Michigan Matters: RenCen update and celebrating Mayor Young

The future of the Renaissance Center and plans to revamp the signature Detroit structure are discussed by Jared Fleisher, CEO of Bedrock, on this Sunday's Michigan Matters.

General Motors owns the building, built in the 1970s, and has been working with Bedrock on a plan to modify it and make it more user-friendly, including a marina.

Fleisher discusses dealing with leaders in Lansing and Detroit, and their support as part of the plan.  He shared how the structure would change.

Then it's a focus on celebrating the late Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young made an effort to place a statue of him in our nation's Capitol Building. Each state is allowed to have two statues of deceased local leaders.  

Marvin Beatty, chairman and president of the Coleman A. Young Foundation, Georgella Muirhead, co-founder of 98Forward, and Khary Turner, executive director of the Coleman A. Young Foundation, appear and talk about the late leader, his legacy and their effort to place a statue of him in our nation's capital.  

Michigan currently has statues of the late former President Gerald Ford and Lewis Cass, a political leader from the 1880s, in Washington.  

The trio also talked about building a replica of the Young statue, which would be placed in the Renaissance Center once it is revamped.  

Young's statue, a clay prototype created by a Detroit sculptor selected for the project, would replace Cass' statue, which would be returned to Michigan at a location to be determined, Beatty said.  

Turner said the process to replace the statue would likely take another two years.

Muirhead talked about an event being held this Tuesday in Detroit to celebrate the late Mayor and about the public's involvement in the statue effort.

(Watch Michigan Matters at its new time: 5:30 a.m. Sundays on CBS Detroit and 9:30 a.m. Sundays on CW Detroit 50 WKBD.)

(Carol Cain is the 13-time Emmy-winning senior producer and host of Michigan Matters.)