This map in the American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee was created by the City of Detroit Department of Report and Information Committee. It’s always interesting to see maps that note the planned expressways. Beyond the city limits the expressways get very curvy and ephemeral.
The route that we would recognize today as the Lodge Freeway is labeled here as I-696 heading from Downtown to Northwest Detroit. Woodward Avenue still had the M-10 designation. The dashed line for the I-94 addition to the West took a bit of a different direction.
I stumbled across this 1995 HUD plan from when the Planning and Development Department was still on the 23rd floor of Cadillac Tower. I can’t figure out why the Detroit Receiving Hospital is not called out as a point of interest, but enjoy seeing many of the community hospitals marked.
From the report:
The City of Detroit’s Consolidated Plan includes a one-year Action Plan for the expenditure of $56,584,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, $ 14,105,000 in HOME funds, $2,163,000 in Emergency Shelter Grant funds and $1,207,000 in HOPWA funds.
Anti-Poverty Strategy
Detroit has a poverty rate of over 32 percent. It’s unemployment rate, expected to be 11.6 percent in 1995, is nearly double the state and national rates. As a means of reducing and preventing poverty, the City assigns highest priority to attaining full employment for its residents, with special attention given to those with low skills and other special needs. All major development is assessed for maximum potential for temporary and permanent job retention and creation. The City’s community and economic development activities all have the goal of improving the availability of employment and/or access to employment. The City will continue to follow this policy as the major means of combatting poverty. It is realized that training and re-training in many cases are the primary means for equipping persons out of work with the skills to take jobs which become available in the current and future work place.
I’ve been asked many times over the years where all the pools are in Detroit. It is a tough question that I’ve tried to crack with aerial imagery, but that was too tedious. Recently, the Swimply site has been popping up in ads this summer and I wondered if this was a useful proxy for pool availability. Swimply let’s you list your pool or other backyard amenities for rent similar to AirBnB except that no one stays the night. Pool rates range from $25/hr to $150/hr including options in Windsor.
The only pool listed in Detroit proper is an above ground pool that can host up to 50 guests although I’m not sure that many people would fit inside the pool listed.
Detroit is a city of change even though we often seem relatively steadfast or even stagnant. I first mapped “business rings” of Detroit in 2014 and largely concluded they were empty except for national fast food chains. Now, 10 years later, I wanted to explore what has changed and what has remained the same related to the presence of national brands’ footprints in Detroit.
Retail
Downtown has benefited the most from significant investment, redevelopment, historic preservation, and large scale new construction. The new development brought in retailers like H&M, Lululemon, and even Gucci. Amazon did not select Detroit for their HQ2 location after a concerted effort by city elites, but the company did build a distribution facility on the old State Fairgrounds as well as a distribution center Downtown. In Detroit’s neighborhoods, key retailers like convenience stores, dollar stores, and pharmacies all had fits and starts and closures. Convenience stores and pharmacies closed many locations leaving even more limited retail options for Detroiters. Meijer opened up two additional locations in the city while independent grocers have been on a steady decline. Other regional retail loses included the closure of Eastland Mall (Macy’s, Target) and the Bed, Bath, and Beyond bankruptcy.
Manufacturing
The Poletown Plant nearly closed before being converted into Factory Zero to produce electric vehicles, but otherwise car building is still quite limited in Detroit. Other kinds of manufacturing have seen an increase in the city at corporations like Dakkota, Flex N’ Gate, and LEAR expanding operations into Detroit. Supposedly a large electric battery plant is coming to the city as well. The locations mapped are based on the 2024 Crains Detroit list of top Michigan manufacturers.
Banks
In the last decade, there has been a significant amount of bank consolidation. TCF Bank bought Chemical Bank and then the combined bank was bought by Huntington Bank. Compared to 2014, there are just 25% of bank branch locations left. Fifth Third Bank has kept an office Downtown and Huntington Bank also built a headquarters in Detroit and retains the naming rights for what most know as Cobo Hall.
