In the latest bout of dumb criminal news, a New York man suspected of robbing three Michigan banks was arrested recently after posting a selfie to Facebook. Jules Bahler, a 21-year-old genius from Brooklyn, N.Y., was linked to two bank robberies in Pontiac, as well as a third armed robbery in Bay City, where he allegedly brandished what appeared to be a black submachine gun, The Detroit News reports — a weapon eerily similar to one featured in a selfie uploaded to Bahler’s Facebook page right after the robbery occurred. What’s more, in all the excitement of robbing a bank and rushing home to post about it for his 206 Facebook friends, it appears that Bahler, who goes by “King Romeo” on Facebook, overlooked a simple wardrobe change. Authorities noted that he seemed to be wearing the exact same clothes in his selfie that he was in the third bank’s security footage. #oops. But Bahler’s social media faux paus don’t end there. His Facebook page also boasted a picture of a house he claimed he had just bought in Pontiac. Oakland County police decided to pay Bahler a visit at his new digs. When the suspect left in his vehicle, […]

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As WDIV-TV reporter Hank Winchester points out on his Facebook page, one of local watch-maker Shinola’s new Detroit street clocks has been tagged with graffiti just days after being unveiled. The clock is located near Shinola’s retail store near Cass and Canfield, and is one of four given to the city as a gift (and slick PR move for a company whose brand narrative is all about giving to Detroit). Speaking of brand narratives, many on Facebook were quick to sneer “SEE! This is why Detroit can’t have nice things!” — as if graffiti is a plague that only afflicts our crime-ridden city. The fact is, every major city has graffiti — and in any other city, it would just be shrugged off and hit with some Goo Gone and a rag the next morning. EDIT: Speaking of having nice things, we notice the clock hands in the above photo are stuck at midnight. Shinola, you might want to get on that!

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It’s not easy playing trance-y electronic music to a festival crowd but, fuck it, Topher Horn gives it a go anyway at the New Dodge on Saturday night, the last night of the Hamtramck Music Festival just getting rolling. There’s nothing wrong with the sounds, it’s just so relaxed, chilled, that punters start chatting and it quickly becomes background music when it deserves more. Great music, wrong time. Psalm add a bit of energy, but still retain the chill factor. A former member of Prussia is performing this dark spin on R&B, and the result is soulful and moody, and a tad angsty. Crucially, the tunes are huge. Over at the Painted Lady, between Topher Horn and Psalm, Pendejos rattles through a set of garage-y punk rock, the sort of band you could imagine filling the gaps at CBGBs or Bookies back in the day. Didn’t stay long, but the band impressed. I wandered over to the Polish Village Café to see the Junk Food Junkies but everything was so off schedule that the first band, Five Pound Snap, was still on. Bit disappointing, but FPS held its own with some rowdy alt-rock. And then it was over the Baker’s […]

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University of Michigan Dearborn will host “Street Art City Detroit: Graffiti, Urban Renewal and the Formation of Identity,” a panel about Detroit street art, at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25 in the CASL Building, Room 1030. The panel will feature speakers Freddy Diaz (graffiti writer), Matt Eaton (Library Street Collective), Erik Howard (The Alley Project) and Tom Stoye (photographer) as well as moderators Nadja Rottner and Liz Rohan. To complement the event there will be a free bus tour to Detroit from 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 29. The tour will explore graffiti sites, led by Adrian Orrnsby. The bus leaves from the front of the CASL building at 11:00 a.m.; RSVP to Jonathan Larson or read more here. If you want to see real, amazing urban art, don’t miss this chance.

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Detroit made a list of America’s Top 15 Apartment Boom Towns, according to a study by SpareFoot. SpareFoot used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, factoring in  total apartments per person population growth, housing affordability, per-capita income and more. Here’s the full list: San Jose, CA Austin, TX Houston, TX Grand Rapids, MI Nashville, TN Dayton, OH Portland, OR San Francisco, CA Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Oklahoma City, OK Seattle, WA Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN San Antonio, TX Des Moines, IA Detroit, MI Detroit is one of the cheapest places to rent in the country, considering its size — it’s the eighth lowest out of the top 100 cities by population, according to Crain’s.

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The downtown Royal Oak Barnes & Noble will close its doors April 5, nearly five months after a local software company announced it would move into the the bookstore’s second floor space with help from a $375,000 state incentive.  The store has a sign out front confirming the date, along with announced sales on some items. It’s unclear how employees will be affected by the move, or if a liquidation is planned. A general manager deferred additional comments about the closure to Barnes & Noble HQ, which did not immediately return requests from Metro Times. In December, Royal Oak-based software company Vectorform, announced it planned to hire 75 additional employees and move its headquarters across town to the bookstore’s location at Fifth and Main. The state incentive for the $2.24 million expansion stems from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. “It’s really a great coup to attract them as an office tenant downtown,” Royal Oak City Manager Don Johnson told  The Oakland Press last December. “They’re exactly the kind of firm we want. They’re bringing a lot of well-paid technical workers … the type of workers who will spend a lot of time in Royal Oak retail shops and Royal Oak restaurants.” Barnes & […]

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