Detroit (; , ) is the

most populous city The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or their metropo ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. It is the largest U.S. city on the

United States–Canada border United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

, and the

seat of government The seat of government is (as defined by ''Brewer's Politics'') "the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority". In most countries, the nation’s capital is also seat of its government, thus tha ...

of Wayne County. Detroit had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 census, making it the 29th-most populous city in the United States. The

Metro Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...

area, home to 4.3 million people, is the second-largest in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. ...

after the

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hi ...

and the 14th-largest in the United States. A significant cultural center, Detroit is known for its contributions to music, art, architecture and design, in addition to its historical automotive background. In 1701, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and

Alphonse de Tonty Pierre Alphonse de Tonty, or Alphonse de Tonty, Baron de Paludy (c. 1659 – 10 November 1727) was an officer who served under the French explorer Cadillac and helped establish the first European settlement at Detroit, Michigan, Fort Pontchartrai ...

founded

Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or Fort Detroit (1701–1796) was a fort established on the north bank of the Detroit River by the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and the Italian Alphonse de Tonty in 1701. In the 18th century, Fr ...

. During the late 19th and early 20th century, it became an important industrial hub at the center of the

Great Lakes region The Great Lakes region of North America is a binational Canada, Canadian–United States, American region that includes portions of the eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York (state), New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania ...

. The city's population rose to be the fourth-largest in the nation by 1920, after

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, with the expansion of the

automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % su ...

in the early 20th century.Nolan, Jenny (June 15, 1999
How Prohibition made Detroit a bootlegger's dream town
. Michigan History, ''The Detroit News''. Retrieved on November 23, 2007. The

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively referred to as Det ...

became the busiest commercial hub in the world as it carried over 65 million tons of shipping commerce each year. In the mid-20th century, Detroit entered a state of

urban decay Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban deca ...

which has continued to the present, as a result of industrial restructuring, the loss of jobs in the auto industry, and rapid

suburbanization Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl. As a consequence of the movement of households and businesses out of the city centers, low-density, peripheral urb ...

. Since reaching a peak of 1.85 million at the 1950 census, Detroit's population has declined by more than 65 percent. In 2013, Detroit became the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy, which it successfully exited in December 2014. Detroit is a port on the

, one of the four major straits that connect the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five la ...

system to the

St. Lawrence Seaway The St. Lawrence Seaway (french: la Voie Maritime du Saint-Laurent) is a system of locks, canals, and channels in Canada and the United States that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes of North Ameri ...

. The city anchors the second-largest regional economy in the Midwest and the 14th-largest in the United States. Detroit is best known as the center of the U.S. automotive industry, and the " Big Three" auto manufacturers— General Motors,

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

, and

Stellantis Stellantis N.V. is a multinational automotive manufacturing corporation formed in 2021 on the basis of a 50–50 cross-border merger between the Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group. The compa ...

North America (

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automot ...

)—are all headquartered in Metro Detroit. The

Detroit Metropolitan Airport Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport , usually called Detroit Metro Airport, Metro Airport, or simply DTW, is a major international airport in the United States covering effective December 30, 2021. in Romulus, Michigan. It is the primary ...

is among the most important hub airports in the United States. Detroit and its neighboring Canadian city Windsor constitute the second-busiest international crossing in North America, after

San Diego–Tijuana San Diego–Tijuana is an international transborder agglomeration, straddling the border of the adjacent North American coastal cities of San Diego, California, United States and Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. The 2012 population of the re ...

. Detroit's diverse culture has had both local and international influence, particularly in

music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

, with the city giving rise to the genres of

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''mot ...

and

techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

and playing an important role in the development of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

, hip-hop,

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

, and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

. The rapid growth of Detroit in its boom years resulted in a globally unique stock of

architectural monuments Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings or ...

and historic places. Since the 2000s,

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

efforts have managed to save many architectural pieces and achieve several large-scale revitalizations, including the restoration of several historic

theaters Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

and entertainment venues, high-rise renovations, new sports stadiums, and a riverfront revitalization project. An increasingly popular tourist destination, Detroit receives 16 million visitors per year. In 2015, Detroit was named a "City of Design" by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...

, the first U.S. city to receive that designation. ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

'' named Detroit as one of the fifty World's Greatest Places of 2022 to explore.

History

Toponymy

Detroit is named after the

, connecting

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Straits of Ma ...

with

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. The name comes from the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...

word meaning as the city was situated on a narrow passage of water linking the two lakes. The river was known as in French, which means . In the historical context, the strait included the

St. Clair River The St. Clair River (french: Rivière Sainte-Claire) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed November 7, 2011 river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron in ...

Lake St. Clair Lake St. Clair (french: Lac Sainte-Claire) is a freshwater lake that lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. It was named in 1679 by French Catholic explorers after Saint Clare of Assisi, on whose feast day ...

and the Detroit River.

Early settlement

Paleo-Indians inhabited areas near Detroit as early as 11,000 years ago including the culture referred to as the

Mound Builders A number of pre-Columbian cultures are collectively termed "Mound Builders". The term does not refer to a specific people or archaeological culture, but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks erected for an extended period of more than ...

. By the 17th century, the region was inhabited by

Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...

Odawa The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ), said to mean "traders", are an Indigenous American ethnic group who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, commonly known as the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. They h ...

Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...

and

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

peoples. The area is known by the

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawato ...

people as ''Waawiiyaataanong'', translating to 'where the water curves around'. The first Europeans did not penetrate into the region and reach the straits of Detroit until French

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

and traders worked their way around the Iroquois League, with whom they were at war in the 1630s. The Huron and

Neutral people The Neutral Confederacy (also Neutral Nation, Neutral people, or ''Attawandaron'' by neighbouring tribes) were an Iroquoian people who lived in what is now southwestern and south-central Ontario in Canada, North America. They lived throughout t ...

held the north side of Lake Erie until the 1650s, when the Iroquois pushed them and the

Erie people The Erie people (also Eriechronon, Riquéronon, Erielhonan, Eriez, Nation du Chat) were Indigenous people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvania ...

away from the lake and its

beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...

-rich feeder streams in the

Beaver Wars The Beaver Wars ( moh, Tsianì kayonkwere), also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars (french: Guerres franco-iroquoises) were a series of conflicts fought intermittently during the 17th century in North America throughout t ...

of 1649–1655. By the 1670s, the war-weakened Iroquois laid claim to as far south as the Ohio River valley in northern

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

as hunting grounds, and had absorbed many other Iroquoian peoples after defeating them in war. For the next hundred years, virtually no British or French action was contemplated without consultation with the Iroquois or consideration of their likely response. When the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the st ...

evicted the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period ...

from Canada, it removed one barrier to American colonists migrating west. British negotiations with the Iroquois would both prove critical and lead to a Crown policy limiting settlements below the Great Lakes and west of the

Alleghenies The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less develo ...

