Counties across Michigan profit from selling foreclosed homes and charging fees on back taxes to down-and-out residents. No place does it more than Wayne County.
Urban Affairs
In-depth reporting on Michigan’s largest city and surrounding communities, including deep dives into the big changes afoot in Detroit, its schools, neighborhoods, institutions and city hall.
Posted inUrban Affairs
One envelope holds her fate. Is she getting deported today?
A Michigan woman brings hope and a duffel bag to the airport on what could be her last day in only country she’s known since she was a baby.
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The future of small business outside Detroit’s bustling downtown is uncertain
It’s not only the residents who continue to struggle in the city’s vast, impoverished neighborhoods. Small stores are barely hanging on.
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The Detroit uprising: 50 years later
July 22, 1967 – It’s been 50 years since the uprising
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The backdoor voucher: How a Detroit school created to lift up a 'Christ-centered culture' found a way to get public dollars
Cornerstone Schools recently announced that its flagship K-8 school would become a charter this fall. It would keep the same staff and curriculum, but would now be able to collect taxpayer money.
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How to cash in on a crappy home. Step one: Find a sucker to sign a land contract.
Left for dead in the 1970s, lending through (often predatory) land contracts is back with a vengeance in Michigan and Rust Belt cities after the mortgage meltdown.
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More showings added for documentary on ‘67 Detroit uprisings
The documentary, produced by the Detroit Free Press in partnership with Bridge Magazine is selling out fast. A Bridge/DJC book examining the violence that shook Detroit 50 years ago is available now.
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On the Detroit River, a faded dream at a city-owned marina
An African-American businessman dreamed of a place where people of color could live and boat on the river, in the shadow of high-rise luxury. It never happened.
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Mom has sick husband, baby – and looming deportation to ‘home’ she’s never known
The past and new immigration policies catch up to a woman who must soon leave United States – and her family.
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There’s a lot riding on Detroit’s new QLINE streetcar
To break even, streetcar must be more than a millennial mover or party tram for sports fans, experts say.