Despite those on the east side of Woodward Avenue being hated on by those on the west side, the east side of Detroit and its residents have plenty to offer. It will all be on display at the “Most Outstanding on the Eastside” Awards, September 27 at the Eastside Community Network’s (ECN) 31st Annual Eastside Extravaganza at the Roostertail.
The “MOE Better” Awards, as the Eastside Community Network calls it, has been going on for as long as the organization has been in existence, and celebrates all that is good about the east side of Detroit. The categories include: Best Restaurant, Best Block Club/Neighborhood Group, Best Fun Spot, Best Small Business, Best Employer of Eastside Residents. Winners of each category will go home with a plaque in their honor.
“For a long time, the narrative around the east side was always a negative one,” said Orlando Bailey, Chief Development Officer for ECN and a native east-sider. “Especially on the lower east side, we weren’t targeted for investment or by private philanthropy. We had to advocate and do everything that we were able to get done by ourselves. And if no one was going to recognize the dopeness that’s on the east side, we wanted to create a platform that would do that on a big stage, and in a positive light.”
To vote for your favorite east side business or block club, the Eastside Community Network has setup a Google doc to cast your vote. Past winners of the MOE Better Awards have included the East English Village Association, The Craft Café, Harper Upholstery, They Say Restaurant, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the Charlevoix Village Association, Chandler Park, Sister Pie, and Caper’s, among others. Voting end August 31.
“We want people to see that the east side does have amazing, highly-functioning neighborhoods, groups and block clubs, and restaurants,” said Bailey. “We have a premier Detroit park in Chandler Park that gets mowed every single week. We have been able to install football and lacrosse fields around the east side, and others things that do not get highlighted. The MOE Better Awards counter the negativity about the east side with positivity.”
The Eastside Extravaganza will be an evening of elegant dining, dancing, award-giving, and socializing with 500 of the east side of Detroit’s finest neighbors. Funds raised from the event will support the community and commercial development, youth leadership, and mobility out of poverty programs. Larry Lee and Back In The Day will provide the sounds once again and WDIV Local 4’s Andrew Humphrey returns as this year’s Master of Ceremonies. There will also be a live and silent auction and a 50/50 raffle.
“This will be the best party on the east side,” said Bailey.
Bailey, who has been with the Eastside Community network for seven years, has deep east side roots, growing up near the area of Mack Avenue and Manistique. When the Mack-Alter Square shopping plaza was developed in 2005, the Eastside Community Network had to assemble the land on the corner of Mack and Alter Road. Several landowners were convinced to sell their homes in order to do so, one being Bailey’s grandmother.
“I call it the living room of the community,” said Bailey, whose family migrated from rural Mississippi to Detroit’s Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood in the 1940s. “Right where the Family Dollar is in the plaza is where I grew up. That’s where my living room was.”
“The east side is home for me and to be able to work for an organization that serves the constituency that I actually grew up knowing and knew my grandmother, it means a lot. It means legacy as well. Our family home that my great-grandparents purchased, at 615 Algonquin, is still in the family four generations later.”
About Post Author
