News & Opinions
01/26/12 The Center for Michigan
Sorry, governor, Mich. still losing families
During his 2012 State of the State speech last week, Gov. Rick Snyder included, among his “Dashboard Updates,” a special mention of the newly released Atlas Van Lines moving index. The stated reason for the mention was that Atlas’ index showed that, in 2011, Michigan stopped a six-year trend of more people moving out of Michigan than moving in…
10/04/11 The Center for Michigan
How far will Midtown’s momentum go?
There are two Detroits in the life of Theo Nicholaidis. The first is a city of cafes and galleries, with his favorite crepe restaurant just down the block from his two-bedroom condo, a newly rehabbed unit with hardwood floors, a fireplace and deck…
9/23/11 The Detroit Free Press
Rochelle Riley: Revolution in education won’t be fast or easy
It will look worse before it gets better. As state and local officials work to remold Michigan’s education landscape and guide students through a maelstrom of change, it initially might look like Gov. Rick Snyder’s plans…
9/22/11 The Center for Michigan
Metzger’s Musings: African Americans hit hardest on homeownership
Homeownership was humming nationally during the first half of the first decade of the 21st century. Housing values were rising at record rates and banks and mortgage companies were making loans to almost anyone with a pulse. This began to change in late 2007…
9/22/11 The Detroit Free Press
Metro Detroit schools see surge in number of kids living in poverty
More of the children attending schools in metro Detroit are living in poverty, a trend pronounced not just in urban areas but also in some of the tri-county’s wealthier areas. Between 2006 and 2010…
Michigan is getting poorer, Census shows
Michigan households brought in less income last year than they did in 2009, new American Community Survey data released today show….
9/8/11 The Detroit Free Press
The poor? They’re leaving Michigan, too
To hear state Rep. Ken Horn tell it, the four-year limit on cash assistance that Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law this week is just what’s needed to stop the stampede of unemployed people pouring into Michigan from other states with less-generous welfare benefits…
9/5/11 The Detroit Free Press
Rural west Michigan Covert Township integrated quietly in the 1860s
Covert had something to hide. As far back as the 1860s, officials of the quiet, rural township dutifully reported their numbers of public school students to Lansing to qualify for state funds. What they did not report was that those students were black and white, studying side by side, which would be unheard of in Michigan for decades to come…
9/4/11 The Detroit Free Press
Group has detailed plan to improve lower east-side Detroit neighborhood
Call it the great LEAP forward for Detroit’s lower east side. Over the last year, community activists struggling to revitalize their neighborhoods have engaged in a block-by-block, almost house-by-house, planning project, surveying thousands of residents…
8/27/11 The Macomb Daily
Meaning of Word “Family” is Changing in Macomb
A devout Catholic, Sue Waltman grew up in St. Clair Shores, attended parochial school as a young girl, and lived the old-fashioned, family-oriented lifestyle of countless Macomb County residents. But in 1995 she and her husband divorced, in 1996 she began living with her mother, and the two of them embarked on a sometimes-tumultuous, three-generation relationship…
8/25/11 The Macomb Daily
Pleasant Ridge in the Top 10 for Gay Couples Nationwide
Pleasant Ridge is now among the top 10 communities in the nation for same-sex couples. The surprise ranking is based on 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, which measured…
8/24/11 The Center for Michigan
Metzger’s Musings: Census Confirms Michigan’s Changing Face
The Census Bureau has released detailed data from the 2010 Census that allows us to look more deeply into the racial and ethnic trends that portray the diversified future Michigan has in store for itself. Figure 1 provides a visual representation of Michigan’s…
8/22/11 Crain’s Detroit Business
Detroit has more registered voters than residents over 18, census finds
There are about 560,000 registered voters in the city of Detroit. But the 2010 U.S. Census found only 523,430 Detroiters over 18…
8/18/11 The Detroit News
Nuclear family no more: New data shows more grandparents raising kids, more unmarried couples
The nuclear family that was once the norm — think Ozzie and Harriet for readers old enough to remember — continues to shrink in Michigan and across the nation…
8/18/11 The Detroit News
Hispanics buy more homes in region
On just about any weekend in Southwest Detroit, the smell of sweet home-cooked meals mixes with the bang of hammers and the buzz of saws…
8/18/11 The Detroit News
Census: Michigan same-sex households up 42 percent
