Detroit, Losing Population, Makes Plans to Shrink “The biggest problems are those people who are on the outskirts more than anything else, where neighborhoods have gone down to a point where it makes no sense to reinvest,” he said. “People will say, ‘Well, why not me?’ And I’m saying, we don’t have the money to do that.” Detroit is already shrinking on its own, of course. But the losses have been spread around the city, meaning that vacant, dilapidated homes and empty lots speckle Detroit’s neighborhoods, rather than cropping up in consolidated, convenient chunks on the city edges, leaving a more vibrant core. And so, a contingent of private consultants and city officials like Ms. Among the dismal findings: more than 100,000 parcels, private and public, are vacant; and only 38 percent of Detroiters work in the city. The goal is to identify the strongest, most viable neighborhoods, which would receive extra attention and help from the city. Photo “I’m going to stay right here,” said Mr. Rumors are winding through neighborhoods. Mr.
Anatomy of Detroit’s Decline - Interactive Feature Mayor Coleman A. Young of Detroit at an event in 1980. Richard Sheinwald/Associated Press The financial crisis facing Detroit was decades in the making, caused in part by a trail of missteps, suspected corruption and inaction. Charles E. Edward Jeffries, who served as mayor from 1940 to 1948, developed the Detroit Plan, which involved razing 100 blighted acres and preparing the land for redevelopment. Albert Cobo was considered a candidate of the wealthy and of the white during his tenure from 1950 to 1957. Coleman A. Kwame M. Dave Bing, a former professional basketball star, took office in 2009 pledging to solve Detroit’s fiscal problems, which by then were already overwhelming. Related Detroit population drops again but loss is slowing | Detroit Sun Times American households are making more money today than they did three decades ago—in some places, a lot more. In order to find out which places have seen the greatest increase in household income, we turned to the National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS), which uses historical reports from the decennial Census and the American Community Survey to track median income over time. Research site MooseRoots then adjusted all the data to 2015 dollars to filter out the effects of inflation. On the whole, households in northeastern states have seen the largest income increase since 1980, with New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont ranking among the top five. South Dakota and the District of Columbia round out the top list. In each case, household income has risen over 30% in just 30 years. Only a handful of states have seen median household incomes actually decrease since 1980—and several of them are in the Midwest. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 5. 4. 3.
DPS math, reading scores still bottom in national test For the fourth time in a row, Detroit ranked last among urban school districts that participated in a rigorous national test, with students showing no significant improvement in math or reading. Detroit Public Schools fourth- and eighth-grade students were among children in 21 cities who took the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam as part of the Trial Urban District Assessment. The Detroit scores showed a slight increase in math proficiency, but also a slight decline in reading proficiency, from 2013 to 2015. "Detroit has a bit of work to do," Carr said during a conference call. U.S. On Tuesday, he offered advice, saying Detroit should look at what's happened in urban areas such as the District of Columbia. "They've seen real and sustained improvement," Duncan said. DPS posted the lowest scores among the 21 cities that voluntarily took part in the urban district assessment. DPS has participated in the urban district assessment since 2009. How Detroit students fared
What It's Like Living In A Bankrupt City Some of the many boarded up store fronts along Weber Street in Stockton, Calif., in 2012. The Stockton City Council voted to declare bankruptcy last year, making it the largest city in U.S. history to enter Chapter 9 to that time. Peter DaSilva/EPA /Landov hide caption toggle caption Peter DaSilva/EPA /Landov Some of the many boarded up store fronts along Weber Street in Stockton, Calif., in 2012. Peter DaSilva/EPA /Landov Crime has been bad on the south side of Stockton. Stockton has long had a problem with drugs. Until Detroit's recent filing, Stockton's bankruptcy was the largest in U.S. history. Anderson called the police recently after a boy was shot riding his bike down the alley that runs alongside her home. "He was dead by the time they got here," she says. Stockton has sought to fight back. No one is declaring victory. "There are still an unacceptable number of hours in a day when police will only respond to crimes in progress," says Bob Deis, the city manager.
Coleman A. Young, 79, Mayor of Detroit And Political Symbol for Blacks, Is Dead Coleman A. Young, the combative, tart-tongued former union organizer who became the first black Mayor of Detroit when he was elected in 1973 and then went on to run the city for a record 20 years, died on Saturday at Sinai Hospital in Detroit. He was 79. The cause was respiratory failure, officials said. A popular and streetwise politician, Mr. But like the other black mayors, Mr. Afterward, the Motor City lost even more of its factories, stores and jobs as well as thousands of its middle-class residents, particularly whites who had been moving to the suburbs in great numbers since Detroit's 1967 race riots. ''I don't dispute the gravity of Detroit's problems,'' he wrote. Mr. The center, built for $350 million by a consortium of of more than 50 corporate investors led by the Ford Motor Company, opened in 1977. Mr. Even so, Mr. But that was not enough to keep businesses and residents from fleeing the city. Still, black Detroiters viewed Mr.
