- Hi, I'm Christy McDonald and here's what's coming up this week on One Detroit, understanding the redistricting process in Michigan and how to get involved.

Plus some national love for Detroit's famous River walk.

Then the future of hospitality during COVID with a new hotel opening up in Birmingham and WGPR-TV 62 gets an historic designation.

It's all coming up this week on One Detroit.

(lively upbeat music) - [Announcer] From Delta faucets to Behr paint Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Announcer] Support for this program provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit public TV, the Kresge Foundation, Community foundation for Southeast Michigan.

- [Announcer] The DTE foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit public TV among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving.

We support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Visit dtefoundation.com to learn more.

- [Announcer] Business Leaders for Michigan dedicated to making Michigan a top 10 state for jobs, personal income and a happy economy.

- [Announcer] AAA, Nissan foundation ally and viewers like you.

(upbeat rousing music) - Hi there.

I'm Christy McDonald.

Thanks so much for being with me for One Detroit.

We have a lot to get to this week including the task of redrawing the congressional and legislative maps and what late census numbers might do to redistricting here.

Also ahead, Detroit's Riverfront is number one in the country.

Conservancy CEO, Mark Wallace details new projects coming up.

Plus while the hospitality industry is struggling a new hotel is set to open in Birmingham.

Nolan Finley has more on what this development is banking on.

Then remembering pioneering journalist Karen Hudson Samuels and a national designation for WGPR-TV 62.

It's all ahead.

And we're starting off with redistricting.

The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission is taking the lead on drawing Congressional and State Legislative Maps over the next year as we head into the 2022 vote.

Well this past week, the Ford School for Public Policy held a town hall for people to understand the process and communities of interest to get involved and understand how they wanna be represented.

One thing that could impact the process is the delay in census numbers.

- The census has made it more difficult.

COVID slowed down the census process and rather than getting census data in February or March as we anticipated, we won't have it now until September 30th.

That means that the MICRC will be unable to meet this set of deadlines.

And we trust that a court will step in and provide a solution.

In any case, is important for communities of interest to be totally prepared when the public hearings begin.

We expect that those hearings will begin in May and will probably go through part of June.

- And Michigan will probably lose a congressional seat this election cycle, depending on those census numbers, One Detroit Senior Producer, Bill Kubota has more on how the redistricting process is set up and how the public can be involved.

- Now, getting the political parties and their office holders to give up control of this process is hard.

- [Bill] The process electoral redistricting there's a big change of foot.

- Well, what was the old way of doing it which is the political way, right?

- Yeah, all the last two times around the Republicans controlled the legislature and the governorship.

So the idea is Democrats might as well go home and watch football or something because they're gonna play no part.

This was gonna be done through them not by them.

- [Bill] John Chamberlain has been a redistricting participant and observer since the 1960s, but it's just recently Michigan voters changed the game.

- [Announcer] Over 3000 volunteers collected more than 425,000 petition signatures- - [Bill] Proposal 2 called for an independent citizens Redistricting Commission in 2018, is passed.

Now the work has began.

- [Announcer] Got 83 County sign including Republicans, independents, Democrats, and those somewhere between.

- I've had one commission meeting under my belt.

So I'm rolling.

- [Bill] The commission's Executive Director Sue Hammersmith started last month.

- Since it's for the citizens by the citizens of Michigan.

So it's pretty exciting to be part of this historic work - [Bill] The Commission has a few other States to look to, California started their redistricting commission a decade ago.

- We are the 14 members of the California's Citizens Redistricting Commission.

And we draw the line - The citizens of California were very happy with the outcome of that process despite the fact that they were doing it for the first time.

People recognize Democrats and Republicans alike that this was a better way of doing it.

Well, keep it up.

- There are four Democrats, four Republicans and five independents that serve on the commission.

- But this is all going on in the middle of a pandemic.

How's that affecting things.

- Well, it's gonna be much harder on a pandemic to speak directly with people point in case we're on zoom today.

In some respects maybe that'll open up options for people to speak up.

- [Bill] Rebecca Szetela attorney with four children and now a redistricting commissioner.

- I was very surprised that I made it on the commission but I'm very happy to have this opportunity.

- [Bill] She joined as a political independent.

