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11-17, 2013 /1-7 IYAR 5773

A JEWISH RENAISSANCE MEDIA PUBLICATION

theJEWISHNEWS.com

» Changing Young Lives Longtime debate coach
instills self-confidence in students. See page 12.

» C'mon Spring! Don't lose your patience with
impatiens this season. See page 36.

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

metro

» Judaism In The Home New exhibit at WSU
reflects the lives of Jewish Americans, from religious
objects to tchotchkes. See page 45.

Coleus may be used as a pleasant change of
pace to impatiens.

>> analysis & opinion/cover story

Home Again

Kwame Kilpatrick,

in happier times,

speaks at the

Birmingham

Temple in

Three young entrepreneurs
return to Metro Detroit to start
their real estate business

February 2005.

RYAN FISHMAN

SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Many Jews strive to help rescue the dream of a revitalized Detroit.

Tyler Ross, Michael Colman and David Colman
look over development plans for ROCO real
estate.

41110

W

ith philanthropy as its cornerstone,
ROCO Real Estate in Bloomfield
Hills is looking to make its mark on
Metropolitan Detroit. The 2-year-
old firm has already acquired more than 1,500
multifamily units across the Midwest and is on pace
to grow exponentially. Driving the company's growth
is the youth of its three principals: brothers, Michael

CONTINUED ON PAGE 56

<oar

Robert Sklar
Contributing
Editor

e was young, ambitious, charis-
matic, articulate and politically
savvy. He held such potential as
Detroit's new chief executive.
Kwame Kilpatrick was a big man with big
ideas and a seemingly big heart for redefin-
ing a flailing Detroit, once one of America's
industrial giants with a booming population
and a dynamic pulse.
It was 2002 — and he offered real hope.
Voters and supporters, including many
Jews, felt he had the imagination, smarts
and panache to improve the city dra-

Covering and
Connecting
Jewish Detroit
Eve y Week

ek

matically. He hadn't yet elevated political
patronage to a tawdry level.
Kilpatrick had built bonds with the
Jewish community during his years as a
state representative from 1996 to 2001,
succeeding his mother, Carolyn Cheeks
Kilpatrick, when she was elected to
Congress. He even visited Israel in 1999
on a Jewish Community Relations Council
(JCRC)-sponsored trip.
Years later, as he politically collapsed
amid scandal, Jewish business lead-
ers pressed on with revitalizing Detroit,
imagining some of the same possibilities
as Kilpatrick. Other Jews stayed engaged
through social causes.

Good Impressions

Flashback to May 7, 2002. The location: A
Southfield banquet hall, where 300 Metro

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

9336

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