Fast Food
Oddly, fast food in Detroit has had an reduction largely related to a Burger King franchisee losing their franchise agreement. There are empty and burned out Burger King locations across the city now compared to 2014. Other fast food hasn’t expanded much in Detroit, but regionally Chick-fil-A has been expanding.
This 1931 Detroit Street Railways transportation map from the digital collections at the American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries is a beauty.
Can we bring back the bus route through the center of Belle Isle?
I’ve been cataloging maps in various archives and collections to get a comprehensive picture of Detroit’s cartographic history. In the Fall, efforts will be going full force to georeference as many maps as we can to analyze the city through history.
Check this map out on AllMaps, a platform to georeference any map from any institution that supports IIIF.
This University of Michigan team explored the repeat flooding within specific Detroit neighborhoods and the social determinants of health. The bright red clusters are areas of greatest concern. Notably, flooding is not limited to areas near the Detroit River, but is experienced frequently in multiple areas.
“Hot and cold spots of flooding using the Getis-Ord Gi* statistic. Red dots represent “hot” spots, or locations of statistically significant clusters of homes that experienced flooding. Blue does represent clusters of homes that reported not experiencing flooding.”
What a day, a long, hot, sad day. Detroit loves to roll out the welcome mat for major events for visitors Downtown, but closed down numerous city parks along the entire roughly 10 miles of Detroit coastline from Riverside Park in Southwest to Mariner Park at the Grosse Pointes border. Detroit limited viewing areas to Spirit Plaza and Hart Plaza downtown while Belle Isle was limited to capacity that could fit into the old Grand Prix paddock parking area. Belle Isle opened at 2pm to cars and hit capacity at 6pm. The space limitation was for vehicles so you could travel anywhere on the island on foot or bike, but I assume more people stuck to the Sunset Point area for viewing.
Meanwhile, the City of Windsor across the river with all riverfront parks open, 34 restaurant patios, ran a free shuttle for people to park at a nearby mall and get to the downtown parks. The city closed off downtown roadways as well for everyone to enjoy the Ford fireworks. The Detroit to Windsor juxtaposition is tough, they aren’t the same cities or population sizes, but the optics are mindbogglingly painful. One Detroiter even noted that they purchase a hotel room in Windsor for the fireworks every year because the experience is so much nicer across the river.
There have been close to 300 different indices created to measure demographics, health equity, and opportunity over the last decade. Nearly all of those indices rely on Census data, specifically 6 key indicators are used across many indices. The University of Chicago Mansueto Institute has create an index based on the UNDP’s Human Development Index for “communities” across the US and world.
More from UChicago:
“The Community Human Development Index is a way of measuring human development at the community level, with the potential for helping neighborhoods and societies address disadvantage. The human development index (HDI) is a statistic that represents a composite of educational attainment, life expectancy, and gross income, and is considered the gold standard measure of human development. It was developed by Indian economist and philosopher Amartya Sen and researchers at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to measure “human capabilities”, the extent to which a person in a specific context can pursue their happiness. It is, in the words of UNDP, a measure of “a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable, and having a decent standard of living.” HDI has been used to compare nations, but until the Community Human Development Index, it hasn’t been used to compare cities or local communities, because the statistic had not been calculated at the neighborhood level.”
DTE Energy is again requesting a $450 million rate increase just four months after being approved for a $368 million rate increase.
“DTE is following their usual playbook, incessant and oppressive rate hike requests not grounded in reality, but rather based on the financial aspirations of their corporate shareholders.” – Dana Nessel, Attorney General
The absurdity of DTE rate increases follows a trend since 2015 of increasing rates by $1.1 billion. Yet, there is an even more absurd action taken by the power-hungry energy monopoly, selling debt. Outlier Media found in 2022 that DTE sold $282 million in debt from almost 300,000 customers for just $4.8 million to Jefferson Capital Systems.
