By the time a building is abandoned and falls into disrepair, its community is already suffering. Michigan scholars suggest it’s time to plan for structures’ end of life before they even go up.
A Detroit police officer makes an arrest during the riots of 1967.
AP Photo/File
In 1967 race riots nearly tore Detroit apart. The next year, the Kerner Commission, appointed by president Lyndon Johnson, placed the blame on the way the police and had handled the response.
Once lauded for their vision and promise, Silicon Valley giants have made life so hard for locals that residents regularly protest the companies, including their amenities like charter buses to save workers from the region’s terrible traffic.
AP Photo/Richard Jacobsen
Big technology firms are becoming known for mistreating workers, customers and society as a whole. Is an economic powerhouse about to collapse like Detroit did years go?
The city of Dortmund is seeking citizens’ input on plans for this 44-hectare brownfield site of Hoesch Spundwand und Profil in Dortmund.
Robing Chang
Pop-up parks and tiny houses are just a few of the innovative solutions that can help post-industrial cities across Europe and North America adapt to the future.
People gather around a truck to get food on Detroit’s east side in July 1967. The food was brought to the riot-stricken area by the Crisis Council, one of the many organizations aiding residents.
AP Photo
Fifty years ago, Jeffrey Horner watched news broadcasts of the riots that erupted just miles from his home. But he was worlds apart from the racial tensions that had been festering for decades.
Empty field north of downtown Detroit, photographed nine months before the city declared bankruptcy in 2013.
AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File
Less than four years after Detroit filed for bankruptcy, boosters say a revival is underway in the Motor City. But two scholars say new growth has not spread yet to neighborhoods that need it.
A detail from the north wall of Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry.
Diego Rivera, 1932. Detroit Institute of Arts
A new exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts highlights a controversial mural commissioned during a period fraught with social unrest.
Former US Poet Laureate Philip Levine (1928-2015) was down to earth and humble. But he spared no rage towards those he deemed selfish and narcissistic.
Brooklyn Book Festival/Flickr
Kate Daniels, the director of Vanderbilt’s creative writing program, recalls the life and work of her mentor, a man “devoted…to creating gritty and empathetic portraits of American blue collar workers.”
Graham Beal led the Detroit Institute of Arts through the city’s financial crisis.
Les Ward
Graham Beal, the Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, recently announced that he will be retiring after fifteen years at the helm. Two of his achievements particularly stand out. The first is his…
Detroit has emerged from bankruptcy, but the process has been sharply criticized, which could impair its success.
Reuters
Earlier this month, we learned that the biggest municipal bankruptcy in history would also be among the swiftest. The emergency manager for Detroit filed for bankruptcy in the summer of 2013 without a…
Detroit, a thriving manufacturing city 50 years ago, is now bankrupt.
ifmuth/Flickr
Detroit is in turmoil, officially bankrupt and home to some of America’s poorest citizens. But 50 years ago it was thriving, boasting a booming manufacturing sector and a steadily growing educated middle-class…
The Spirit of Detroit may yet rise again.
Dave Sizer/Flickr
On the surface it appears that the City of Detroit is facing a hopeless future. A closer look suggests that the picture is not so bleak. The alarm has been raised by the State of Michigan placing the city…
Detroit, formerly a global economic powerhouse, has filed for bankruptcy in the face of crippling loan repayments. While an equivalent collapse in the UK is unlikely any time soon, if certain voices in…
Will an urban farming project be able to revitalise Detroit?
tcd123usa via flickr
“Every year I’d tell myself it’s going to get better… and, sure enough, it didn’t get better.” – John Hantz Once held up as the epicentre of industrialised mass production, Detroit has for decades been…