Author Archives: Alex B. Hill

Map: Living New Deal in Detroit

New Deal projects touched nearly every corner of the United States. From 1933 to 1942 hundreds of thousands of projects modernized our country and many are still in use today; roads, schools, theaters, libraries, hospitals, post offices, courthouses, airports, parks, forests, gardens, and artworks were created in a single decade.

The Living New Deal’s purpose is to make that enduring legacy visible. Our team is building a national database of information, documents, photographs, and personal stories about the public works made possible by the New Deal. And it is all just a click away on our national map of New Deal sites. The late California historian and State Librarian, Kevin Starr, likened the Living New Deal to a WPA project from the 1930s in its ambition and scope.

Check out the Living New Deal map

Map: The Eviction Machine in Detroit 2019 – 2022

Linked to the foreclosure crisis, and the $600 million tax over-assessments, the scourge of eviction in Detroit can be found in every corner of the city.

Colleagues have found this process, the eviction machine, to be a business model used by many nefarious actors in Detroit to generate profit. Nine in ten evictions that took place during the pandemic were at properties that were not up to code. Rental properties in Detroit have long existed in a kind of vacuum where the city was unable to consider or maintain enforcement of health and safety standards. The old axiom that “possession is none-tenths of the law” follows the legal process of eviction where the court expedites “summary proceedings,” prioritizing the landlords claim of ownership.

The Eviction Machine project catalogues data from the 35th District Court’s online Register of Actions system, which are then linked to City Assessor data and Certificate of Compliance data in Detroit’s Open Data Portal.

Use the data tools and learn more: https://www.evictionmachine.org

Map: Detroit Public Schools Facility Master Plan 2022

This map is … something. It’s hard to follow the various dotted lines and arrows – maybe better serves as a metaphor for how confused parents are feeling about the proposed changes.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) is planning for widespread renovations, a number of closures and what appear to be consolidations, and a few demolitions. The master plan includes building 5 new schools, but its unclear at what cost as 4/6 of the demolitions are estimated to cost over $1 million each.

Map: Detroit Tube System 1926

“Detroit is at a critical transit period. It must add rapid transit to its city transit agencies. It is best to begin right.” – City Planning Commission (Free Press, Tube system planned to serve 92 per cent of workers, August 18, 1926, page 8)

Well, we missed our critical moment to add rapid transit to the city. Rooting for rapid transit in Detroit is like rooting for the Lions. Voters approved rapid transit plans twice (see also Woodward Ave Subway 1915), but the financing could never be figured out. A story we’ve heard before in this region.

The report generated in 1926 proposed underground passageways, but was not a true subway rather a “tunnelway” system. The plan outlined in the map presents 4 mostly underground 2-way rapid transit lines. A Detroit subway will just have to live in fantasy, after fantasy, after fantasy, after…

Map: Detroit’s Historic Buildings, Places and Landmarks

The HistoricDetroit.org site by Dan Austin is an internet gem. I was so glad to wander back and find he’s added a map function to search for historic buildings by location. There is a strong focus on the urban core to the historic building locations, but that follows the city’s growth and development. Indian Village on the city’s Eastside is the other dense segment of historic building lore.

Map: Detroit Eviction Cases Filed in 2017

Stout, a recognized leader in civil legal aid, was commissioned a $1 million study the economic impact of evictions by the Rocket Community Fund, the philanthropic arm of Rocket Companies. Stout analyzed 30,000 evictions in 2017 from the 36th District Court and found 4% of tenants had representation compared to 83% of landlords. Stout estimates an overall $58.8 million cost saving and economic benefit from implementing the “right to counsel” program for Detroit.

The map include in the report highlights that eviction case filings are uneven across the city and it is well known that many unofficial evictions take place that never get filed with the court.

Event: Friends of Novi Library Kaleidoscope Program: Detroit in 50 Maps

WHEN: Wednesday, May 18th @ 7pm

WHERE: Novi Library

WHAT: Kaleidoscope Speaker Series

Alex B. Hill creates maps that reveal so much more about Detroit, a city in transition, than typical street maps, tour guides or headline news could ever do. His blog, DETROITography.com, uses maps to illustrate concerns and accomplishments of the city’s residents and businesses. An anthropologist and a self-described “data nerd,” Hill will be presenting a program you won’t want to miss!

