decline

January 25, 2019

Map envisions 1919 Detroit subway plan, and we’re left to wonder: What if?

Now this is interesting. A friend found this on the r/Detroit Reddit, a graphic imagining the city’s 1918 subway plan,...

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May 3, 2018

VIDEO: In 1983, Detroit was dubbed ‘SuperCity U.S.A.’

Here’s another fascinating and sometimes cringeworthy trip back in time, courtesy of the Detroit Historical Society’s excellent YouTube channel. It’s...

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December 12, 2016

1980 video: ‘Where will you be the picture of success? Where else but Detroit!’

Promotional videos aim to capture their subject in the best light, but it’s hard to feel that way in hindsight...

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September 5, 2016

Welcome back to school, can you spare a dime?

Tomorrow morning, like so many other parents out there, my kids go back to school. My youngest is starting kindergarten,...

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May 11, 2016

‘Third world state’ and other accolades keep rolling in for Michigan

I’ve written before about what an embarrassment the state of Michigan is turning out to be, given its long list...

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March 26, 2016

Reports make it painfully clear: Michigan is starving for reinvestment

I love my home state, but sometimes it just exhausts me. Case in point: the woeful condition of our cities....

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March 9, 2016

A conversation with ‘Detroit Resurrected’ author Nathan Bomey about the city’s bankruptcy

I don’t know how else to start this post than with this disclosure: Nathan Bomey and I were coworkers at...

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March 6, 2016

We should learn our lessons from the sad history of the Flint River

Technology news site The Verge recently asked a good question about the Flint water crisis: How did the Flint River...

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February 11, 2016

My day handing out water and supplies in Flint with the Red Cross

If you really want to disrupt people’s lives in a fundamental way — not to mention endanger their health —...

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January 17, 2016

Flint water crisis, Detroit schools a major reckoning for a once-proud state

In case you didn’t notice, the lead poisoning water crisis that is right now engulfing Flint is playing out in...

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