. Many colonial American would-be migrants resented this restraint and became supporters of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolu ...

. The 1778 raids and resultant 1779 decisive

Sullivan Expedition The 1779 Sullivan Expedition (also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, the Sullivan Campaign, and the Sullivan-Clinton Genocide) was a United States military campaign during the American Revolutionary War, lasting from June to October 1779 ...

reopened the Ohio Country to westward emigration, which began almost immediately. By 1800 white settlers were pouring westwards.

French settlement

On July 24, 1701, the French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, with his lieutenant

and more than a hundred other settlers, began constructing a small fort on the north bank of the Detroit River. Cadillac named the settlement

, after

Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewi ...

, Secretary of State of the Navy under

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ve ...

., p. 56. ''Sainte-Anne-de-Détroit'' was founded on July 26 and is the second-oldest continuously operating

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

parish in the United States. France offered free land to colonists to attract families to Detroit; when it reached a population of 800 in 1765, it became the largest European settlement between

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

and

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to King ...

and

La Louisiane Louisiana (french: La Louisiane; ''La Louisiane Française'') or French Louisiana was an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682 to 1769 and 1801 (nominally) to 1803, the area was named in honor of King Louis XIV, ...

, respectively. By 1773, after the addition of

Anglo-American Anglo-Americans are people who are English-speaking inhabitants of Anglo-America. It typically refers to the nations and ethnic groups in the Americas that speak English as a native language, making up the majority of people in the world who spe ...

settlers, the population of Detroit was 1,400. By 1778, its population reached 2,144 and it was the third-largest city in what was known as the

Province of Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

since the British takeover of French colonies following their victory in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754– ...

. The region's economy was based on the lucrative

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mo ...

, in which numerous Native American people had important roles as trappers and traders. Today the

flag of Detroit The flag of the city of Detroit was designed in 1907 by David E. Heineman and was officially adopted as the city's flag in 1948. The flag's design has been slightly altered several times in the years since, the most recent in 2000. Design T ...

reflects its French colonial heritage. Descendants of the earliest French and

French-Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...

settlers formed a cohesive community, who gradually were superseded as the dominant population after more Anglo-American settlers arrived in the early 19th century with American westward migration. Living along the shores of Lake St. Clair and south to

Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorporated community and census-designate ...

and downriver suburbs, the ethnic French Canadians of Detroit, also known as

Muskrat French The Muskrat French (french: Francophonie au Michigan; also known as the Mushrat French or Detroit River French Canadien) are a cultural group and dialect found in southeastern Michigan along the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair, the western and s ...

in reference to the fur trade, remain a subculture in the region in the 21st century. During the

(1754–63)—the North American front of the

between Britain and France—British troops gained control of the settlement in 1760 and shortened its name to Detroit. Several regional Native American tribes, such as the

Potowatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

and Huron, launched

Pontiac's War Pontiac's War (also known as Pontiac's Conspiracy or Pontiac's Rebellion) was launched in 1763 by a loose confederation of Native Americans dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes region following the French and Indian War (1754–176 ...

in 1763 and laid siege to

Fort Detroit Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or Fort Detroit (1701–1796) was a fort established on the north bank of the Detroit River by the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and the Italian Alphonse de Tonty in 1701. In the 18th century, Fren ...

but failed to capture it. In defeat, France ceded its territory in North America east of the Mississippi to Britain following the war. Following the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...

and the establishment of the United States as an independent country, Britain ceded Detroit along with other territories in the area under the

Jay Treaty The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and also as Jay's Treaty, was a 1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted ...

which established the northern border with its colony of Canada. The

Great Fire of 1805 The Great Fire of 1805 occurred on , in the city of Detroit, in the Michigan Territory The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when t ...

destroyed most of the Detroit settlement, which had primarily buildings made of wood. One stone fort, a river warehouse, and brick chimneys of former wooden homes were the sole structures to survive. Of the 600 Detroit residents in this area, none died in the fire.

19th century

From 1805 to 1847, Detroit was the capital of Michigan as a territory and as a state.

William Hull William Hull (June 24, 1753 – November 29, 1825) was an American soldier and politician. He fought in the American Revolutionary War and was appointed as Governor of Michigan Territory (1805–13), gaining large land cessions from several Ame ...

, the United States commander at Detroit, surrendered without a fight to British troops and their Native American allies during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It ...

in the

siege of Detroit The siege of Detroit, also known as the surrender of Detroit or the Battle of Fort Detroit, was an early engagement in the War of 1812. A British force under Major General Isaac Brock with Native American allies under Shawnee leader Tecumse ...

, believing his forces were vastly outnumbered. The

Battle of Frenchtown The Battles of Frenchtown, also known as the Battle of the River Raisin and the River Raisin Massacre, were a series of conflicts in Michigan Territory that took place from January 18–23, 1813, during the War of 1812. It was fought between the ...

was part of a U.S. effort to retake the city, and U.S. troops suffered their highest fatalities of any battle in the war. This battle is commemorated at

River Raisin National Battlefield Park The River Raisin National Battlefield Park preserves the site of the Battle of Frenchtown as the only national battlefield marking a site of the War of 1812. It was established as the 393rd unit of the United States National Park Service under Ti ...

south of Detroit in

Monroe County Monroe County may refer to seventeen counties in the United States, all named for James Monroe: *Monroe County, Alabama *Monroe County, Arkansas *Monroe County, Florida *Monroe County, Georgia *Monroe County, Illinois *Monroe County, Indiana ...

. Detroit was recaptured by the United States later that year. The settlement was incorporated as a city in 1815. As the city expanded, a radial geometric street plan developed by Chief Justice

Augustus B. Woodward Augustus Brevoort Woodward (born Elias Brevoort Woodward; November 1774 – June 12, 1827) was the first Chief Justice of the Michigan Territory. In that position, he played a prominent role in the reconstruction of Detroit following a d ...

was followed, featuring grand boulevards as in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. In 1817, Woodward went on to establish the

Catholepistemiad , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, or University of Michigania in the city. Intended to be a centralized system of schools, libraries, and other cultural and scientific institutions for the Michigan Territory, the Catholepistemiad evolved into the modern University of Michigan. Prior to the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

, the city's access to the Canada–US border made it a key stop for refugee slaves gaining freedom in the North along the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

. Many went across the Detroit River to Canada to escape pursuit by slave catchers. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 African-American refugees settled in Canada.

