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Hernandez, MD, FACS Natalie Marcus, NP 43700 Woodward Avenue – Suite 208 Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302 248-481-2100 Stanley Winkelman Glassman Genesis Valet Service Jeff Stewart Assistant New Car Sales Manager Serving the Community Since 1969 248-636-2736 Complimentary Maintenance Serving Our Community For Over 45 Years! 5FMFHSBQI3Et4PVUIýFMEt XXXHMBTTNBOHFOFTJTDPN 12 July 5 • 2018 jn 2168010 NEW DETROIT’S HISTORY New Detroit was formed in response to Detroit’s 1967 civil disorder, which is also described as a riot or rebellion. At the time, African- Americans comprised 40 percent of Detroit’s population but had minimal representation in the city’s leadership; its fire and police departments were almost all white. Housing discrimination and police brutality again African Americans were common. Similar con- ditions existed in other American cities and some of these were also the scenes of confrontation and bloodshed. In Detroit, the five days of violence resulted in the death of 43 individuals, more than 300 injuries and the destruction of more than 1,000 buildings. Immediately after the city was calm, Michigan Gov. George Romney and Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh asked busi- ness executive Joseph L. Hudson Jr. to convene a coalition of local leaders of business, labor unions, community and civic organiza- tions, government, and academic and religious institutions “to find possible ways to improve the lives of our citizens.” Their mission was to identify what went wrong in July 1967, what needed to change and how to make that change happen. Since then, New Detroit Inc. has been a valuable forum where Detroit-area leaders come Ftogether to listen and learn from each other, developing relationships and working together. Such commu- nication and cooperation seem obvious today but were not in 1967. New Detroit has incubated and helped start some of the region’s most important nonprofit organizations: the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and Wayne County Community College. The nation’s first urban coalition encouraged government agen- cies and employers to expand opportunities for minority residents and treat all citizens fairly. In addition, New Detroit has provided financial and organizational resources to community-based groups, especially those working with minority groups. In 1996, under the leadership of Chairman Thomas Jeffs II and its late President William Beckham Jr., New Detroit’s mission was revised: “To work as the coalition of Detroit-area leaders addressing the issue of race relations by positively impacting issues and poli- cies that ensure economic and social equity.” Today, New Detroit’s website states that it “is a coalition of leaders working to achieve racial understanding and racial equity in Metropolitan Detroit.” at the Department of Energy, where she worked for Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. “Our goal was to develop a business strategy to get solar energy to the price of coal by 2020. It’s happening,” Stewart says. “I grew up outdoors so how can you not be concerned about the Earth’s sustainability?” She says her father got the family involved in camping when she was young and she canoes, hikes, runs, swims and cycles. She attended the “more rustic” Camp Tamarack expe- riencesand she wishes city kids had the chance to experience the woods. Stewart had thought about starting an energy-related company but decided she needed more business experience and could gain that from her parents, Barbara and Steven, top executives at Gardner-White. Stewart returned to Michigan in 2012, and they now share management responsibilities for the company, which was started in 1912. Her grandfather, Irwin Kahn, joined the company during the 1950s and then began major expansion in Metro Detroit. A photo of the original Detroit store is on the wall outside her office. While Stewart says that working in a family-owned and family-run business has some challenges, she knows “there are two people who always have my back and who I can trust.” Her sister, Beth, is a physician in Salt Lake City. Their grandmother, Ruth, was the first woman executive at Gardner- White. “She would have been an engi- neer in a different age,” Stewart says. When Stewart first started working at Gardner-White, she would hear some employees talk about customer service issues as a “source;” they had extrapo- lated from Grandmother Ruth’s Yiddish description of tsouris, meaning trouble. Her own business style is informal, and she cites her father’s admonition to her and her sister, “Don’t take yourselves too seriously.” Stewart’s dog, Trone, a mixed-beagle named after her paternal grandfather who was an Olympic swim- mer, sometime joins her at work. Stewart focuses on the company’s sales and merchandising and has initi- ated energy conservation measures to reduce energy use and costs. Renewable applies to more than energy at Gardner- White. Stewart is involved in the com- pany’s partnerships with such nonprof- its as Humble Design, which furnishes homes for previously homeless families, and works with the Salvation Army and COTS. When Gardner-White delivers new furniture to customers, the compa- ny can help deliver the old furniture if it is being donated to the Salvation Army. Besides the New Detroit chairman- ship, Stewart will have another new responsibility this year — she and her husband, Brian, a physician, are expecting their first child. They live in Birmingham and belong to Temple Israel. •