- I think the workload is gonna pick up in the summer as we get closer and once we get census information so that we can actually start possibly redrawing maps but for right now, it's about every other week or every week of about four to five hours of meeting.

And then outside prep.

- [Bill] There'll be at least 10 public hearings, will they be virtual, in person don't know yet.

A lot to talk about, State House, Senate Districts and those congressional seats.

- There's no doubt that we're gonna lose another congressional seat.

I think we're pretty much no matter what happen- - [Bill] Kurt Metzger Pleasant Ridge Mayor and Demographer.

- We're now at about 61 of our 83 counties have more deaths than births on an annual basis.

- [Bill] Back in 1980, Michigan had 19 seats in Congress.

Soon they'll be just 13.

Every 10 years after every census we keep losing.

- And none of this was really a surprise.

I know there was a big effort to get the census numbers as close as you can, get the numbers up.

- Right.

- But there was still probably not much hope of saving that seat, was there?

- No, I mean, all the forecasts that had is losing a seat and Michigan did as well as one could expect in the census.

- [Bill] Michigan's overall census response rate in the top 10 but in cities like Detroit and Flint not so good.

Lower numbers there and the shift in population that's expected to affect how Congressional Districts will be redrawn.

- I think this time around, you've got a large movement of African-Americans into both Southern Macomb and Southern Oakland - [Bill] With the Voting Rights Act two Michigan districts need at least 50% African Americans of voting age leading Kurt Metzger to speculate what's ahead.

- Andy Levin might get upset, but I think the 9th district is the one that's gonna have to go.

We can't have as many districts in Southeast Michigan.

And the 9th district takes in Southern Oakland and Southern Macomb.

And I think that that's gonna have to the 13th or 14th or whatever they're renumbered we'll have to take in a larger section of Southern Macomb to get that African-American community.

- [Bill] High on the priority list the commission must consider something called Communities of Interest.

- Communities of Interest, is that a term that you use in your trade?

Well, I'm learning more and more about Communities of Interest every day.

It is always been one of the factors in redistricting but it's usually, if you look at other States it's been way down at the bottom.

- You think about who's a community of interest is it in a religious group and ethnic group is that an economic group.

Then you're starting to make pretty core decisions about who people are and how they should be represented and so all of those become pretty controversial decisions.

- Communities of Interest don't come predefined.

There's no directory of communities of Interest with the commission goatee.

They're gonna have to depend upon people coming forward either in to testify and public hearings or virtual hearings.

And I think making the argument don't drop us into pieces what your interest is, is pretty much open.

I mean, you can name your interest other than our interest is getting our guy reelected - [Bill] Another priority, partisan fairness, how to do that with tightly packed urban areas with a lot more Democrats breaking them up is hard to do which may be needed to create more competitive districts.

- There are a lot of maps that you could draw where Democrats will continue to have large problems in translating a statewide victory into a victory in say the Michigan Senate.

- [Bill] Thus the conundrum as more Michigan voters, lean Democrat while more house and Senate seats are Republican.

- I'm just telling you, that's actually very hard to achieve in concert with the other objectives, which are, we pay attention to Communities of Interest.

We make sure racial groups have that potential to elect demographic representatives.

All of those things can be in conflict with achieving a map that means that a 50/50 vote would go 50/50 in representatives.

- [Bill] Now eyes turn toward that new commission where you can follow every development online courtesy the Michigan Secretary of State.

- We have to have our final maps drawn by November one.

So that is our hard deadline that we're working with and everything else is just going to fall into place based on when we get the data that we need to do our job.

- The success will be whether people show up at these public meetings and people across the state get energized and engaged in the process.

- It is easy to make a map that is less partisan driven and less gerrymandered than the current maps.

So that's a bar that there'll be able to meet but it is a much harder to satisfy people all with reasonable criteria for drawing the lines.

(light playful music) - Well, the beauty of the Detroit Riverfront has captured national attention and has been named the best River walk by US Today and their readers.

So joining me now is a very proud CEO of Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, Mark Wallace.

- It's really exciting for us and it's always nice to win something.

It's nice to be recognized by people who are out of town because I think a lot of times the truth success stories are not told as much as they should be on a national basis but it's also a great moment for us to celebrate all of the people who have made this Riverfront transformation possible and to really remember, sort of reflect on what it means for us to come together as an entire community to achieve a goal like this.

