C&G News: Chaldean Festival celebrates culture with family fun
May 16, 2012
By Jennie Miller | C & G Staff Writer
SOUTHFIELD — Southfield’s richly diverse population will be celebrated, and one culture in particular
lauded, during the seventh annual Chaldean Festival June 8-10 on the front lawn of City Hall.
The widely popular event draws from not only the 120,000 Chaldeans currently calling metro Detroit
home, but also residents of the surrounding communities who wish to celebrate and learn about the
Chaldean culture.
“Southfield is a pretty diverse community, so it’s an opportunity for the Chaldean community to
showcase and share with other residents traditions and ethnic festivities,” said Sharon Hannawa,
program manager for the Chaldean Community Foundation, the charitable arm of the Chaldean-
American Chamber of Commerce, headquartered in Southfield, which hosts the annual event.
“I think we take a lot of pride in our community, so this is an excellent opportunity to showcase
that and introduce it to the rest of the world.”
The festival will include a full carnival with rides, games and children’s activities, as well as food and
merchant booths. It runs 5-10 p.m. June 8, noon-10 p.m. June 9, and noon-10 p.m. June 10.
“What’s most cherished (in our culture) is family, and this is definitely an opportunity for families to 
come together,” Hannawa said. “There’s also a love of music — Chaldeans love music and … traditional
dances like line dancing. People can watch and observe, and then those that are brave enough can join
the line as well.”
Chaldeans are a significant part of metro Detroit, and many are business owners in local communities.
“Chaldeans have made a lot of investments here in terms of the impact they make on the local economy,”
said Eric Younan, director of strategic initiatives for the Chaldean-American Chamber of Commerce. “We
are heavily invested in the southeast Michigan community. … We are committed to the communities in which
we live and work, and we contribute to the local economy. We think it’s important for people to understand
who the Chaldeans are (despite many misconceptions). One of the things that separates us from other Middle
East ethnicities is that we’re Iraqi Christians. Even though there’s such (large) numbers here, not a lot of
people understand that. The Chaldean and the Arab communities — we’re two distinctly different communities
with a different dialect and ancestry. We’d like to gain appreciation and awareness.”
The Southfield municipal complex is located at 26000 Evergreen Road. Evergreen will be shut down for the
event, from Civic Center Drive to 11 Mile/I-696.
For more information about the festival, or for details about how to get involved as a volunteer or as a
sponsor, call the chamber at (248) 996-8340 or email Lisa Kalou at lisa.kalou@chaldeanfoundation.org.
You can reach C & G Staff Writer Jennie Miller at jmiller@candgnews.com or at (586)279-1108.
http://www.candgnews.com/news/chaldean-festival-celebrates-culture-family-fun
MetroTimes.com: The Whole truth – May 16, 2012
That $5 million spent luring Whole Foods drives city’s independent grocers crazy
By Jack Lessenberry
There was a fair amount of excitement in the press and, presumably, yuppieland, when ground was broken this week for Detroit’s first-ever Whole Foods Market, at Mack and John R.
Some of the coverage was positively breathless. Wow! Will wonders never cease? Whole Foods, which bills itself as “the world’s largest natural and organic grocery store” is coming to Detroit!!!
How wonderful. Yes, at last poor Detroiters will be saved from the “food desert” in which they have been languishing. It was hinted that Detroiters will now be able to see and even buy lettuce, tomatoes and oranges for the first time in their lives. That is, if they can survive scurvy until the store actually opens next year.
That’s a little exaggerated, but there’s been a lot written that would give you the impression that unless Detroiters can somehow get themselves to Royal Oak’s Holiday Market, they are now doomed to spend their lives eating nothing but overpriced and likely expired cans of tuna and spaghetti from the shelves of their local party store.
Well, guess again. The other day, I once again heard the assertion that Detroit doesn’t have a single supermarket.
That kind of thing drives the Detroit Independent Grocers Association crazy. Know how many full-service grocery stores there are in the city? (By full-service, I mean at least 10,000 square feet of aisles, and dedicated meat, dairy, produce and frozen food sections.)
Eighty-three. That’s right, 83. “Our members are the grocers who are truly committed to Detroit,” Eric Younan told me. He is director of strategic initiatives for the Chaldean-American Chamber of Commerce, the parent group of the grocers’ association.
