TRASHED: The pastor of a Detroit church hoped to convert the closed Vetal Elementary School in Detroit into a career training center. However, once scrappers gained entrance to the building, they quickly made it unusable. This bathroom’s damage is typical. (Bridge photos by Nancy Derringer) When it comes to scrap-metal theft in Detroit and other […]
Quality of Life
Michigan is a great place to live. Bridge will report that fact often — and on potential threats to the assets that make it so.
Posted inQuality of Life
Canadian firm plans fracking campaign that could require 4 billion gallons of Michigan water
THIRSTY WORK: The Encana Corp.’s Westerman well in Kalkaska County recently used 8.5 million gallons of water to complete a hydraulic fracturing process. (courtesy photo) KALKASKA — A Canadian firm has laid out plans to drill 500 new natural gas wells in Northern Michigan, using a technique that could consume more than 4 billion gallons […]
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New century brings change to Michigan’s gender competition
CLICK TO ENLARGE On gender, the statistics always have been clear. More male babies are born than female babies – about 104 or 105 males per 100 females, in fact. Women, though have their own advantage: longer lifespans. At age 65, there are 108 females per 100 males; by age 80, the ratio is 143 […]
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Bridge’s Top 9 totally unscientific great places to go that you might not have heard of
Michigan has about 15,000 places on its official tourism website. Chances are, you’ve heard a lot about Mackinac Island and Sleeping Bear Dunes, but the Cheeseburger in Caseville Festival, not so much. As the summer tourism season opens, Bridge went looking for a few places off the beaten path. In no particular order, you might […]
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Mammoth Belle Isle Park poses huge challenge for citizen-saviors (with video)
Michele Hodges, 45, became the first full-time president of the Belle Isle Conservancy in January 2013. A Grosse Pointe Park resident, she will guide the year-old organization, with a budget of approximately $1.3 million, as it seeks to improve Detroit’s singular, but neglected, park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead in the late 19th century. PARK ADVOCATE: […]
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A photographic tour of Belle Isle
Belle Isle Park is Detroit’s signature green space. According to the city of Detroit’s records: “Detroit’s city fathers purchased the 983-acre island in 1879 for $200,000, against the opposition of those who thought the price was too high. They elected to retain the name Belle Isle (beautiful island) by which the property was popularly known. […]
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Region struggles with sick economy, sick families
(Bridge illustration/Howard Davy) When Dr. Marion Hautea looks out at the waiting room at Thunder Bay Community Health Service in Rogers City, he sees diabetes. He sees hypertension. He sees abscessed teeth and coronary disease. Mostly, though, he sees jobs. Jobs that have left Northeast Michigan, burdening the region with the highest unemployment rate […]
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Volunteers offer short-term foster care for families in crisis
Nothing matters more to Stephanie Murphy than her girls. So when the single Holland mother of three had a medical crisis in 2011, she felt backed into a corner. Her oldest, Alexis Borgman, then 13, could stay with her father, who had visitation rights. But she feared that her other two daughters — Aaliyah and […]
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Michigan’s STD belt: It’s not what you think
(Bridge illustration/A.J. Jones) A line of Michigan counties, stretching along Interstate 94 from the Detroit River west to Lake Michigan, carries a dubious distinction: some of the highest rates of a sexually transmitted disease in the Great Lakes State. This phenomenon – an (un)chastity belt, if you will – is not, however, the result of […]
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Living on right side of county line means more life, better health
(Bridge illustration/A.J. Jones) Zack Conley and Mike Sannan live on opposite sides of Rawsonville Road, a noisy strip of pavement separating Wayne and Washtenaw counties. Both men have access to some of the best hospitals in the state. Yet Sannan is almost twice as likely to be in poor or fair health. As a Wayne […]