- When you put Detroit's Riverfront up against some of the other riverfronts we think of around the world Chicago and Boston and really the work that has been done here in Detroit over the last 10 years or more, it's really significant.

- No, it is.

And I think that's one of the things that the jurors were excited about was the idea of this transformation.

Yeah, there are a lot of places where they've had a riverfront that's been active for hundreds of years.

We've had that in Detroit as well but our riverfront was not active for the public it was active for industry.

And that was a really limited use.

And this transformation that started in 2003 with Matt Collin and Faye Nelson and others has really made this a place that's really special to our whole community.

- And really over the last year in, during COVID we've seen how much open space, interacting with nature and really enjoying the resources that we have is good for the soul and is good for our mind body and spirit.

- That's right.

We've seen a 20% increase in visitors to the Riverfront in 2020 and a 40% increase on the Dequindre Cut, which is just amazing.

And you put it perfectly.

What we're seeing is that people just need to get out of their houses.

I really feel like it's bringing fresh oxygen into our brains and sort of healing us in building that community resilience.

It's so important, especially during a pandemic.

- So tell us about the projects that are happening right now because really the Riverfront has come in stages and is beautifully melding together now.

- We built about two and a half miles on the East side with a series of parks and you have the carousel.

We have the splash park down by the coast guard at Mount Elliott.

We have a couple of projects that are coming together right now to really complete three and a half miles of uninterrupted Riverfront access and really excited about those.

So the big one is the Uniroyal site right across from Belle Isle We did an environmental cleanup last year that was going to allow us to start to build the actual pathway itself.

So that walkway will be under construction very, very soon.

And when that walkway is done you'll be able to go from the old Joe Louis Arena site all the way to the Belle Isle bridge without ever having to leave the riverfront.

- So I hope sometime very soon you and I can actually meet down there.

'Cause that's usually where we meet every year.

And we talk about what's new and what's and what's going on.

So give everybody maybe a couple secret to places that you like along the Riverfront that they should check out.

- So the number one spot I would encourage people to check out is our newest park named after Robert C. Valade it's right next to Shane Park which is now known as Aretha Franklin Amphitheater.

There's a great little parking lot just North of it.

We have two restaurants, Smoking Cheese Barbecue and Geisha Girls Sushi.

And we actually have a barge, we bought a barge and it floats on the river and it has a bar in itself.

So starting mid-May, you should be able to come down there.

The kids can play on the playground, great sandbox for the children, but you can float around and have an adult beverage.

So that's the number one sort of insiders tip on what's new on the Riverfront.

We're also really excited about the investment that the Ralph C. Wilson Jr foundation has made on the West side.

I think everybody's kind of intrigued with this, you know before and after concepts, you know, the transformation of places, I'd encourage everybody to come down to Ralph Wilson at some point in time.

If you love the fish, it's a great time to come down.

If you just wanna flag hides or run around with your kids it's a great spot, but I think it'd be fun to be down there on the West side before that transformation happens because it's really going to be exciting to stand in a place where you were standing two years ago and then see it fully transformed (water burbling) - For more on all of the summer programs along the riverfront just head to our website at onedetroitpbs.org.

All right, turning now to hospitality and travel in a time of COVID.

There's a new luxury hotel and restaurant opening this spring in Birmingham at a time when other restaurants and hotels are really struggling.

Nolan Finley has more - Most of the news over the past year in the entertainment industry has been about things closing due to the pandemic, shutdowns restaurants, hotels bars have all gone by the way in Michigan.

Today though, we've got a story about an exciting new development on South Woodward in Birmingham, and here to talk about it is Aaron Black General Manager of the new Daxton Hotel and host of the Madam Restaurant.

Aaron, tell us about this project on South labor.

- It's been a long time in the making, not only on behalf of the Aparium Hotel Group and Mark Mitchell, the developer but with all the things that have kind of come up over the last 18 months that as you alluded to.

So we're extremely excited to bring what we feel will be a world-class hotel and restaurant to Birmingham, for the locals to enjoy as well as visitors.

- Tell us what will set this project apart.

- Well, certainly the commitment to really focusing on our connectivity with the community.

