Hello and happy tidings to you! Merry Christmas, if you celebrate. We’ll keep it brief today, with a round-up of my favorite Saturday Extra stories of the year, news of the week you can chatter about at your holiday dinner and 1993’s hottest gift.
Enjoy over coffee and spiced treats in a quiet moment today, or catch up next week when things are quiet! I’m at abragg@crain.com and I always love your notes. See you next year.
The big story: And a partridge in a pear tree
Vintage postcards, but make it business news! Pictured here: Marshall Fredericks’ sculpture of the Lion and the Mouse at Eastland Mall.
There was so much that was just no fun about 2021, but the Saturday Extra launched in February, and it’s been the highlight of my year. I love having the chance to make sense of the week in business news, share the best of our original reporting and basically be the hype-man for our incredible newsroom. Somehow this newsletter has also given me the opportunity to write stories about art, history, birds and cemeteries under the guise of business journalism! Not sure how I got so lucky, but I can’t wait to continue to roll with it in 2022.
It has also meant so much to me to hear from you, Saturday Extra readers. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, ideas and memories, responding to quirky surveys, and just letting me know that you enjoy reading every weekend. Keep writing in and let me know if you have ideas for the Saturday Extra in the new year.
Without more ado, here are my 10 favorite Saturday Extra stories of 2021:
Keeping memory alive: A visit to B’nai David cemetery in Detroit and a conversation with its caretaker, David Goldman, who is trying to figure out its future.
Dear John (in HR): Why did so many people leave their jobs this year? A cheeky imaginary letter from someone who might have been part of the “Great Resignation” in 2021.
Where will the hippo go? A look at the lovable hippo and other works of art at Eastland Mall, which is expected to be demolished for a new development. Many folks reached out after this story ran who wanted to “adopt” some of these artworks, and an art historian searching for sculptor Lindsey Decker’s works from Eastland followed up to tell me she’d found them in the care of the Detroit Institute of Arts. (No such luck finding out the fate of a Picasso tapestry that was once part of Kmart Corp.’s significant corporate art collection, which I wrote about in another story.)
The pediatrician, the pickle heiress and Frank Lloyd Wright: A Frank Lloyd Wright house for sale in St. Joseph spurred a story about Dr. Ina Morriss Harper, the trailblazing physician who commissioned it, and its seller, Gina Flamm, who ran her family’s pickle operation until retiring last year. “In the pickles business, many times people didn’t want to talk to me — they wanted to talk to a man,” Flamm said. “We’ve come a long way, but it wasn’t easy, and I imagine for her it was even tougher.”
Clara Ford’s electric vehicle: In a year where EVs dominated the discourse about the future of the auto industry, a look back at the surprisingly long history of the EV and why it’s just catching on now.
Going to the birds: I’ve wanted to write about the business of birding forever! The Saturday Extra opened the door to a story about how backyard birding took wing during the pandemic.
What will we wear back to the office? You all indulged me in a goofy survey about return to office plans, and I made you some fun charts about khakis in return. The best.
Belle Isle in bloom: Belle Isle got a new attraction this year when a new garden by celebrity landscape designer Piet Oudolf opened on the island this year. Maybe it was one reason the Grand Prix decided to move back to downtown Detroit for 2022? Maybe not, but the history of the site Oudolf selected is interesting regardless.
Retro restaurant round-up: After I did a round-up of Detroit nostalgia restaurants that are ripe for a comeback, many of you wrote in with your own retro restaurant memories. I’d love to do more mailbags like this in the year ahead!
Curbside pick-up: Our son asked me the other day, “Remember when we used to go to the library, but only outside?” We’ll have to explain a lot of his pandemic-era memories to him as he gets older. This essay looking back how we adapted during lockdown and looking ahead to post-“reopening” life really feels like a moment in time — but also reminds me how much has changed this year, and much for the better.
Need to know: Lamentations
A sign in the window of the office of ICU manager at St. Mary Mercy Livonia offers a positive message in trying times. Photo by Dustin Walsh.
