I noticed small blue plaques started popping up on light poles across the city. Many of them had dates from the early 1900s, so I wondered what the source was. There is a large effort to track and map “officer down” memorials. COVID-19 became a leading cause of death for police officers across the country during the pandemic. This site keeps a record of the locations and circumstances as well as the chronic disease causes of death of officers.
The memorials appear to cluster in the Downtown area likely due to the higher rates of crime Downtown and the historical nature of the memorials (back to 1883) showing more officers killed when the city was much smaller than it is today.
A new report from Southwest Detroit Business Association (SDBA), LISC, and Detroit Future City explores the creation of an “industrial district” in Southwest Detroit. There are a high number of industrial sites and a significant number of jobs located in the area. The goal of the study and report was to set a path towards equitable economic development.
This study is focused on the industrially zoned properties that include and surround the Clark Street Technology Park. The study area is roughly bounded by Michigan Avenue, Livernois, Vernor Highway and I-96/I-75. The industrial properties and their adjacent residential neighborhoods are primarily contained within four census tracts: 5213, 5231, 5255, and 5256 (2010 Census boundaries).
The UM Poverty Solutions team conducted an extensive mapping of internet access points and related indicators to present a comprehensive view of the “digitaldivide” in Detroit. I found the list of “internet access” sites very interesting and clearly more dense Downtown and Midtown.
It’s hard to keep up with all the development that is happening in Detroit. Developers send out press releases all the time, buildings get tax incentives for redevelopment, City Council approves use change, Planning Commission has hearings on zoning changes – there is all too much to keep track of when it comes to “large-scale and commercial” development. The new Detroit Development Tracker from Detour Detroit seeks to do just that – with the support of the community (so be sure to send your tips!).
It’s not surprising to see the majority of development projects happening in the “Greater Downtown” area with limited development elsewhere in the city.
A new report digs into supportive loan programs in Detroit when mortgage loans are nearly impossible to secure from lenders. Upwards of 80% of home sales in Downtown and Midtown are accomplished with a mortgage, but almost everywhere else in the city the percent of sales with a mortgage are 20% or less. The Down Payment Assistance (DPA) program from MSHDA made just 3% of its loans in Detroit.
The Washington Post analyzed 2021 home sales by ZIP code in the top 40 metropolitan markets. Detroit falls within the top 10 with investors buying a high percentage of homes. There is extensive “investor” activity across the city. We’ve been tracking this issue with Property Praxis investigating speculative land buyers since 2016. This is a concerning trend that appears to have only continued during the pandemic.
From Develop Detroit CEO Sonya Mays:
For example, in 48238 (Russell Woods to Fitzgerald) investors bought 69% of homes in 2021!!! Honestly, I can’t make much sense of this – I assume that the Land Bank activities drive some portion of this outcome and I assume that overall home sales in this zip are relatively low. I was well aware that this activity was going on across Detroit, but did not anticipate this scale. I have so many questions.
Somehow I’ve never shared this hand drawn beauty of a map from the DPL Digital Collections. The note on the map reads:
“A new map inscribed to H. Heward Esq., Governor of Ft. Charteres in the Mississipy by C. Smyth, geographer to himself, 1793. A plan of the Detroit River from Presque Isle to Gross Isle [sic] with part of River au Canard by C. Smyth.”
Fort Lernault is the most prominent Detroit point of interest. Hog Island and the Grand Marais (spelled Grand Maree on the map) are accompanied by the long “gardens” that we know well as ribbon farms of settler Detroit. In what is Southwest Detroit today there is an interesting assortment of places including: Macomb’s rabbit warren, deer park, and Askins Mill and Baby Mill.o
Most people probably don’t know that there is a scooter deployment dashboard because the City of Detroit tried to enforce an equitable distribution of scooters beyond Downtown. Needless to say scooter activity is heavily focused in the Greater Greater Downtown area.
Scooter companies have flocked to Detroit unlike bikeshare where one provider has ruled the streets. There are now a total of 5 different scooter companies operating in Detroit.
