A look back at our most impactful Detroit stories of 2019

She was born to fight – and did for 3 years without water in Detroit
Fayette Coleman lived for years in one of more than 100,000 homes whose water service was shut since Detroit began its crackdown on delinquency. Tough as nails, her problems didn’t start with the shutoff or end when service was finally restored. 

Thanks for making Detroit cool, artists. Here’s your eviction.
Allied Media works to “remediate the impact of gentrification” in a city confronting it daily. It came under fire for buying a well-known studio space for artists and initiating a mass eviction of tenants.

The University of Michigan invested big in Detroit. Now come the evictions.
The University of Michigan endowment invested $30 million in a group buying property in Detroit. The group’s methods, which included buying more than 100 homes at tax foreclosure auctions and evicting some tenants, drew controversy.

Whites get half of mortgages in Detroit, nation’s largest majority black city
Home loans are heating up in Detroit after years of a frigid lending market, but a majority of loan dollars now go to whites, who comprise just over 10 percent of the population. African-Americans, who still make up fourth-fifths of the city, are now far more likely to buy homes in the suburbs than Detroit.

Down for so long, can Detroit remember how to include neighbors in growth?
Detroit is booming, but decades of decline, disinvestment and policy changes have left the city with few robust neighborhood-based development groups and given City Hall an outsized influence in shaping Motown’s comeback. A look at how the process is playing out in the Corktown neighborhood.