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In-depth reporting on Michigan's largest city and surrounding communities, including deep dives into the big changes afoot in Detroit, its schools, neighborhoods, institutions and city hall.
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A look back at our most impactful Detroit stories of 2019
Gentrification, evicting artists, and white mortgages in a majority black city. As 2019 winds down, take a look back at Bridge's most impactful Detroit stories of the year.
As Detroit students settle into their first semester of college, ‘bridge’ programs provide needed support
She’s scheduled office visits with her professor. She’s asked the teaching assistants for help. She’s dropped into the math learning centers. But still, despite excelling in her other classes, Marqell McClendon has struggled.
In the age of Uber, will metro Detroit shell out billions for buses?
New technology is revolutionizing transit options. Will they complement mass transit or threaten it? That’s a question that could undergird an upcoming vote on a mass transportation tax.
How a tax break to help the poor went to NBA owner Dan Gilbert
After a lobbying effort, Dan Gilbert, billionaire founder of Quicken Loans, won special tax status for wealthy areas of downtown Detroit where he owns billions worth of property.
Can Detroit businesses survive city’s push for walkable neighborhoods?
Mayor Mike Duggan wants to make seven neighborhoods more walkable. But the first project, along the Avenue of Fashion, is months behind schedule and businesses are closing.
In a changing Detroit, footpaths are vanishing across vast, empty lands
The University of Michigan has mapped 5,200 footpaths through Detroit. The author of the study says it’s a valuable planning tool. But one critic calls it ‘poverty porn.’
Wayne County’s tired jail deputies work double shifts at low pay. Wanna apply?
Michigan’s largest county is perpetually short of officers to guard jail inmates that critics contend shouldn’t be incarcerated in the first place. ‘It’s a screwed up system,’ a sheriff’s official admits.
Detroit Police opt for safety over privacy, as facial recognition approved
After months of controversy, a police oversight board approves the use of facial recognition technology in Detroit, as some other cities nationwide prohibit it over accuracy and privacy concerns.
Ossian Sweet defied segregation. Now his Detroit home will be a museum.
The black doctor stood up to a white mob upset that he moved into their neighborhood, igniting one of the most important – and incendiary – housing discrimination cases in history. A fundraising effort is underway to make his former home a museum.
E-scooters are fast, unregulated and all over Detroit. What could go wrong?
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan invited scooter companies to set up shop last year. Now, the city and others in Michigan are grappling with the consequences.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan claimed scooter injuries are ‘BS.’ They’re not.
New research says e-scooters, whose riders frequently don’t wear helmets, are causing a head injury ‘epidemic’ nationwide. One Detroit emergency room alone treats 10-20 injured riders per month.
After a year, safe drinking water is flowing again at Detroit schools
Detroit’s public district returns a back-to-school essential most take for granted: running water. Last year, schools shut the tap after the discovery of lead and copper.
Detroit shut off water to 11,800 homes this year. Most are still off.
Records show 62 percent of Detroit residential shutoffs were without service as of Aug. 1. The vast majority had gone a week or more, contradicting claims that the city restores nearly all water within 48 hours.
How to get help with Detroit water payments and avoid shutoffs
Every year, thousands of Detroit customers are disconnected for nonpayment. Many resources exist for help. Here is what is available.
As the forest moves back in, pollen is on the rise in Detroit
For the first time, researchers are pinpointing where pollen levels are the highest to help residents with allergies and asthma protect themselves.
Can Mike Duggan demolish his way to a safer Detroit? Studies say maybe
Two studies suggest homicides and aggravated assaults in Detroit dropped more in areas with moderate demolitions. The research, while inconclusive, comes as the mayor prepares to ask voters for more money for the demo blitz.
Detroit police chief defends new facial recognition policy; protests continue
Detroit Police Commission could vote in two weeks on controversial surveillance policy.
Detroit battle over video surveillance reaches fever pitch as crime falls
An emotional battle over facial recognition software has come to Detroit, one of the nation’s most violent cities, amid questions over the technology’s racial bias.
The University of Michigan invested big in Detroit. Now come the evictions.
U-M’s endowment’s investment in a firm that buys and renovates tax-foreclosed homes in Detroit is prompting evictions and big equity questions in a rapidly changing city.
Michigan desperate for Pre-K educators. And pays them poverty wages.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s plans for free preschool for all 4-year-olds depends on attracting more qualified teachers. That may be difficult since many make less than workers at McDonald’s.