Happy GIS Day Detroit!

Posted on November 19, 2014

There is a critical gap in the utilization of GIS software for community mapping, planning, and visioning in Detroit’s communities. Every library should have access to Detroit datasets and their computers should host free and open source software (FOSS), especially QGIS!

Recent data has demonstrated that 40% of Detroiters do not have access to the internet which makes online and digital map driven solutions suspect in the assessment of impact. The Detroit Digital Stewards and Detroit Digital Justice League are working to implement community-based internet access solutions.

#Maptime hopes to be able to build community knowledge and skills around GIS. Is your community group interested in hosting a mini-workshop? Fill out the form below!

Map: Detroit Crime Increases 1963

Posted on November 17, 2014

This map (unsure of source) shows change in crime rates by police precincts. The “bloody tenth” is circled. This is the same area where the 1967 civil disturbance started and likely demonstrates both the increase in crime and the increasing discontent with treatment at the hands of the police.

Map: One-Way Streets in Downtown Detroit

Posted on November 10, 2014

From the I-375 Alternatives Study, this map gives a good look at how confusing driving Downtown can often be. The direction of traffic was determined decades ago when Detroit was busting at the seems with jobs and population. Now perhaps these directional streets are just more of a nuisance? Additionally, the historic street grid Downtown has been discombobulated as a result of expressway construction and you are often unable to follow particular streets through to different areas of the city without running into a dead-end at an expressway.

Map: The Empty Business Rings of Detroit

Posted on November 8, 2014

I began five years ago looking intensely at the grocery store conundrum in Detroit. There were handfuls of academic writings and news articles about how national and chain grocers abandoned the inner city, in Detroit and other notable cities. This abandoning of the urban core is a phenomena is best understood in terms of chain supermarkets, but the practice and theory applies to many other retailers and business types too. It is also important to look at what kinds of businesses have stayed or expanded in the same space.

Retail

Detroit completely lost its Downtown commercial retail businesses in the half century decline of the city. The commercial core never recovered and even Hudson’s largest department store was torn down. The process of building a series of suburban malls followed the new city planning trend and places like Northland Mall, Southland Mall, and Oakland Mall sprang up. Grocery retail has seen the only real return with Whole Foods building in Midtown and Meijer opening on 8 Mile. The only other national retail chain within the city limits is Home Depot.

The list of the Top 100 Retailers was utilized, including:

T.J. Maxx
Gap
Macy’s
Kohl’s
Walmart
Costco
Target
Kroger
Meijer
Whole Foods

The retailers that have remained in Detroit (and expanded) are small-scale retailers: drug stores and dollar stores which can hardly be compared to big box, national brand retailers. Family Dollar has expanded to almost 50 locations across the city.

Manufacturing

Detroit has also experienced a migration of manufacturing jobs out of the city over the last half century. As global competition increased and labor costs decreased in southern States and then internationally, Detroit’s car building prowess almost completely disappeared. Currently there are a handful of random manufacturing industries scattered across the suburbs with only a few dotting the city landscape. The Crains Detroit list of major Michigan manufacturers was utilized.

Banks

Chase Tower sits just Downtown (not to mention the subprime mortgage lending that decimated black home owners) and Fifth Third Bank recently announced that it will be moving its regional headquarters Downtown. Comerica Bank owns the naming rights to Tigers Stadium and what would a major city be without Bank of America, right?

Chase Bank
Bank of America
Charter One
Comerica Bank
Fifth Third Bank

Fast Food

Besides drug stores and dollar stores, a main stay of national brands in Detroit has been the fast food industry. There are a number of local variations of fast food, including coney islands, but these maps just reflect the national brands from Fast Food Maps.

Note

This is looking mainly at national brands and does not account for the many local and independent businesses that have filled the void where national brands have discriminated.

#MaptimeDETROIT Community Mapping Current Practices

Posted on November 7, 2014

The inaugural #MaptimeDETROIT event went very well with lots of great presenters and about 40-50 people in attendance. I kicked off the event with a quick background on what #Maptime is all about as well as the radical cartography of William Bunge and the Detroit Geographic Expedition & Institute (DGEI) focusing their community mapping efforts on the racial imbalance of development in Detroit.