Michigan has some of the most lacks rules around wage garnishment for debt collection so companies like Jefferson Capital bulk submit debt cases to the courts and receive default judgements which automatically starts taking funds from someone’s paycheck. Two out of three Detroiters were found to have some kind of debt in collections in 2016 and UM Poverty Solutions found 56% of Detroiters are financially insecure.
The data on this map was scraped from the 36th District Court listings of debt collection cases.
WHERE: Next Chapter Books, 16555 E. Warren, Detroit, MI 48224
WHAT: Join us to hear Alex B. Hill discuss all things Detroit and Maps!
We are excited to host Alex, who will present from his popular book, Detroit in 50 Maps. Alex is the Director of Data and Community Research for Detroit at Work, an adjunct professor at Wayne State University and the lead cartographer of DETROITography.
A project idea that has been in the works for just shy of a decade was finally made real by the team at JustAir and the Wayne County government. While I worked at the Detroit Health Department I worked on conceptualizing and then managing an effort to create an air quality sensor network that could provide neighborhood-level updates on air quality. The issue was that EPA and EGLE monitors were too few and far in-between to truly know what your air quality was on the Lower Eastside or Far Westside of the city, especially if you were trying to manage asthma or other respiratory diseases.
In Detroit we called it D-REACT, but only implemented an asthma medication monitoring project where the greatest outcome was pediatrician education about asthma medications necessary and covered by Medicaid. We also were able to implement the Air Quality Sensor Learning Collaborative, now convened by the Ecology Center who has been able to train and support numerous community organizations with low-cost, air quality sensors.
I’m so excited for the JustAir efforts and look forward to seeing this network have big impacts in Detroit and across Wayne County.
The Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) now known as Movement Detroit brings tens of thousands of people from around the world to the birthplace of techno. Many people think of the music festival as a limited series of performance stages in Hart Plaza downtown, but the festival sparks events, parties, and other interactions across the city.
This map would be impossible without the excellent compiling by @gin.ebony, hat tip to Violet Ikonomova for sharing the linked Google Sheet of all 845 events with 696 performers. Outside of Hart Plaza the top locations are:
Marble Bar (62)
Spot Lite (54)
Tangent Gallery (54)
TV Lounge (50)
City Club (49)
Lincoln Factory (47)
Motor City Wine (46)
This map and data update wouldn’t be complete without pouring one out for Temple Bar, a staple of the Detroit music and nightlife scene. Before Movement Detroit a sinkhole formed in the road out front and the following day, the roof of Temple Bar caved in. As far as I know the first night of performers at Temple Bar had to be canceled, hopefully others were able to relocate their shows.
Detroit is the birthplace of techno. We are the heart of the Motown sound. The city is a bastion of jazz, R&B, soul, rock and roll, and hip hop. You can’t have music without Detroit.
WHERE: Andiamo Detroit Riverfront, 400 Renaissance Center
WHAT: Join a fun and informative walk through the city with Cities Reimagined and Detroit native Kelsey Hubbell. This walk is a great opportunity to explore Detroit through the lens of urbanist hero Jane Jacobs, and learn about how we can make our cities better places to live. Whether you’re an urban enthusiast or just looking for a casual stroll, this walk is for you!
Tracking and mapping coffee shops is becoming an annual activity. The demand to know where to get caffeinated is so high and the turnover has a breakneck pace. Regardless, Detroit now has 100 spots to find coffee!
Since last year there have been 11 closures including 3 Starbucks locations and 3 more Tim Hortons (after 6 others previously closed), 2 locations on a break (Detroit Sip and Encarnacion). Closures included the hyped Haraz Coffee opening in Midtown. Building issues seemed to be what pushed them to move on, but another specialty Yemeni coffee shop is already staffing up. New York based, Moka & Co. is prepping the space and now hiring. The Midtown Starbucks site is being picked up by Qargo Coffee which has a number of locations in Florida, Texas, and California.
