Urban Affairs

How are Detroit's buses running these days? We asked the people who depend on them day after day.

Set a goal, control the numbers, trumpet the results. That’s been Mike Duggan’s leadership playbook for two decades. Has he pushed his luck with Detroit?

Should we stay or should we go? A reporter’s notebook on living with crime in Detroit.

Detroit’s patchwork of traditional public and charter schools can be confusing to parents looking for a good fit. The resulting chaos led a group of parents to share information on promising schools.

Optimism is beginning to percolate across much of the city, as a can-do mayor attempts to make good on bold promises. Hard numbers are more difficult to come by.

In Detroit, there are stirrings of job growth in the usual places, but data is still scant on improving prospects for most city residents.

Mayor Duggan promised progress on lights, blight and buses and, by his office’s own count at least, there is progress.

A city’s quality of life can be hard to define, but a few steps forward could give Detroit residents a warm feeling about the future.

Six months in, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is focused intently on improving city services, selling himself to residents and consolidating power within the bankrupt city. Can the honeymoon last?

Putting aside deep concerns about Detroit’s path, Michigan voters say the city’s recovery is too important to state’s future to ignore. Bipartisan majorities support state funding to help Detroit retirees and save DIA art.

Like small communities across Michigan, Hillsdale is quietly laying off police, reducing services and watching its roads fall to pieces. And yet, there is support for state aid to Michigan’s largest city.

Detroit’s former mayor argues that the city’s negative image brings down all of Michigan – even hundreds of miles away.

Detroit owes thousands of people, businesses and banks roughly $18 billion. Does it owe you? Scan the Bridge database for the names of city creditors and what they’re due.

A bankruptcy judge has yet to sign off on Detroit’s proposal for paying thousands of creditors. But there are signs of who is likely to benefit most when the bankruptcy dust settles.

Jacques Panis, president of the Detroit watch and bicycle maker, offers a wish list of businesses he’d like to see in Detroit.

Across Michigan, the writing’s on the wall. How you feel about graffiti depends on your age, your attitude, and whether you mind spray paint in an urban landscape.

Some cities now have safe zones for legal graffiti in a bid to contain it. Whether graffiti writers will comply is another question.

For Detroit, municipal bankruptcy has made the world aware of what Michigan already knew: Detroit is broke. No matter how it turns out, bankruptcy is not going to change things very quickly. Detroit will still be broke. Lester Graham with Michigan Watch reports that’s going to force the city to get creative.

As Detroit’s historic island park transitions to state control, upgrades are being watched closely by city residents, including many who remain wary of the motives of state government.