Urban Affairs

Michigan Radio’s Lester Graham tags along as a neighborhood police officer completes his rounds in the city’s MorningSide community.

This is what it’s like to teach in a classroom with too many children, books that don’t arrive until March, and no help because there not enough teachers.

A get-tough approach is sending scofflaws to jail for unpaid misdemeanor tickets. But it costs the county more to jail them than it generates for the city in ticket revenue and, now, even the sheriff is complaining.

Counties across Michigan profit from selling foreclosed homes and charging fees on back taxes to down-and-out residents. No place does it more than Wayne County.

A Michigan woman brings hope and a duffel bag to the airport on what could be her last day in only country she’s known since she was a baby.

It’s not only the residents who continue to struggle in the city’s vast, impoverished neighborhoods. Small stores are barely hanging on.

July 22, 1967 - It's been 50 years since the uprising

Cornerstone Schools recently announced that its flagship K-8 school would become a charter this fall. It would keep the same staff and curriculum, but would now be able to collect taxpayer money.

Left for dead in the 1970s, lending through (often predatory) land contracts is back with a vengeance in Michigan and Rust Belt cities after the mortgage meltdown.

The documentary, produced by the Detroit Free Press in partnership with Bridge Magazine is selling out fast. A Bridge/DJC book examining the violence that shook Detroit 50 years ago is available now.

An African-American businessman dreamed of a place where people of color could live and boat on the river, in the shadow of high-rise luxury. It never happened.

The past and new immigration policies catch up to a woman who must soon leave United States – and her family.

To break even, streetcar must be more than a millennial mover or party tram for sports fans, experts say.

How much did it cost? How much does it need to make to break even? We break it all down for you.

Use this map to examine building permits and income along the route of the QLINE

Residential shutoffs spiked 18 percent in 2016 - countering city officials' expectations. A staggering 83,000 homes have lost water service at some point since the city launched a crackdown on delinquent accounts in 2014.

Go block by block to scan the more than 27,000 homes that had water cut off in 2016.

"A significant difference in diagnoses" of skin or gastrointestinal infection was found in residents who lived on blocks with water shutoffs. But researchers acknowledge there's not yet enough data to prove a link.

A promising Detroit hospital program is steering ER patients ‒ including those engaged in crime themselves ‒ on a safer path. With video.

Nikolai Vitti, the incoming superintendent from Florida, faces some age-old Detroit problems: overcrowded classrooms, historically low student achievement, and the burden of replacing a popular predecessor. Here’s what insiders suggest he should tackle first.