We are starting a “Future City Friday” regular post to discuss the various maps generated by the Detroit Future City report. Detroit’s water system is an interesting beast, particularly in that Detroit’s system supplies water for most of the Metro region. The report highlights that there were 38 sewage discharges into the Detroit River in 2011.
This map comes from the Detroit Free Press coverage of the primary battle for mayoral candidates in Detroit. With controversy abounding, Duggan captured significant write-in votes to secure a spot in the primary against Benny Napolean. Duggan won votes in the wealthiest and poorest Detroit neighborhoods as well as across racial lines, although more Duggan won by wider margins in predominantly white and latino precincts.
Read more: Breaking down Mike Duggan’s election blowout: Analysis shows surprising patterns
From Loveland Technologies, makers of Why Don’t We Own This, this is a more recent attempt to pull together various understandings of neighborhoods in Detroit. A continually controversial topic and likely only get more confusing as the city “redevelops.”
“We got tired of looking at a Detroit split up by zip codes, and all the neighborhood maps of Detroit that are half empty, so we created a map where Detroit is completely filled in with neighborhoods.
We know it’s not 100% accurate (there’s probably no such thing as a completely accurate Detroit neighborhood map) so if you see things that are wrong, take it to the comments and let us know! The map will change as our understanding of peoples’ neighborhoods does!”
The Center for Urban Studies (CUS) at Wayne State University has been examining the connections between health and lead poisoning in a number of ways. This latest map shows how the age and potentially quality of housing impacts lead exposure among other health issues (mold, asthma, etc.).
Detroit has the highest percent of homes built before 1980 of all the areas examined. Since Detroit has such a high percentage of older homes (a majority of the Census tracts in Detroit have 86 percent or higher of the homes built before 1980). […] One of the especially interesting features of this map is that much of the younger housing is located in the inner core where housing demolition and replacement has been intense since the 1940s and 1950s. (from the CUS Drawing Detroit blog)
This is dot density mapping idea that was first popularized by radical cartographer, Bill Rankin, using 2000 census data in Chicago with then a widely shared series of maps by Erica Fischer building on Rankin’s idea. Brandon Martin-Anderson put together a fascinating US population dot density example from 2010 census data and now we have this map (above) from Dustin Cable utilizing the same data, but showing the racial/ ethnic breakdown of the 2010 census.
Not that much has changed since the 2000 census as far as racial/ ethnic makeup of Detroit. Sure, there are a number of small changes and growing immigrant populations, but by and large Detroit and its Metro region have remained mostly the same. Perhaps, we can see the recent “black flight” (26% population loss in Detroit between 2000 and 2010) in the top left corner of the city?
The data on enrolled public high school students maps almost exactly with population density, but there is enough of a difference to make it worthwhile to examine the interactions between social and environmental factors. Corner stores (liquor stores, gas stations) were added to demonstrate the prevalence of these food locations in relation to obesity among students, however there is no significant correlation.
This installation of William Bunge Wednesday brings an incredible example of the flow of money from Detroit (here shown as the “slums”) into the suburbs. This map is definitely a more political depiction of what was happening in Detroit at the time, but nonetheless is a critical view that gives perspective to Detroit difficulties. Racketeering, exploiting slums for profit, unreliable public transportation, job discrimination, and even police payoffs – a laundry list of issues that plagued Detroit and aided its economic woes.
Top: 1900; Middle: 1950; Bottom: 2000. Image credit: NRDC Switchboard
Some have argued that sprawl is what got Detroit into this mess, others have said that Detroit should have just continued to expand. Sprawl arguments note that Detroit sprawl was not like sprawl in other cities. Detroit sprawled when there was no economic growth and it drew people away from the city as opposed to bringing new people in around the suburbs leaving an empty city center.
Should Detroit have worked harder to keep people inside the city? Sure, but there were a myriad number of factors working against that goal. Should Detroit have continued to expand its borders to encompass the suburbs and a broader tax base? Maybe, but Detroit already has a huge footprint as a city, anything more would most definitely have been unruly.
Source: Rose, H. M. & MacClain, P. D. (1990). Race, Place, and Risk: Black Homicide in Urban America. New York, NY: SUNY Press.
Homicides in Detroit peaked in 1974 with 750 murders recorded. Between 1965 and 1970, violent crime had doubled. The auto industry was in decline and 100,000 manufacturing jobs had left the city. This economic loss was paired with flight of white residents and the introduction of heroine. Many unemployed black workers turned to the drug trade for both income and relief from depression.