George DeBaptiste George DeBaptiste ( – February 22, 1875) was a prominent African-American conductor on the Underground Railroad in southern Indiana and Detroit, Michigan. Born free in Virginia, he moved as a young man to the free state of Indiana. In 1840, he s ...

was considered to be the "president" of the Detroit Underground Railroad, William Lambert the "vice president" or "secretary", and

Laura Smith Haviland Laura Smith Haviland (December 20, 1808 – April 20, 1898) was an American abolitionist, suffragette, and social reformer. She was a Quaker and an important figure in the history of the Underground Railroad. Early years and family Laura Smit ...

the "superintendent". Numerous men from Detroit volunteered to fight for the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

during the Civil War, including the 24th Michigan Infantry Regiment. It was part of the

Iron Brigade The Iron Brigade, also known as The Black Hats, Black Hat Brigade, Iron Brigade of the West, and originally King's Wisconsin Brigade was an infantry brigade in the Union Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. Although it fought ent ...

, which fought with distinction and suffered 82% casualties at the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of th ...

in 1863. When the First Volunteer Infantry Regiment arrived to fortify

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

is quoted as saying, "Thank God for Michigan!"

George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his clas ...

led the

Michigan Brigade The Michigan Brigade, sometimes called the Wolverines, the Michigan Cavalry Brigade or Custer's Brigade, was a brigade of cavalry in the volunteer Union Army during the latter half of the American Civil War. Composed primarily of the 1st Michigan ...

during the Civil War and called them the "Wolverines". During the late 19th century, wealthy industry and shipping magnates commissioned the design and construction of several

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and We ...

mansions east and west of the current downtown, along the major avenues of the Woodward plan. Most notable among them was the

David Whitney House The David Whitney House is a historic mansion located at 4421 Woodward Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. The building was constructed during the 1890s as a private residence. It was restored in 1986 and is now a restaurant. The building was l ...

at 4421

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...

, and the grand avenue became a favored address for mansions. During this period, some referred to Detroit as the "Paris of the West" for its architecture, grand avenues in the Paris style, and for Washington Boulevard, recently electrified by

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invent ...

. The city had grown steadily from the 1830s with the rise of shipping, shipbuilding, and manufacturing industries. Strategically located along the Great Lakes waterway, Detroit emerged as a major port and transportation hub. In 1896, a thriving carriage trade prompted

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of ...

to build his first automobile in a rented workshop on Mack Avenue. During this growth period, Detroit expanded its borders by annexing all or part of several surrounding villages and townships.

20th century

In 1903, Henry Ford founded the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles ...

. Ford's manufacturing—and those of automotive pioneers

William C. Durant William Crapo Durant (December 8, 1861 – March 18, 1947) was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry and co-founder of General Motors and Chevrolet. He created a system in which a company held multiple marques – each ...

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ...

and

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Seco ...

Dodge,

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

and

William William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...

Packard, and

Walter Chrysler Walter Percy Chrysler (April 2, 1875 – August 18, 1940) was an American industrial pioneer in the automotive industry, American automotive industry executive and the founder and namesake of American Chrysler Corporation. Early life Chrysler ...

—established Detroit's status in the early 20th century as the world's automotive capital. The growth of the auto industry was reflected by changes in businesses throughout the Midwest and nation, with the development of garages to service vehicles and gas stations, as well as factories for parts and tires. Because of the booming auto industry, Detroit became the fourth-largest city in the nation by 1920, following

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and

. In 1907, the Detroit River carried 67,292,504 tons of shipping commerce through Detroit to locations all over the world. For comparison, London shipped 18,727,230 tons, and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

shipped 20,390,953 tons. The river was dubbed "the Greatest Commercial Artery on Earth" by ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival '' Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the '' Detroit Tribune'' on Febru ...

'' in 1908. The

prohibition of alcohol Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

from 1920 to 1933 resulted in the Detroit River becoming a major conduit for smuggling of illegal Canadian spirits. With the rapid growth of industrial workers in the auto factories,

labor unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

such as the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutua ...

and the

United Auto Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico ...

(UAW) fought to organize workers to gain them better working conditions and wages. They initiated

strikes Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

and other tactics in support of improvements such as the 8-hour day/40-hour work week, increased wages, greater benefits, and improved

working conditions {{Short description, 1=Overview of and topical guide to working time and conditions This is a list of topics on working time and conditions. Legislation * See :Employment law Working time * See :Working time * Flextime Working conditions * Bios ...

. The labor activism during those years increased the influence of union leaders in the city such as

Jimmy Hoffa James Riddle Hoffa (born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975; declared dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) from 1957 until 1971. F ...

of the

Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the u ...

and

Walter Reuther Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He ...

of the UAW. Detroit, like many places in the United States, developed racial conflict and discrimination in the 20th century following the rapid demographic changes as hundreds of thousands of new workers were attracted to the industrial city. The Great Migration brought rural blacks from the South; they were outnumbered by southern whites who also migrated to the city. Immigration brought southern and eastern Europeans of Catholic and Jewish faith; these new groups competed with native-born whites for jobs and housing in the booming city. Detroit was one of the major Midwest cities that was a site for the dramatic urban revival of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Ca ...

(KKK) beginning in 1915. "By the 1920s the city had become a stronghold of the KKK", whose members primarily opposed Catholic and Jewish immigrants but also practiced discrimination against Black Americans."Detroit Race Riots 1943"
. ''Eleanor Roosevelt'', WGBH, American Experience, PBS (June 20, 1983). Retrieved on September 5, 2013. Even after the decline of the KKK in the late 1920s, the Black Legion, a secret vigilante group, was active in the Detroit area in the 1930s. One-third of its estimated 20,000 to 30,000 members in Michigan were based in the city. It was defeated after numerous prosecutions following the kidnapping and murder in 1936 of Charles Poole, a Catholic organizer with the federal

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, in ...

. Some 49 men of the Black Legion were convicted of numerous crimes, with many sentenced to life in prison for murder. By 1940, 80% of Detroit deeds contained

restrictive covenants A covenant, in its most general sense and historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. Under historical English common law, a covenant was distinguished from an ordinary contract by the presence of a s ...

prohibiting African Americans from buying houses they could afford. These discriminatory tactics were successful as a majority of black people in Detroit resorted to living in all-black neighborhoods such as Black Bottom and Paradise Valley. At this time, white people still made up about 90.4% of the city's population. White residents attacked black homes: breaking windows, starting fires, and detonating bombs. In the 1940s the world's "first urban depressed freeway" ever built, the Davison, was constructed. During World War II, the government encouraged retooling of the

American automobile industry The automotive industry in the United States began in the 1890s and, as a result of the size of the domestic market and the use of mass production, rapidly evolved into the largest in the world. The United States was the first country in the w ...

in support of the Allied powers, leading to Detroit's key role in the American

Arsenal of Democracy "Arsenal of Democracy" was the central phrase used by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a radio broadcast on the threat to national security, delivered on December 29, 1940—nearly a year before the United States entered the Second World ...