Five years after tying to knot with her female partner, Denise Brogan-Kator took great pleasure in describing herself as married when filling out 2010 census…
8/4/11 The Detroit News
New 14th District: a land of opposites
Traveling the new oddly shaped 14th Congressional District is a tour of Metro Detroit’s most disparate communities. There are lakeside mansions along Orchard Lake as well as tightly packed neighborhoods in Hamtramck, where more than a third live below the poverty line…
8/1/11 Crain’s Detroit Business
Questions dog Detroit Works plan: Advocates want to see long-term strategy
The Detroit Works Project, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s signature policy initiative, has been touted as a plan to make the city more functional by consolidating residents in seven to nine of Detroit’s most viable neighborhoods…
7/29/11 WJR
Destination 313
Destination 313 podcast with Kurt Metzger…
7/28/11 The Center for Michigan
Metzger’s Musings: Immigration is important policy piece for Michigan
Immigration and diversity were among the topics discussed at the Immigration and Michigan’s Economic Future conference July 18 at Wayne State University…
7/21/11 Critical Moment
What Is Community Engagement?
The major tension in Detroit’s land use planning for decades lies in the question of involvement: which people are engaged and how - and what these power dynamics mean for Detroit as a city of neighborhoods…
7/21/11 The Center for Michigan
Metzger’s Musings: Michigan better get senior-active
A recent report from the Brookings Institution, The Uneven Aging and “Younging” of America, tells us that “baby boomers have crossed the generation gap and are now, along with older Americans, the majority of the nation’s voting age population.” An analysis of the nation’s states…
7/19/11 Model D
Urban analytical: Data Driven Detroit gets creative about city’s future
Raw data in the information age is the fuel of development. Data Driven Detroit (D3) mines it, refines it, and turns it into energy for use by anyone – often at no cost to the user. D3 “democratizes” information…
7/12/11-7/15/11 Detroit 2020
Race Relations Series
Starting on July 12th, Detroit 2020 will kick off a groundbreaking series of reports on race. Racial diversity and immigration has been our challenge and our strength. We’ll look at how it has impacted most of the major issues…
6/30/11 The Detroit Free Press
Guest Commentary: To improve schools, shift funds to proven programs
Detroit Public Schools is about to undergo its fourth makeover in 18 months under a plan to create a new governing body called the Education Achievement System. The state-controlled EAS would operate on top of the DPD district…
6/29/11 The Center for Michigan
Metzger’s Musings: No trend seen on ‘cool cities’
The Cool Cities Initiative, launched by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in June 2003, was designed as part of an urban strategy to revitalize Michigan’s neighborhoods and communities by applying the new economy paradigm where creative place-making…
6/22/11 The Center for Michigan
Metzger’s Musings: Diversity, rental housing up in Michigan
The 2010 census results continue to dribble out. May brought the first, limited look at who we Michiganders are – beyond our basic race and ethnic origin – at the state, county and community levels. July will bring more detailed demographics at these geographic levels…
6/14/11 Sustainable Cities
Detroit: From Motorcity to unexpected urban laboratory
Detroit, once one of the most productive industrial cities, put not only the US, but the majority of the world on wheels…
6/14/11 The Detroit News
Michigan House Republicans to release redistricting plans
State House Republicans plan to release proposed new political maps for legislative and congressional districts Friday…
5/27/11 The Detroit News
88,000 Michiganians left state in 2009
Michigan lost 88,000 residents in 2009 – second only to the state of New York in net migration – as thousands left the recession-plagued state for jobs elsewhere…
5/12/11 Associated Online
Study finds hefty increase in area poverty rates
If there are six families from the Wayne County area in a room together, three of them need food stamps…
5/3/11 A Healthier Michigan
Don’t Laugh at Mayor Bloomberg’s Comments on Immigration and Detroit
When New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the U.S. should require all new immigrants to live in Detroit and start businesses as a way to rebuild Motown’s decimated population…
5/2/11 WILX News 10
No End In Sight to Detroit Population Loss
Some experts say Detroit’s population will decline more over the next decade…
5/2/11 The Detroit News
Some city neighborhoods gain despite Detroit population pain
The 2010 census numbers released last month confirmed an epic population loss for Detroit: Once the fifth largest in the country, the city is now No. 18…