A rough, but important, read from Crain’s health care reporter Dustin Walsh on how hospitals are supporting their exhausted, grieving staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The anger of the unvaccinated stirs up different feelings for me,” said Larry Lyons, a chaplain and manager of spirutal care at St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia. “I don’t see fear in myself, but I do see anger, and I’m trying to make sense of it. I can’t make sense of it. I can’t exist making sense of it.
“I am thankful we have God, but also that we have therapists.”
Read the whole story here, with tissues handy.
Supply chain switch-up: Historically, big automakers have had a lot of leverage over automotive suppliers of every size. But supply chain issues may have shifted that dynamic, writes manufacturing reporter Kurt Nagl. “The supply chain crisis has laid bare the interdependency of each tier from top to bottom and underscored the importance of players big and small. Suppliers have arguably never had as much negotiating power with automakers.”
Waterfront property: Dan Gilbert expanded his riverfront real estate portfolio in a major way this week with the purchase of the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources building. With the purchase, Gilbert has added nearly 1 million square feet of office space, more than 25 acres of land and 1,600 parking spots to his holdings in the area this calendar year. Kofi Bonner, CEO of Gilbert’s real estate company Bedrock LLC, said the purchase gives Bedrock bookends on a west-east corridor along the riverfront that’s ripe for improvement.
More year-end stories: Catch up on notable new restaurants of 2021, gawk at the most expensive homes sold in Michigan this year, and keep an eye on the developing storylines of 2022.
Historical footnote: The hot gift for Christmas in 1993
A ’90s Christmas-themed Looney Tunes necktie. Via Etsy.
My present to you this week is an exceprt from a Nov. 22, 1993 Crain’s story about metro Detroit’s hottest holiday gift: novelty ties. It contains multitudes! So much about this is so memorably ’90s, but I love the retro retail details including interviews with store managers at Gebran’s in the Renaissance Center (that store closed after General Motors bought the Ren Cen in 1996; the company went under in 2009) and Jacobson’s, the Jackson-based department store chain that went bankrupt in 2002. Please enjoy.
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What’s hot in metro Detroit?
Whimsical and novelty ties.
This holiday season, cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse and Snoopy are making a fashion statement.
Dallas-based Neiman Marcus, Southfield-based Hudson’s, Jackson-based Jacobson Stores Inc. and Mt. Clemens-based Gebran’s are some of the retailers that have chosen to carry the ties because of the demand.
They are finding that something they probably never would have sold in significant amounts is helping meet sales projections for the season.
“It used to be that years ago, we would put them in the store to make it look cute,” said Hank Way, vice president of Gebran’s in the Renaissance Center. “Today, we buy them and actually sell them.”
Gebran’s also carries ties with Christmas motifs and endangered species.
Neiman Marcus has gone so far as to introduce a booklet with a range of private-label and designer ties from $45 to $130. They go from wildly whimsical to classically conservative.
“We have 50 exclusive tie designs, and it’s a focus for us because there is a lot of newness this season, and we think it’s time to invest in them,” said Marilyn Connor, Neiman Marcus’ public-relations manager.
Although businessmen are continuing to wear the classically conservative, more are selecting ties that express their individuality.
“It’s the only way a man could make a statement,” said Janice Hayes, Jacobson’s public-relations director. “The workplace dress codes have loosened up, and shows like ‘L.A. Law’ have changed men’s perception of dress.”
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Most-read stories: Dec. 18-24
1. In a big year for luxury real estate, these were the most expensive homes sold in Michigan
2. Gilbert buys former UAW building, grows east riverfront portfolio
3. Restaurant Roundup: Closures amid COVID surge, Chinese carryout on the move and more
4. Biden confronts omicron surge with free home COVID tests, military help for overwhelmed hospitals
5. Rocket Companies to acquire personal finance app Truebill for $1.3 billion
6. Westin Book Cadillac sale finalized, renovations to take 2 years
7. 10 things to watch in metro Detroit business in 2022
8. Commentary: Detroit needs a plan to save its industrial history
9. New Michigan tax change could be boon for business owners
10. Lafayette West development snags $52 million in construction financing