While most of those stores are Chaldean-owned, not all are, Younan told me. They are truly small, independent operators; while a few people have more than one store, there are 53 different owners.
They include University Foods over by Warren and the Lodge Freeway; two Glory Supermarkets, and lots of others; there is a complete, easy-to-navigate list at mydetroitgrocers.com.
“You know, our grocers are the people who have remained loyal to the city. Most of them have been around for 30 years or more, serving communities that chain stores have long ago abandoned,” Younan said, after conferring with John Loussia, who heads the grocers’ association. “Many of these stores are in underserved communities, such as Farmer John’s at Gratiot and Harper and Pick & Save at Seven Mile and Van Dyke,” he told me.
“Think national stores will open in these neighborhoods?”
What bothers the independent grocers is not that Whole Foods is trying to come in to Detroit. The independents acknowledge that they have every right to do that. What the independents hate is that Whole Foods is getting millions of dollars in incentives to do so, when they get nothing.
According to an analysis by Crain’s Detroit Business last year, Whole Foods asked for more than $4.2 million in federal, state and city incentives before opening a Detroit store. They also planned to apply for brownfield incentives. All told, the Chaldeans put the final price of luring Whole Foods to Detroit at close to $5 million. Michigan and Detroit development officials had no comment.
Eric Younan says we’ve seen this movie before, “time and time again. A name brand chain store is provided with significant tax incentives to open within city limits.”
After a short time, “the store fails and is ultimately purchased and run successfully by an independent grocer (usually Chaldean) sans credits, abatements or incentives of any kind.”
The problem, Younan explained, is that many of those in the communities they serve are dependent on assistance checks. They shop when the checks come early in the month. But for the last two-thirds of each month, business falls off. That doesn’t work for the chain stores, he said. “Our members have been able to discover creative ways of coping with that and staying in business.”
However, aren’t these small grocery stores vastly overpriced, compared to the big chains? Younan acknowledged that for some items that can be bought in enormous quantities, such as Campbell’s canned soups, you’ll see cheaper prices in chain stores.
But he challenged me to walk the aisles of a few independents and compare a wide range of prices, and check out the produce.
Much of the fresh meat and produce in many of them comes from Eastern Market and the efficient Spartan Foods chain. Besides, he asked me, does anyone think Whole Foods prices are cheap?
He makes some compelling arguments. But the Detroit grocers’ own website admits that one-third of the money city residents spend on food is spent in the suburbs. One Saturday afternoon a few years ago, I saw three Detroit council members separately shopping at Royal Oak’s aforementioned Holiday Market. Why is that, if the city has so many great grocers? Younan paused.
He’s never been a grocer himself. But as a boy, he used to go help his father, a butcher at a small market in one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods back in the ’70s and ’80s.
“I think people shop in the suburbs largely to get away from the crime and blight around them, and to be somewhere they can drop their kids off for an hour and know they are safe,” he said.
Whole Foods may do better than he expects, especially if members of the Wayne State and Detroit Medical Center communities take to shopping there on their way home.
Possibly it may even spur surrounding stores in a good way. But I have an uneasy feeling that the odds are against it. In any case, Detroit’s independent grocers may not have served their communities perfectly. But they have been there when nobody else has been.
And they also deserve to be heard.
Health care they can’t take away: One of the area’s more amazing health care stories has been the FernCare Free Clinic, which opened less than two years ago after a group of friends spent years planning and raising money to make it happen.
After starting in a temporary location, they finally got a permanent clinic last fall, in a renovated building at the corner of Paxton and East Nine Mile roads.
They have done their best to do everything right. They treat only uninsured adults between the ages of 19 and 64. They don’t treat children or those eligible for Medicaid. If you have a venereal disease, they send you to the health department; if you are in anything like critical shape, they pack you off to the nearest emergency room.
Even so, they never run out of patients. Ann Heler, an amazing and dynamic woman who is the president of their board, says there is always a waiting list, which is not surprising given that there are at least 50 million Americans who lack any health care at all.
Nor is that need ever going away. Even if President Obama’s health care law survives our basically right-wing Supreme Court, Heler estimates there will still be about 20 million uninsured without care. Next Thursday, May 24, the rock band Mostly Static is hosting a fundraiser for FernCare, starting at 8 p.m. at the Berkley Front on 12 Mile. Be there, be worse than square, or send ‘em a check.