There are 18 new coffee shops, including unique offerings like Moon Dog Cafe, startup brick-and-mortar at Mission Cafe (coffee only on Wednesdays), the rebirth of the former Avalon International Breads as a second Kitab location, or blending books and coffee at Eastside Roasterz adjacent to Next Chapter Books. In the chain coffee category Dunkin has recently exploded and added multiple locations. The Detroit Coffee Club is also an exciting new addition where pop-up espresso coffee is offered at non-cafe locations like Dyno Climbing Gym, Beaverland Farms, and Two Birds.
One of the most important questions I’m always asked about these coffee locations is how early and how late are they open. If you are an early bird, there are 27 options open by 6AM and another 25 open by 7AM. By 8AM over 75% of all coffee locations are open and serving hot coffee.
Coffee spots are harder to find if you want your coffee late into the evening. Most locations close either at 3PM or 8PM. By 6PM, 60% of coffee locations are closed and by 8PM over 80% are closed. There are only two coffee spots open until midnight and two open until 2AM.
Future coffee spots that I’m are watching include Detroit Rosa’s second location in the Water Square Hotel, Sepia Coffee Project’s brick-and-mortar in Highland Park, and Haraz Coffee’s Corktown location opening.
I had a great time collaborating with Laura Herberg, civic reporter for Outlier Media, on examining the change in chain pharmacy locations in the city. I’ve mostly tracked pharmacies and convenience stores like CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens as they are often a secondary food retail access point preferred by Detroiters. Many of these locations have converted over the last decade into dollar stores, which have their own issues and generally suppress grocery opportunities.
Check out the slider below to compare 2017 locations with 2024 locations.
Detroitography put together maps for Outlier Media that show current and closed locations. While the number of CVS and Rite Aid stores declined, the number of Walgreens locations increased after the chain opened a small, pharmacy-only shop on Woodward Avenue and three pharmacies inside hospitals.
WHAT: Book Suey is excited to host a talk by urban planner and commentator Idrees Mutahr on how the Detroit economy influenced the thinking and writing of celebrated urbanist Jane Jacobs. The presentation will be followed by a “Jane’s Walk” around Hamtramck to explore these ideas in the real world.
Detroit has made substantial investments into its parks, secured funding for a city loop greenway, and fostered partnerships to improve amenities. This map shows off a number of neighborhoods where access to greenspace is plentiful, but nearby cities like Dearborn, Hamtramck, and Downtown Detroit are lacking. Northwest Detroit is a the main standout in Detroit where improvements could be made. The Lodge cuts through some very densely populated neighborhoods and most parks in the area are relatively small.
Using satellite imagery and data on dozens of factors — including air and noise pollution, park space, open water and tree canopy — NatureQuant has distilled the elements of health-supporting nature into a single variable called NatureScore. Aggregated to the level of Census tracts — roughly the size of a neighborhood — the data provide a high-resolution image of where nature is abundant and where it is lacking across the United States.
When the Detroit Free Press published their extensive PDF list of FOIAed disclosure statements from City of Detroit senior employees, Directors, Deputy Directors, Chiefs, and similar senior roles, I was fascinated by how little information was included in those disclosures as well as the wide range of regional home addresses.
I present here and close the case for regional transit. The residence furthest South was in Dayton, OH (or Parkland, FL if you count second properties), the furthest North was in Grand Blanc, MI, and the furthest West was in Eaton Rapids, MI. If this is the spread where executive leadership comes from then just imagine where the full roster of staff resides.
In total 41% of senior staff live in the City of Detroit, clustered in the University District, Palmer Woods, Sherwood Forest area.
Detroiters and non-Detroiters alike will never stop fantasizing about having a robust and connected rapid transit system. These transit fantasy maps are often trailed by comments of “what’s the point” or “we’re never gunna have that,” but why stop dreaming? and planning? and connecting?
WHEN: Tuesday, April 30th at 6pm
WHERE: North End Taproom, 111 S. Main, Royal Oak
WHAT: Meet others who fantasize about regional transit, look at cool maps, make your own map of the people mover expansion!
DETROITography 