5/2/11 Bloomberg Businessweek
Detroit’s exodus will continue without a revival
For over a month, Detroit has been reeling from new census numbers that showed the city lost more population in the last 10 years than anyone realized…
4/26/11 The Detroit News
Downsize Detroit
Council President Pro Tempore Gary Brown is right to question the size of Detroit’s work force when the city faces a $155 million budget problem…
4/25/11 The Detroit News
Detroit overstaffed compared to other cities
Detroit’s workforce hasn’t shrunk with its population, leaving the cash-strapped city with far more employees than most comparably sized cities. The 12,900 workers in the Bing budget…
4/20/11 The Center for Michigan
The 2010 census says…(part 1)
It was late December of 2010 when we received the not-so-surprising news that Michigan was going to lose a congressional seat…
4/19/11 A Healthier Michigan
Despite Massive Investment, Detroit’s Midtown Neighborhood Lost Population
The Midtown area of Detroit is often cited as perhaps the city’s best example of an up-and-coming, dynamic urban neighborhood, a model for revitalization efforts…
4/19/11 The Detroit News
Asian-Americans settle in Metro Detroit enclaves
Upen Saparia followed his brother from India to Michigan 10 years ago after a brief stop in Canada…
4/13/11 Metro Times
Countdown for Detroit
The numbers are in. The 2010 census sets Detroit’s population at 713,777, about a 25 percent drop. The only other big city to lose a higher percentage of its population…
4/4/11 Mlive.com
Experts say Detroit’s Census review unlikely to boost population
Experts tell the Free Press that city officials basically missed its chance to boost Detroit’s Census count. “It has to be a very tight approach…
4/4/11 The Detroit Free Press
Hitting the Magic 750,000
If Detroit officials hope to recoup millions in state and federal aid by challenging the city’s census count, they’d better have the data to back it up…
4/4/11 The Detroit Free Press
Detroit had its chance, experts say of census
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s goal to add 37,ooo residents to get the city’s official census count to 750,000 is a long shot …
4/4/11 Wallet Pop
Life in Motor City : Detroit Getting Smaller… but Better
I get tired of all the negative Detroit news. In the wake of the U.S. Census report that the population of Detroit had dropped…
4/3/11 The Detroit Free Press
Shrinking Detroit can map out its future with census data
As alarming as the 2010 census figures were for Detroit, they provide insight into how the Bing administration can reshape a shrinking city…
4/3/11 The Final Call
Census: Detroit’s population plummets 25 percent
Hammered by the auto industry’s slump, Detroit saw its population plummet 25 percent over the past decade…
4/3/11 Mlive.com
Census study: Racial segregation persists in Muskegon-Norton Shores metro area
Diversity is hard to come by in Elisia Sparkman’s neighborhood. With a population that’s roughly 90 percent African American…
3/31/11 The Detroit Free Press
Guest Commentary: Keep young moms in school
I have been away from home for far too long. Armed with a law degree, a toddler and a work ethic only a girl raised by an autoworker could muster…
3/30/11 Detroit 2020
Kurt Metzger, the director of Data Driven Detroit talks about what the changing Census numbers mean for the city of Detroit, and the region.
3/30/11 The South End
Study stresses micro-successes over larger negative image of city
Ever since the release of the official census data that declared Detroit’s population to be around 715,000, several voices have been raised…
3/29/11 The Detroit News
Metro Detroit no longer most segregated
The steady movement of African-Americans from Detroit to area suburbs helped knock the region off the top of the list of most-segregated…
3/29/11 Edmunds Inside Line
Chrysler’s “Imported From Detroit” Collection Goes Highbrow
Chrysler’s Imported from Detroit collection, which continues to riff off the popularity of the automaker’s Super Bowl commercial…
3/28/11 MLive.com
Demographer projects Detroit’s population will dip to 650,000, but residents say it’s no ‘blank slate’
While other cities worry whether their future will mirror Detroit’s, local residents say the city is full of opportunity…
3/28/11 The Detroit News
Detroit’s population loss likely to continue
The initial shock may be fading, but the debate is heating up: How low can Detroit go? The U.S. Census Bureau last week reported that 25 percent of the city’s residents had left…
3/27/11 The Detroit Free Press
Editorial: What more of the same means for Detroit’s decay
Detroit would keep shrinking down to about 530,000 people, spread ever more thinly across the same 139.5 square miles but pockmarked…
3/26/11 The Detroit Free Press
Will Warren’s district plan accurately represent city’s growing minority population?
