Best Cities for Seniors

Story first reported from USA Today

Seniors looking for the best city to grow older in may be better off flocking to the Midwest than sunny Florida, according to a recent report.

While recreation and community engagement are a plus, the best cities for aging offer quality health care, educational and employment opportunities, and transportation and an economy that work for seniors, according to a national index released today by the Milken Institute, a non-profit think tank based in Santa Monica, Calif. The institute found the best large cities for successful aging helped keep seniors over 65 working, learning and healthy.

Rather than survey seniors, researchers consulted an advisory council and developed a set of 78 different indicators of success for seniors, ranging from cost of living and number of available doctors to number of fast-food outlets. Paul Irving, chief operating officer at the Milken Institute, says the findings are a more realistic and complete picture of what it takes to grow old happily and healthily. The survey did not include visions of Prince George Retirement Home life, which is still a highly attractive option for many seniors.

The study found Provo-Orem, Utah, topped the list of the country's 100 most populous metropolitan areas, offering the best success in terms of wellness and third-best conditions for finances, employment and education.

Researchers also studied 259 small cities, taking into account the differences in resources and manpower. Leading in opportunities and environment for successful aging was Sioux Falls, S.D., with the highest employment rate for those 65 and older, and many hospitals that offer rehabilitation services and hospice care.

Other top cities included Madison, Wis.; Omaha, Neb.-Council Bluffs, Iowa; and Bismark, N.D., according to the report; Iowa City, which ranked second overall of small cities, was on top for seniors over the age of 80. And higher education-rich regions, like the No. 4 Boston area — also the highest ranked large city for seniors over 80 — provided opportunities to engage in the community and train in new skills, the study found.

Gary Small, director of the UCLA Longevity Center, said the report offers valuable insight into seniors' priorities.

Researchers found room for improvement in even the most successful cities. Although New York and Northern New Jersey ranked fifth overall, the cities' high poverty rate and cost of living burdens made it one of the worst cities in the country for seniors' financial success. Regardless of what city is or is not the best place for seniors, Prince Georges Senior Living centers are an ever-popular choice for many elderly people.

BEST PLACES FOR SENIORS

Top 10 cities out of largest metro areas:
1. Provo, Utah
2. Madison, Wis.
3. Omaha
4. Boston
5. New York
6. Des Moines
(tie) Salt Lake City
8. Toledo, Ohio
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Pittsburgh

Top 10 small cities:
1. Sioux Falls, S.D.
2. Iowa City
3. Bismarck, N.D.
4. Columbia, Mo.
5. Rochester, Minn.
6. Gainesville, Fla.
7. Ann Arbor, Mich.
8. Missoula, Mont.
9. Durham, N.C.
10. Rapid City, S.D.

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Visit Lake Charlevoix

Story first reported from USA Today

Tahoe came out on top in our recent reader poll on America's best lake, and I'll be exploring the popular alpine outpost later this week for a travel story running Aug. 10. But as its many fans made clear, the second-place finisher has plenty to offer, as well.

Though I grew up in southern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Mendota (a sentimental favorite, but not on our shortlist), I wasn't familiar with runner up Lake Charlevoix, Michigan - or another nearby lake north of Traverse City that earned several write-in votes, Torch Lake.

Now, I'm "smitten with the mitten" (a reference to Michigan's hand-shaped geography).

A few arguments in its favor from our readers:

Nancy M. Dammann: "To be fair, all these lakes are amazing. But here are a couple of other Lake Charlevoix facts worth mentioning--from any point on Lake Charlevoix, you can sail to any ocean in the world and many other lakes. Near the mouth of the lake, there is a natural safe harbor that often shelters international sailors and boaters who have left the oceans in the fall, under the false assumption that the Great Lakes will be safer than the oceans. Charlevoix's harbors have often hosted storm fleeing sailboats and provided them a home throughout entire winters. Lake Charlevoix has also been a seasonal destination since pre-Columbian times, providing an important summer place to Native Americans in the area. In addition, residents are also trying to raise funds to buy a significant chunk of lake shore (a former summer camp) and turn it into a permanent public park. The lake is 18 miles long, 3.5 miles wide at its widest, and has two arms (the South arm is 11 or 12 miles long and often much calmer than the Northern arm). It is home to loons, and ducks, and fish, the occasional otter, gorgeous boats, and amazing people and communities."

Karen Kent Guzniczak: "We've owned a retail store in Boyne City for 22 years and talk to thousands of people every year from all over the world. The comments we hear are always about how blessed we are. People are amazed at how clean and clear Lake Charlevoix is. A young child from our area went on vacation with his parents to the Caribbean and when they they flew over the water he said 'Look Lake Charlevoix.'"