.Nolan, Jenny (January 28, 1997
Willow Run and the Arsenal of Democracy
. Michigan History, ''The Detroit News''. Retrieved on November 23, 2007. Jobs expanded so rapidly due to the defense buildup in World War II that 400,000 people migrated to the city from 1941 to 1943, including 50,000 blacks in the second wave of the Great Migration, and 350,000 whites, many of them from the South. Whites, including ethnic Europeans, feared black competition for jobs and scarce housing. The federal government prohibited discrimination in defense work, but when in June 1943 Packard promoted three black people to work next to whites on its assembly lines, 25,000 white workers walked off the job. The 1943 Detroit race riot took place in June, three weeks after the

Packard plant The Packard Automotive Plant is a former automobile-manufacturing factory in Detroit, Michigan, where luxury cars were made by the Packard Motor Car Company and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation. In 2022, it was scheduled for demolition ...

protest, beginning with an altercation at Belle Isle. A total of 34 people were killed, 25 of them black and most at the hands of the white police force, while 433 were wounded (75% of them black), and property valued at $2 million (worth $30.4 million in 2020) was destroyed. Rioters moved through the city, and young whites traveled across town to attack more settled blacks in their neighborhood of

Paradise Valley In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...

.Dominic J. Capeci, Jr., and Martha Wilkerson, "The Detroit Rioters of 1943: A Reinterpretation"
''Michigan Historical Review'', January 1990, Vol. 16 Issue 1, pp. 49–72.

Postwar era

Industrial mergers in the 1950s, especially in the automobile sector, increased

oligopoly An oligopoly (from Greek ὀλίγος, ''oligos'' "few" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a market structure in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of large sellers or producers. Oligopolies often result fr ...

in the American auto industry. Detroit manufacturers such as Packard and Hudson merged into other companies and eventually disappeared. At its peak population of 1,849,568, in the 1950 Census, the city was the fifth-largest in the United States. In this postwar era, the auto industry continued to create opportunities for many African Americans from the South, who continued with their Great Migration to Detroit and other northern and western cities to escape the strict

Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sou ...

and racial discrimination policies of the South. Postwar Detroit was a prosperous industrial center of mass production. The auto industry comprised about 60% of all industry in the city, allowing space for a plethora of separate booming businesses including stove making, brewing, furniture building, oil refineries, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and more. The expansion of jobs created unique opportunities for black Americans, who saw novel high employment rates: there was a 103% increase in the number of blacks employed in postwar Detroit. Black Americans who immigrated to northern industrial cities from the south still faced intense racial discrimination in the employment sector. Racial discrimination kept the workforce and better jobs predominantly white, while many black Detroiters held lower-paying factory jobs. Despite changes in demographics as the city's black population expanded, Detroit's police force, fire department, and other city jobs continued to be held by predominantly white residents. This created an unbalanced racial power dynamic. Unequal opportunities in employment resulted in unequal housing opportunities for the majority of the black community: with overall lower incomes and facing the backlash of discriminatory housing policies, the black community was limited to lower cost, lower quality housing in the city. The surge in the black population augmented the strain on housing scarcity. The livable areas available to the black community were limited, and as a result, families often crowded together in unsanitary, unsafe, and illegal quarters. Such discrimination became increasingly evident in the policies of

redlining In the United States, redlining is a Discrimination, discriminatory practice in which services (Financial services, financial and otherwise) are withheld from potential customers who reside in neighborhoods classified as "hazardous" to investm ...

implemented by banks and federal housing groups, which almost completely restricted the ability of blacks to improve their housing and encouraged white people to guard the racial divide that defined their neighborhoods. As a result, black people were often denied bank loans to obtain better housing, and interest rates and rents were unfairly inflated to prevent their moving into white neighborhoods. White residents and political leaders largely opposed the influx of black Detroiters to white neighborhoods, believing that their presence would lead to neighborhood deterioration. This perpetuated a cyclical exclusionary process that marginalized the agency of black Detroiters by trapping them in the unhealthiest, least safe areas of the city. As in other major American cities in the postwar era,

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

planning ideology drove the construction of a federally subsidized, extensive highway and freeway system around Detroit, and pent-up demand for new housing stimulated suburbanization; highways made commuting by car for higher-income residents easier. However, this construction had negative implications for many lower-income urban residents. Highways were constructed through and completely demolished neighborhoods of poor residents and black communities who had less political power to oppose them. The neighborhoods were mostly low income, considered blighted, or made up of older housing where investment had been lacking due to racial redlining, so the highways were presented as a kind of urban renewal. These neighborhoods (such as Black Bottom and Paradise Valley) were extremely important to the black communities of Detroit, providing spaces for independent black businesses and social/cultural organizations. Their destruction displaced residents with little consideration of the effects of breaking up functioning neighborhoods and businesses. In 1956, Detroit's last heavily used electric streetcar line, which traveled along the length of Woodward Avenue, was removed and replaced with gas-powered buses. It was the last line of what had once been a 534-mile network of electric streetcars. In 1941, at peak times, a streetcar ran on Woodward Avenue every 60 seconds.Peter Gavrilovich & Bill McGraw (2000) ''The Detroit Almanac: 300 Years of Life in the Motor City''. p. 232 All of these changes in the area's transportation system favored low-density, auto-oriented development rather than high-density urban development. Industry also moved to the suburbs, seeking large plots of land for single-story factories. By the 21st century, the metro Detroit area had developed as one of the most sprawling job markets in the United States; combined with poor public transport, this resulted in many new jobs being beyond the reach of urban low-income workers. Detroitwoodward&atwater1953

In 1950, the city held about one-third of the state's population. Over the next 60 years, the city's population declined to less than 10 percent of the state's population. During the same time period, the sprawling metropolitan area grew to contain more than half of Michigan's population. The shift of population and jobs eroded Detroit's tax base. In June 1963, Rev.

