Free read: We're supporting the Chinatown Block Party; Big questions loom over $20M MEDC grant
Here's what to know about why I'm supporting a community organization and MEDC and the governor's involvement in Fay Beydoun's $20 million "International Business Accelerator"
Howdy, subscriber gang.
It’s been a busy past few weeks of attending mayoral forums! You can read my reporting for Michigan Chronicle here.
I wanted to catch you up on the most interesting details of a story brought to you by the two of the best watchdog reporters in Michigan, Craig Mauger and Beth LeBlanc.
Before that, a reminder to attend the inaugural Chinatown Block Party on Saturday, July 26 from 12-8pm, hosted by the Detroit Chinatown Vision committee.
There will be DJs playing music, Pan-Asian makers, cultural performances and a special reading from Curtis Chin, the grandson of the old Chung’s restaurant owner.
Proud disclaimer: Thanks to your financial contributions, Detroit one million is one of the event sponsors. I’m partnering with the Chinatown Vision Committee because I dreamt something like this was happening when I lived on Cass and Peterboro for three years when I first moved to Detroit.
Even though I don’t live there anymore, I felt it was important to show my support for the block that gave me so much. The memories I collected with friends and neighbors inside Pho Lucky, on the Addison rooftop or my apartment balcony at the James Scott Mansion, will stay with me forever.
In 2023, Olympia Development demolished a historic building that at one time was used as a community center by the local Asian American residents who lived in Cass Corridor in the 1970s and 80s. At a press conference ahead of the demolition, I met Richard Mui, the president of the Association of Chinese Americans and and Roland Hwang, the president of American Citizens for Justice.
Those opposing demolition, including Detroit City Council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero, said the building featured a prominent urban characteristic that could have contributed to the new District Detroit while paying homage to the area's history.
While the group was unsuccessful in saving the building, their refusal to give up on taking the area from Detroit’s “forgotten Chinatown” to a proper marker of the city’s Asian community resulted in $1 million in state funding and renewed energy to revitalize the block.
Many old and/or historic buildings throughout the Cass Corridor neighborhood have found new life. Detroit Shipping Co., The Peterboro Restaurant, Craig’s Coffee, Iconic Tattoo and 8 Degrees Plato currently make up the block. Developer Mike Essian is looking for Asian restaurants for his $3.5 million Chung’s renovation completed last year.
Vincent Chin’s name now sits above the Peterboro street signs at the corner.
A major thank you is in order to Francis Grunow for standing up for something.
And to all of you, for believing in me and my vision for a vibrant, community centered Detroit.
Unpacking Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s canceled $20 million grant under investigation by AG
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer didn’t answer when asked whether a member of her office was involved in securing a $20 million grant for businesswoman Fay Beydoun, a Democratic donor and appointee.
Attorney General Dana Nessel's office has spent more than a year investigating how the since canceled grant was doled out and what it was spent on. MEDC has tried to recover $8.2 million of the $10 million in funding Beydoun received from a grant approved by state leaders in 2022.
The News reported that Beydoun had spent the grant, in part, on a $4,500 coffeemaker, an $11,000 first-class plane ticket to Budapest, luxury furniture and a $550,000 salary for herself.
The Detroit News on Thursday asked the governor about the controversial grant during a rare press scrum in Lansing. Whitmer didn’t answer directly, but noted her recommended budget for the 2023 fiscal year did not have any direct earmarks.
Whitmer's budget proposal from Feb. 2022 included a $15 million grant program to attract overseas businesses that Beydoun championed, The News reports.
The governor’s office and MEDC have denied involvement in the grant’s creation. But reporting from Mauger and LeBlanc this month revealed MEDC did have knowledge of the project, and Beydoun’s desire for an international business accelerator program. She even met with MEDC about her idea.
“The reporting we published this week shows that the MEDC CEO Quentin Messer was touting the fact that there was money in the governor’s original budget recommendation done five months earlier because Fay Beydoun had wanted it to be there,” Mauger told Michigan Radio last week. “And it raises a whole bunch of additional questions about what did Governor Whitmer know? What did her staff know about this in February?”
The governor’s office has referred inquiries on how the grant got in the state budget to former Republican House Speaker Jason Wentworth. Wentworth was listed as the sponsor of the grant but has denied doing so.
"It’s not something that I opposed, but it’s not something that I made a priority or supported," Wentworth told The Detroit News in 2023. "I did not advocate for this.”
Beydoun, of Oakland County, sits on MEDC’s executive committee. She’s a former Michigan Democratic Party vice chair and helped raise money for Whitmer’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign. One year later, Whitmer appointed Beydoun to the MEDC board as well as the state's Commission on Middle Eastern American Affairs.
“Any individual grantee who gets money and is not lawful with it or is inappropriate with those dollars should expect to be held accountable,” Whitmer told reporters in Lansing on Thursday. “I'm glad that they are seeking to recoup the dollars… and I'm hopeful that the attorney general will help in that effort.”
Mauger says questions remain about what happened the night the budget which included the grant for the business accelerator program was finalized.
The Chinatown party sounds pretty cool. Wish I could check it out. I'll tell some folks about it. Pretty wild about the grant situation. Wonder where the money went.
... A super-expensive coffee maker? 😫 Sheesh. Does it fly?