detroitography

[detroitography]

Map: Detroit's Urban Environment in Color: Revitalizing Detroit's Development Ecosystem

by: Lisa Kyle, Garrett Gillis, Noah Frey (Wayne State University) We chose to focus on the present development of Detroit because, in our view, the city is at a crucial precipice. The latter half of the 20th century was not kind to our city — but recent blight removal projects give us a unique opportunity. That opportunity is, of course, to rebuild the city with modern values and sustainability…

[detroitography]

Map: Sustainable Urban Environments: Detroit Tree Canopy

by: Kerrel Spivey Detroit, once known as a tree-filled city before its urban decline starting in the 50s and the emerald ash borer invasion beginning in 2002, has experienced landscape change over the decades. Neighborhoods within a city can be defined by their people, setting, and character. Trees influence all three of these by improving the mood of residents, beautifying the landscape, and…

[detroitography]

Event: Detroit Data Forum: Property and Parcels

Welcome to our Data Forum where we will explore a new category of data each month. This month we will be focused on property data, the relaunch of Property Praxis, and the important details when trying to utilize parcel data. We’ll be joined by Chase Cantrell of Building Community Value, Joshua Akers, instigator of Property Praxis, and Aaron Mondry from Outlier Media writing on the “speculators…

[detroitography]

Map: Code Enforcement Zones 1957

I was pleasantly surprised by the maps in the report: “Detroit: A New City” from the Mayor’s Committee on Community Renewal and prepared by the City of Detroit, Department Report and Information Committee. The city’s Community Renewal Program (CRP) was the vehicle for studying and planning Detroit’s future amidst the federal urban renewal regime. For better or worse the CRP produced numerous…

[detroitography]

Map: Detroit HMDA Longitudinal Dataset 1981 - 2021

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) has put together an incredible interactive map and dataset of all Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data since 1981. HMDA was created as a stop gap to use data to identify if redlining was still occurring. In recent history, HMDA was a data source that demonstrated “reverse redlining.” More from the NCRC GIS team: “this interactive map…

[detroitography]

Event: Detroit Data Forum: Election Maps, Precincts, etc.

Welcome to our Data Forum where we will dive into the world of Election Maps, Precincts, etc. specific to Detroit data. Join us online for lunch-and-learn filled with insightful discussions, tips, and tricks on all things related to election data. Whether you’re a seasoned data analyst or just starting out, this event is perfect for anyone interested in learning more about how data shapes our…

[detroitography]

Speculation and the City “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.”

Property speculators own nearly 20 percent of all property in Detroit. The parcels caught up in this web of speculation are spread across the city and come in a variety of forms. At their worst these owners are buying and selling houses that rapidly decline into vacant and abandoned shells. Too often neighborhoods and the public are forced to bare the cost of these activities from the daily…

[detroitography]

Where is Dan Gilbert, Detroit’s parking garage and skyscraper king?

The line between speculation and investment can seem arbitrary. In fact, some of the largest speculators in the city of Detroit often characterize their activities as investment. In 2010, Manuel “Matty” Moroun told the Free-Press his holdings represented his commitment to the city. “Our fortunes are linked to the city. If the city doesn’t have any prosperity, we don’t have any value in the land,…

[detroitography]

Development Creep: 40-years devaluing Detroit’s lower Cass Corridor

For nearly four decades, speculation in the lower Cass Corridor wreaked havoc on residents and shredded the community fabric that held it together. By the early 2000s, the area was largely deserted except for low income apartment buildings. The primary speculator in this neighborhood was the Ilitch family, the owners of a national pizza chain and two major sports franchises. The Ilitch companies…

[detroitography]

Serial Evictor: Michael Kelly and Detroit Property Exchange

Michael Kelly filed 1,160 evictions between 2009 and 2016. That is the equivalent of one eviction filing every 2.5 days. Kelly operates over 40 LLCs and currently owns over 500 properties in the City of Detroit. Kelly’s most prominent company is Detroit Property Exchange which offers low income residents land contracts on dilapidated housing. Houses most of them are eventually evicted from. Land…

[detroitography]

Map Puzzle: How well do you know your Detroit neighbors?

Map puzzle results skewed on purpose, use the link below to try yourself. [Map puzzle] developed by Marie Yu for DETROITography. Detroit is bordered by 20 municipalities, can you correctly place all of them? Michigan’s “Home Rule City” Act halted many smaller municipalities from being absorbed by the City of Detroit when it passed in 1909. Besides being a city, Detroit is also a broad concept…

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Map: Close City Amenities in Detroit

A new tool to measure accessibility and walkability in cities is out called Close from Nat Henry. The tool relies on supermarket and libraries data points in order to assess closeness. Oddly the data sources are not listed, so it is tough to measure supermarkets against our annual updated list of grocery stores and the data clearly doesn’t account for Detroit’s trouble with library funding and…

[detroitography]

Event: Detroit GIS Day 2024

We are very excited this year to have Jarell Brown, Director of Analytics & Business Intelligence @ The Henry Ford and Principal Innovator of the Innovation Atlas as our keynote speaker this year. We will also be hosted in an incredible space, the Urban Tech Xchange in Downtown Detroit. Check out the full list of panels, lightning talks, and workshops! Register, submit, or…

[detroitography]

Map: Detroit Metropolitan Area 1962

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…

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Event: #Maptime Fall 2024 Series

WHEN: Thursdays, starting September 5th, from 1-5PM WHERE: Purdy-Kresge Library, Wayne State University (near Kresge Library entrance and the School of Information Science) WHAT: Come co-work on your mapping project, get support learning GIS, or just chat about maps!

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Map: Detroit Consolidated HUD Plan 1995

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…

[detroitography]

Detroit Primary Election Result Maps 2024

by: Pat Sier Detroit voters went to the polls (and ballot boxes) last Tuesday to decide on multiple ballot propositions and candidates for November’s general election. The unofficial results published by the city have the current turnout at 15.8% of registered voters, which matches primary turnout in past years. This map includes Detroit precinct results for all races on Detroit ballots, but…