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

gave a major speech as part of a civil rights march in Detroit that foreshadowed his " I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C., two months later. While the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

gained significant federal civil rights laws in 1964 and 1965, longstanding inequities resulted in confrontations between the police and inner-city black youth who wanted change. The deadly 1967 Detroit riot resulted in massive demographic shifts via white flight.">white_flight.html" ;"title="1967 Detroit riot resulted in massive demographic shifts via white flight">1967 Detroit riot resulted in massive demographic shifts via Twelfth Street riot in July 1967. Governor George W. Romney">white flight. Longstanding tensions in Detroit culminated in the 1967 Detroit riot">Twelfth Street riot in July 1967. Governor George W. Romney ordered the Michigan National Guard into Detroit, and President Lyndon B. Johnson sent in U.S. Army troops. The result was 43 dead, 467 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed, mostly in black residential and business areas. Thousands of small businesses closed permanently or relocated to safer neighborhoods. The affected district lay in ruins for decades. According to the ''Chicago Tribune'', it was the 3rd most costly riot in the United States. On August 18, 1970, the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

filed suit against Michigan state officials, including Governor

William Milliken William Grawn Milliken (March 26, 1922 – October 18, 2019) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 44th governor of Michigan. A member of the Republican Party, he is the longest-serving governor in Michigan history, servin ...

, charging ''de facto'' public school segregation. The NAACP argued that although schools were not legally segregated, the city of Detroit and its surrounding counties had enacted policies to maintain

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Intern ...

in public schools. The NAACP also suggested a direct relationship between unfair housing practices and educational segregation, as the composition of students in the schools followed segregated neighborhoods. The District Court held all levels of government accountable for the segregation in its ruling. The

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of K ...

affirmed some of the decision, holding that it was the state's responsibility to

integrate Integration may refer to: Biology *Multisensory integration *Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...

across the segregated metropolitan area. The U.S. Supreme Court took up the case February 27, 1974. The subsequent ''Milliken v. Bradley'' decision had nationwide influence. In a narrow decision, the Supreme Court found schools were a subject of local control, and suburbs could not be forced to aid with the desegregation of the city's school district. "Milliken was perhaps the greatest missed opportunity of that period", said

Myron Orfield Myron Willard Orfield, Jr. (born July 27, 1961) is an American law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, director of its Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity, and a former non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. ...

, professor of law at the

University of Minnesota Law School The University of Minnesota Law School is the law school of the University of Minnesota, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school confers four law degrees: a Juris Doctor (J.D.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of Science in Patent Law ( ...

. "Had that gone the other way, it would have opened the door to fixing nearly all of Detroit's current problems.""Squandered opportunities leave Detroit isolated"
, Remapping Debate website. Retrieved on July 16, 2013. John Mogk, a professor of law and an expert in urban planning at

Wayne State University Law School Wayne State University Law School (Wayne Law) is the law school of Wayne State University in Detroit. Wayne Law is located in Midtown, Detroit's Cultural Center. Founded in 1927, the law school offers juris doctor (J.D.), master of laws (LL.M.), ...

in Detroit, says,

Everybody thinks that it was the riots
n 1967 N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet# ...
that caused the white families to leave. Some people were leaving at that time but, really, it was after Milliken that you saw mass flight to the suburbs. If the case had gone the other way, it is likely that Detroit would not have experienced the steep decline in its tax base that has occurred since then.

1970s and decline

Abandoned Packard Automobile Factory Detroit 200

In November 1973, the city elected

Coleman Young Coleman Alexander Young (May 24, 1918 – November 29, 1997) was an American politician who served as mayor of Detroit, Michigan, from 1974 to 1994. Young was the first African-American mayor of Detroit. Young had emerged from the far-left ele ...

as its first black mayor. After taking office, Young emphasized increasing racial diversity in the police department, which was predominantly white. Young also worked to improve Detroit's transportation system, but the tension between Young and his suburban counterparts over regional matters was problematic throughout his mayoral term. In 1976, the federal government offered $600 million (~$ in ) for building a regional

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...

system, under a single regional authority. But the inability of Detroit and its suburban neighbors to solve conflicts over transit planning resulted in the region losing the majority of funding for rapid transit. The city then moved forward with construction of the elevated downtown circulator portion of the system, which became known as the

Detroit People Mover The Detroit People Mover (DPM) is a elevated automated people mover system in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The system operates in a one-way loop on a single track encircling downtown Detroit, using Intermediate Capacity Transit Syst ...

. The gasoline crises of

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

and

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

affected auto industry. Buyers chose smaller, more fuel-efficient cars made by foreign makers as the price of gas rose. Efforts to revive the city were stymied by the struggles of the auto industry, as their sales and market share declined. Automakers laid off thousands of employees and closed plants in the city, further eroding the tax base. To counteract this, the city used

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

to build two large new auto assembly plants in the city. Young sought to revive the city by seeking to increase investment in the city's declining downtown. The

Renaissance Center The Renaissance Center (also known as the GM Renaissance Center and nicknamed the RenCen) is a group of seven connected skyscrapers in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. The Renaissance Center complex is on the Detroit International R ...

, a mixed-use office and retail complex, opened in 1977. This group of skyscrapers was an attempt to keep businesses in downtown.Bailey, Ruby L.(August 22, 2007). "The D is a draw: Most suburbanites are repeat visitors", ''Detroit Free Press''. Quote: A Local 4 poll conducted by Selzer and Co., finds, "nearly two-thirds of residents of suburban Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties say they at least occasionally dine, attend cultural events or take in professional games in Detroit." Young also gave city support to other large developments to attract middle and upper-class residents back to the city. Despite the Renaissance Center and other projects, the downtown area continued to lose businesses to the automobile-dependent suburbs. Major stores and hotels closed, and many large office buildings went vacant. Young was criticized for being too focused on downtown development and not doing enough to lower the city's high crime rate and improve city services to residents. High unemployment was compounded by

middle-class flight The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. C ...

to the suburbs, and some residents leaving the state to find work. The result for the city was a higher proportion of poor in its population, reduced tax base, depressed property values, abandoned buildings, abandoned neighborhoods, and high crime rates.

1980s

On August 16, 1987,

Northwest Airlines Flight 255 On August 16, 1987 a McDonnell Douglas MD-80#MD-82, McDonnell Douglas MD-82, operating as Northwest Airlines Flight 255, crashed shortly after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, about 8:46 pm Eastern Time Zone, EDT (00:46 UTC Augus ...

crashed near Detroit Metro airport, killing all but one of the 155 people on board, as well as two people on the ground.

1990s & 2000s

In 1993, Young retired as Detroit's longest-serving mayor, deciding not to seek a sixth term, with

Dennis Archer Dennis Wayne Archer (born January 1, 1942) is an American lawyer, jurist and former politician from Michigan. A Democrat, Archer served as Justice on the Michigan Supreme Court and as mayor of Detroit. He later served as president of the Ameri ...

succeeding him. Archer prioritized downtown development, easing tensions with its suburban neighbors. A referendum to allow casino gambling in the city passed in 1996; several temporary casino facilities opened in 1999, and permanent downtown casinos with hotels opened in 2007–08.