I think it is too presumptuous to say that the different presenters offered “best” practices in community mapping since there were many people who were not in the room and not represented, specifically from many community organizations that have been doing community mapping work for many years.

Riverfront Eastside Congregations Iniative (RECI)
We the People of Detroit
Eastside Community Network/ LEAP
Detroit People’s Atlas
many more. . .

Here is a compiled highlight reel of current practices in community mapping from each of the presenters:

Community Development Advocates of Detroit | Aaron Goodman & Madhavi Reddy

Aaron Goodman talked about how CDAD has recently launched the Detroit Community Organization Mapping initiative to map all of Detroit’s community groups as well as their service areas. Data Driven Detroit is supporting their application to collect information from groups. Madhavi Reddy presented on the CDAD’s “Strategic Community Planning” process where they are invited by community groups to do create a plan for their own community. A critical piece of this process is allowing communities to self define their own “engagement zones.” CDAD hopes that they can work with the City of Detroit in putting together a neighborhood focused master plan since the city is currently operating without one.

Detroit Water Brigade | Justin Wedes

Justin talked about the current water shutoff issue in Detroit and their efforts to map community water stations. The DWB spends a lot of time going door-to-door talking with residents about the water shutoffs and other basic needs.

Loveland Technologies | Jerry Paffendorf

Jerry gave a nice overview of the Motor City Mapping project as well as the recent additions of Highland Park and Hamtramck (two small cities that are surrounded by Detroit). Jerry talked about meeting with Herb Harris who was the sole bidder on the “blight bundle.” He discussed the water shutoffs in terms of renters vs. owners and believes that many people facing shutoffs are renting and at the mercy of their delinquent landlords. In the same vein, he talked about the depressing nature of the Wayne County Property Auction where Loveland has found a vast majority of foreclosed homes are actually occupied dwellings.

Data Driven Detroit | Diana Flora

Diana’s presentation was also focused on the Motor City Mapping project that was completed with Loveland Technologies. However, she was more focused on the implementation process of surveying every land parcel in the city. D3 and Loveland worked with roughly 400 community residents to map the entire city. They are currently working on improving community trainings as well as thinking about best ways to implement mapping tools with community support.

THE WORK DEPT | Nina Bianchi & Libby Cole

Nina and Libby presented specifically about the process of participatory design. They utilizing an ever changing process that builds on itself in their design and mapping work. The Work Dept. is very focused on building tools and processes that others can implement in their communities. They’ve recently worked with Allied Media Projects (AMP) on their internet mesh network toolkit, which has been implemented in Detroit, Kenya, and India.

SEMCOG | Jimmy McBroom

Jimmy came with some awesome examples of the available data from SEMCOG. He presented a series of photos that demonstrated the destruction from the 1967 civil unrest as well as the following demolition and widening of Rosa Parks where businesses never recovered. Jimmy highlighted some cool project ideas such as TransitMix, the need to map desired walking paths, and

Eastern Market Corporation | Fiona Ruddy

When Fiona started working on food access issues with EMC, there was no one else working to map out locations of farmers markets and other access points. EMC runs the Eastern Market Farm Stand program and works with others such as Fresh Food Share through Gleaners. Now EMC offers a community map every year with different food access locations.

Detroit Future City | Erin Kelly

Erin presented on a very specific project focused on the ecology of Detroit land. She is working with the LEAP group on surveying vegetation and making community decisions on what should be done with vacant land. She also spoke to how these plans all fit within the DFC strategic framework plan.

Human essentials: Water, food, and shelter are major themes at tonight’s #maptime #mapdetroit

— maptimeDetroit (@maptimeDETROIT) November 4, 2014

Map: Six-Radial Pattern of Urbanization from Detroit

Posted on November 5, 2014

From Doxiadis’ “Emergence and Growth of an Urban Region” Volume 1, this map from 1966 helps to demonstrate how and why the idea of “Detroit” extends beyond the city limits. In each of these directions businesses and people took the economy and the idea of “Detroit” with them. The impact of Detroit reaches well beyond the city limits and also the state and national boundary.

Map: Detroit by Subcommunities 1952

Posted on November 3, 2014

The United Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit used to be the major data and mapping group in the Detroit area. The organization later became the United Way.

