Overgrown weeds, empty bottles and discarded bags littered property around a Detroit Family Dollar store. This type of blight isn’t unusual for a number of the dollar stores across the city. One Detroit’s Will Glover talks with BridgeDetroit reporter Jena Brooker about the blight issues at dollar stores around the city, as well as steps city officials are taking.
Read MoreDetroit plans to spend all of its $827 million in pandemic relief funding by the end of 2025, a year earlier than the U.S. treasury deadline to spend the money. So where will it all be spent? We dig into how and when the money will be spent, as well as how it will impact Detroiters’ daily lives.
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The Detroit People’s Food Co-op will be part of the larger Detroit Food Commons, a Black-led community development complex on Woodward Avenue expected to include an incubator kitchen for culinary artists and food entrepreneurs, a West African and Detroit-centric healthy foods cafe and will have space for community meetings, events, lectures, films, and performances.
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Video released Wednesday of the police shooting death of an African immigrant last week shows a Grand Rapids officer shooting Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head following a struggle.
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The City of Detroit helped facilitate the destruction of Black Bottom, home to hundreds of Black...
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Wayne County Treasurer Eric Sabree is urging Detroiters at risk of foreclosure to get on payment plans, as a two-year moratorium on foreclosures of occupied homes comes to an end and the March 31 deadline for redemptions approaches.
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A voter fills out her ballot at Central United Methodist Church in downtown Detroit during the...
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Homeowners in some Detroit neighborhoods can apply for a new city program to help protect their basements from future flooding. City officials announced the Basement Backup Protection Program on Monday. It’s an up to $15 million plan, with a pilot phase funded by $2.4 million in federal COVID-19 pandemic relief dollars.
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At Grace in Action, the co-op movement started roughly 20 years ago when Mexican Industries, a Southwest Detroit-based auto parts maker, abruptly closed after workers voted to form a union. Nine hundred mostly Latino workers were laid off, and the economic impact on the community was immediate. That led Meghan Sobocienski, executive director of Grace in Action, to actively create new business models for immigrant workers in the community. She’s been thinking about employment and the future of work since then, and to her, it comes down to one simple idea: create worker-led, locally owned businesses.
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A group of Republicans has sued the Michigan redistricting commission over its recently-approved congressional map, claiming the panel failed to draw districts with equal populations. The lawsuit, filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, also names Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson as a defendant. Bridge Michigan’s Sergio Martínez-Beltrán reports.
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Roughly one-third of children in Michigan under age 5 qualified for child care subsidies, but only 5% received those credits. Meanwhile, an estimated 44% of Michiganders live in “child care deserts” — places with a lack of licensed child care providers. The report finds significant gaps in need versus access to programs that provide food help, offset costs for child care and cash assistance among eligible families.
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In the 10 months since a statewide rent aid program launched to help tenants avoid eviction and catch up on payments, thousands of applications have poured in, demonstrating the vast and continuing need for rent assistance as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. Wayne County alone accounts for roughly one-third of the more than 173,000 applications that have come in, as of Friday, to the federally funded COVID Emergency Rental Assistance (CERA) program, which launched last March. Detroiters make up 22% of those applying for rent help across Michigan.
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A contingent of 15 Detroit Black lawmakers and leaders announced Monday they will sue the Michigan redistricting commission over recently approved state legislative and congressional maps. In a media event in Detroit, the lawmakers — including six incumbents and two former state representatives — argued the maps dilute the power of Black residents in the city of Detroit and violate the Voting Rights Act, the 1965 law designed to allow minorities to elect candidates of their choosing.
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In a historic vote, the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission last week adopted its first congressional map, which will last 10 years. If voting patterns from the 2020 election hold, the map would favor Democrats in seven districts and Republicans in six.
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Unpack the seven memos released by the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, who formerly kept the memos secret claiming attorney-client privilege to keep the information private. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that by doing so the commission violated the state’s constitution.
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As Michigan’s redistricting panel prepares to approve new legislative boundaries this month, some activists say proposed maps give rural areas outsized clout because of how inmate populations are counted. Even though the roughly 35,000 people serving sentences in Michigan prisons can’t vote, they are counted as residents of prisons where they are held for purposes of representation. Opponents call that “prison gerrymandering” because it inflates the population — and power — of smaller communities.
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The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state’s redistricting panel violated the state Constitution when it met behind closed doors to discuss secret memos used to draw the state’s new political boundaries. Several hours after the ruling, the commission released the memos around 11:30 p.m.
