detroitography

[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…

[detroitography]

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…

[detroitography]

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!

[detroitography]

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…

[detroitography]

Map: Swimming Pool Rental in Metro Detroit

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…

[detroitography]

Map: Business Rings of Detroit 2024

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…

[detroitography]

Map: City of Detroit Official Map of Detroit's Transportation System 1931

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,…

[detroitography]

Map: Persistent Flooding in Detroit Homes 2012-2020

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…

[detroitography]

Map: Detroit Census Dots 2020

by: Luke Loreti As a map nerd, I had loved Dustin Cable’s 2010 Racial Dot Map which he had created at UVA. I was saddened when this map left the internet, so as a way to get more comfortable using Census data and to learn some exciting new web map technologies, I decided to create an updated racial dot map using 2020 Census data.  Similar to previous dot maps, this map was created by combining…