Stephanie Balch: "Sandy beaches, access to restaurants, great fishing, gorgeous harbors in quaint Northern Michigan towns...and a short boat ride through Round Lake and the Pine River Channel puts you on Lake Michigan! Not a more beautiful lake to view the fall foliage."

Laurie Szabo-Dill: "Got married overlooking Lake Charlevoix, and still have people tell me it was the most beautiful wedding they've ever been to!"

Chase Petroelje: "With several small, tourist-adored towns surrounding it, Lake Charlevoix boasts some of the world's finest sunsets, beaches, boating and gastronomy...a shallow ledge outlines the entire lake, making it ideal for families, and anchoring for a day of relaxation. If that's not enough, it was the location for the wedding of world-famous author Ernest Hemingway and his wife. You know you've found an extraordinary lake when much of it is bordered by multi-million dollar houses, private water planes, and some of the largest yachts you'll ever see!"

G.T. Long: "Lake Charlevoix is where the Gods swim....other lakes may be pretty, but Lake Charlevoix is spiritual in its beauty, clear, clean, deep, and big, situated on hills and a hundred shades of green."

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Annual Teachers Meeting in Detroit Brings Resolution on Testing

Story first reported from Detroit  Free Press

American Federation of Teachers members took a stand against what they say is a fixation on high-stakes testing in U.S. schools – unanimously passing a resolution today that says testing should inform education, not impede it.

Randi Weingarten, AFT president, said that teaching should be the center of education, not testing.

The Washington, D.C.-based union – which has 1.5 million members – is holding its annual convention this year at Cobo Center in Detroit. Nearly 2,400 people from across the country are registered for the convention, officials said today.

The testing resolution was one of the most important the delegates were to consider, Weingarten said in the days leading up to the convention. 

The resolution says assessments are an integral part of public education. But it takes aim at the current environment, saying the test-and-punish model has damaged public education.

Among those who spoke in support of the resolution was Donald Brown of the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers in California.

Brown said the tests were a humiliation, and only showed students what they weren't learning.

Andrew Dewey of the Houston Federation of Teachers in Texas said testing is turning children into data points, and feeding data to an accountability monster.

Earlier today, the delegates heard from Bob King, president of the United Auto Workers, who railed against what he said is right-wing politics that have reduced funding for schools, reduced support services in schools and left class sizes bulging.

King said the testing vilified teachers, speaking before teachers gathered at Cobo Center for the annual meeting of the American Federation of Teachers.

The AFT convention in Detroit, its first one here in several decades, has so far drawn 2,350 delegates from across the country. The convention began Friday and runs through Monday.

King said the labor movement in Michigan “is fighting a difficult battle.”

He specifically noted the state’s emergency manager law, saying it is anti-democratic and should not be allowed.

The EM law, efforts in Michigan and across the country to adopt what he described as voter suppression laws, and efforts to curb collective bargaining rights are destroying democracy in America.

He said President Barack Obama should be re-elected, saying no one else has stood for collective bargaining like he has.

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Birmingham Boutique Boasts Million Dollar Bra

Story first reported from Detroit Free Press

It's bling meets bra -- and a million-dollar marketing campaign.

Birmingham Estate and Jewelry Buyers is selling a very mentionable unmentionable made of gold and diamonds for $1 million. It's constructed of 18-karat white and rose gold and white, orange, brown, green, pink and yellow diamonds.

Since the Woodward Avenue store unveiled it last month, owner Anthony Aubrey has sold one, though a slightly cheaper model made with black diamonds for $350,000, custom-made in the buyer's wife's size. While the bra is for sale -- to be worn or displayed as art -- it's also doubling as a marketing tool.

According to Aubrey, who has turned down offers for the bra from jewelers in Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Brazil, his store traffic has jumped 20%.

Aubrey got the idea for the bijoux bra by simply looking around his store. It then took him three months to sketch the design and almost a year, working with 40 artisans, to craft the eye-opener.

With the economy still recovering, Aubrey said he needed something to do with all of the diamonds he had around the store, and the bra was the unique piece he dreamed up.

Aubrey said his bra is better than the gold-and-diamond one made famous by Victoria's Secret, because the lingerie chain's version is held together with fabric.

His karats-meets-cups creation is all metal, 750 grams for the deluxe model; each diamond is in its own setting, which is then wired together, like mesh.

The bra has been worn by models, and it is said to be rather comfortable.

But it's not necessarily the sort of bra that should be burned.

