Author Archives: Alex B. Hill

Detroit Blue Green Open Space Map

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This Detroit Future City map imagines Detroit’s landscape with expanded blue/ green open spaces. While land use like Hantz farms has been extremely controversial, there are many issues to cover before these ideas will become reality. Belle Isle was (again, controversially) leased to the State of Michigan this week and the figures are that $10 million will be invested to improve the park/ island’s infrastructure and amenities. In particular on this map I would love to see the expressway zones look like forests. I’m imagining what it looks like driving in Northern Michigan (tall trees on either side of the road), but instead I would just be driving along the Lodge to get home. I wonder when the Greening of Detroit will move from neighborhoods to overpasses (sarcasm). Also can you really imagine a “innovation ecological” zone right behind MotorCity Casino or the new Red Wings Stadium? Maybe if Illitch gets a new stadium he should also be responsible for maintaining an equal square mileage of green space for the public.

Detroit Racial Tensions Map 1968 – 1969

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Following the race riots of 1967 racial tensions were still very high. William Bunge’s DGEI mapped incidents of housing discrimination which was rampant in Detroit. Many homeowners associations were white only and denied black families the ability to purchase housing in their neighborhoods. This is a great map for historical context and present issues as well. On this map the Northend stands out as a dense cluster of racial discrimination, but today the Northend is known for poverty, poor housing, and high crime. Highland Park’s early decline spread to the Northend, but now many foundations are investing in the Northend, it is designated as one of the Skillman “Good Neighborhoods.”

Also see: Detroit Investment Zones Map

Detroit Infant Mortality Map 2009 – 2010

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Infant mortality has been a persistent problem in Detroit that accompanies racial health disparities, low income, and environmental factors. This map compares infant mortality rates per 1000 to those of other countries around the world.

The Women Inspired Neighborhood Network (WINN), formerly Sew Up the Safety Net is a collaborative program with the major health systems in Detroit and has had incredible success in educating mothers and improving infant lives in a short time period.

See also: William Bunge’s infant mortality map 1969.

Map: Current and Vacant Commercial Corridors in Detroit

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This Detroit Future City map is interesting in that it appears there a numerous commercial corridors around the city that are thriving, but Downtown and New Center have the most space that remains vacant. This may be a good representation of the dispersion of the population and the absence of an economic presence Downtown for many years. This will be interesting to reassess in a few years as Downtown is increasingly an investment focus for Dan Gilbert and others.

Inequality between Detroit City and Suburbs 1970

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In 1970, William Bunge’s Detroit Geographic Expedition compared the neighborhood assets in two different communities: Mack Avenue in Detroit and an area of Bloomfield Hills.

From the MIT Civic Media Center:

[…] Field Notes III contains more qualitative data in the form of personal accounts, ethnographic interviews, and testimonials. Gwendolyn Warren mapped the 21 homes she inhabited growing up and provided harrowing details of rat-infested tenements and their impact on the children in her family. A team of researchers conducted interviews with children on playgrounds in a predominantly white neighborhood and a predominantly black neighborhood, detailed their own observations of the two places, and mapped the visual aspects of the two neighborhoods to characterize the relative dangers and affordances of children’s lives in each.

This reminds me of a more modern example of inequality from space by Tim de Chant, see more: Detroit Inequality from Space

Detroit Transit Alternatives Map: Toward Public – Private Partnerships

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I’ve been thinking about transportation in Detroit and how a number of alternatives to DDOT and public transit have been blossoming. Most recently I was surprised and excited by the University of Michigan (UM) launching a new, free shuttle service between its Ann Arbor campus and the UM Detroit Center in Midtown. The plan will also include shuttle routes to Eastern Market, Cultural Center, Southwest, and Downtown.

Most recently, the city has seen the development of The Detroit Bus Company which launched to “reinvent” how Southeastern Michigan gets around by offering rides to students to get to after school programs and helping suburbanites get into the city without a congested commute. Before there was the Detroit Bus Company, the College of Creative Studies was running a free shuttle for students around the city. A few years ago Wayne State University (WSU) teamed up with DMC and Henry Ford Health System to create the Midtown Connection Shuttle, which can take you from DMC through WSU’s campus with connections to Henry Ford through New Center. (When writing this the Detroit Bus Company didn’t have regular routes posted on its website, so those were not included on the map.)

