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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.
Articles
How to cash in on a crappy home. Step one: Find a sucker to sign a land contract.
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.
More showings added for documentary on ‘67 Detroit uprisings
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.
On the Detroit River, a faded dream at a city-owned marina
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.
Mom has sick husband, baby – and looming deportation to ‘home’ she’s never known
The past and new immigration policies catch up to a woman who must soon leave United States – and her family.
There’s a lot riding on Detroit’s new QLINE streetcar
To break even, streetcar must be more than a millennial mover or party tram for sports fans, experts say.
QLINE by the numbers (slideshow)
How much did it cost? How much does it need to make to break even? We break it all down for you.
Streetcar travels through some of richest parts of Detroit (interactive map)
Use this map to examine building permits and income along the route of the QLINE
Detroit cites progress, but water shutoffs actually rose last year
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.
Interactive Map: Detroit water shutoffs by neighborhood
Go block by block to scan the more than 27,000 homes that had water cut off in 2016.
Are Detroit water shutoffs and illnesses related?
"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.
Keeping crime victims from becoming repeat customers
A promising Detroit hospital program is steering ER patients ‒ including those engaged in crime themselves ‒ on a safer path. With video.
Eight ways Detroit’s new schools chief can succeed
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.
Is gentrification helping or dividing Detroit?
Two writers discuss gentrification. One sees inequality. The other, glimmers of hope.
Welcome to the New Detroit, white people. So long, poor folks.
New book argues City Hall is picking winners and losers. And longtime residents are out of luck.
Bring on the wealthy to ease inequality in Detroit
Scholar argues that neighborhoods thrive when rich and poor live together.
Detroit scales back drain fees after churches balk
The city reduces controversial surcharge after religious leaders balk.
‘The Intersection’ book explores race, rebellion and the damage done in 1967 Detroit
Compilation from Bridge and the Detroit Journalism Cooperative measures how much has changed since deadly days of 1967. It goes on sale today. Get your copy in one click.
'The Intersection': ORDER TODAY
Click here to order your copy of our latest, book, "The Intersection." Fifty years after anger and frustration over police-community relations boiled over into a rebellion in Detroit, there are lots of people asking what we’ve learned, how we’ve changed.
Top of the pecking order: Meet your Detroit Chicken
Which came first, the artist or the egg? High art generates a new breed of chicken for a Detroit urban farm.
That Detroit rarity: a home mortgage
Can you call it a comeback if mortgages are only written in a few communities? Several years into a downtown recovery, neighborhood mortgage lending remains “pathetic.”