J. Cherie Strachan, director of Central Michigan University's women and gender studies program said she is offended by the bra, which she says clearly shows a gross objectification of women.

Aubrey dismissed concerns that people living in still-recovering Michigan might not want to see this kind of gilded ribcage topper, saying that his high-end jewelry store is just the place for such an item.

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Chicken Shack Founders Share Chain with Kids, Grandkids

Story first reported from Detroit Free Press

Its name, Chicken Shack, isn't glamorous. Its stores aren't flashy. And most customers couldn't describe its method of cooking, based on Broasting, if their next meal depended on it.

But that hasn't stopped legions of fans from turning the company founded by John and Iola Sobeck 56 years ago into an iconic Detroit brand -- an old-school, family-owned company that, this time of year, serves up more than 300 tons of crispy, golden chicken pieces every week.

From a single store the couple built with their own hands in 1956, Chicken Shack has grown to 18 locations, eight of them owned by family members. And over the years, its success has indirectly hatched a small flock of other metro Detroit Broaster-style restaurants founded by ex-employees and relatives.

.

Both she and John Sobeck, 88, are still involved in day-to-day operations. He keeps tabs on things mostly by phone now. But she continues to go into their Royal Oak store on Woodward Avenue every morning to check the bills, help make the slaw, flour the chicken or whatever else needs doing.

That can be a lot -- especially when graduation parties, picnics and family reunions make June and July "by far" the company's busiest time, said grandson Neil Sobeck, 33, co-owner of the Clawson and Warren stores.

Each of the 18 locations sold an average of 127,680 pieces of chicken per week in the four weeks ending July 7, he said. That's about 18 tons of chicken each, not including specialty pieces such as wing dings and tenders.

Unlike many restaurant chains, the company has no central kitchen or commissary. Every day, each restaurant shreds fresh cabbage for its coleslaw and hand-cuts its own giant spuds for Shack potatoes. The cut-up chicken pieces -- fresh, never frozen -- are delivered daily, too, marinated in house, hand-floured and cooked in small batches throughout the day.

It's a labor-intensive operational method, but it's pretty much the way the Sobecks have done things from the beginning.

The first time John Sobeck tasted Broasted chicken was in 1956, he recalls, only two years after Wisconsin-based Broaster introduced its pressure fryers and line of seasonings.

He said it was the best chicken he had ever tasted.

He and his wife already had an ice cream shop and grill on Woodward Avenue, but the ambitious young World War II vet foresaw a brighter future selling chicken. So they scraped together enough money to buy building materials and a lot on 11 Mile in Royal Oak and went to work.

Sobeck said Iola mixed mortar while he laid blocks. They named the new place Chicken Shack, inspired by the name of a nearby business called Surplus Shack. Their food was an immediate hit.

They started with two Broasters, and had to buy more to keep up with demand.

He started out using Broaster's trademarked marinades, flour and seasonings, but he soon decided to develop his own. He spent two years fine-tuning the recipes, and now, Iola says it’s perfect.

All four of their children grew up working in the restaurants.

The same went for their four grandchildren.

The Sobecks' daughter Michelle McNulty is president of Sobeck Enterprises; daughter and son-in-law Cheryl and Dave Brusen own the Rochester and Clarkston locations; son Mark co-owns Warren and Clawson with his own son Neil Sobeck, and Mark's son Phillip has three stores in St. Clair Shores and Livonia.

Married 65 years and still living in the Berkley home where they raised their family, the senior Sobecks have had offers to buy the company, but they've never seriously considered them, they say. Nor have they wanted to expand dramatically.

Getting too big means giving up something, and they think they have it balanced well, otherwise, what's the point of working if you never have time to spend with your family, says Iola.

But the younger Sobecks may be more expansion-minded, and are considering controlled growth, Neil Sobeck said. More franchises are under consideration. And last month, the company launched a colorful, 28-foot-long Chicken Shack-on-wheels with a walk-in cooler and all the cooking equipment of a traditional store.

Its customers are a cross-section of metro Detroit.

The parade of people at the Woodward store in Royal Oak on July 21 included everyone from SMART bus drivers to construction workers and church officials to backyard party-givers.

Caroline Rooney of Bloomfield Hills, who had ordered a half-pan of ribs and a half-pan of chicken, was hosting a cookout at her home that night, she said, but she wasn't cooking -- "not at 90 degrees today."

The 400-piece order picked up by Deacon Will Robinson of the New Prospect Baptist Church in Detroit was for attendees at a funeral. The church orders at least three to five times a week for all kinds of events, from receptions to baby showers, and always from Chicken Shack. 