This map gives an interesting view on naming and division of the city into subcommunities. In 1952, Detroit was near peak population and it’s likely that some subcommunities had as large of a population as some of the nearby cities.

Map: Attainment of Higher Education in Detroit

Posted on October 31, 2014

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about higher education in Detroit. The pattern that can be seen here with more individuals with degrees on the West side is mirrored in other categories such as income. There are approximately 32,805 individuals with a Bachelors degree and 22,185 individuals who have a Graduate level degree. That’s a total of 54,990 people with higher education degrees or about 12% of Detroit’s population compared to 101,749 people with less than a High School education. Michigan’s population has an average 25.5% Bachelor’s degree attainment. Compared to other cities often grouped with Detroit we see: Philadelphia, PA 23%, Oakland, CA 37.9%, Cleveland, OH 14%, Chicago, IL 33.6%, and Baltimore, MD 22.6%.

Detroit has 11 different institutions for higher education (see map) and at one point in its history as Michigan’s largest city, it once held the most highly educated population in the state. Currently, Michigan’s highest educated city is East Grand Rapids with 77.5% of its population holding a Bachelors degree.

There are too many reasons why Detroit’s population has become less educated to write here, but a good place to start would be to look back to the “Inferior Quality Education in 1960,” which demonstrated the racial divide in allocating school resources.

Map: Acres of Park and Playfield Space in Detroit 1972

Posted on October 29, 2014

These maps come from the Detroit Geographic Expedition and Institute’s Field Notes No. 4 as they helped analyze and organize around the loss of the Matthaei Playfield to WSU and the generate inequitable access to recreation space. One of the accompanying maps was comparing open space in Mack Ave. and Bloomfield Hills.

“[…] the removal of recreation space from the community effects the quality of life for the people who live there quite severely.

Moreover, central city communities such as Cass-Trumbull have special needs because of the larger densities of children, fewer gardens, smaller playfield areas attached to schools, and poorer quality playspace compared to higher income areas in the city.”

Map: Detroit Dental Aid Referrals 1958

Posted on October 24, 2014

This map accompanied “A study of Detroit Dental Aid’s private patient referral service” for the Dental Coordinating Committee of the Planning Committee for Health Services.

Still today access to health care is difficult due to limited service providers. Much of Detroit is designated by the MDCH as a “medically underserved area” and the picture for dental care looks very similar. The MDCH and Detroit Health recently was accepting proposals to improve dental care access for the Detroit area. A number of community dental clinics exist including University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) Dental School’s clinic.

Event: #Maptime Detroit

Posted on October 20, 2014

What: #Maptime

A monthly event that will share mapping skills at a different community group each meeting. Read more about #maptime DETROIT

Why: Goal

To democratize map making: to help everyone learn how to make maps and become literate map readers.

We believe that maps are best understood through hands-on experience in making and deconstructing them.

Where: TechTown, 440 Burroughs

The Community Development Advocates of Detroit (CDAD) will be hosting our inaugural event.

When: November 3rd @ 5:30pm

We’ll get the evening started at 5:30pm with an overview of #Maptime and then others will give lightning talks on how they are currently doing community mapping in Detroit.

RSVP: HERE

Data: Bicycle Shops and Businesses in Detroit

Posted on October 14, 2014

There is a strong focus on bicycle related events and businesses in Detroit. Ford started with the quadricycle and Dodge began with manufacturing bicycle frames.

These events and businesses often bring in a lot of suburban and non-Detroit residents, but using a bicycle to get around transit-choked Detroit is very common all over the city beyond Midtown. Check out some ACS Census data on where bicycle commuters live.

Detroit Digital Data Matrix Map

Posted on October 13, 2014

When sifting through countless sets of data, you will most absolutely come into contact with more “ID” numbers than you hope to see. After I was working with some very large parcel-level datasets I couldn’t help but envision The Matrix.

Maybe we’re all just a mashup of numbers and data . . . social security numbers, drivers licenses, voter IDs, selective service registration, vehicle identification numbers, membership accounts, etc.