We know we do that in many ways, the same way as that you do that, do kind of mutually with each other through your oftentimes through, hospitality and just hosting and feeding folks.

So Madam Restaurant will be a linchpin for downtown Birmingham.

It's just a very grand airy room with a really a world-class chef that we've been able to bring in and help bring this project to life.

And we'll use that kind of street presence and that street energy in the lobby lounge and the bar, in the restaurant to really kind of help forge a dynamic relationship with our neighbors in the community.

And then coincidentally, we'll just have a clearly a world-class hotel nestled right above the restaurant.

- We've had something in the order of 3000 restaurants closing in Michigan over the last year.

This was, seemed to be an odd time to take this guy to risk on a new restaurant and hotel project.

Why now?

- I wouldn't say the timing is perfect by any means but this is a project we're committed to and we had some hiccups and we certainly looked at timelines, but, you know, we like so many folks are very encouraged by all the signs that we see the time is to kind of lean into the situation and move forward.

We'll obviously open with training wheels on because we'll have some limited capacities to deal with but I think people are particularly in this market and Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills are particularly ready to try something new.

- And what makes downtown Birmingham the right spot?

- I think it's a great blend of a very diverse cultural experience and a lot of independent businesses and businesses that have forged steadily forward during the pandemic.

And, you know, and with respect to the hotel business, you always kind of look at markets that appear, you know, based on the metrics to be somewhat underserved.

So there's an opportunity for us to step in and offer an alternative to what's presently here and kind of carve a successful model for ourselves.

- And finally, WGPR-TV 62 here in Detroit was the country's first owned and operated African American television station.

In February, it was officially placed on the national register of historic places.

Stephen Henderson talked with Joe Spencer, the president of WGPR-TV 62 Historical Society on American Black Journal.

And they talk not only about the designation but also remembering pioneering journalist Karen Hudson Samuel's who recently passed away and her work with the station.

- So let's start with our deepest condolences here at Detroit Public Television in American Black Journal to you at WGPR for the passing of Karen Hudson Samuels.

I've said a couple of times over the past week that Karen and you, to some extent, I kind of considered you guys almost co-hosts of American Black Journal and certainly the American Black Journal family.

'Cause you're on so much and you you've contributed so much to the work that we do here trying to preserve black culture and history and lift up black voices.

- Thank you, Steve.

Yes, it's a great loss for me personally, because Karen and I have been friends since 1976, when she first started with WGPR and of course it's a great loss to the museum.

It's a great loss to, you know, the city of Detroit because Karen had so much involvement in so many different things, you know, as you said she'd been on your show for a lot of reasons, for all kinds of projects that you've been involved not only with the museum, but also with the like of Historical Sites Committee and just other things that she was engaged in, which you know, had her involved in a lot of things that you found interesting enough to bring on to present to your public.

And so we appreciate that.

We appreciate you.

- And of course, the timing though, of her passing think reminds us of, again the power of the work that she did, this designation of WGPR as a National Historic Site and it's happening in large part because of the work she did.

- It absolutely was because of the work she did.

Karen worked tirelessly to bring WGPR museum up and more awareness in the public.

And she was the one who started the whole effort to get us designated as such and went to all the meetings and did all of the stuff that she had to do to make it happen to always be a part of what we'd done.

And to much of our success has been credited to her.

- I have incredibly vivid memories of WGPR-Tv and all of the groundbreaking television that came out of it.

The idea of the first black owned and operated television station, that's right here in the city of Detroit is something you can't overstate the importance of that.

And preserving that history for people to be able to go and see and touch now.

- We just had a lot of programming that nobody else was doing, and we'd get a lot more of it.

And as a result of that we also gave a lot of young African-American men and women their first opportunity to be brought into the world of broadcasting their first opportunity to produce a show to write a script, to appear on camera, to operate a camera you know, and as a result of that, many of these people went on to have wonderful careers and broadcasting - And that is gonna do it for me this week.

Make sure you keep up with us during the week on social media at onedetroitpbs.org plus One Detroit Arts and Culture Monday night at 7:30, have a great weekend.

I'll see you next time.

Take care.

- [Announcer] You can find more at onedetroitpbs.org or subscribe to our social media channels and sign up for our one Detroit newsletter.