The transit alternative giant in Detroit is Quicken Loans. CEO Dan Gilbert has been a huge supporter of the new M1 Light Rail plan along Woodward Avenue, launched a company-wide bike share program this year, and has been operating the Opportunity Detroit shuttle buses for employees. This private shuttle system is the largest alternative transit system in Detroit even though it is only focused Downtown and Midtown.

Additional transit alternatives have been enacted by various organizations to help shuttle senior citizens to farmers markets, to get clients to medical appointments, and to take congregations beyond their neighborhood boundaries. An idea in the vein of many transit alternatives is the HealthLine Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Cleveland, funded by the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital, it is designed to help patients get to appointments by offering a regular and reliable transit to the health center. This seems like a perfect model that could be replicated in Detroit where the health systems already have their own shuttle networks in place and need to help patients get from the dense corners of the city to the center where the health systems are located. If UM is willing to fund a route to connect Ann Arbor and Detroit, might they be interested in funding a BRT along Michigan Avenue? MSU could take Grand River Avenue and maybe Quicken Loans could get talked into covering Lafayette Ave. and Fort St. Then DMC and WSU could partner to run BRT along Warren Avenue and Henry Ford could cover Grand Boulevard.

There are limited options for funding public transit, but there are plenty of social good and private interests that could make public transit a reality in Detroit. A working transit system helps patients get to appointments on time, helps employees have a happier commute without car congestion, and also helps residents get around and visit the businesses potentially partnering to fund the transit system.

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Detroit Neighborhoods Map 2003

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Known as one of the first attempts at a comprehensive neighborhood map for the city, this project from Cityscape’s Arthur Mullen and Andrew Koper provides a look at how their map shaped many future neighborhood maps in Detroit.

Detroit is composed of many neighborhoods, each with a unique history and features. Not many people are aware of them all or where they are located.

Huffington Posts noted:

Mr. Mullen’s map, despite its precision, does not provide complete coverage of the city (note the white spaces in the below screenshot) and makes no claim to be the final, comprehensive authority on Detroit’s neighborhood boundaries. However, in a sort of butterfly effect that could have only originated in an earlier decade of the Internet, Mr. Mullen’s map caught on. When Google Maps began to display neighborhood details for the world’s major cities, they simply scraped the Cityscape map. In the months that followed, countless other Internet content providers, in turn, scraped Google’s data. Now, Mr. Mullen’s work has come to be used by pretty much everyone as the de facto Detroit neighborhood map.

Detroit School Decentralization Map 1970

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Highlighted by the MIT Center for Civic Media, this map by the Detroit Geographic Expedition Institute’s (DGEI) “Field Notes II: School Decentralization” demonstrates the racial disparities in education in the city.

“In order to maximize sympathy and retain community control over community schools, the DGEI proposed a plan which placed 91.4% of black children under “sympathetic authority”. Their plan followed divided the districts according to the existing racial landscape of the city.”

From Field Notes II: School Decentralization:

Black children are among the most abused children in America. It is imperative that these most endangered children receive the most protection. (The infant mortality rate of black children in the King High School area on the east side of Detroit is higher than that of San Salvador, a fact that some Americans consider unpatriotic.)…

To meet the primary goal of protecting the most abused children, every possible legal regional combination of Detroit high school districts (over seven thousand) were ranked according to sympathetic authority to the children from most to least. The measure of sympathy used is “the total number of black children under white authority.” A regional school district is defined as being under white authority where a majority of voters voted for white candidates in the mayoral primary.

— Field Notes II, Chapter 1, “Community Control”

Map: Stabilization is Demolition in Detroit

stable_demoBased on this map from the Free Press, it would appear that the idea of neighborhood “stabilization” is directly related to the demolition of vacant and derelict properties. This is a key piece of Mike Duggan’s plan for Detroit if he is elected Mayor.

The question of vacant property is quite a buzz in Detroit now, especially with the work of the Detroit Blight Authority and the ongoing efforts of Blight Busters. The city government has been moving quickly to clear up abandoned homes in the paths of schools to increase safety of children walking to schools.

Additionally, there have been a number of recent demolitions of homes bought in the recent auction. As Detroit continues to be managed by an Emergency Manager, it will be interesting to see if the money will continue from private sources for demolition/ stabilization efforts such as the recent federal dollars disbursed to a number of Michigan cities, including Detroit.

Detroit Freight Network Map

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From the Detroit Future City report, this map brings a fairly comprehensive picture of Detroit’s importance as a freight transportation hub and a major border crossing. The Detroit-Windsor connections is also well known for its illegal gun and drug smuggling. 