Detroit Hand Maps for Social Justice

Posted on October 10, 2014

Participants of the “Data, Mapping, & Research Justice” workshop through Co.Open and Allied Media Projects (AMP) spent some time creating analog maps of Detroit using only their hands and their creativity to tell their stories. They agreed to share their maps here for all to see. I was particularly impressed by their use of emotions and social issues related to their spatial/ geographic awareness of Detroit.

At the end of our first class we held an excellent discussion on research justice and how to balance narrative information with hard data; numbers and statistics. We tapped into the long running debate on the merits of qualitative data versus quantitative data. Our conclusion was that both are important to use and often times quantitative numbers data can open the door for policy makers to begin listening to the qualitative stories and experiences of the people behind the numbers.

I can’t wait to see what kinds of digital maps that everyone will come up with by the end of the course!

Map: Trumbull Households Displaced by Urban Renewal 1971

Posted on October 8, 2014

This map comes from the Detroit Geographic Expedition and Institute’s Field Notes 4 publication where you could also find the map image comparing neighborhood assets of the suburbs vs. the city.

During the “urban renewal” push that created the notable districts of Midtown (Medical Center, Art Center, Museum District, etc.) Wayne State University (WSU) was also a focus area called University City 2 (UC2). The Trumbull area was considered to have a transient population that was undesirable for WSU and the City of Detroit. Residents were offered relocation funding and many 31% of renters moved locally in a northwestern direction, however displaced homeowners tended to move further away and often outside of Detroit. Between 1960 and 1970 the Trumbull community population went from 14,500 people down to 8,000.

Field Notes 4 focused on the takeover of the Matthaei Playfield by WSU for its sport facilities, but also examined housing, police, and health services in the Trumbull community (now better known as Woodbridge).

Data: 77 Full-line Grocery Stores in Detroit

Posted on October 7, 2014

This number comes from efforts of the last 3 years from my Detroit Food Map project. I started completing nutritional assessments of grocery stores in May 2012 working off of the DEGC list of full-line grocery stores. In the summer of 2013 I put together a team of 15 volunteer surveyors from local universities and community groups to survey all of Detroit’s grocery stores. We found that 77 of them met the criteria for a full-line grocery store and all of the stores surveyed carried at least 15 varieties of fruits and vegetables. The major difference with many of Detroit’s grocery stores and big chain supermarkets is often the size of the produce section, which limits the selection.

Over the last 3 years I’ve seen a handful of grocery stores close, a few new ones open, and some even converted into Family Dollar locations.

Find out more about the project: Detroit Food Map

Photo credit: Wally Nowinski (Detroit’s Grocery Stores)

Map: Corktown Animated Over the Years

Posted on October 6, 2014

Corktown is many things, but one thing that it definitely is not is definitive. Much like Detroit does not end at the city limits, neighborhoods and communities in Detroit are rarely definitively bounded areas unless there is a strong economic interest involved (i.e. Midtown and Skillman “Good” Neighborhoods). This idea of evolving boundaries and neighborhoods can easily be seen in the birth, decline, and redevelopment of Corktown.

This animation charts the changing area known officially as Corktown as well as the expanding idea of Corktown.

Much of the information in this post is based from Paul’s well researched post on “Corktown’s Blurry Boundaries.”

1884 – 1940 – Corktown remains the same main area from it’s epicenter at the Holy Trinity Catholic Parish with a majority Irish residents.
1953 – The Lodge Freeway development cuts off a piece of the eastern edge of Corktown
1960s – Many areas of the city were in decline and Corktown was no different. The Fisher Freeway construction sliced off the northern piece of Corktown, which became known as the Briggs neighborhood named for the former Briggs Stadium. In the same time period the blight of Corktown was targeted for redevelopment in the West Side Industrial project which significantly reduced the area known as Corktown.
1978 – the National Registry of Historic Places (NRHP) designates a small area as historically Corktown.
1985 – The Detroit Free Press covers the efforts to expand the historic Corktown area
1998 – The historic western portion of Corktown is officially added to the NRHP
2002 – The Greater Corktown Development Corporation (now defunct) works to rename Briggs to “North Corktown” in order to benefit from the increasing appeal of the Corktown area.
2012 – Green Dot Stables starts referring to their location as “Corktown Shores,” including printed t-shirts, although the area has a strong community identify as Hubbard-Richard.
2014 – A couple takes it upon themselves to aid in the redevelopment of the area west of Corktown, referring to it as West Corktown. Many businesses in the area utilize the Corktown moniker to promote their businesses such as Ponyride, Corktown Inn, Hostel Detroit, Le Petit Zinc, and Nancy Whiskey although their respective locations are not historically known as Corktown (i.e. Ponyride occupies the empty triangle in the middle). The West Side Industrial area is still regularly referred to as Corktown.

