There’s been a ton of scrutiny, including from this podcast, about the Ilitch family’s failure to follow through on its promises to develop the District Detroit. Now, The Detroit News reportsthat the Ilitches also own 44 vacant lots and eight empty buildings surrounding the MotorCity Casino Hotel complex, where the family now hopes to build a seven-story parking structure.

But ya know, yours truly has been doing some thinking about the whole District Detroit thing, and I may have actually found a silver lining, which I discuss in this episode.

Elsewhere, we round up some recent food and fun news:

• The New York Times name-dropped two Detroit chefs among its list of chefs-restaurants-food.html">16 Black Chefs Changing Food in America. And here’s our friend Melody Baetens’ writeup on the same at the News.
• Syd Gold’s Request Room opens Friday.
• Taqueria Mi Puebla is expanding to Macomb County.
• The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will hold a pop-up old-school video game arcade on Tuesday, coinciding with the performance of “Video Games Live.”

Last but certainly not least, soccer correspondent Fletcher Sharpe joins us to talk about Detroit City FC’s NPSL Midwest Region semifinal match Friday against Minneapolis City SC, plus some weird shenanigans elsewhere in the Midwest Region.

Thanks for listening to Daily Detroit. If you like what you’re hearing, tell a friend about us, leave us a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or support us by becoming a Patreon member.