After all, you’re more than likely just a pink slip away from FernCare, (ferncare.org) which treats folks from many different towns two Saturday mornings and an occasional Thursday night every month. If you go, tell them some left-wing columnist sent you.
http://metrotimes.com/columns/the-whole-truth-1.1315684?pgno=2
Detroit News – Uneven playing field hurts Detroit’s independent grocers – May 14, 2012
May 14, 2012
By John Loussia
In just a matter of days, Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods will break ground on a store site north of Mack Avenue
between Woodward and John R in Detroit. Half of the project’s estimated $10 million price tag will be underwritten by
state and local incentives. Similarly, a new Meijer, to be developed on the site of the old Redford High School, will
receive a $3.3 million brownfield tax credit from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority in order to move forward.
Will the stores be successful? The precedents are not good, with a troubling pattern that has played itself out over
and over again in Detroit: A name-brand, big-box chain is attracted to the city with significant tax incentives. The
store fails. The store is ultimately purchased and run successfully by an independent grocer, sans credits, abatements
or incentives of any kind.
In fact, in the past five years, two former Farmer Jacks and one Kroger store closed — all of which were purchased
by independent grocers in Detroit and now sport such names as Farmer John’s, Food Express and Mike’s Fresh Market.
Over the past 10 years, independent grocers have invested $26 million of their own money for new store construction
in Detroit with 10 new projects. Another $15 million in private investment has gone toward remodeling an additional 13
facilities. These are not party or convenience stores but brand new full-service grocery stores of 10,000 square feet
or more, offering fresh meat, dairy and produce departments at affordable prices.
Detroit’s independent grocers welcome competition and a free marketplace. In order for everyone to compete fairly,
however, there needs to be a level playing field. That does not exist.
Our grocers have remained loyal to the city, with the majority of our stores boasting 30-year histories of serving
the communities in which they reside. We want to continue that commitment to Detroit. Unfortunately, this loyalty
is not reciprocated by state and local entities. Instead, financial incentives consistently go toward a steady stream
of ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ national chains, from Farmer Jack and Walgreens to Kroger and Zaccaro’s. The
names may sound attractive and exciting, but the model simply does not work and wastes millions of dollars of
taxpayer money.
We’ve all heard the myths that provide fodder for this travesty that is perpetuated, that Detroit is a “food desert.”
Yet, how can that be when there are 83 full-service grocery stores, many supplied by Spartan Foods and Eastern
Market, located throughout the city? (See map at: http://mydetroitgrocers.com/locations/). It is a convenient untruth.
The playing field needs to be leveled. A true standard of competition needs to be implemented and followed. No
corporate entity should be allowed to “hit and run.” Especially when it comes at the expense of those who, in the end,
remain here to save the day.
John Loussia is the chairman of the Detroit Independent Grocers, an association of more than 50 supermarkets
dedicated to serving Detroiters. DIG is an affiliate of the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120514/OPINION01/205140320#ixzz1uqex4Cm8
Deadline Detroit: Chaldean Store Owner Toll: 110 and Counting – May 9, 2012
May 9, 2012
By Doron Levin
doron.p.levin@gmail.com
For the Chaldeans of metropolitan Detroit, history may be understood as a trail of blood and tears and broken hearts that leads from the old country of Iraq to Detroit neighborhoods and even to the suburbs.
Fred (“Faraj”) Dally, 63, was robbed and murdered last week in front of his store, the Medicine Chest, at 9840 Dexter in Detroit. His life began in Iraq, as one of the persecuted Christian minority that came to the U.S., like many immigrant groups, seeking a safer, more prosperous life.
“He was like so many other Chaldean merchants, he was willing to take his chances so that his family could survive,” said Joe Kassab, executive director of the Chaldean Federation of America, which is located in Southfield. “The Chaldeans left a vicious environment and some, like Fred, found one that is even more vicious.”
Kassab showed me a booklet compiled in April 1994 entitled “Commemoration of Chaldeans Slain in their Place of Business.” It contains a gruesome accounting of 66 slayings, with pictures of the victims, the dates of their murders and description of what happened. Two of Kassab’s relatives by marriage were slain in Detroit in the course of business.
