5 Detroit Projects, Including Slow Roll And Atwater Beach, Receive $810,400

Five local projects have received more than $800,000 in funding from the Knight Foundation through their Cities Challenge.

Across the country, Knight received more than 4,500 submissions and they narrowed it to 144 finalists to submit full applications. From those finalists, we selected the 33 winners in 19 cities.

Here are the award winners:

Atwater Beach: $225,000 (by Detroit RiverFront Conservancy; submitted by Jan Shimshock): Further activating the Detroit waterfront by creating an inviting, urban beach along the city’s Atwater Street. We on Daily Detroit talked about Atwater Beach here. In total, they’re looking to raise approximately $1 million to make it happen.

Better Buildings, Better Blocks: $150,000 (by Building Community Value; submitted by Chase Cantrell): Providing a pipeline for minorities into real estate jobs, by teaching the fundamentals of small-scale property development and providing initial project financing.

Design Center in a Box: A Place for Informed Community Exchange, $205,000 (by City of Detroit Planning and Development Department; submitted by Susan Burrows): Promoting civic engagement by creating pop-up city planning offices where residents can connect with city planning staff and others to exchange ideas and become informed about the design and planning work happening in their neighborhood and the city at large.

Detroit’s Slow Roll: $129,400 (by Detroit Bike City; submitted by Jeff Herron): Leveraging the 25,000 cyclists who participate in Slow Roll Detroit and demonstrating how to engage Detroit’s nonprofit sector, drive renewal and smile while doing it. Here’s our interview from last week with Jason Hall and Kelsey Hubbell of Slow Roll.

Happy 18th Birthday! Local Citizenship Kit: $101,000 (by Citizen Detroit; submitted by Sandra Yu Stahl): Celebrating Detroiters becoming eligible to vote by sending them a local citizenship kit in the mail on their 18th birthday.