Lester Graham

It’s not only the residents who continue to struggle in the city’s vast, impoverished neighborhoods. Small stores are barely hanging on.

In Baltimore Freddie Gray died after being arrested and thrown in the back of a police van. In Cleveland, video captured images of 12-year-old Tamir Rice as he was shot by a Cleveland officer. And in Ferguson, Missouri, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead in the street. These events and others have increased racial tensions in cities across the nation in a way not seen since the 1960

The proprietors of many of the city's fuel stops say they're being unfairly targeted – and ticketed – for relatively minor offenses, in a pattern that suggests deliberate harassment.

A local muckraking journalist found that the city’s count of 70 hydrants in disrepair does not match his own survey, which suggests the number could as high as 1,800. Broken hydrants mean more homes could be swept up by fires.

Advocates say the county is overestimating property values and that many people are losing their homes because they don’t know they can challenge their assessment.

For ordinary Detroiters like Fatima Mixon, finding a job is just the first step. Securing transportation to get to work can feel like winning the lottery. In Mixon’s case, that’s exactly what happened.