The booklet was distributed then at a memorial mass at the Mother of God Cathedral in Southfield, attended by dignitaries including then-Wayne County Prosecutor John O’Hair and U.S. Representative Sander Levin, who continues to serve. According to Kassab, the number of Chaldean murder victims killed in connection with their business has risen to at least 110, with Fred Dally being the latest victim. His funeral was Saturday at Mother of God.
With bone-chilling matter-of-factness the booklet documents slaying after slaying:
Karim Jona, born: 1/15/1943; murdered 1/16/1988; found dead in store with multiple gunshot wounds; family: wife & six children. Patrick Kakos, born 1/29/1959; murdered 10/30/1984, murdered during a robbery, single.
According to Jim Hiller, owner of Shopping Center Markets and a second generation grocer, owning a store in Detroit always meant exposing oneself to the possibility of robbery and violence. The atmosphere got much worse, he said, after the 1967 riot.
As whites fled to the suburbs and Detroit became more and more an African-American city, tensions arose as some residents resented the merchants as intruders or exploiters rather than courageous entrepreneurs who were risking their lives to support their families.
Dally was loved by many, especially those who patronized his store. I met him a couple of times on Sunday mornings as he sat with other Chaldean businessmen at Panera Bread in West Bloomfield. He was a friendly, sweet-natured, reserved fellow.
“Such a tragedy,” said Nabby Yono, a mutual friend. “They didn’t have to kill him, he would have given them the money.” Yono said at least a third of the attendees at Dally’s funeral were African-Americans, patrons and friends from the vicinity of the Medicine Chest who were devastated by the crime.
The Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce and the Associated Food and Petroleum Dealers are jointly offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Dally’s killers. Dally had served as chairman of the Associated Food and Petroleum dealers and knew the dangers he faced every day.
Kassab told me a bit about Dally the man, why he chose such a dangerous vocation.
“You have to understand,” he said, “our people came from a country where they were persecuted for generations.” Almost two thousand years ago, centuries before the Muslim religion, missionaries brought Christianity to Mesopotamia, the land now known as Iraq.
When Muslim warlords invaded, the ancestors of the Chaldeans retreated to the mountains of northern Iraq. Eventually they returned to the cities, relying on tight-knit families, business skills and education to survive and maintain their faith in a Muslim society. The first Chaldeans immigrated to Detroit in the early part of the twentieth century, settling in the area of E. Jefferson Avenue and East Grand Boulevard. They operated groceries.
Migration from Iraq to the U.S. and Detroit grew dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s, as more and more Chaldeans sought to escape the repression of Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath Party. Most lacked formal education or degrees. Small grocery stores in the city, especially in poorer neighborhoods, were a simple – if dangerous – way to get started, requiring little capital. It was the way Jewish immigrants and Italian immigrants had started, too.
“People want to know why we are so prominent in the party story business,” said Kassab. “Don’t forget: We were allowed to buy and sell alcohol in the old country. Muslims couldn’t touch liquor.”
Entire Chaldean-American families worked in groceries, party stores and other businesses, partly to provide employment, partly to maintain security and safety as much as possible. The amount of blood shed and the number of lives lost suggest that the struggle for security and safety has been a losing one.
“Today the children are educated, most of the time they don’t want to go into their parents’ stores,” said Kassab.
This was the case for the family of Karim Khamarko, who operated the Dollar Club Plus in Ferndale. On November 26, 2010 he was gunned down at his store. Candace Khamarko, 24, his daughter, works as an account executive for the Chaldean News in Southfield. She and her four siblings have attended college, none wished to continue to operate the store.
“It was too difficult for anyone in my family to work there after what happened to my father,” said Candace Khamarko.
Reward Offered for Arrest in Another Senseless Killing
The Chaldean community suffered another tragedy on Tuesday, May 1, 2012 when Faraj “Fred” Dally was gunned
down as he was opening his liquor store, the Medicine Chest in Detroit, as he has done nearly every day
for the past 30 years.
The Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce is offering a $10,000 reward to help find those who are responsible
for killing Fred.
Since 1970, more than 110 Chaldean store owners have been viciously murdered at their place of business
and hundreds more have been injured during a violent crime. Rest assured, your Chamber is taking action.
The Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce and the Chaldean Community Foundation hold the safety of
the store owners in our community in the highest regard. As a result, we teamed with the Murad family in 2005
to establish the Waad Murad Advocacy Fund where a $10,000 reward is posted for information leading to the
arrest and conviction of those responsible for fatal robberies. Since the fund’s inception, the Chaldean
Community Foundation has posted more than $50,000 in reward money, which helped solve two of these crimes.
Just in the past 14 months, we’ve posted rewards for the following murders:
Cronin’s Liquor and Wine – Mike Khmoro – an arrest was made
Dollar Club Plus – Karim Khamarko – reward now stands at $20,000
The Medicine Chest – Fred Dally – $10,000 added to the AFPD Foundation’s reward
Additionally, Chamber leadership routinely meets with legislators, law enforcement officials and civic and
community leaders to discuss the security and occupational hazards our store owners face during their daily
operations. We will continue to do as much as we can to prevent these heinous crimes and make sure
perpetrators are brought to justice.
For more information on the Waad Murad Advocacy Fund, visit www.chaldeanfoundation.org or contact the Chamber
at (248) 996-8340 or info@chaldeanchamber.com.
Recent slaying highlights store owners’ battle against crime – May 6, 2012
Crain’s Detroit Business
May 06, 2012 | 8:00 PM
By Sherri Welch
Last week’s murder of Faraj “Fred” Dally brought to the forefront once again the danger owners of small stores sometimes face doing business in and near Detroit.
Dally, 63, the former chairman of the Associated Food and Petroleum Dealers, was gunned down early May 1 as he opened the Medicine Chest, a liquor store he’d operated on the city’s west side since the 1970s.
Criminals are getting bolder because they know police response times in Detroit’s outlying neighborhoods are incredibly long — if they ever come, store owners say.
“It’s like a game of chess,” said Jason Kassab, who with his family owns and manages Handy Spot Market on Eight Mile Road between Hayes Street and Kelly Road in Detroit and Handy Mart in Garden City. “(Criminals) make a move; we find a way to counter that move. And they figure out another move.”
Everything comes back to police presence, he said.
“Whether it’s in the city or suburbs, you are dealing with the same type of people. But what you have is more police presence” in the suburbs, Kassab said.
“It’s almost like a lawless land in Detroit … something has got to be done.”
While the city’s downtown and Midtown areas are heavily patrolled and safer with the growing number of people traversing them, store owners in outlying neighborhoods talk about criminals driving vehicles into their stores in the middle of the night or taking sledge hammers to store exteriors to gain access.
Video surveillance isn’t much help.
“We do have video surveillance … but it’s not that big of a deterrent,” Kassab said.
“We know who is doing what when it happens,” which is at least twice a year. But the family doesn’t report it because they fear property insurance companies will drop them, he said.
Luxor Liquor on West McNichols Road in Detroit also has surveillance cameras in place.
“When we have our break-ins and look at our cameras, you’ll see cars passing up and down, but nobody stops, calls the cops or does anything,” said manager Clint Kassab, who is a distant relative of Jason Kassab.
“We have bullet-proof glass, double steel doors, steel plates on the inside of the walls in case they try to break the bricks on the outside of the building,” he said.
But many times, criminals come right through the front door despite those measures, he said, noting they’d done the same at about 20 stores in his neighborhood during a one-month period.
The only thing that is helping the store stave off criminals is the live visual monitoring he pays Oak Park-based Security Central Protection to provide, Clint Kassab said.
“It’s been about a year or two years. I haven’t had any break-ins, thank God,” he said.
Dally had internal and external video surveillance, but was gunned down and robbed as he got out of his car about 9 a.m. to open his store on Dexter Avenue near West Chicago Boulevard.
He was carrying more cash than usual to have available to cash checks because it was the beginning of the month.
“A store owner does not (ordinarily) walk into the store with large amounts of money,” Jason Kassab said. “Someone knew he had money on him because it was the first of the month.”
A legacy of larceny
Criminal activity, both in terms of armed robberies and burglaries, has plagued small-store owners operating in and near the city for decades.
The Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce can name more than 200 local store owners in its cultural community alone who were killed at their businesses in and near Detroit since the 1970s, when a large number of Chaldeans migrated here from Iraq.
“We’ve seen acceleration, unfortunately, (with) four incidents in just a year,” said Martin Manna, president of the chamber and the Chaldean Community Foundation.
Three of those four murders of Chaldean business owners over the last year to 18 months took place in suburbs: Ferndale, River Rouge and Southfield.