The plan to carve Warren into five districts for City Council elections is complete, but some say it fails to improve representation…
3/26/11 Lansing State Journal
Lansing-area leaders say Detroit’s woes don’t apply here
Local government and business leaders are eager to inject last week’s Census results into their own stories…
3/25/11 The New York Times
Trying to Save a City, or at Least a Part
In a city where residents are still fleeing at a historic rate, there is no shortage of cliched reminders that this place has been redefined…
3/24/11 The Detroit News
Black influx impacts school choice in Detroit suburbs
Detroit’s suburbs are increasingly becoming integrated in neighborhoods, but less so in the classroom. A Detroit News analysis of U.S. census and state data shows many communities…
3/24/11 Huffington Post
Bank of America Will Help Demolish Detroit’s Abandoned Homes
Bank of America, the country’s largest bank by assets, has announced an initiative to demolish one hundred abandoned Detroit homes…
3/24/11 The Detroit Free Press
Racial integration in the suburbs brings no battles, but issues remain
More than 180,000 African Americans moved out of Detroit between 2000-10, disrupting a legacy of racial polarization that has marked metro Detroit…
3/23/11 Crain’s Detroit Business
Detroit-area census results expected to change biz development strategy, show shifts in ethnic groups
A startling low population figure in Detroit, high growth in Macomb County and a northern migration of ethnic groups are data points coming out of census figures…
3/23/11 The Detroit Free Press
Census and race: Detroit’s Inner-ring suburbs gain diversity
Detroit’s loss in population in the last decade was the suburbs’ gain, at least in terms of diversity. While many inner-ring suburbs saw their own population decline…
3/23/11 International Business Times
Detroit’s Population Plunges by 25% in a Decade
Hard hit by a sluggish auto industry, Detroit’s population dropped by a quarter over the last decade, according to newly released census data. The drastic population drop…
3/23/11 The Oakland Press
Macomb County: Population 840,978 … now bigger than Detroit which lost 25 %
Propelled by years of robust housing construction in the early years of the last decade, before the recession slammed the brakes on the building boom and chilled the local economy, sending some jobless residents fleeing for employment in other states, Macomb County’s population…
3/23/11 The Detroit Free Press
West side of Michigan grew faster than central, NE portions
Michigan’s west side grew faster than the central and northeast portion of the state, according to census figures released Tuesday. The seven counties…
3/23/11 The Macomb Daily
Albanians, Chaldeans, Arabs and Asians move to Macomb County
Gjeto, left, and Nick Gojcaj, brothers of Albanian descent, run four area restaurants. Nick Gojcaj, owner of the eateries, said Albanians came to the Detroit area – and Macomb County in particular – for jobs. Nick Gojcaj speaks…
3/23/11 The Wall Street Journal
Detroit’s Population Crashes
The population of Detroit has fallen back 100 years. The flight of middle-class African-Americans to the suburbs fueled an exodus…
3/23/11 The Detroit News
Detroit’s population falls 25%
Patches of growth emerged in Michigan’s northwestern and western counties…
3/23/11 The Detroit Free Press
A Shifting Michigan: What it means to us
Michigan’s decade-long recession has reordered the state beyond economics. It has shuffled the mix of where Michiganders live…
3/23/11 USA Today
Motor City population declines 25%
Detroit’s population plunged 25% in the past decade to 713,777, the lowest count since 1910, four years before Henry Ford…
3/23/11 Ferndale Patch
Ferndale’s Population Loss Third Largest in County at 10%
Census data shows that while the state’s population decreased overall, some counties grew in population…
3/23/11 Bloomberg
Detroit Population Plunges to Century Low With Suburban Flight
For three years, Jayesh Patel, an attorney, and his wife, Neethi, a pediatrician, were what he called “reverse commuters.” They worked in the suburbs…
3/22/11 WDIV Detroit
