Michigan
First public tours of Michigan Central Station: ‘Spectacular,’ ‘off the charts,’ ‘so cool’
Tours draw thousands of visitors
Like pilgrims in a cathedral, thousands of visitors from metro Detroit and beyond trekked to the Michigan Central Station on Friday to marvel at the restored beauty of the longtime eyesore.
They took in every detail from the polished floors to the majestic ceilings to the craftsmanship that went into the original clock. The mood was festive as people moved through the building. Dramatic music played in a loop ending with a voice telling them that trains were pulling into the station.
“You see the work they did out here: They re-created everything the right way,” said Tom Toft, as he waited outside for his tour to begin. “It’s spectacular.”
Toft toured with his wife, Renee, and her cousin, Sylvia Ross-Schultz and her husband, Tom Schultz. The families had relatives who worked in the building back in the day.
“We’re so glad to see it getting so much better, and it’s beautiful. … It’s just in my heart, it’s been the neatest thing,” said Ross-Schultz. “It’s another crown jewel in the renovation of Detroit.”
Her husband agreed.
“I made the statement, and I was wrong, that (the comeback) would never happen in my lifetime,” said Schultz. “The rebirth is off the charts.”
‘People are coming in here awestruck’
By midafternoon, about 1,800 people had toured the building and that number was expected to grow to about 5,000 by the time the tours ended at 10 p.m., Michigan Central spokesman Dan Austin said.
Paul Wilson, 42, of Detroit, said he’s just thought of the station as a ruin his whole life — until now.
“It’s so cool how they refurbished everything and still kept a whole lot of the building intact,” Wilson said.
John Martin is a new Michigan Central ambassador after an advertising career and a couple years working part-time gigs. He snagged the job just in time for the station’s reopening and Friday was just his second day of work.
Martin grew up in Lincoln Park, later worked in downtown and spent most of his life watching the city up close. He toured Michigan Central’s open house back in 2018 after it was acquired by Ford and has since been stunned by Detroit’s numerous and gorgeous renovations.
On Friday, Martin stood at the doors of the Grand Hall, greeting people as they entered with smiles widening and eyes lighting up at their first sight of the hall.
“People are coming in here awestruck, they’re not complaining,” he said.
More: Michigan Central Station tours: How to visit Ford’s renovated train depot
More: Michigan Central Station: What you’ll see on the tour
Christina Roki, of Sterling Heights, and Grant Sloan, of West Bloomfield, are two automotive content creators who were invited to opening day by Ford. They said they were brought to tears by the stories preserved inside Michigan Central Station.
“What we appreciate about it most is how much detail Ford cared to preserve to show the story. They kept part of the graffiti on the walls, they preserved a lot of the tickets they found. … Even the brick, all the chisels we see on the brick, they didn’t try to make fine cut lines, they still want to show all the history that this building has,” said Roki.
As they walked from room to room, they remained at a loss for words.
“The inside was literally mind-blowing. I feel like I was walking in on such a big piece of history that’s been preserved for so long, so it’s crazy to think that this is something they’ve been working on in the past few years,” said Roki.
But the pair said one of the most significant parts was just to see how Michigan Central had been given new life, narrowly dodging demolition. Sloan remembered times passing the station with friends just before the renovation began. He saw graffiti and decay. Now, to see the modern history meshed with its historical past was an awesome experience.
“Any Detroiter will agree that this building was such an eyesore for such a long time. Growing up in Detroit and knowing its history but never seeing it operational. … But now seeing it up in running, it’s really touching to see that Ford took on such a large project,” said Sloan. “It’s early but I think it’s safe to say that the investment already paid off.”
‘Not enough wonderful words to describe it’
Bob and Shari Bilkie, of Northville, have deep family ties to Detroit. They often went on dates downtown before marrying almost 41 years ago.
On Friday, they walked the side streets surrounding Michigan Central Station as they waited for the public tours to begin at noon. They parked at 10 a.m. and took in the sights of the Corktown neighborhood on the cool, cloudy day.
“It is so cool, the fact that they took something decrepit, falling apart, an eyesore and turned it into something absolutely beautiful,” Shari Bilkie said.
