Pontiac's Small Business Saturday has become a highly anticipated holiday shopping occasion. So the community made it happen -- outdoors.

“I like to say that we take our craft seriously without taking ourselves too seriously. We’re not uptight. Customers won’t feel put down for not knowing something about hair,” Maxwell Alfieri says. “We have fun with it.”

“We know that people want to shop in downtown Farmington,” says Farmington DDA director Kate Knight. “We just want to make it easier.”

Water lettuce might seem like a harmless plant, but it's part of the aquatic invasive species' that do $5.7 billion of damage in the Great Lakes region every year. Environmental advocates are asking Macomb residents to be vigilant about the plant, recently spotted along the Clinton River, and about an invasive moth species this season. 

Online pivots outdoor seating and lots of social media have kept Metro Detroit's downtowns alive during the pandemic. Now they face the holidays amid a new surge and state restrictions.