“We knew most of our customers by a first name,” said Candace Khamarko, whose father, Karim Khamarko, was killed at the family’s Ferndale store, Dollar Club Plus, on Hilton near Woodward Avenue the day after Thanksgiving in 2010.
The family had operated a video store at the same location for 10 years before converting it to a dollar store five years before Khamarko was killed by what nearby store surveillance cameras appear to show was a lone gunman.
“We were just very comfortable there … very safe, and (we) didn’t feel a need to have surveillance video,” said Candace Khamarko, 24, an account executive for the Chaldean News in Southfield.
The family installed exterior and interior video cameras following his death, but they closed the store less than a year later, finding it too difficult to operate in the same place Khamarko had died.
Grosse Pointe has also been a target of armed robberies at gas stations on Mack Avenue, said John Broad, president of Detroit-based Crime Stoppers, formally known as the Alliance for a Safer Greater Detroit.
“It’s everywhere; it’s not just a Detroit problem,” he said.
“In fact, many of the businesses in Detroit maybe have more precautions in terms of heavy glass than what you’ll see in the suburbs. In some ways, the suburbs are more vulnerable today.”
In Detroit, there’s a no-snitch rule, said Auday Arabo, president and CEO of the West Bloomfield Township-based Associated Food and Petroleum Dealers.
“If you know what happened, it’s not your business. Keep your mouth shut or there’s street justice,” Arabo said in describing the rule.
That’s why the association stepped up with $40,000 in reward money to pair with $10,000 from the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce and $2,500 from Crime Stoppers of Michigan.
Long-term, the association is working with local and state law enforcement to educate its members on prevention tips, such as limiting the number of signs in store windows to keep lines of sight clear for store owners and passersby.
Anonymous tips help
There’s a growing sentiment that enough is enough, said Broad, head of Crime Stoppers, which gets about 80 percent of its annual budget from business memberships and sponsorships of its annual fundraising dinner. The Detroit-based agency reported contributions and grants totaling just under $682,000 in 2010, the year of its latest tax filing.
Calls to the nonprofit’s anonymous tip line increased 44 percent to more than 5,900 calls last year, and they are already up 20 percent so far in 2012.
A desire to claim reward money could be a motivator, but it doesn’t appear to be, Broad said. Less than a third of tipsters have claimed reward money for reporting crimes over each of the past three years.
Local churches have also engaged Crime Stoppers in helping decrease crime in their neighborhoods. They’re now preaching from the pulpit about the moral obligation congregation members have to report crimes they know of, Broad said.
Local business communities are taking matters into their own hands as public safety protection dwindles. Business groups in areas such as Midtown, Southwest Detroit, Highland Park and Southfield have put in place or are exploring business watch groups.
Business watch groups engage and train business owners to communicate with one another, to observe what’s happening near their businesses and to collect and report criminal and suspicious activity to local law enforcement officials in a coordinated fashion, similar to the approach of neighborhood watch groups.
They’re not a new strategy in Detroit. Between 1975 and 1987, the city created nearly 5,000 neighborhood watch groups and 150 business watch groups as part of a larger plan to decrease crime, according to a study posted on the National Criminal Justice Reference Service website.
Those groups helped reduce incidences of violent crimes such as murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault by 40 percent in a 155-block area and residential burglaries by 60 percent, in an approach lauded by the Arlington, Va.-based National Crime Prevention Council.
“Business watches were very popular at one time,” but they’ve trailed off as the precinct’s staff of community relations staff has been reduced, said Lt. Terry Herbert in the Detroit Police Department’s Police Community Service Department.
There are still some business watch groups in pockets of the city in places such as Midtown and Southwest Detroit, he said.
Watch efforts pay off
A business watch launched about three years ago in Southwest Detroit is seeing a good return on its efforts, said Kathleen Wendler, president of the Southwest Detroit Business Association.
The West Vernor and Springwells Business Improvement District shares the cost of regular maintenance of a portion of West Vernor Highway and Springwells Street, graffiti removal and some public safety initiatives, including the part-time hiring of off-duty Detroit police officers to patrol in uniform on the street in the business district, Wendler said.
The business improvement district contracts with the association to work on crime prevention through the efforts of a dedicated staff member who has direct relationships with the police department, the Wayne County Sheriff, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, Wendler said.