Southwest Detroit resident Jennifer Serra set an alarm in hopes of scoring tickets to see the train station on its first day of public tours.
“There’s just not enough wonderful words to describe it,” Serra, 45, said after taking the tour.
Her only problem? She had somewhere else to be Friday afternoon and wanted to spend more time in the station. She has already made plans to come back for another tour in a few days.
Pro tip: How to get into a popular Berlin bar
“I feel like it’s like a symbolic representation of what goes on in our city,” she said of Michigan Central Station. “I feel like there’s just these landmarks in certain cities … that just really kind of embody the overall history of what’s going on. I feel like this helps us bring a little bit of closure to some tough times and shows renewal.”
People’s excitement was obvious, even before they got inside.
NPR reporter Bobby Allyn, 35, walked quickly toward Michigan Central Station as he prepared to interview President Joe Biden’s director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Arati Prabhakar, at Newlab, which is next door to the station.
He said he was super excited to be in Detroit, having heard so much about the city when he lived in Berlin.
“Berliners are obsessed with Detroit because of techno music,” Allyn said. “It’s the birthplace of techno. Look up Jeff Mills, of Detroit, and techno. You’ll see. When you go to Club Berghain in Berlin, it’s impossible to get in but if you wear a hat that says, ‘Detroit,’ they let you in.”
Allyn, a technology correspondent, reports on startups, artificial intelligence, privacy issues and tech litigation. While he was directed to the neighboring building, the whole site is part of the mobility hub led by Ford Motor Co. Allyn said he couldn’t wait to see the inside of the restored train depot after the interview.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Harmful algal blooms have been reported on two notable lakes in West Michigan: Gun Lake and Muskegon Lake.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy says cyanobacteria was reported on Muskegon Lake July 3, but no tests have confirmed it.
The Barry-Eaton District Health Department says a harmful algal bloom was confirmed Thursday on Gun Lake. The lake remains open, but the BEDHD is encouraging visitors to use caution and avoid water that has “visible algae.”
Visitors are encouraged to avoid any contact with water that appears bright green, blue-green, brown or red or has “floating mats of scum.”
Pets should also avoid the water. If they come into contact with the algae, pets should be rinsed off as soon as possible with clean, fresh water.
Exposure to algae can cause a rash or irritation to the skin, eyes, nose and throat. It can also cause stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fever and trouble breathing.
“If you become sick, contact your healthcare provider. Seek medical care right away if you have trouble breathing, severe vomiting, or other serious symptoms,” the BEDHD said in a statement. “If your pet was exposed, rinse them well with clean water and do not let them lick their fur until they have been washed. Contact your veterinarian right away if your pet has vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, trouble walking, excessive drooling, shaking, or seizures.”
Harmful algal blooms are powered by the sudden growth of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. Cyanobacteria occur naturally in lakes, rivers and ponds but is often boosted by a sudden excess of nutrients, often caused by fertilizer runoff from farms or failed septic systems.
They can last for several days and sometimes even months. The water will look “scummy” or like “spilled paint or pea soup.” They are typically found in the summer and fall — usually peaking in August or September and dying off by the end of October.
You can report a suspected harmful algal bloom to EGLE at AlgaeBloom@Michigan.gov or 1.800.662.9278.
Sterling Stamping Plant is the largest in the world
Ed Daniels, vice president of North America injection and stamping operations, discusses the process of producing metal parts for Stellantis models.
Warren — Hulking metal presses line one wall of Stellantis NV’s cavernous stamping plant here, punching out the raw shapes of Jeep doors, Dodge hoods and Ram tailgates in rapid succession.
Nearby, swinging yellow robots continue the tightly choreographed work, gluing and pressing and welding smaller components to the sheet metal that eventually will start to resemble the shape of a truck or SUV.
Seven miles north, in Sterling Heights, Stellantis operates an even larger stamping plant — the biggest in the world, at 2.7 million square feet — that does much of the same work, churning out various shapes of steel and aluminum 24 hours a day.
Together, these lesser-known links in the manufacturing supply chain support all of Stellantis’ big North American assembly plants — from next-door Warren Truck Assembly Plant, where the Jeep Grand Wagoneer SUV is built, to facilities in Windsor and Mexico that make minivans and pickups.