This map also illustrates why certain areas of the city have high pollution and asthma rates, particularly SW Detroit where truck routes even pass right outside schools.

See also: Detroit Asthma Morbidity Map

 

 

Map: Parking Lots in Detroit Central District 1936

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This incredible historical gem comes from the University of Chicago Library Map Collection of Planning Maps of Midwestern Cities in the 1920s and 1930s. This map from the Detroit Plan Commission provides an early glimpse at the focus on car culture in Detroit. Not to mention the map appears to be hand drawn including the typography.

Detroit Asthma Morbidity Map

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With funding from the EPA, Dr. Stuart Batterman at the University of Michigan examined the high incidents of asthma as part of the Detroit Asthma Morbidity, Air-Quality, and Traffic (DAMAT) Study.

This study will develop and evaluate a direct health indicator of pediatric asthma morbidity resulting from exposure to ambient air pollutants using an epidemiological approach that merges existing datasets and incorporates population susceptibility, exposure patterns, and other local conditions.

The green dots are schools, which the study found were often located near expressways.

Detroit Infant Mortality Map 1969

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Another persistent health issue in Detroit has been infant mortality. As William Bunge demonstrates in his map, many of Detroit’s zipcode areas infornat mortality rate match with “third world” or “developing” countries rates. This has remained an issue in Detroit. Recently the ‘Sew Up the Safety Net” program, a collaboration between all of the major health systems in the city as part of the Detroit Regional Infant Mortality Reduction Task Force. Recently, renamed to the Women’s Inspired Neighborhood Network (WIN Network), the program has had incredible success and extensive outreach.

Detroit Investment Zones Map

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In the current economic climate in Detroit as well as recent conversations with Matt Hampel about investment in the city from foundations and non-profits, I couldn’t help imaging how much overlap could be found among investments and how the particular communities were doing as a result of the investment focus or lack of focus.

Southwest Detroit, Corktown, West Riverfront, and Hubbard-Richard areas have been included in the most investment zones in the City of Detroit. These areas have seen the largest influx of young white residents with artistic focus.

Northern Wayne State, New Center, and Central/Middle Woodward follow close behind as prominent investment zones where there has been much activity to build a strong connector between the thriving Midtown area and New Center.

Brightmoor and Osborn are often talked about as key areas of investment, but have not been included as much as other areas.

A excluded stand out is Barton-McFarlane, a neighborhood in the 48204 zipcode listed as one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the US. This area has also been a focal point of gang and drug violence since the 1970s. It is an overlooked area which could use more investment.

Image source

Detroit Commuters and Workers Map

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I have often wondered about how many people commuted into Detroit for work as I often had to fight the traffic going both ways to see clients across the city. Incredibly, there are more people who come into the city than the number of people who live and work in Detroit. Not to mention the massive amount of people who have to leave the city to get to work. This Detroit Future City map bolsters the argument for a rapid transit system, not more expressways, but a regional transit system (RTA).

Pair this with the Detroit Rapid Transit Map 1958 from Rob Linn

Two-Way Congested Streets Map – Eastside Detroit 1996

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As part of their course “Integrative Field Experience” prepared for the Detroit Eastside Community Collaborative, Kami Brown and Michael Ritz from the University of Michigan College of Architecture & Urban Planning created this map of street congestion on the east side in 1996.

Red = Congested two-way streets

Blue = Proposed one-way streets

It appears that St. Paul, Belveidere, and Dequindre were the most congested two-way streets at the time of the project.

I discovered this map, currently serving as a window shade, in the basement of St. Charles Catholic Church on Baldwin Street.

Detroit Area Income by Census Tract 1970

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This map comes from William Bunge in what I assume is around 1970 since he highlights the Fitzgerald community where he had been doing participatory mapping in the 1960s and 1970s (his book was published in 1971 on the Fitzgerald community). Oddly, this map doesn’t look much different than the Urban Institute’s maps of poverty between 1980 and 2010. Income disparity and poverty has been an issue that Detroit has long struggled with. Strong industry in Detroit had only a brief impact in sustaining widespread income benefits for residents of Detroit.

Map of Detroit Parking Footprint

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Parking in Detroit has been an important point of discussion and potentially a major reason that there hasn’t been a more successful and focused public transit system put in place. Rob Linn while at Data Driven Detroit mapped out the footprint of parking downtown. This excellent visualization has recently been shared across the interwebs.

Pair this with William Bunge’s map, “land use for automobiles” downtown.