What is missing?

Map: Corktown’s Evolving Boundaries

Posted on October 1, 2014

I’ve been trying to chart the changing borders of a few of Detroit’s well known neighborhoods. I had gotten in pretty deep into researching Corktown when I came across the Corktown History blog where the above map was posted.

Detroit Area Expressways Map 1959

Posted on September 29, 2014

This map by Yellow Pages, Michigan Bell Company was a part of the “Complete Illustrated Guide to Dynamic Detroit with Detailed Maps” in 1959 ($0.60). Hastings Street had not yet been bulldozed for I-75 construction. This map also demonstrates how Detroit’s spoke streets used to be numbered as part of the expressways system. For this reason, many of the spoke streets are much wider than they need to be based on low traffic usage.

Map: Detroit Design Festival and the Myth of the Blank Canvas

Posted on September 26, 2014

The long and short of this post title is that artists are among the first line of gentrifiers. It is true artists often have very lower incomes, transient housing, and suffer from a lack of understanding from a majority of the public – however, most, if not all, artists come into various cities and urban settings with a great amount of privilege. Choosing to attend art school is privilege number one when others often lack the ability to pursue art at mostly expensive, private schools. The map shows that over the years the Detroit Design Festival (DDF) has become more concentrated in specific areas as well as increased the number of hosted “happenings” or events in those concentrated areas.

In Detroit you can see this blessing and curse all bound up in the idea of “doing something good” in the city’s “blank canvas” of opportunity. While artists attempt to be very self aware and well meaning, they face many of the same pitfalls of a nonprofit attempting to do the most good in areas where they have limited experience. The missing ingredient in the case of both artists and nonprofits is the lack of understanding for historical context and root causes. If you hope to do anything in Detroit, it must start with a critical perspective on the city’s history of racism, regional separation, and the need for equity. Detroit is layered with historical and cultural nuance. It is impossible to forget the history and try to start something fresh.

The Detroit Creative Corridor Center (DC3) which puts on the Detroit Design Festival highlights its “network” of mentors which includes only 5 minorities out of 47 members (Less than 10%). Similarly, only 30% of their Creative Ventures incubator program participants are minorities. There is a real problem in the Detroit creative community in that there is a racial disparity in regards to who gets funding. This seems especially egregious when 83% of Detroit’s population is Black or African American. There are countless creative programs across the city being run by Black residents and minorities, but the question remains in who gets the funding and support to carry out their artistic work.

A while back I wrote a piece, Detroit is Not Your Blank Canvas, looking at the impact of art on neighborhoods and what I felt was a need for artists to be critical in understanding their own privilege and engaging people who are already here. This was a final question from my critique on the “blank canvas” myth:

“Art can no longer be ignored as an economic impactor, but if art can build vibrancy and revive communities it begs the question: for whom does art revive communities?”

Data: Hardest Hit Fund Demolitions in Detroit

Posted on September 25, 2014

Mayor Duggan has made demolition of blighted homes a top priority with 1,927 home demolitions up until September 10, 2014. Luckily for Duggan, he isn’t the only one with this goal. A number of private and federal interests also want to move forward with tearing down Detroit’s blight.

Contractor	Number	Percent
Able	102	5.30%
Adamo	744	38.63%
Blue Star	110	5.71%
DMC	59	3.06%
Homrich	690	35.83%
MCM	221	11.47%

The top two contractors tearing down Detroit’s blight are Adamo (38%), based in Detroit, and Homrich (35%), also contracted to shutoff residential water accounts. Both companies have been in the demolition business since 1964 and I can only wonder how many Detroit homes have met the business end of their machinery.

The BuildingDetroit.org site has the demolitions listed in PDF form and we took just a few hours to turn them into a usable dataset. Open data requires no more PDFs!