Page 11 - Contact Magazine: 2nd Quarter, 2016

This Summer,
Come Back to
America’s Biggest
Comeback City
The message from entrepreneurs and credit union CEOs is clear:
If you haven’t seen Detroit lately, you haven’t seen Detroit at all.
With MCUL and CUSG’s Annual Convention and Exposition (AC&E)
headed for the Motor City June 9–11, there will be plenty of
opportunities for attendees to explore “The D.” There’s no shortage
of things to see and do these days in Detroit, and one credit union
CEO wants attendees to know that the city’s reputation for crime
is a thing of the past.
“I’ve been an active Detroit supporter my whole life, and certainly my
whole credit union career, which started in 1991,” said Hank Hubbard,
CEO of One Detroit CU. “I’ve worked in downtown Detroit that
whole time and I don’t ever remember feeling unsafe…people hear
about crime statistics and crime in the central business district—
which is where our people will all be—and they’ve gone down to
almost nothing. Not only do we have Detroit Public Safety people
around, but many of the larger companies have their own private
security people around also. So there’s very little crime.”
So what should AC&E attendees seek out while visiting the Motor
City? Hubbard had plenty of suggestions.
“I would very much encourage people to walk up Woodward and
around Campus Martius Park,” he said. “There’s a lot of excit-
ing stuff going on around there. And there are other pockets of
exciting growth like Midtown, which is where you have Shinola
and HopCat and Jolly Pumpkin. And the smaller Detroit-based
boutiques are awesome.”
Roslyn Karamoko, founder and CEO of one of these Detroit-based
boutiques, Détroit Is the New Black, saw the same opportunity for
growth in the city. Though not originally from Detroit, she quickly saw
a town full of young entrepreneurs with a passion for creativity and
innovation. With a merchandising background and an eye for design,
Karamoko quickly grew her brand from just printed T-shirts to a line
of chic and contemporary apparel with a name that accents the city’s
French history. Karamoko says, “Detroit is internationally recognized,
and I wanted to create something that spoke to the city’s optimism.”
“An Ambience You Couldn’t Build Today”
Dean Trudeau, CEO of Public Service CU, also encouraged AC&E
guests to see more of the city—and his recommendations begin
just steps away from the Renaissance Center doors.
“You’ve got to do the River Walk,” he emphasized. “That pathway
that GM has put in along the river, it just gives you a sense of the
value of the waterfront, and it’s not industrial anymore. Looking over
at Windsor, it’s like two sister cities, and it feels that way when you
walk along the water.”
He also recommended venturing out and checking out the nightlife.
Not only are new restaurants popping up all over the place, he said,
but many of them have been able to maintain the old-school charm
of the buildings’ historic architecture.
“It’s got an ambience that you couldn’t build today,” he said. “It’s like
what you see in Chicago or other cities.”
Kathie Trembath, CEO of Detroit-based Diversified Members CU,
said that there’s such an exciting variety of nightlife throughout
the city that AC&E attendees should find something to their
liking close by.
“It’s not like you have to travel 20 miles to do some of this stuff,” she
said, pointing to Greektown and some of the city’s jazz and blues
clubs. “It’s all available. All you have to do is look a little bit.”
For those unsure of where to go, she specifically recommended
Pegasus and Fishbone’s in Greektown and also Joe Muer Seafood.
“They have their new menu and they went back to the old traditional
menu items they used to serve back when,” she said of Joe Muer.
Tours Departing Soon
MCUL will offer attendees a tour of Detroit on Friday, June 10, and
Hubbard and Trudeau encouraged visitors to see as much of the city
as they can.
Organized tours, said Hubbard, are great for people “who are sort of
tentative about coming to Detroit.” Once they see the revitalization
process that’s taken place, he added, “they’ll just be blown away.”
“For a long time, Detroit basically was what everybody thought it
was,” said Trudeau. “It rolled up the sidewalks at 6:00 p.m. and it
wasn’t the safest place to be. But I think it’s changing, and I don’t
know if people outside of Detroit realize how quickly it’s changing.”
More information on MCUL’s Detroit tour is available at ace2016.mcul.org.
Jenna Lennon contributed to this article.
Second Quarter 2016 I Contact 11