RSVP: Event Link

Interactive Detroit Bike and Trail Map

The Detroit Greenways Coalition has a new interactive bike map that compliments the print version they published a few years ago. Todd Scott has been leading on bicycle data collection, adding bike lanes to Google Maps, and sharing bicycle information for over a decade.

Click to view the interactive map

Map: Detroit’s Original Chinatown

Parking lots. As is the Detroit and Downtown way, much of the city’s cultural heritage was razed for car infrastructure – be it freeways or parking lots.

The discussion of Chinatown in Detroit is usually limited to the decorative marker at Cass and Peterboro that disappeared and then a new one was installed reminding us that Chinatown once existed. However, the Chinatown we think we know was a failed attempt at relocation after the original Chinatown was condemned and demolished for the Lodge Freeway project.

I had always heard or been told that the original Chinatown was at the intersection of Third and Michigan Ave and/or the site of the MGM Grand Casino. After some digging into the photo archives at the Reuther Library and combing through Sanborn Digital Maps, I was able to locate the original locations of the Chinese Cultural Building and the famed Chung’s Chop Suey.

There should, in the least, be a historic marker on the lawn of the Detroit Public Safety HQ to mark Detroit’s original Chinatown.

Map: Detroit Daffodils 2022

Slow news day. On Friday, the City released a news brief about the 2 million daffodils planted by City teams in time for summer. The reason we get excited is they also have a map!

The real question is: where is the daffodil data on the open data portal?

HT @polarbarrett

Map: Redlining compared to Social Vulnerability in Detroit

The Mapping Inequality project that has been cataloging “redlining” maps from the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) and completed this incredible project to match the mortgage security grading with the present day CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI).

The focus on redlining is often over emphasized and this analysis shows how the “yellow” graded areas (yellow-lined) experienced the most change. Many yellow areas (outside of Detroit) became green with very low SVI as well as the majority of yellow graded areas within Detroit became red with very high SVI.

Map: Michigan Environmental Justice Percentiles in Detroit

The Office of the Environmental Justice Public Advocate at EGLE has released an extensive and comprehensive interactive mapping tool that explores environmental justice related datasets for Michigan. The project is in draft form and currently open for feedback.

As many of these project show, Detroit is at an extreme disadvantage compared to its neighbors and compared to the rest of the state. Environmental effects, environmental exposure, sensitive populations (asthma, blood lead levels, etc.), and socioeconomic factors all are more heavily weighted in Detroit.

Map: Ultimate Detroit Taco Map

Hands down, Southwest Detroit is the absolute best, most dense, most authentic place to eat tacos.

Tacos originated from Mexico and, like many types of cultural food, has been shared across the country by peoples who have chosen to live in various communities in the US. Thankfully, Detroit is one such location. The Corktown area was well known for its growing Mexican-American population as early as the 1930s (See Mexicans of Detroit, 1979). However, recent reporting has noted the movement “Downriver” of Detroit’s Latino community, which you can see in the cluster of taco restaurants in Allen Park and Lincoln Park on the map.

This map pulls from common “point of interest” datasets, including Safegraph POI, verification using Google Places, and cross-checking with data from alltheplaces.xyz.

The map includes places with:

  • “Taco” or “taqueria” in the name
  • “Mexican” in the name
  • “El ” or “Los ” in the name (excluding churches and doctors offices, i.e. El Bethel and El Sayid)

Some taco trucks made it in the list, but its likely that some did not without a fixed location. What stood out most from the data was the ubiquity of taco chains in the metro area outside of Detroit while the local, authentic tacos are best found in Southwest Detroit.

Map: Officer Down Memorials in Detroit

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.

Map: Southwest Detroit Industrial District 2021

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).

Event: Mapping Whose Detroit?

WHEN: Thursday, March 31st @ 4pm

WHERE: Clark Library, University of Michigan (in-person + virtual)

WHAT: Mapping Whose Detroit?

A talk on the topic of counter-mapping, including maps from the book, Detroit in 50 Maps. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

RSVP: Event Link

Map: Detroit Development Tracker

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.

Map: Uneven Proposal N and MSHDA Loans in Detroit

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.

Read more from the report: LINK