August 4 is Neighborhoods Day, a day-long event which features over one hundred activities in Metro Detroit, ranging from neighborhood cleanups to music festivals to library book fairs. The events are coordinated by ARISE Detroit, a coalition of community groups dedicated to volunteerism and social improvement.
Rochelle Riley explains the day’s significance using information from D3’s Kurt Metzger in the Free Press:
“Neighborhoods are, and have always been, the foundation … the lifeblood of Detroit,” said Kurt Metzger, head of Data Driven Detroit. “We are all Detroiters but, even more, we are from Clark Park, Chandler Park, Palmer Park, Rosedale Park, Regent Park, Victoria Park, Forest Park and Parkland … just to name a few.”…
“My greatest hope for this day,” said [ARISE executive director Luther] Keith, “is these people all over Detroit are able to make their communities better. This is a day when Detroit literally changes. If you have over 50 cleanups and people cleaning schools, the city changes.”
Neighborhoods are the building blocks of any city. But in a city as geographically large as Detroit, simply keeping track of neighborhoods’ names and boundaries can be challenging. D3 analysts are continuing to collect Detroiters’ knowledge about their neighborhoods to refine and expand our neighborhood map. (Our data is built on the work of CityScape.) If your neighborhood is missing from this map, drop us a line.