Inside Stellantis’ Huge Detroit Stamping Plants
The Detroit News recently got a rare look inside the automaker’s Sterling and Warren stamping plants, which are key to the company’s turnaround plan.
The Metro Detroit stamping plants, the automaker’s only two such facilities in the United States, have at times struggled in recent years, facing major job cuts and worker morale issues amid slowing sales and shifting production plans. But under Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, the facilities are expected to cram in more workload — and add staff — as Stellantis begins a new five-year strategic turnaround plan, which includes a heavy focus on its most profitable North American market.
The carmaker’s goal: grow sales by more than a third to 1.9 million annually by 2030 as it launches 23 vehicles, including 11 all-new models. The company also is directing billions of dollars of investment into its U.S. manufacturing footprint due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“Stamping has never really been viewed as the sexy side of automotive manufacturing, we’re relatively invisible,” said Ed Daniels Jr., vice president of North America injection and stamping operations. “Because when you look at the commercials and advertisements, it’s always a beautiful Ram rolling off the assembly line or climbing the side of a mountain.
“But we’re the inception of that vehicle,” he said. “This is where raw materials are turned into commodities and parts.”
The Detroit News recently got a rare look inside the two plants that combined employ about 3,000 people. The automaker wanted to show off a newly-installed blanking press at Warren Stamping and other machinery like a high-speed transfer press and a robot that spots flaws in the metal.
Hiring expected
The blanking press unspools long coils of metal and chops them up into pieces that can then be shaped into roofs, fenders and floor pans. Stellantis shipped the massive machine to Warren from its idled Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois last year.
After upgrades to the machine, executives said it’s able to produce as many as 120,000 metal blanks per week. It will save Stellantis money since the plant will no longer need to pay a supplier to break down the coils before the metal arrives there.
The blanker addition is a big deal for the plant and signals that the company wants to bring more work in-house and invest in the facility over the coming years, said Romaine McKinney III, president of United Auto Workers Local 869, which represents workers at the factory.
The plant has already brought back all of its laid-off UAW workers, and McKinney said he anticipates more hiring to get underway if sales grow and new Stellantis vehicles come to market.
In another corner of the Warren facility, one of the fastest press lines in the world — known internally as the Hellcat — pushes as many as 15 pieces of metal through per minute. Dies that weigh up to 50 tons apiece squish the material into the shapes of doors and hoods before robotic arms snatch them out and place them on conveyor belts. Midway through a shift, workers can reconfigure the machine to make a different component, a process that takes just five minutes.
Robots check for quality
Curtis Booth, who manages Warren Stamping, said manual processes inside the plant have become increasingly automated, and safer, over the last couple decades, even as the automaker’s two stamping factories still utilize some presses that were installed in the 1960s.
The latest high-tech addition is the Automated Body Inspection System, or ABIS. It’s a camera system mounted on a robot that automatically checks the quality of components and flags anything in need of repair.
Auto plants of all kinds are increasingly turning to these types of camera systems, infused with artificial intelligence, to catch flaws in sheet metal and other components before they are shipped. Booth said worker visual inspections are still used. But in some cases the human eye has too much subjectivity, and the ABIS removes the guesswork.
Greg Bauer, who manages Sterling Stamping, said his plant has added staff over the past year, and expects to continue hiring as more work is assigned to the facility. There is no space at the plant to add more presses, but officials have figured out how to increase efficiency — quickly toggling back and forth between making doors for a Chrysler Pacifica and Dodge Charger on on a single machine, for example.
“We want to bring high-volume parts into the plant, and we want to maximize the capacity of the equipment,” Daniels said.
lramseth@detroitnews.com
MENOMINEE, Mich. (WLUK) — 24-year-old Ethan Raymond Masters of Menominee was arrested on sexual assault charges June 30th, according to the Menominee County Sheriff’s Office.
According to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office, deputies learned of an incident involving a 24-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl which happened in Menominee June 22nd. Following a sexual assault investigation, police charged Masters.
Masters was arraigned July 2nd on 2 counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct First Degree. He remains in the Menominee County Jail on a $250,000 cash bond.
Menominee City Police and the Michigan State Police Crime Laboratory of Marquette assisted with the investigation.
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