Campus Martius The Campus Martius (Latin for the "Field of Mars", Italian ''Campo Marzio'') was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome. The IV rione of Rome, Campo Marzio, which cov ...

, a reconfiguration of downtown's main intersection as a new park, was opened in 2004. The park has been cited as one of the best public spaces in the United States. In 2001, the first portion of the International Riverfront redevelopment was completed as a part of the city's 300th-anniversary celebration.

2010s

In September 2008, Mayor

Kwame Kilpatrick Kwame Malik Kilpatrick (born June 8, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the 72nd mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the 9th district in the Michigan House of Represen ...

(who had served for six years) resigned following felony convictions. In 2013, Kilpatrick was convicted on 24 federal felony counts, including

mail fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activit ...

wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activit ...

, and

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and ...

, and was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison. The former mayor's activities cost the city an estimated $20 million. Roughly half of the owners of Detroit's 305,000 properties failed to pay their 2011 tax bills, resulting in about $246 million (~$ in ) in taxes and fees going uncollected, nearly half of which was due to Detroit. The rest of the money would have been earmarked for Wayne County, Detroit Public Schools, and the library system. The city's financial crisis resulted in Michigan taking over administrative control of its government. Governor

Rick Snyder Richard Dale Snyder (born August 19, 1958) is an American business executive, venture capitalist, attorney, accountant, and politician who served as the 48th governor of Michigan from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Snyder previo ...

declared a

financial emergency Financial emergency is a state of receivership for the State of Michigan's local governments. History DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1988 till:2010 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea ...

in March 2013, stating the city had a $327 million budget deficit and faced more than $14 billion in long-term debt. It had been making ends meet on a month-to-month basis with the help of bond money held in a state escrow account and had instituted mandatory unpaid days off for many city workers. Those troubles, along with underfunded city services, such as police and fire departments, and ineffective turnaround plans from Mayor Bing and the City Council led the state of Michigan to appoint an emergency manager for Detroit. On June 14, 2013, Detroit defaulted on $2.5 billion of debt by withholding $39.7 million in interest payments, while Emergency Manager

Kevyn Orr Kevyn Duane Orr (born May 11, 1958) is the former emergency financial manager of the city of Detroit, Michigan. He was appointed by Governor Rick Snyder on March 14, 2013 and served until December 10, 2014. Prior career Orr holds B.A. (1979) an ...

met with bondholders and other creditors in an attempt to restructure the city's $18.5 billion debt and avoid bankruptcy. On July 18, 2013, Detroit became the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy. It was declared bankrupt by U.S. District Court on December 3, with its $18.5 billion debt. On November 7, 2014, the city's plan for exiting bankruptcy was approved. On December 11 the city officially exited bankruptcy. The plan allowed the city to eliminate $7 billion in debt and invest $1.7 billion into improved city services. One way the city obtained this money was through the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project complet ...

(DIA). Holding over 60,000 pieces of art worth billions of dollars, some saw it as the key to funding this investment. The city came up with a plan to monetize the art and sell it, leading to the DIA becoming a private organization. After months of legal battles, the city finally got hundreds of millions of dollars towards funding a new Detroit. One of the largest post-bankruptcy efforts to improve city services has been to fix the city's broken street lighting system. At one time it was estimated that 40% of lights were not working, which resulted in public safety issues and abandonment of housing. The plan called for replacing outdated high-pressure sodium lights with 65,000 LED lights. Construction began in late 2014 and finished in December 2016; Detroit is the largest U.S. city with all LED street lighting. Hudson Site

In the 2010s, several initiatives were taken by Detroit's citizens and new residents to improve the cityscape by renovating and revitalizing neighborhoods. Such projects include volunteer renovation groups and various urban gardening movements. Miles of associated parks and landscaping have been completed in recent years. In 2011, the Port Authority Passenger Terminal opened, with the riverwalk connecting Hart Plaza to the Renaissance Center. One symbol of the city's decades-long decline, the

Michigan Central Station Michigan Central Station (also known as Michigan Central Depot or MCS) is the historic former main intercity passenger rail station in Detroit, Michigan. Built for the Michigan Central Railroad, it replaced the original depot in downtown Detroit ...

, was long vacant. The city renovated it with new windows, elevators and facilities, completing the work in December 2015. In 2018, Ford Motor Company purchased the building and plans to use it for mobility testing with a potential return of train service. Several other landmark buildings have been privately renovated and adapted as

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

s, hotels, offices, or for cultural uses. Detroit was mentioned as a city of renaissance and has reversed many of the trends of the prior decades. The city has seen a rise in

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ...

. In downtown, for example, the construction of

Little Caesars Arena Little Caesars Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Midtown Detroit. Opened on September 5, 2017, the arena, which cost $862.9 million to construct, replaced Joe Louis Arena and The Palace of Auburn Hills as the home of the Detroit Red Wings of ...

brought with it high class shops and restaurants along Woodward Avenue. Office tower and condominium construction has led to an influx of wealthy families but also a displacement of long-time residents and culture. Areas outside of downtown and other recently revived areas have an average household income of about 25% less than the gentrified areas, a gap that is continuing to grow. Rents and cost of living in these gentrified areas rise every year, pushing minorities and the poor out, causing more and more racial disparity and separation in the city. In 2019, the cost of a one-bedroom loft in Rivertown reached $300,000 (~$ in ), with a five-year sale price change of over 500% and average income rising by 18%.

Geography

Metro Detroit by Sentinel-2, 2021-09-06 (big version)

Metropolitan area

Detroit is the center of a three-county urban area (with a population of 3,734,090 within an area of according to the 2010 United States Census), six-county

metropolitan statistical area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...

(population of 5,322,219 in an area of as of the 2010 census), and a nine-county

Combined Statistical Area Combined statistical area (CSA) is a United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) term for a combination of adjacent metropolitan (MSA) and micropolitan statistical areas (µSA) across the 50 US states and the territory of Puerto Ric ...

(population of 5.3 million within ).

Topography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Detroit is the principal city in

and

Southeast Michigan Southeast Michigan, also called southeastern Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan that is home to a majority of the state's businesses and industries as well as slightly over half of the state's population, most of whom are ...