“We do email blasts if some particular technique is being used to break into stores, if someone is caught on a video camera doing something illegal,” she said.
The group has “eyes and ears on the street,” who can report crime anonymously and get a reward for doing it, Wendler said.
“Businesses (are) looking out for one another because crime lowers the dollars in the cash register,” she said.
The business watch group is also in regular communication with law enforcement, sharing video and information about criminal or suspicious activity.
“That kind of information sharing is helping us to do crime prevention, along with Crime Stoppers as a means of everyone in the neighborhood being able to report crime anonymously,” Wendler said.
It’s hard to measure the exact effect those efforts have had on crime in the area, she said, “but we do know we catch stuff in the bud.”
At one point, a group of criminals drove a truck through the walls of a local supermarket and carried off the store’s safe, Wendler said.
By the time they attempted to rob another supermarket in the same way, “we were already on top of it with the police,” who responded and caught the criminals in process because they’d been in contact with the local group, she said.
“It’s about putting a system in place to make crime prevention work. … You have to be incredibly aggressive and organized as a community to make it stick; it’s not 1975 or 1955.”
Communities where businesses are organized are less likely to become victimized by crime, Crime Stoppers’ Broad said.
“The overall thing is to look out for each other – if we see something in a neighboring business that looks out of place, we need to report that … (and) go back to being a community, not silos.”
Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694, swelch@crain.com. Twitter: @sherriwelch
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20120506/FREE/305069971
The Arab American News: Slain store owner was “model for community businessmen” in inner cities – May 4, 2012
DETROIT — Another store owner became the victim of senseless violence on Tuesday, May 1 as 63-year-old Chaldean American liquor store owner Faraj “Freddy” Dally was robbed and shot twice in the head as he attempted to open his store, the Medicine Chest, at 9 a.m.
Memorial balloons have been placed outside following his death while family, friends and customers gathered outside on Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil for Dally, who has owned the store since the 1970s. Police have a description of the suspects, two black males who wore scarves over their heads and drove a dark-colored SUV, possibly a Dodge Journey.
A reward of $50,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest in the case, with $40,000 having been put up by the AFPD and $10,000 by the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce.
Nabby Yono, who serves as Vice President of Community Relations at the Arab and Chaldean Council in Detroit and is also a former president of the AFPD, is a close friend of Dally’s who was greatly saddened by the news.
“First and foremost he was a good person, a good businessman and a good family man who always took care of his family,” he said. “He had three boys, two were married and he was looking forward to the third getting married (this summer).”
Dally had an MBA from Baghdad as well and served as a chairman of the AFPD for a two-year term beginning in 2004.
Yono, who became choked up with emotion after recalling how he saw Dally at a gas station in a northern suburb on the morning of the shooting, said that Dally loved Detroit and its residents.
Dally had gone to cash checks preparing for the first of the month rush on the morning of the shooting.
“He had so many chances to leave Detroit and he didn’t, even when his store caught on fire a couple of years ago, a lot of people told him not to rebuild but he insisted on re-opening and staying there.”
Yono also commented on the sad cycle of violence.
“This is the price we’ve paid in the Arab and Chaldean community for the last 50 years, we’ve had probably 300-500 people killed in stores just trying to support their families, to serve the community, nobody deserves to be killed going to work.”
Auday Arabo, the current president of the AFPD organization, said that Dally had deep roots in the community and was well known and respected by residents of a neighborhood that has been hit hard by blight including store closings, burned-out houses, and more.
“Fred is what we call the model for businesspeople working in the inner city, he knew everyone in the community and as one person said it perfectly, he would do things for you that even your own family members wouldn’t do for you.”
He said that the area he originally opened the store in during the 1970s was a once-bustling community that had fallen on hard times. Dally gave several area residents jobs and practically helped raise them, Arabo said, considering the area his second home.
“For something to happen to a man like that who is a model for community businesspeople just breaks your heart,” he added.
A church service will be held on Saturday May 5, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. at Mother of God Church in Southfield, 25585 Berg Rd.
http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=Localcrime&article=5572
CBS Detroit: Community Mourns Beloved Detroit Business Owner – May 3, 2012
May 3, 2012 6:45 PM
DETROIT (WWJ) – “Heartbreaking”: That’s how one mourner describes the death of a longtime Detroit party store owner, murdered as he prepared to open for business earlier this week.