Census: Detroit’s Population Plummets 25 Percent
Hammered by the auto industry’s slump, Detroit saw its population plummet 25 percent over the past decade, according to census…
3/22/11 The New York Times
Detroit Census Confirms a Desertion Like No Other
Laying bare the country’s most startling example of modern urban collapse, census data on Tuesday showed that Detroit’s population…
3/22/11 Huffington Post
Census: Detroit population plummets 25 percent
Hammered by the auto industry’s slump, Detroit saw its population plummet 25 percent over the past decade…
3/21/11 The Detroit News
Census to reveal Detroit’s decline
Later this week, Detroiters will get a cold dose of reality: They’re not No. 11 anymore. When the U.S. Census Bureau releases detailed counts…
Spring 2011 Shelterforce
Where Do We Fit In? CDCs and the Emerging Shrinking City Movement
There’s nothing new about shrinking cities. Many American cities have been losing population steadily since the 1950s and 1960s…
3/17/11 The Detroit News
Boomers told to step aside
The generation with “baby” in its nickname isn’t aging gracefully. Once, boomers were the nation’s delight, prized for youth, rock ‘n’ roll and omnivorous habits of consumption…
3/17/11 Hometownlife.com
Public urged to participate in redistricting process
With population losses in Detroit and Michigan, Michigan residents can expect to lose one member of the U.S. House of Representatives because the state…
3/15/11 Model D
Data Driven Detroit goes from 4 to 15 people since 2009
Kurt Metzger started Data Driven Detroit with the idea of running a small nonprofit with a handful of people…
3/13/11 WDIV Local 4 News
More With Data Driven Detroit’s Kurt Metzger
Watch Kurt Metzger’s interview with news anchor Devin Scillian on WDIV’s weekly current event news program Flashpoint.
3/11/11 Hometownlife.com
Redistricting forum to be held a Schoolcraft
The Michigan Redistricting Collaborative, created by nonpartisan nonprofit organizations across the state will host a major educational forum…
3/11/11 The Macomb Daily
Macomb County population up in 2010 Census count
Despite the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs and the closure of dozens of industrial plants, Macomb County’s population grew at a faster rate than every surrounding county over the past decade…
3/07/11 The Oakland Press
Most Michigan counties growing, Census shows
Except for Wayne and Genesee counties, most southeast Michigan counties actually gained in population over the last decade, despite a high unemployment rate for most…
3/06/11 CBS Detroit
If You’re Happy And You Know It… Do You Live In Detroit?
Where do the happiest people live? A new Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index says it’s not Michigan. In fact, WWJ Newsradio 950′s…
2/27/11 Crain’s Detroit Business
Data Driven Detroit picks up One D’s education scorecard
Education metrics are an important part of the local statistical mix tracked by Data Driven Detroit, the data-gathering organization…
2/25/11 Washington Examiner
Mayor hopes police take offer to return to Detroit
Joelle Terry went to college in Detroit, sings alto in a church choir in the city and fights crime on its streets. But the 14-year Detroit police veteran…
2/24/11 The Detroit Free Press
Detroit group estimates city’s population at 850,259
Anticipating a census undercount, the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. released its own estimate of Detroit’s population Wednesday…
2/22/11 Crain’s Detroit Business
Data Driven Detroit seeks ongoing funding to keep telling Detroit’s numerical story
In the few years that Data Driven Detroit has been in existence, its work has objectively presented the region’s standing…
2/06/11 Crain’s Detroit Business
Officials mull challenge to increase degree-holders
Metro Detroit could be in the running for a $1 million national marketing campaign promoting its focus on a highly educated work-force…
2/06/11 Livingston Daily
Household income drops $1.32B across Livingston
Household income dropped by $1.32 billion across Livingston County between 1999 and 2009, according to recent data from Data Driven Detroit.
