Urban Affairs

The city’s feared, nearly-all-white police force eventually integrated after the 1967 riot. But crime and mistrust within the city’s African-American community did not fade so easily. Residents say a new chief is helping to ease old animosities

In Baltimore Freddie Gray died after being arrested and thrown in the back of a police van. In Cleveland, video captured images of 12-year-old Tamir Rice as he was shot by a Cleveland officer. And in Ferguson, Missouri, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead in the street. These events and others have increased racial tensions in cities across the nation in a way not seen since the 1960

In the aftermath of Bridge’s story on the Detroit Community Schools, the Michigan Department of Education is checking for certification violations

A low-achieving Detroit charter, now run by former city councilwoman Sharon McPhail and administrators with checkered pasts, is the only high school in Brightmoor. Other city neighborhoods face a glut of schools. Can a new commission bring order to Detroit’s chaotic school landscape?

Seven reasons why Detroit Public Schools (and other Michigan districts) are destined for future deficits, even if their debts are erased now

African Americans may now control who’s elected mayor or to city council, but nearly 50 years after racial despair led to deadly insurrection and rioting, a view persists that white political and business interests continue to steer the city’s course

Was it a riot or a rebellion? Or both? Nearly five decades after the last fire was extinguished, the discussion continues over what to call the events in Detroit during July 1967

Sunday, July 23 through Thursday, July 27: What happened, by the numbers.

Noor Matti’s Christian-Iraqi family risked their lives to get to Detroit after the first Gulf War. Now Matti is relying on the values, and music, he learned in the Motor City to help struggling refugees.

A day in the life of DJ and Detroit music booster Noor Matti in Iraq

The nation’s largest Chapter 9 proceeding left Michigan’s biggest city standing on its own legs again, but those legs are shaky. Detroit Journalism Cooperative members look at how the stakeholders are doing.

Despite calls for putting a “pause” on accepting refugees in light of recent terror attacks, Detroit officials tout the many ways newcomers can contribute to the city’s resurgence.

As state leaders contemplate the next, new education plan for Detroit students, parents warn that more families will leave if the schools don’t improve.

Detroit touts huge reductions in police response times as evidence the city is keeping residents safer since the days before bankruptcy. But records obtained by Bridge show that grading the department’s gains is nearly impossible.

There is a growing acknowledgement in Lansing that the debt that accumulated in Detroit’s schools while under state oversight should be borne by the state.

An Arab-American and Chaldean group sees refugees as the centerpiece of a neighborhood revival. But Detroit’s mayor, and the city’s suburbs, may have other plans.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge will bring opportunities to southwest Detroit, but also an increase in truck traffic in neighborhoods that are already heavily polluted.

Mayor Duggan and his new planning director are quietly redrawing boundaries to join stable neighborhoods with blighted areas to transform both

The city’s so-called ‘jobs desert’ is exacerbated by poor mass transit that makes it difficult for residents in outer neighborhoods to find work. What Mayor Duggan is doing to try to fix the problem.

An infusion of post-bankruptcy cash means cutting the grass and making improvements, even as the city is quietly closing other parks.