“He was a great father, a great husband. He served a community in Detroit and we’ve got to do something to stop these senseless acts of violence,” the man said.
Friends, neighbors and family streamed into a Southfield Funeral Home Thursday evening to pay their final respects to 63-year-old Faraj “Fred” Dally.
Residents of Daily’s northwest Detroit neighborhood called him a local hero, who stayed long after other businesses had left the area and often offered help to customers who needed it.
Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce President Martin Manna was a friend of Dally.
“I think it’s a big loss for this entire region, really,” said Manna. “The kind of people that are serving others … and for him to be killed like that, senselessly, makes no sense to anybody.”
Dally was a past chairman of the Association of Food and Petroleum Dealers.
A reward of $50,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest in the case.
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/05/03/community-mourns-beloved-detroit-business-owner/
WXYZ-TV Detroit: $50,000 reward offered in murder of Detroit liquor store owner – May 1, 2012
Posted: 05/01/2012
DETROIT (WXYZ) – The AFPD Foundation is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction
of whoever killed Medicine Chest Liquor Store owner Faraj “Fred” Dally.
Dally was shot and killed Tuesday morning as he was about to open his store in the 9000 block of Dexter on Detroit’s west side.
According to witnesses, Dally pulled up in a navy blue jeep and was gunned down before he reached the front door of the store,
a mere 15 feet away. The suspect was seen taking something from the jeep, presumably cash.
Dally, who neighbors call “Freddie” was shot in the head. They say he was always helping everyone in the neighborhood and
was good about extending credit.
Dally is also a former AFPD Chairman.
“This is sad loss for our AFPD family and the entire community,” said Auday
Arabo, president and CEO of AFPD. “We must do something about the on-going
violence our store owners face while operating businesses in Detroit. Fred has
been operating his store since the 70s when the area was bustling with business.
Today, he was among the few businesses servicing the community in this area.
He was truly committed to the revitalization of Detroit and stayed in the city even
when everyone around him was fleeing.”
An employee normally helps Dally open on weekdays. She was across the street
at a Coney Island when she heard two shots.
She came out of the restaurant to see Dally down on the pavement and the suspects
leaving the scene.
The shooter is described as a black male, 190 lbs, 5’8″-5’10″ wearing a black hoodie, jeans and a scarf over his face. There is no description of
the driver at this time. The two were in a black Dodge Journey.
Some believe Dally may have been targeted because he often carries large amounts of cash on the first of the month after cashing the
store’s checks.
Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS Detroit – $50K Reward Offered For Tips In Death Of Detroit Business Owner
May 2, 2012 3:56 PM
DETROIT (WWJ) – A $50,000 reward is being offered for tips in the case of a northwest Detroit party store owner who was gunned down outside his business on Tuesday.
Faraj “Fred” Dally, 63, once led the Associated Food and Petroleum Dealers, an organization representing 4,000 party store and gas station owners in Michigan and surrounding states.
The AFPD CEO Auday Arabo said he hopes someone comes forward.
“We’re not going to bring Fred back, but we’re not going to let a bunch of thugs squeeze the life out of the community. Fred wouldn’t want it to happen. That’s why he stayed here,” Arabo said.
“A lot of people in the retailer community had come to Fred over the years and said, ‘Fred, everything is gone. Why are you still here?’ He said, ‘This is my family. These are my people. This is my community,’” Arabo said.
Neighbors call Dally a local hero, often helping out customers who needed it.
Arabo said Dally bled for this community and his death won’t pass quietly.
“The people of Detroit are sick and tired of good people getting killed with these senseless, violent acts,” Arabo said. “If somebody like Fred who believes and stays here is shot down, then who is safe?”
Police said Dally was shot in the head on the sidewalk as he prepared to open his shop “The Medicine Chest.”
There have been no arrests.
Detroit police inspector Duane Blackman said anyone who saw something is obligated to tell the truth. He said there is a new state law that punishes people who lie to police.
“The significance of that is it allows us challenge you about the information that you provide,” Blackman said. “And if you purposely, willfully. and wantonly provide false information, you will be prosecuted for that,” adding that police know there are people out there who know who committed this crime.
“Do not get caught with information that you could have provided before we find out,” he said.
Detroit Police are asking anyone with information to call 313-596-2260.