It is much more interesting to look at Detroit’s land annexations in animated form. You can see how various areas of Detroit were added through the years. Looking at Detroit’s history you can see the slivered expansion northward from the River and then fanning out along the River’s edge, the city’s purchase of Belle Isle in 1879, the glory days of Grand Boulevard in 1891 when the city didn’t extend any further North, and the rapid land acquisition in the 1920s as the auto industry boomed and population swelled. Detroit’s industry, population, and services have changed drastically over the years, but the physical boundaries of the city have remained the same since 1926. Will borders be expanded further in the future to create a cohesive regional Detroit that includes the suburbs?
Forbes utilized IRS data to map migrations of people. The contrast between cities was not surprising as Detroit showed a bright red migration of people out of the city (blue is people moving in). This is an excellent use of data to represent the movement of people around the US and could also give insight into where and why people leave Detroit and Michigan for other cities and states.
William Bunge mapped incidents of rat bitten babies in 1960, 1967, and 1970. During Detroit’s years of decline its rat population spiked. Now there are often statistics that Detroit has an extremely high rate of stray animals per square mile, I wonder how related this is to rat bites or other animal bites.
There is more to Detroit’s bicycle culture than hipsters and new business ventures. Many people all across the city depend on their bikes to get them to work, get to the store, and to earn an income. This is just a snapshot of where those people might be located in Detroit.
Urban Institute’s map database that shows comparisons of major metro areas in Michigan between 1980 and 2010. Each dot represents 20 people living under the poverty line. Colors represent ethnicity: Blue dots are White; yellow dots are Black; green dots are Latino; and red dots are Asian. It appears that Detroit’s poverty has spread over time as well as become concentrated among minority groups.
Recently highlighted on Huffington Post were the beautiful art maps of various Detroit neighborhoods/ areas, including: Belle Isle, Eastern market, Midtown, and Corktown from artist Meredith Miotke. While the maps may be skewed to depict the particular focus on Detroit’s “revitalized” areas, they are beautiful nonetheless.
Detroit urban planner, Rob Linn brings us this excellent rail transit map as proposed by the Rapid Transit Commission in 1958.
“The plan identifies seven reasons why Detroit and its suburbs need a unified transit system, including current concerns such as reducing congestion, increasing accessibility, and encouraging compact commercial development. It’s greatest concern, however, was that the CBD was beginning to decline. As the plan notes, “…downtown valuations [assessed value] decreased by 38.5% between 1930 and 1953, and citywide valuations had no change. What is indisputably evident here is the definite and gradual decline of the property valuations not only in the central business district but also along the major commercial thoroughfares in the city.” The commission strongly believed that these space-age trains would draw people to arterial commercial zones and the CBD, and reinvigorate these areas.”
This Wednesday’s map from William Bunge shows the dispersion of Detroit’s black population from the core Paradise Valley and Black Bottom (named for its rich black soil near the Detroit river) out into other regions of the city. The city is now 82% Black/ African American by the 2010 Census.
The next “William Bunge Wednesday” is creative mapping idea that show the land area use dedicated to automobiles. The dark areas are roads, parking lots, etc. while the white spaces are buildings and parks. It seems that many of Detroit’s infrastructure woes are built on the back of the shrinking automobile industry. Public transit is next to non-existent due to the automobile industry influence.
EDIT: This is actually a map reprinted by Bunge from Ronald Horvath’s, member of DGEI, ‘Machine Space’ article in 1974
It is always interesting to see how home prices change over time. This map in particular helps represent the shifting redevelopment focus in Detroit. You can easily see the areas where there is high population (low vacancy) and areas where property value will be increasingly important. However, the overall decrease in home price would be interesting to pair with more recent data.
Also see: Detroit Average Neighborhood Rent Price
Starting William Bunge Wednesday and posting his radical cartography from his work at the Detroit Geographical Expedition.
“Any Detroiter would have known that these commuters were white and on their way between work downtown and home in the exclusive Pointes communities to the east. That is, this is a map of where white people, as they rush to and from work, run over black children. That is, it is a map of where white adults kill black kids. It is a map of racist infanticide, a racial child-murder map.” – Denis Wood in Maps and Protest
More from on Gwendolyn Warren’s analysis:
In her subsequent analysis, Warren uses this map as a jumping off point to discuss spatial justice more generally for the Black community. For example, most African-Americans work in the factories which are situated several hours from their community so they leave for work at 3 or 4AM because the buses only run once an hour. Those coming from the black community who do have cars are unable to get on the expressway between the hours of 3-5pm due to the timing of the stoplights. She uses these examples and others to unequivocally demonstrate that Detroit’s urban planning and transportation is inadequate and unjust for the Black community and calls for the DGEI to establish “Black planning” for the city of Detroit.
DETROITography 