I hear this question all the time, sometimes it is a vulgarity thrown at suburban businesses using “Detroit” in their name to profit from the city. The data show that truly the majority of places and businesses using “Detroit” in their name are located within the city limits. The concentration is Downtown with widespread use in Northwest Detroit.
Data from the Places API shows that Southfield is the number one suburb using the “Detroit” name. This was the result expected from my “100 Maps of Detroit” where many national corporations locate their “Detroit office” in the Southfield Civic Center area.
Top 5 “Detroit” Suburbs
Southfield
Warren
Ferndale
Troy
Royal Oak
UPDATE 02/15/22: Based on some comments here is the “Motor City” spread
In searching for maps about street numbering, I came across this interesting map from the UM Clark Library. It’s a historical map that I hadn’t seen before and it reminded me that most old maps focused on displaying street numbers and indexes so that people could find locations and navigate the city.
There aren’t many maps from 1912 (here’s another on children’s recreation) when Detroit was quite an odd shape after stabilizing from earlier annexation activity in the early 1900s. I particularly enjoy the color scheme that is used to denote the different Wards of the city.
The City of Detroit has been slowly attempting to tackle the high rate of pedestrian deaths by motor vehicles. The speed humps have been a big part of reducing speeding along with road diets on major arterial roadways like Gratiot and Grand River in collaboration with MDOT. “Slow Streets” are the next major effort:
“A slow street is a residential street with some form of traffic calming, such as speed cushions and signage to help you access key destinations such as parks and schools within your neighborhood.”
Once described as “delightfully pointless” to map, the patterns and variations of street numbering across US and international cities continues to spark curiosity. Examples range from numbering systems by street in Berlin, Germany, to city-county numbering in Hamilton County, OH, and even typographic font choice in Arlington, VA. Lots of fun maps exist, but all house numbering has to do with taxation.
In Detroit, all streets were renumbered in 1920. Effective on January 1, 1921 the numbering scheme that is used today in Detroit remains, however you can still see the remnants of Detroit’s past urban planning and development efforts. The historic city center and areas along the riverfront retain the lowest numbers along with the oldest streets that run North-South. Detroit annexation expanded the land area of the city as well as the dominance of East-West streets. Much of the purple falls below Harper Avenue while everything in yellow is above McNichols/Six Mile.
In Detroit the roadways make a broad web of noise that is unavoidable across the city, but the airports – even City Airport generates a larger volume of noise across more of the city and region. Willow Run also highlights in Western Wayne County.
The majority of Detroit is usually categorized as “hard to count.” Due to the on-going interference with the Census and the reduction of in-person door-to-door work because of the pandemic, not much changed. The areas known for low response rates still had low response rates. The city only hit an overall 51% response rate.
Detroit is no doubt full of frightening happenings and the spirits of countless souls long past. There are likely many numerous haunted sites in the city, but there are a handful that regularly come back to haunt the headlines and click-bait lists around this time of year. Some of the more notable ghost sightings include:
The Whitney – The now elegant restaurant has a Ghost Bar on the top floor. Numerous staff and customers have mentioned seeing ghosts everywhere!
Old City Cemetery – the Eastern Market office is located on the site of the old House of Corrections and most likely the gravel parking lot is the site of the Old City Cemetery. I have no idea if graves were moved or what happened before or after.
St. Aubin Street Massacre – In the 1920s a family of six were hacked to death and the case was never solved.
Stevens T. Mason Monument – The remains of the Governor of Michigan (1835-1840) were entombed under the monument. However, during the Capitol Park renovations, the remains were not found under the monument, but a number of yards away.
Alhambra Apartments – Today the apartment building are scary because the Ilitches have mothballed and painted the whole building blood red. The history is that in 1905, Rose Barron allegedly poisoned 40 families, killing two people with arsenic biscuits.
Elmwood Cemetery – No surprise that a cemetery has ghosts. The cemetery was also the site of the Bloody Run ambush of British soldier by Chief Pontiac. The soldiers’ blood ran into the creek turning it red.
DETROITography 
