Like many impoverished, obscure corners of Detroit, the neighborhood of Eden Gardens knows it can’t afford to wait for the cavalry to arrive. While residents are eager for blight removal, they’re not waiting for the city to fix their community.
Bill McGraw
Bill McGraw, a veteran Detroit Free Press writer, was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in April, 2014. A native Detroiter, McGraw co-founded the online website, Deadline Detroit, in 2012. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Toronto Globe and Mail, National Geographic, Newsweek, the London-based History Workshop Journal, the Fifth Estate and Orbit. McGraw spent 37 years as a freelance contributor, city-desk reporter, sportswriter, Canada correspondent, deputy metro editor and columnist at the Free Press. He created two best-selling books on Detroit subjects, “The Quotations of Mayor Coleman A. Young” and “The Detroit Almanac,” which he co-edited with Peter Gavrilovich. In 2007, McGraw drove all of the city’s 2,100 streets for the award-winning “Driving Detroit” series.
Posted inUrban Affairs
In Detroit neighborhood showered with love, uncertainty remains
Despite government and philanthropic attention, the eastside community of MorningSide remains a neighborhood on the brink
Posted inUrban Affairs
Detroit’s next hot neighborhood is hiding in plain sight
Real-estate developers have discovered Milwaukee Junction, the semi-anonymous district northeast of Midtown. Will black Detroiters share in its revival?
Posted inUrban Affairs
12 signs of growing interest in Milwaukee Junction
Real estate developers have descended on this long-ignored district to plan lofts, art galleries and other amenities in what many are predicting is the city’s next hot neighborhood.
Posted inUrban Affairs
In a city filled with blight, one Detroit neighborhood gets help while another waits
Detroit officials must pick winners and losers in deciding which areas get homes demolished first. Those that must wait: neighborhoods already too far gone.
Posted inTalent & Education
A steady doctor for babies to call their own
More than 80,000 low-income infants and young children in Michigan don’t have access to a primary care doctor to nurture their development.
Posted inTalent & Education
Preschool for 3-year-olds – high cost, higher reward
Adding a second year of preschool nets long-term gains for children in poverty, and for state, studies show.
Posted inTalent & Education
Putting a value on young minds
In a year when state legislators are disinclined to spend, a stunning report shows that Michigan can invest now in proven early childhood programs, or spend a great deal more later.
Posted inTalent & Education
Only 1-in-10 at-risk children enrolled in parental coaching program
A consensus of research shows home-visitation programs for families with young children improve child development, while saving taxpayers money that would otherwise go to remedial education, incarceration and other costs.
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan struggles to support child care for thousands of children
Michigan has reduced funding for low-income child care by 67 percent since 2007. Research shows that high-quality centers can boost educational performance.