In a time of tumult in Detroit, one man is working to help people and the city simultaneously. The Detroit Bus Co. was founded in 2012 by Andy Didorosi as an attempt to combat the transit problems prevalent in Detroit. There formerly were components of the operation, located in Ferndale and downtown Detroit. All aspects now will be housed in a historic factory building in Hamtramck.
As a way of showing that his loyalty lies with the advancement of Detroit and its citizens, Didorosi has launched Eight & Sand, his business development complex, within the vast space of Detroit Bus Co.’s new building. The factory he recently purchased and is renovating was built in 1920 and is 90,000 square feet. There is plenty of room for other businesses to use, if they want to be located in Detroit. (Eight & Sand is a 19th century term one would say to wish a safe journey to a steam locomotive engineer.)
Fowling Warehouse is Eight & Sand’s first tenant. What is “Fowling”? Reminiscent of the comedy film “BASEketball,” Fowling is a cross between American football and bowling. This is a two-on-two competition where contestants chuck a football at bowling pins. Didorosi says this was an invention created by several Detroiters at the Indy 500. Originally housed at City Airport, Fowling Warehouse will have 20 lanes, beer garden, full-service bar, and a stage.
Two other startups utilizing space at Eight & Sand are Reclaim Detroit, a company that reprocesses abandoned houses into organized building materials; and Sit On It Detroit, which uses recycled wood to create bus benches and place them at bus stops without usable benches, filled with donated books.
Eight & Sand’s indoor heated communal dining tables and food truck pavilion will open in 2014. This is exciting because an old law in Detroit prevented the operation of food trucks inside the city limits until 2011.
Although the aforementioned startups have little if nothing to do with transit, Didorosi is working in terms of creating business and jobs in Detroit in the spirit of helping others (and a bit of fun), and that is always a good thing, especially during such great turmoil in Detroit, what with the bankruptcy debacle and the Kwame Kilpatrick trials and other tribulations. It’s nice to see people still having faith in Detroit and even trying to help the city rise like a phoenix out of so many difficulties.
The Detroit Bus Co. offers its own line of great Detroit tours in subjects such as local architecture and historic Detroit bars, and since July it’s offered a six-month pilot program entitled Youth Transit Alliance, funded through the Skillman Foundation.
Forty afterschool programs in southwest Detroit were deemed superb but underutilized, according to Skillman. It would cost about $2.2 million to bus kids to these programs, something that just wasn’t doable. With encouragement from Skillman, the Detroit Bus Co. set up a website that shows the users the locations of the afterschool programs and the places where the participants live, and devises a map of the pre-determined bus pickup and drop off areas. Parents can go onto the website and sign their kids up for the program.
This program can be used on a week-to-week basis or for the entire six months of the program. Parents provide the child’s name and emergency contact info and get the opportunity to choose the pickup and drop-off locations that are nearest to the child’s home. If there isn’t a site near enough, arrangements can be made to take the child right to their home doorstep.
According to Didorosi, this model saves about 90 percent of the transportation cost, since the Skillman Foundation committed $100,000 for the six-month duration of the program. During the summer, the Detroit Bus Co. gave more than 1,100 rides to kids in the southwest area of Detroit, making it a great success. There are hopes that Skillman Foundation will keep this program going after the six months is up and even expand it to other parts of Detroit.
Didorosi clearly has Detroit in his heart, making him and the other new startups welcome to the city.
