayne State University responded to Dr. David Suzuki's talk on the economy and environment.

Is the Big Apple just too big to be locally relevant?
WNYC has the largest public radio audience in the United States - maybe because it matters to so many people. WNYC's Public Insight Network recruits the public as partners, and Radio Rookies provides New York teenagers the tools and training to create radio stories about themselves, their communities and their world. Listen to their voices.

These are great models for the next generation of Durango's media facilities - the Education Access TV Channel and the new Rocky Mountain PBS-DCAT facilities coming to Fort Lewis College in 2011.

Baseball and the bankruptcy

A night out at the Detroit Tigers' stadium, Comerica Park.

My new friend Carmen, with WDET public radio, is perfect for discussing public access, PBS, higher ed and funding. The great American pastime of baseball has taken the sting out of bankruptcy, if only for the night. (Despite a Red Sox win, there is a resilience in the way people are together in public.)

The day's activities have banished whatever stereotypes I landed with at DTW on Monday. I wish all of the other Durango team members were here this week, with time to explore ideas and absorb the energies of this talented bunch of community builders. Tomorrow will be a full day.

Auspicious beginning

Great talkative ride from airport to "downtown." I've been assured that GM's influence on Detroit has postponed the evolution of a good mass transit system- but sometimes a lack of one thing can lead to another - new friendships.

My new friend, Said, pictured right, a soccer player and now entrepreneur, is "from" Ethiopa and Italy by way of Germany and then many years in the US. We talked about things most people try not to think about around the world; Detroit, why and how it will change; why Fiats are so popular; how parents can support their children everywhere, and where hope comes from. So far, Detroit doesn't look hopeless, but then I haven't seen anything but what outsiders and tourists see. Tomorrow I will listen and learn.

Why Detroit? Why now?

Many months ago, the Harwood Institute selected Detroit as the location for its annual Public Innovators' Lab. We begin one day after GM's bankruptcy decision - two of us from Durango will be here all week, learning what it means in other places to face challenges and create change - places with far more complex problems than in our relatively prosperous and small, livable community.

From Mobile to Youngstown, and Flint to Tupelo, what they can do, so can we.

Reality check on school cuts in Detroit.