1/27/11 AnnArbor.com
Following Rick Snyder’s lead, Mackinac Policy Conference embraces ‘measurable results’
Michigan’s new symbol should be the yardstick. It seems as if everyone is appraising, benchmarking and gauging these days. Gov. Rick Snyder set a strong example…
1/27/11 The Center for Michigan
Beyond Snyder’s Dashboard: One D publishes its new regional scorecard
It’s a pretty savvy time for Nerd in Charge Rick Snyder to launch metrics to measure his administration. It’s easier to look good on scorecards when you start out near the bottom. Michigan’s ace demographer, Kurt Metzger, and his crew at Data Driven Detroit just launched the new One D Scorecard…
1/25/11 Detroit 2020 (WXYZ Detroit)
Detroit Works Project Gets to Work
With the temperature in the teens, we found Davette Bradley shoveling her front walk. It’s her effort to keep her eastside Detroit neighborhood safe and well tended.
1/24/11 The Detroit Regional News Hub
Information is power, just ask D3
When it comes to communities, information is empowering. Especially at this juncture in Detroit’s history, it is more important than ever for all Detroiters to have access to reliable information about…
1/23/11 Crain’s Detroit Business
One D Dissolves; Work Goes On: Other Groups Take On Scorecard, Projects
In the spirit that it was created, One D, a 4-year-old collaboration of civic groups working on regional revitalization, has dissolved because other groups are equipped to carry on its work.
1/19/11 The Michigan Citizen
Bing’s Secret Relocation Plans
While the major media continues to roll out stories about Mayor Dave Bing’s desire to move citizens from the more sparsely populated neighborhoods in the city, the mayor…
1/14/11 WGTE Public Media
Deadline NOW: Kurt Metzger
Kurt Metzger, Director of Data Driven Detroit, joins host Jack Lessenberry to analyze the latest U.S. Census numbers.
1/14/11 Toledo Blade
Partisanship Corroding Michigan Supreme Court
Last summer, Marilyn Kelly, then chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, told me one of her goals was to win more respect for her state’s badly tarnished legal institution. The court has been infamous for…
1/5/11 The Center for Michigan
Sure Glad That Decade is Over
While Michiganians, or Michiganders as our new Governor prefers, knew that the first decade of the 21st Century had been hard on the state, the first 2010 Census results, released on December 21, truly “brought it home.” With a 2010 population count of 9,883,644, Michigan was the ONLY state to lose population over the decade…
12/29/10 The Craig Fahle Show
The Craig Fahle Show Podcast
Guest host John Balardo, publisher of Hour Magazine, has a lengthy discussion with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing. Also, a discussion with Data Driven Detroit Director Kurt Metzger.
12/21/10 CBS Detroit
Michigan To Lose One Congressional Seat
New census numbers released Tuesday show Michigan as the only state to lose population since the last survey a decade ago. As a result, Michigan will lose at least one congressional seat, going from 15 to 14.
12/19/10 The Detroit Free Press
Michigan should be important in ways other than size
On Tuesday, Uncle Sam will do a number on us. Several numbers, actually, as the U.S. Census Bureau issues a report on the results of its 2010 count. The two numbers of most interest here will be…
12/15/10 The Detroit Free Press
Metro Detroit is becoming slightly less segregated
While showing slight improvement, metro Detroit remains among the most racially segregated metropolitan areas in the nation, according to newly released U.S. Census data. Detroit ranks as the second-most segregated metropolitan area behind Milwaukee…
12/09/10 The Detroit Free Press
Mayor assesses Detroit’s hopes, frustrations
Eighteen months after taking office, Mayor Dave Bing remains optimistic about the future of Detroit – and confident on his ability to lead the city. In his office on Tuesday, Bing talked with Detroit Free Press editorial writer Jeff Gerritt about his plans for the city…
12/09/10 The Detroit Free Press
Dave Bing says there’ll be incentives for Detroiters to move
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said this week that he will begin using incentives next year to concentrate city residents in at least seven to nine core areas that will serve as population centers for a newly configured city.
