Topic and story suggestions for TIME's Steven Gray

Post 'em here:

Detroit has fantastic photographers - maybe hook up with a few of them for a safari

Try to hook up with Detroit Symphony Orchestra director Leonard Slatkin. He, too, is a relatively new arrival, but here longer than you. He has written that he clicked with the Symphony, that's why he took the job, and he's big on community outreach. Go talk to him if he has the time. Get a tour of Orchestra Hall. [[Here's his blog entry from his first concert once 'officially' in the position.)

Tell us about YOUR typical day in Detroit. Are you getting out and experiencing the city or are you hunkered down in the house. Where have you been? What were your experiences, interactions, and emotions? We know Detroit is not a "typical" US city. Are you overwhelmed? By what? We expect you to ask questions, too, not pretend you have full understanding or all the answers. Ask us.

Pigeon racing and their paramutual system. The Detroit region lake district. Lake St Claire, one of the world's greatest fishing spots. Greening of Detroit. Fort Wayne and why the region/city completely ignores a great fort and why the vast majority dont even know it exists. The detroit salt mines.

Well, in all honesty, the fort is kind of cool and is a good example of a star fort, but historically it really didn't serve as much more than a benign base.

As a historian once told me, if you want something to matter to people you have to tell its story and make it relevant to them. Mere dates and buildings in themselves often won't do the trick. Fort Wayne doesn't have a story out there to capture the public's imagination.

TIME has said they want to find what's working. Perhaps there could be a look at the business diversity the city had earlier in the auto years and an examination of its return to diversity now to try to fill the void.

Cass Corridor is always a good place for a story. I like the irony that a Beauty Shop [[Curl Up & Dye) is located in one of Detroit's more "notorious" areas. Even though that was long ago....

The development of linear parks such as the Riverfront, Dequindre, and the linking pathways in the suburbs tell a great story of how we are improving our social, built and natural environment in a way that links us together more as one community.

Campus Martius, while it has not has as many spin-offs as I would have expected, it is still well-used and a welcome addition to Downtown.

A morning in Eastern Market and trips to independant grocers would help soften the feeling that there is no where in the City to buy food because it lacks National Chain stores. Many of these places are better than the national chains [[though some stink).