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One Detroit’s Will Glover talks with Bridge Michigan reporter Sergio Martínez-Beltrán about the current and future litigation facing the Michigan Redistricting Commission over unreleased notes from a closed meeting and the proposed maps. Then, Stephen and Nolan recap 2021 and discuss the stories to follow for the new year. Plus, celebrate the holidays this year with the Detroit Historical Musuem’s Hudson’s Holidays exhibit and a special preview of the Detroit Performs Special: Interlochen’s “The Nutcracker.”
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Every Black Detroiter who spent summers on the nostalgic Boblo island giggling on the carousel or swinging in the dance hall should thank Sarah Elizabeth Ray. After being denied a seat on one of the segregated Boblo boat in 1945 because she was Black, she fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. Her case paved the way for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, which ruled segregation in public schools as unconstitutional.
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Michigan’s redistricting panel voted Thursday to keep secret two memos that helped members justify the reduction of majority-minority legislative districts. The districts are redrawn every decade, and the process has led to some of the most Republican gerrymandered maps in the nation.
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Detroit Public Schools Community District is going remote for three days in December. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the closures help show that students and educators are under duress as COVID outbreaks and staff shortages pile on top of nearly two years of virtual learning, quarantines, masking battles and COVID fears.
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In this country’s origin story, Black Americans were largely restricted from owning guns. Yet, in Detroit today, citizens are increasingly turning to gun ownership for a sense of protection and — sometimes — because of a constitutional right to carry. Residents have become self-reliant and are looking to arm others with gun safety lessons and information about the responsibility of ownership.
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By Louis Aguilar A nonprofit that’s revived one former Detroit public school has set its sights...
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Michigan’s redistricting panel has continued to keep private information members used to draw districts in Detroit, prompting complaints that members are betraying their own transparency promises.
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By Olivia Lewis Detroit’s affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization work for the last...
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By Tracie Mauriello The Michigan House dove into the national debate over critical race theory on...
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By Bryce Huffman On Monday, Mayor Mike Duggan and Rochelle Riley, the city’s director of Arts,...
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Detroit voters will consider three ballot proposals on Nov. 2 involving psychedelics, reparations and the input of citizens in budgetary decisions.
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Old Redford celebrated new life for a 104-year-old building in Detroit during the inaugural Artist Village Arts Festival this weekend.
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Michigan’s congressional delegation could face sweeping changes in 2022 that have nothing to do with shifting political winds.
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By Lori Higgins The Detroit school district is investing heavily into weekly COVID testing for...
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The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office is “almost done” reviewing forensic evidence from rape in sexual assaults.
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Black people are leaving the Blackest city in America, according to the latest census data. But why would Black residents leave an area en masse where history, culture and opportunity collide?
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By Olivia Lewis Detroiters who received their first dose of the Moderna or Pfizer coronavirus...
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From the use of facial recognition technology and Project Green Light cameras to the ShotSpotter...
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Environmental justice advocates say American Rescue Plan Act funds that Detroit will soon receive ...
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An ongoing survey from the University of Michigan has found that almost 30% of the Detroiters who have not received a coronavirus vaccine are concerned about their safety.
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When they started building the wall behind Margaret Watson’s house in northwest Detroit, she knew the reason without having to ask.
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Thousands of Detroit residents, businesses, churches, nonprofits, libraries and others will likely need months to recover from the disastrous flooding caused by record rainfall two weeks ago and aging water infrastructure.
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Twenty-four hours after a water advisory had been placed on Detroit’s MorningSide, East English Village and Cornerstone Village neighborhoods, the City lifted the advisory, saying residents should have clean drinking water once they flushed their taps from the top of the house.
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Summer is officially a few weeks away. The pandemic lockdown seems so close to being over. That means millions will soon head to one of Detroit’s most popular sites, the downtown riverfront area.
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No drama and high turnout on Election Day in Detroit but final numbers won’t be in until late Wednesday.
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From our partners at Bridge Detroit: A federal court last week banned paid rides to the polls. In a transportation-challenged city, Detroit funeral homes, bus companies, ridesharing programs and car-sharing services offer free rides to help increase turnout.
Read MoreOrlando Bailey spoke with social justice activist Tawana Petty and Bridge Detroit reporter Bryce Huffman about the current state of crimefighting in the city.
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The Michigan governor faced criticism for her emergency orders during the coronavirus pandemic. But Whitmer also endured seven months of ominous threats, intimidation and accusations that culminated in an alleged plot to kidnap her.
Read MoreA report from One Detroit’s Will Glover on the importance of diversity in the nation’s newsrooms.
Read MoreWhat is it like to be a journalist of color covering the black lives matter protests and other stories about racial injustice?
Read MoreOrlando Bailey of BridgeDetroit speaks with Tristan Taylor, organizer of the group “Detroit Will Breathe,” and longtime Detroit activist Carolyn Baker about the protests against police brutality and systemic racism.
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