11/28/10 The Detroit Free Press
It’s crunch time for shrinking incomes
Median household income in southeast Michigan, adjusted for inflation, fell nearly 24% over the last decade, as manufacturing jobs continued to crumble. Michigan’s decline…
11/18/10 Hometownlife.com
Experts: More state cuts will harm poor
A panel of experts on poverty drew a bleak picture of reduced program funding that they say will likely result with the newly elected state Republican majority.
11/17/10 Metro Times
Re-Detroit: Seeking the vision for a revitalized city
It’s all about the “re-” these days when people talk about the city’s future:
11/18/10 Hometownlife.com
Poverty forum: ‘Needs are great’
Wayne County lost more people since 2000 than any other county in the country and of those who remained a growing number are at poverty levels…
November 2010 Money
Lessons from Detroit
Richard and Pamela Mack are making a big bet on the future of Detroit: They’ve just purchased a huge house in a city that’s been hollowed out by the Great Recession and the near death of the American auto industry. One in 10 homes here stands vacant, according to Data Driven Detroit…
10/28/10 The Detroit Free Press
Woodward Corridor gets $21M
Detroit’s Woodward Corridor will receive about $21 million from a collaborative of major foundations to boost urban vitality and promote locally owned businesses. Mayor Dave Bing is expected to join representatives from several other cities and Living Cities, a collaborative of 22 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions…
October 2010 Metro Parent
Raising Kids in the City of Detroit
When Tamara Robinson says she lives in Detroit, it’s never been an easy sell. Especially when people realize she and her husband have four kids…
10/10/10 The Detroit Free Press
Ann Arbor becomes the center of power
Where is southeast Michigan’s power center in 2010, the hot spot, the place that the real movers and shakers call home?
10/3/10 The Detroit News
The reason why we’re poorer
Michigan’s hemorrhaging of prosperity has little to do with the devastation of the domestic automobile industry, and a lot to do with our failure to prepare for that inevitability. It’s not about economics, it’s about education.
9/30/10 The Macomb Daily
Sterling Heights median income drops significantly
A Census study shows that the median household income in Sterling Heights has dropped. Just ask a baker. John Mannino and his family have operated Mannino’s Bakery in Sterling Heights for many years.
9/29/10 Fox 2 News
White Population Growing in Detroit
DETROIT – After several decades of what’s been called “white flight”, Detroit is seeing an increase in white residents.
09/29/10 The Detroit Free Press
Detroit sees rise in white residents after 60 years
A stunning demographic reversal is taking shape in Detroit. After six decades of white flight, the percentage of white Detroiters has shot up dramatically
o9/29/10 The Detroit News
Michigan sees sharpest income plunge in nation
For most families in Michigan, the long-running recession has meant a simple, unrelenting truth: living with less. And census data released on Tuesday shows how much less…
09/15/10 MyFOX Detroit
Detroit Works Projects Forums Seen as Vital
A meeting to consider shrinking Detroit erupted in emotion, but now everyone’s talking about how to make the city stronger.
09/08/10 Metro Times
The numbers game
So how many people does Detroit really have? The U.S. Census bureau counted us all on April 1, except for the millions they had to spend time and money hunting down afterward.
09/02/10 Jack Lessenberry’s Essays and Interviews, Michigan Public Radio
In the Numbers
We won’t start to get official census figures till December. But Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry reports that a new outfit called Data Driven Detroit is already trying to give us the facts about ourselves, and tell us what they mean.