. It is situated in the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

and the

. The

Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge is the only international wildlife refuge in North America. Established in 2001 and managed jointly by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service, it is located i ...

is the only international

wildlife preserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...

in North America and is uniquely located in the heart of a major metropolitan area. The refuge includes islands, coastal wetlands, marshes, shoals, and waterfront lands along of the Detroit River and western Lake Erie shoreline. The city slopes gently from the northwest to southeast on a

till plain Till plains are an extensive flat plain of glacial till that forms when a sheet of ice becomes detached from the main body of a glacier and melts in place, depositing the sediments it carried. Ground moraines are formed with melts out of the glac ...

composed largely of glacial and lake clay. The most notable topographical feature in the city is the Detroit Moraine, a broad clay ridge on which the older portions of Detroit and Windsor are located, rising approximately above the river at its highest point. The highest elevation in the city is directly north of Gorham Playground on the northwest side approximately three blocks south of

8 Mile Road 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

, at a height of . Detroit's lowest elevation is along the Detroit River, at a surface height of .

Belle Isle Park Belle Isle Park, known simply as Belle Isle (), is a island park in Detroit, Michigan, developed in the late 19th century. It consists of Belle Isle, an island in the Detroit River, as well as several surrounding islets. The U.S.-Canada border ...

is a island park in the Detroit River, between Detroit and

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

. It is connected to the mainland by the MacArthur Bridge. Belle Isle Park contains such attractions as the

James Scott Memorial Fountain The James Scott Memorial Fountain is a monument located in Belle Isle Park, in Detroit, Michigan. Designed by architect Cass Gilbert and sculptor Herbert Adams, the fountain was completed in 1925 at a cost of $500,000. The lower bowl has a diam ...

, the

Belle Isle Conservatory The Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory (commonly and locally known as the Belle Isle Conservatory) is a greenhouse and a botanical garden located on Belle Isle, a island park located on the Detroit River within Detroit, Michigan. While located ne ...

, the

Detroit Yacht Club The Detroit Yacht Club (DYC) is a private yacht club in Detroit, Michigan, located on its own island off of Belle Isle in the Detroit River between the MacArthur Bridge and the DTE generating plant. The DYC clubhouse is a restored 1920s Mediterra ...

on an adjacent island, a half-mile (800 m) beach, a golf course, a nature center, monuments, and gardens. Both the Detroit and Windsor skylines can be viewed at the island's Sunset Point. Three road systems cross the city: the original French template, with avenues radiating from the waterfront, and true north–south roads based on the Northwest Ordinance township system. The city is north of Windsor, Ontario. Detroit is the only major city along the Canada–U.S. border in which one travels south in order to cross into Canada. Detroit has four border crossings: the

Ambassador Bridge The Ambassador Bridge is a tolled international suspension bridge across the Detroit River that connects Detroit, Michigan, United States, with Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1929, it is the busiest international border crossing in North ...

and the

Detroit–Windsor tunnel The Detroit–Windsor tunnel (french: tunnel de Détroit-Windsor), also known as the Detroit–Canada tunnel, is an international highway tunnel connecting the cities of Detroit, Michigan, United States and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is the ...

provide motor vehicle thoroughfares, with the

Michigan Central Railway Tunnel The Michigan Central Railway Tunnel is a railroad tunnel under the Detroit River connecting Detroit, Michigan, in the United States with Windsor, Ontario, in Canada. The U.S. entrance is south of Porter and Vermont streets near Rosa Parks Bouleva ...

providing railroad access to and from Canada. The fourth border crossing is the

Detroit–Windsor Truck Ferry The Detroit–Windsor Truck Ferry is a ferry service that has transported cars and trucks across the Detroit River for over 100 years. The service is split between two companies, Detroit–Windsor Truck Ferry, Incorporated of Detroit and CMT Canad ...

, near the Windsor Salt Mine and

Zug Island Zug Island is a heavily industrialized island within the city of River Rouge at the southern city limits of Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located where the mouth of the River Rouge spills into the Detroit River. Zug Island is ...

. Near Zug Island, the southwest part of the city was developed over a salt mine that is below the surface. The

Detroit salt mine The Detroit salt mine is a salt mine located below Detroit, Michigan. The mine opened in 1910 and covers underground. In the beginning, the leather and food industries were the primary customers. Today, road deicing salt is the primary product. ...

run by the Detroit Salt Company has over of roads within.

Climate

Detroit and the rest of southeastern Michigan have a hot-summer

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freez ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

: ''Dfa'') which is influenced by the

like other places in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * '' Our ...

; the city and close-in suburbs are part of USDA

Hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

6b, while the more distant northern and western suburbs generally are included in zone 6a. Winters are cold, with moderate snowfall and temperatures not rising above freezing on an average 44 days annually, while dropping to or below on an average 4.4 days a year; summers are warm to hot with temperatures exceeding on 12 days. The warm season runs from May to September. The monthly daily mean temperature ranges from in January to in July. Official temperature extremes range from on July 24, 1934, down to on January 21, 1984; the record low maximum is on January 19, 1994, while, conversely the record high minimum is on August 1, 2006, the most recent of five occurrences. A decade or two may pass between readings of or higher, which last occurred July 17, 2012. The average window for freezing temperatures is October 20 through April 22, allowing a growing season of 180 days. Precipitation is moderate and somewhat evenly distributed throughout the year, although the warmer months such as May and June average more, averaging annually, but historically ranging from in 1963 to in 2011. Snowfall, which typically falls in measurable amounts between November 15 through April 4 (occasionally in October and very rarely in May), averages per season, although historically ranging from in 1881–82 to in 2013–14. A thick snowpack is not often seen, with an average of only 27.5 days with or more of snow cover.

Thunderstorms A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are some ...

are frequent in the Detroit area. These usually occur during spring and summer.

Architecture

Seen in panorama, Detroit's waterfront shows a variety of architectural styles. The

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

spires of

Ally Detroit Center Ally Detroit Center, formerly One Detroit Center, is a skyscraper and class-A office building located in Downtown Detroit, overlooking the Detroit Financial District. Rising , the 43-story tower is the tallest office building in Michigan and t ...

were designed to refer to the city's

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

skyscrapers. Together with the

, these buildings form a distinctive and recognizable skyline. Examples of the Art Deco style include the

Guardian Building The Guardian Building is a landmark skyscraper in the United States, located at 500 Griswold Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Financial District. The Guardian is a class-A office building owned by Wayne County, Michigan and serves ...

and

Penobscot Building The Greater Penobscot Building, commonly known as the Penobscot Building, is a class-A office tower in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. Constructed in 1928, the Art Deco building is located in the heart of the Detroit Financial District. The Penob ...

downtown, as well as the

Fisher Building The Fisher Building is a landmark skyscraper located at 3011 West Grand Boulevard in the heart of the New Center area of Detroit, Michigan. The ornate 30-story building, completed in 1928, is one of the major works of architect Albert Kahn, and ...

and

Cadillac Place Cadillac Place, formerly the General Motors Building, is a landmark high-rise office complex located at 3044 West Grand Boulevard in the New Center area of Detroit, Michigan. It was renamed for the French founder of Detroit, Antoine Laumet de ...

in the

New Center New Center is a commercial and residential historic district located uptown in Detroit, Michigan, adjacent to Midtown, one mile (1.6 km) north of the Cultural Center, and approximately three miles (5 km) north of Downtown. The area is ...

area near

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

. Among the city's prominent structures are United States' largest Fox Theatre, the

Detroit Opera House The Detroit Opera House is an ornate opera house located at 1526 Broadway Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Grand Circus Park Historic District. The 2,700-seat venue is the home of productions of the Detroit Opera and a variety of ...

