Craig Manning | Author

Common Good Does Good

Oct. 15, 2022

2022 is a big year for Traverse City’s Common Good Bakery. The Fourteenth Street bakery officially celebrated five years in business in August, and a second location at 1115 East Eighth Street is slated to open shortly after Thanksgiving. To mark the five-year milestone and make goo... Read More >>

All Electric, All the Time

Oct. 8, 2022

During the summer of $5 gas, it was perhaps no surprise that many consumers across the country were trading combustion for electricity. According to a TIME article from May, a whopping 53 percent of active automotive shoppers were “considering a more fuel-efficient vehicle ... Read More >>

Sleeping Bear Shines at ArtPrize

Oct. 8, 2022

If you reside in northern Michigan, chances are you’re familiar with the legend of Sleeping Bear. Though the legend itself has a complex cultural histo... Read More >>

Crushing It

Oct. 1, 2022

No local winery is an island.

That’s the philosophy Left Foot Charley founders Bryan and Jen Ulbrich have taken with their winemaking operation since day one. And while it’s an idea that runs contrary to what many people think they know about wineries, Bryan Ulbrich sa... Read More >>

Retired Dennos Leader Honored

Oct. 1, 2022

Congratulations are in order for Traverse City legend Eugene Jenneman, who was recently announced as one of the four recipients for this year’s University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Alumni Association awards. Jenneman is best known in northern Michigan as the founding executive directo... Read More >>

One Small House for Humankind, One Giant Leap for Attainable Housing

Sept. 24, 2022

What if one solution to the housing woes of northern Michigan was as simple as letting homeowners build guest houses on their land?

As local leaders look for ways to bring more abundant and affordable housing to the region—and to counteract challenges with strained housing i... Read More >>

The Ramsdell’s Community Art2 Project

Sept. 24, 2022

One great joy of childhood is getting creative in art class and then seeing your work proudly displayed in your school hallways. Similar opportunities don’t come along very often in adulthood, but the Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts in Manistee is offering one this fall. The R... Read More >>

Stormcloud for the Win

Sept. 17, 2022

We love our local breweries, and we especially love when they’re recognized on national and global stages. So, it will come as no surprise that we’re excited about the recent news that Frankfort’s own Stormcloud Brewing Company was recently dubbed “Brewery of the Y... Read More >>

Where Have All the Volunteers Gone?

Sept. 10, 2022

For the past year, employer struggles have dominated the conversation around the national labor shortage. From low unemployment rates and understaffed businesses to a nationwide quitting trend big enough to earn the grandiose title of “The Great Resignation,” it’s news t... Read More >>

A Day of Caring

Sept. 10, 2022

Volunteering numbers are down across the nation and across the North—we even wrote a story about it this week. But Thursday, September 15, marks United Way of Northwest Michigan’s an... Read More >>

Seven Stellar High School Athletes to Watch in 2022-23

Sept. 3, 2022

State championships, All-State recognition, impressive playoff runs, and shattered school records: Is it just us, or have these occurrences become more common in northern Michigan high school sports lately? And will the 2022-23 school year continue this apparent golden age in local athlet... Read More >>

The DNR’s Great Pine Cone Scavenger Hunt

Sept. 3, 2022

It’s scavenger hunt time! Throughout September, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is putting out the call for Michigan residents to hunt for red pine cones—and get paid for it. Per the DNR, red pine seed is constantly in high demand due to the fact that red pi... Read More >>

The Fruits of Our Labor: Do NoMi workers really get half the pay for a view of the bay?

Aug. 27, 2022

“A view of the bay for half the pay.” For years, that adage has hung like a dark cloud over Traverse City and northern Michigan as a whole. While no one is sure who coined the motto, the implication—that you must sacrifice salary potential to live amidst the region&rsquo... Read More >>

Turtles, Turtles, Everywhere!

Aug. 27, 2022

When she was 13 years old, northern Michigan resident Joan MacGillivray began amassing a collection of turtle-themed art pieces. Now in her 90s, MacGillivray has over 400 pieces of turtle art to her name. Usually, all that art is displayed around MacGillivray’s Charlevoix cottage&md... Read More >>

Nittolo’s Cannoli

Aug. 27, 2022

Holy cannoli, Batman! We can’t get over how much we love the cannoli at Nittolo’s Pizza. The Lake Leelanau restaurant is known for some of the highest quality and most authentically Italian pizza pies in northern Michigan, but don’t overlook the equally scrumptious canno... Read More >>

Pabst the Place

Aug. 20, 2022

Fans of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the 1980s, or novelty hotel experiences—tune in for this one. Grand Traverse Motel recently announced its “Pabst the Place” partnership with the Pabst Brewing Company, wherein the brewers (and marketers) behind PBR have transformed three o... Read More >>

It’s Gonna Be Us: Six questions for the boy bands of the North

Aug. 6, 2022

One Direction or BTS? *NSYNC or Backstreet Boys? O-Town, B2K, Savage Garden, Boyz II Men, Hanson, or New Kids on the Block? No matter your favorite, you have to respect the boy band archetype: A group of disparate talents come together and somehow move from obscurity to world domination i... Read More >>

How the Music Gets Made

Aug. 6, 2022

Live music is raw, passionate, spontaneous, immediate, magical, and temporary. Hearing a great band lock into a groove or ignite a moment of dancefloor revelry is electric precisely because of its ephemerality. When the song is over, when the house lights come up, when the band leaves the... Read More >>

Could Michigan Resurrect Its Discontinued Film Incentive Program?

July 23, 2022

What state is at the epicenter of American moviemaking?

If you answered “California,” you might be surprised. While California’s status as the home of Hollywood has made it the de facto filmmaking capital of the world for generations, the Golden State has been ou... Read More >>

Optimism Meets Activism

July 9, 2022

“I’ve made a career out of being a cautiously optimistic person.”

So says Frank Ettawageshik, a local Indigenous leader with a long track record of fighting for native rights, environmental preservation, and smart climate policy. From afar, those particular battl... Read More >>