Go more in-depth on this story at BridgeDetroit. DETROIT — Bethany Howard’s neighborhood was dismantled to satisfy demand for automobiles. She grew up in Detroit, the Motor City, in the 1980s. For five generations, the Howards have lived, worked and attended school in East Canfield, a tight-knit, walkable community. She still lives in the same house her great-grandfather […]
In downtown Detroit, 501 Third Avenue is known today as Steve Yzerman Drive and houses a Detroit People Mover station. But in the 1800s, the site played an important part in Detroit’s history as a major railway also serving as a stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves seeking freedom across the border into Canada. […]
Detroit Police Chief James White says embarrassingly poor police work, not facial recognition technology, is to blame for the false arrest of a pregnant woman whose temporary imprisonment led to a federal lawsuit and changes in the department’s investigative procedures. The lawsuit has sparked national interest in Detroit’s use of the controversial technology. It’s the third lawsuit filed […]
Detroit officials are banking $10 million on six community groups to reduce shootings, killings in violent neighborhoods Groups use different strategies, from armed citizen patrol to de-escalation training Some hopeful, others leery about the effect of community initiatives to curb violence DETROIT — When two men were shot dead a block away from her home in July, all […]
The city of Detroit canceled $1 million in contracts awarded to a firm owned by Bobby Ferguson’s daughter, amid concern that Ferguson, one of the principal figures in former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s sprawling criminal scandal, was connected to the company and profiting from the work. The cancellation came to light after BridgeDetroit began asking […]
Rev. JoAnn Watson bore witness to a lifetime of injustices against Black Detroiters and saw a clear course of action to repair the harms inflicted. The remedies seemed obvious to her, a little over a year ago when Detroit’s first reparations task force was introduced at West Side Unity Church. The senior pastor named the debts and […]
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announces Gratiot-Findlay, State Fair and Van Dyke-Lynch neighborhoods as sites for possible solar arrays, with DTE Energy and Boston-based Lightstar Renewables chosen as developers. Homeowners in five other neighborhoods under consideration for solar fields are being given a chance to sell their houses now, before the next three projects are selected […]
Michigan’s State Historic Preservation Office has received a $75,000 grant toward preserving recreational locations that served African Americans. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation on Wednesday announced the grant, which is administered by the National Parks Service (NPS). The funding comes from the Historic Preservation Fund’s African American Civil Rights History program, and will be used […]
A new proposal for Detroit’s iconic Renaissance Center complex would tear down two 39-story towers and add housing as part of a $1.6 billion renovation project that would require public funding. Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock and General Motors Co. announced the conceptual plan to redevelop the 27-acre site along the Detroit riverfront as a “right-sizing” of […]
This story was published as part of Next City’s Detroit News Hub, a reporting project funded by the Kresge Foundation. The hub includes BridgeDetroit, Planet Detroit and Chalkbeat Detroit. With little urgency from police after her car was stolen from outside her sister’s New Center apartment complex, Carolyn Brown decided to take matters into her own hands. The Clarkston resident said […]