Detroit Public Schools: 93% Not Proficient in Reading; 96% Not Proficient in Math Flanked by Sen. Ted Kennedy and Rep. John Boehner, President George Bush signs the No Child Left Behind Act in January 2002. (AP Photo) (CNSNews.com) - In the Detroit public school district, 96 percent of eighth graders are not proficient in mathematics and 93 percent are not proficient in reading. That is according to the results of the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress tests published by the Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics. Only 4 percent of Detroit public school eighth graders are proficient or better in math and only 7 percent in reading. According to data published by the Detroit Public Schools, the school district’s operating expenses in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2014 amounted to approximately $14,743 per student. Nationwide, only 33 percent of public-school eighth graders scored proficient or better in reading in 2015 and only 32 percent scored proficient or better in mathematics.
Detroit Schools Face Cuts From Emergency Financial Manager Whose Neighborhood Is It? Photo On June 25, 1974, suburban residents of Detroit won their four-year battle to overturn court-ordered busing of black city students across county lines into their schools. In a key 5-4 Supreme Court decision, Milliken v. Bradley, Chief Justice Warren Burger declared that 41 white suburban governments had not committed “significant violations” of the Constitution. Burger wrote: No single tradition in public education is more deeply rooted than local control over the operation of public schools; local autonomy has long been thought essential both to the maintenance of community concern and support for public schools and to quality of the educational process. The victory in Milliken was based on the assumption that African-Americans would be bused in, not that they would be living next door. Southfield, Mich., for example, which had been 0.7 percent black in 1970, by 2010 had become 70.3 percent black, and its schools nearly 95 percent black. According to Schelling, Zhang writes,
Detroit worst in math, reading scores among big cities For a fourth straight time, Detroit students have scored the lowest among big-city districts in math and reading, according to national test results released Wednesday. Detroit Public Schools’ fourth- and eighth-graders lagged students in 20 other districts included in the National Assessment of Educational Progress Trial Urban District Assessment. DPS also ranked lowest in 2009, 2011 and 2013. Achievement levels on the exam are basic, proficient and advanced. Students who score below basic lack fundamental skills. The results did include some positive news for the state’s largest district. In math, 36 percent of DPS fourth-graders achieved at or above basic level, up from 35 percent in 2013, while 27 percent of eighth-graders tested at or above basic, up from 24 percent. In reading, 27 percent of Detroit fourth-graders tested at or above basic, down from 30 percent in 2013, while 44 percent of eighth-graders were at or above basic, down from 46 percent. Detroit has a lot of company. Gov.
Detroit unemployment rate climbs, highest among large cities - Oct. 28, 2009 NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Detroit continued to lead the nation's cities of 1 million people or more with the highest unemployment rate in September, according to government figures released Wednesday. And for Detroit's painful unemployment rate to stabilize and eventually decline, economists say the jobless will just have to leave the Motor City. The Labor Department said the metro area ravaged by the auto industry's collapse reported a 17.3% jobless rate in September, up from 17% in August, and 8.9% last year. Detroit also recorded the largest jobless rate increase from September 2008 with 8.4 percentage points, followed by Muskegon-Norton Shores, Mich., at 6.8 percentage points. "Detroit's labor market situation has deteriorated substantially from what was already a weak level," said John Lonski, a chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "The only way to contract the city's unemployment rate is through migration," Lonski said. Optimism beyond
Detroit’s white population rises Detroit’s white population rose by nearly 8,000 residents last year, the first significant increase since 1950, according to a Detroit News analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. The data, made public Wednesday, mark the first time census numbers have validated the perception that whites are returning to a city that is overwhelmingly black and one where the overall population continues to shrink. Many local leaders contend halting Detroit’s population loss is crucial, and the new census data shows that policies to lure people back to the city may be helping stem the city’s decline. “It verifies the energy you see in so many parts of Detroit and it’s great to hear,” said Kevin Boyle, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian who studies the intersection of class, race, and politics in 20th-century America. “The last thing I want to do is dampen the good news, but the problem is Detroit is still the poorest city in the U.S. “I think it’s a trend. “It’s not creating an even playing field.”