Fall 2010 Next American City
The Data Dividend
When it comes to making cities better, accurate and abundant data are powerful tools. In New Orleans and Detroit, which share many challenges — including vacant property and high crime and poverty — open data can help citizens improve their communities…
08/30/10 The Detroit Free Press
Harness survey data, don’t limit it
There is only one way for the federal government to plan for the future demands on the Social Security system, the National School Lunch Program and the Low Income Energy Assistance Program. There’s only one way for businesses to understand their customer bases…
08/23/10 Citizen-Times
Web Chat: Discussing Detroit’s council districts
The debate about how to draw Detroit’s council districts is just beginning, and will likely last for years…
08/22/10 The Detroit Free Press
Divided We Stand
Here’s one plan for dividing up Detroit to produce a better city government when voters begin choosing seven council members from districts under a charter change approved last year…
08/15/10 The Detroit Free Press
Population Density to Guide Detroit’s Destiny
This may come as a shock to cynics who say nobody lives in Detroit anymore. Even after a half-century of people leaving, Detroit’s population…
06/20/10 The New York Times
Razing the City to Save the City
For generations, residents of this hollowed-out city hoped that somehow Detroit could be reborn–its population would return and its crumbling core…
06/12/10 MLive.com
Michigan birth rate down 21 percent since 2000
Mary Wieber, of Grand Rapids, holds her newborn daughter, Avery, in the maternity ward at Metro Health Hospital…
06/05/10 The Wall Street Journal
Black Flight Hits Detroit
This shrinking city needs to hold on to people like Johnette Barham: taxpaying, middle-class professionals who invest in local real estate…
06/01/10 Governing
Leading the Census-Participation Pack: Livonia, Mich. had the highest census participation rate not because of what it did – but because of what it is
Congratulations are in order for humble Livonia, Mich., which at least briefly is the envy of cities nationwide. The bedroom community near Detroit score an 87 percent mail participation rate…
05/01/10 The Chaldean News
So different, so similar: Immigrant experiences lay groundwork
Though Chaldeans far outnumber Jews in Metro Detroit, it’s still somewhat easier to generalize about the Chaldeans. Chaldeans trace their roots….
04/04/10 The Detroit Free Press
2020 VISION: What Detroit could be in 10 years
You see thousands of kids attending schools that work for them. You see people using light rail and boarding buses in a transit system that serves them…
04/04/10 The Detroit Free Press
Welcome to the City of our Future
In my Detroit, a decade from now, there are no blocks with one burned-out house. Those eyesores have been leveled. Grass and trees have taken their place…
03/02/10 The Detroit Free Press
City’s rebirth at risk over lack of births
Half as many children were born in Detroit in 2007 as there were 17 years before, according to a new study that has monumental implications…
02/28/10 The Detroit Free Press
Detroit’s Priorities
A week ago, the Detroit Residential Parcel Survey revealed shocking rates of vacancy in vast stretches of Detroit. Today, in the maps below…
02/28/10 The Detroit Free Press
Getting to a smaller Detroit
Mayor Dave Bing’s recent announcements that he will address the downsizing of Detroit are a huge step forward…
02/21/10 Detroit Data Collaborative
Detroit Data Collaborative Releases Landmark Residential Survey Data
Detroit, Michigan, February 21, 2010 – The Detroit Data Collaborative reported today that a landmark survey of Detroit’s residential property showed…
02/20/10 The Detroit Free Press
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE VACANT
A landmark survey has found that a third of Detroit’s residential parcels are either vacant lots or abandoned homes, but that more than 90% of the city’s occupied houses…
02/10/10 The Detroit Free Press
Classroom Spending Pays Off for School
Schools in Wyandotte, Grosse Pointe, Troy, Garden City and Trenton differ in enrollment and demographics.
02/10/10 The Detroit Free Press
Teen births up in Detroit after declining for years
After years of declining birthrates, a study released today concludes that more Detroit teens are having babies than a few years ago…
02/01/10 Crain’s Detroit Business
Demographer: Numbers key to shaping city’s future
Kurt Metzger knows how many city workers are Detroit residents, how the makeup of the eastside’s ethnic communities…
10/04/09 Crain’s Detroit Business
Census: Detroit population difficult to estimate
Widespread home foreclosures and vacancies appear to be making it harder for census takers to accurately count residents in Detroit…
10/02/09 Metromode
Blogger: Kurt Metzger
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kurt moved permanently to the Detroit area in 1975 when he began full-time employment with the Census Bureau. Kurt spent 15 years with…
09/29/09 The Detroit News
Perception keeps residents grounded
Why do you live where you do? In other cities, this might be an academic question. In Metro Detroit, the mounting challenges to existence make the question more urgent…
09/22/09 The Examiner
Census report shows recession hammers Michigan; incomes, housing values, health coverage fall
Michigan’s already dire economic plight only worsened as the recession kicked in, with incomes and home values plunging while fewer people had health insurance coverage…
