A failed industrial zone is cleared out and buffed up for market sale.
Detroit Journalism Cooperative
Posted inUrban Affairs
Restoring a faded palace
The Forest Arms, the grande dame of apartments in Detroit’s Midtown, is being reborn from its burned-out grave. At age 109, there is much work to be done. But geothermal wells?
Posted inUrban Affairs
Border crossing – the long, fraught history of the Detroit-Grosse Pointe divide
The sudden closing this summer of a road leading from Detroit into Grosse Pointe Park reignited accusations that Detroit’s largely African-American and poor population was not welcome. Residents on both sides are pushing for change.
Posted inMichigan Government
GOP hunts votes in the D
The Republican National Committee opened an African-American engagement office in overwhelmingly Democratic Detroit. Early returns are a bit fuzzy.
Posted inMichigan Government
Regular Detroiters get their day in bankruptcy court
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes gave 15 ordinary Detroit retirees, appearing without lawyers, an opportunity to appear at the city’s bankruptcy trial to voice their objection to the restructuring plan.
Posted inUrban Affairs
In a gentrifying Detroit, an uneasy migration of urban millennials
Is gentrification a bad thing? Is it even happening downtown? The answers depend on your perspective, and perhaps your bank account.
Posted inUrban Affairs
You can’t spell gentrification without gentry
What is this thing called gentrification – displacement or improvement?
Posted inUrban Affairs
Detroit newcomers get tax credits, old timers get water shutoffs
It is impossible to accept that the lives of Detroiters and newcomers are equal when the majority of the city’s African-American population are experiencing a quality of life so low that the United Nations is speaking up.
Posted inUrban Affairs
Bolting the ‘burbs for the thrill of Detroit
Yes, the infusion of new money, new faces and new business to downtown Detroit is good for the city.
Posted inUrban Affairs
Detroit fire union drops 50-year battle to keep seniority-only promotions
The DFD’s current system is 128 years old and resisted change for decades, but bankruptcy was able to overturn what the city’s mayors couldn’t.