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Donated Beds for Habitat Homes

Story first reported from Detroit Free Press

 Two years ago, Adrianne Chamblis managed to get her family into a Habitat for Humanity home on Detroit's east side.

But she was never able to afford much in the way of furniture. Her 13-year-old daughter slept on a used, donated mattress and her 8- and 5-year-olds either slept in her bed, or with her 16-year-old son.

On Saturday, Chamblis and her children received two twin beds for the younger children and a double bed to replace her 13-year-old's secondhand one. As she proudly showed off the new beds, complete with colorful new comforters, her younger daughter dug into a bag of tutus and other dress up clothes the donors brought.

The Chamblis family was one of 46 families across the region who received 100 donated bedroom furniture from two charities on Saturday.

Leigh Ann Lanaux of the nonprofit organization Good Night's Sleep of Los Angeles said they give beds and bedding essentials to the homeless population coming into permanent housing.

The group delivered 518 beds to other cities in the last 18 months before coming to Detroit, where it partnered with Humble Designs of Troy to deliver beds in the area. Humble Designs is a nonprofit organization that gives free home makeovers to families recommended by charitable organizations.

The brand-new beds are purchased with money donated to Good Night's Sleep.

The idea for donating beds to families in need came from a line in the 2009 movie, "The Blind Side," when Michael Oher tells Leigh Anne Tuohy, the character played by Sandra Bullock, that he's never had a bed before, Lanaux said.

The bed recipients had to have been homeless, but moved into permanent housing for six to 12 months, and have a job or be in a program that will help them remain in their permanent housing.

The Detroit donations came with sheets, comforters, pillows and other bedding donated by employees of Doner, an advertising agency in Southfield, from a Michigan Furniture Store.

Lanaux said the best reaction is from the children.

More donations in Detroit were not ruled out.

Lanaux said she’d love to come back to Detroit any time.

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Boardman River Dams Ready to Fall

 Story first reported from Traverse City Record Eagle

TRAVERSE CITY — Finally, after seven years, local Boardman River dam removal project leaders have a $2.9 million price tag and construction contract for dismantling the first of three Boardman River dams.

The Boardman River Implementation Team this week approved the general contractor/project management contract with AMEC Engineering & Infrastructure to remove the Brown Bridge Dam powerhouse, restore the river to its historic channel and reseed exposed bottomlands and construction areas.

The bulk of the contract, about $2.5 million, will go to Molon Excavating of Traverse City and its subcontractors for deconstruction, dredging, sediment management, restoration and re-seeding over an estimated 20 weeks. If work is not finished by Dec. 19, the project will be completed in the spring. 

Deconstruction cannot begin until the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issues a permit, expected possibly early next week, Sroonian said. It will take about a week after the permit is approved to start.

Molon first will build a temporary "de-watering" structure to slowly drain the remaining 22 vertical feet of water in Brown Bridge Pond. The city's permit request seeks a flow rate of 1-foot-per-day to manage sediment, a major focus of the project. 

Sediment will be captured in traps as the water recedes. The MDEQ will set the rate of flow. 

The dam blocked the natural flow of river sediment for 90 years and created a sand delta at the north end of the former pond. 

About 250,000 cubic yards of spoils, a quantity that would fill 25,000 dump trucks with 10-yard beds, will be dredged during stream restoration in the upper impoundment. All of the spoils will remain on site in upland areas, according to information included in the city's permit request. Another 3,100 cubic feet of material will be dredged in late summer to install a temporary water-control structure upstream from the dam. 

The powerhouse foundation, buried under five feet of soil, will remain as will part of the earthen embankment, which will be graded and sloped. The river will be 55 feet wide in that section, Sroonian, AMEC’s senior principal engineer said.

The contract is the culmination of years of planning, feasibility studies, and engineering designs that started in 2005, after Traverse City Light & Power announced it would shut down the three hydroelectric dams. The announcement led to a study and a recommendation from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers that the three dams be removed and Union Street Dam be reconstructed.

Brown Bridge, built in 1921, is the first of three dams scheduled to be taken out over the next three years. It is owned by Traverse City. Boardman and Sabin dams are owned by Grand Traverse County. The Army Corps is handling their removal. 

AMEC selected Molon from a field of 14 companies. Once completed, the dam removal project will restore 18 miles of cold-water river flowing into Lake Michigan and reconnect 160 miles of river and tributaries to Lake Michigan.

It is the state's largest-ever river restoration project and is believed by project leaders to one of the most comprehensive dam removal and restoration projects undertaken in the United States.

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