, and the

, all built in the early 20th century. While the

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

and New Center areas contain high-rise buildings, the majority of the surrounding city consists of low-rise structures and single-family homes. Outside of the city's core, residential high-rises are found in upper-class neighborhoods such as the East Riverfront, extending toward

Grosse Pointe Grosse Pointe refers to an affluent coastal area next to Detroit, Michigan, United States, that comprises five adjacent individual cities. From southwest to northeast, they are: * Grosse Pointe Park * Grosse Pointe * Grosse Pointe Farms * Grosse ...

, and the Palmer Park neighborhood just west of Woodward. The University Commons-Palmer Park district in northwest Detroit, near the

University of Detroit Mercy The University of Detroit Mercy is a private Roman Catholic university in Detroit, Michigan. It is sponsored by both the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The university was founded in 1877 and is the largest Catholic univers ...

and

Marygrove College Marygrove College was a private Roman Catholic graduate college in Detroit, Michigan, affiliated with the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It announced its closure on December 17, 2019, at end of the fall semester. History T ...

, anchors historic neighborhoods including

Palmer Woods The Palmer Woods Historic District is a neighborhood located in Detroit, Michigan, bounded by Seven Mile Road, Woodward Avenue, and Strathcona Drive. There are approximately 295 homes in the district, which is between the City of Highland Park ...

Sherwood Forest Sherwood Forest is a royal forest in Nottinghamshire, England, famous because of its historic association with the legend of Robin Hood. The area has been wooded since the end of the Last Glacial Period (as attested by pollen sampling cores ...

, and the University District. Forty-two significant structures or sites are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

. Neighborhoods constructed prior to World War II feature the architecture of the times, with wood-frame and brick houses in the working-class neighborhoods, larger brick homes in middle-class neighborhoods, and ornate mansions in upper-class neighborhoods such as

Brush Park The Brush Park Historic District, frequently referred to as simply Brush Park, is a 22-block neighborhood located within Midtown Detroit, Michigan and designated by the city.

Woodbridge Woodbridge may refer to: Places Australia *Woodbridge, Western Australia formerly called ''West Midland'' *Woodbridge, Tasmania Canada *Woodbridge, Ontario England *Woodbridge, Suffolk, the location of **Woodbridge (UK Parliament constituency) ...

, Indian Village, Palmer Woods, Boston-Edison, and others. Some of the oldest neighborhoods are along the major Woodward and East Jefferson corridors, which formed spines of the city. Some newer residential construction may also be found along the Woodward corridor and in the far west and northeast. The oldest extant neighborhoods include West Canfield and

Brush Park The Brush Park Historic District, frequently referred to as simply Brush Park, is a 22-block neighborhood located within Midtown Detroit, Michigan and designated by the city.

. There have been multi-million dollar restorations of existing homes and construction of new homes and condominiums here. The city has one of the United States' largest surviving collections of late 19th- and early 20th-century buildings. Architecturally significant churches and cathedrals in the city include St. Joseph's, Old St. Mary's, the Sweetest Heart of Mary, and the

Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament The Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament is a Neo-Gothic style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States. It is the seat of the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit. The metropolitan archdiocese for the Roman C ...

. The city has substantial activity in urban design, historic preservation, and architecture. A number of downtown redevelopment projects—of which

Campus Martius Park Campus Martius Park ( ') is a re-established park in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. After the fire of 1805, Campus Martius (from the Latin for ''Field of Mars'', where Roman heroes walked) was the focal point of Judge Augustus Woodward's plans to ...

is one of the most notable—have revitalized parts of the city.

Grand Circus Park The Grand Circus Park Historic District contains the Grand Circus Park in Downtown Detroit, Michigan that connects the theatre district with its financial district. It is bisected by Woodward Avenue, four blocks north of Campus Martius Park ...

and historic district is near the city's theater district;

Ford Field Ford Field is a domed American football stadium located in Downtown Detroit. It primarily serves as the home of the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), as well as the annual Quick Lane Bowl college football bowl game, state champ ...

, home of the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

, and

Comerica Park Comerica Park is a baseball stadium located in Downtown Detroit. It has been the home of Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers since 2000, when the team left Tiger Stadium. History Construction Founded in 1894, the Tigers had played at the c ...

, home of the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

, a new home for the

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...

and the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at L ...

, with attached residential, hotel, and retail use, opened in 2017. The plans for the project call for mixed-use residential on the blocks surrounding the arena and the renovation of the vacant 14-story

Eddystone Hotel The Eddystone Building is a former hotel located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, at 100-118 Sproat Street. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. History Usage as a hotel until the 1990s The Eddystone is one of three ...

. It will be a part of The District Detroit, a group of places owned by Olympia Entertainment Inc., including

and the

, among others. The Detroit International Riverfront includes a partially completed three-and-one-half-mile riverfront promenade with a combination of parks, residential buildings, and commercial areas. It extends from Hart Plaza to the MacArthur Bridge, which connects to

, the largest island park in a U.S. city. The riverfront includes Tri-Centennial State Park and Harbor, Michigan's first urban state park. The second phase is a extension from Hart Plaza to the

for a total of of parkway from bridge to bridge. Civic planners envision the pedestrian parks will stimulate residential redevelopment of riverfront properties condemned under

. Other major parks include River Rouge Park, River Rouge (in the southwest side), the largest park in Detroit; Palmer (north of Highland Park, Michigan, Highland Park) and Chene Park (on the east river downtown).

Neighborhoods

Detroit has a variety of neighborhood types. The revitalized Downtown, Midtown Detroit, Midtown, Corktown,

areas feature many historic buildings and are high density, while further out, particularly in the northeast and on the fringes, high vacancy levels are problematic, for which a number of solutions have been proposed. In 2007, Downtown Detroit was recognized as the best city neighborhood in which to retire among the United States' largest metro areas by CNNMoney editors. Lafayette Park, Detroit, Lafayette Park is a Planning and development in Detroit, revitalized neighborhood on the city's East Jefferson Avenue Residential TR, east side, part of the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe residential district.Vitullo-Martin, Julio, (December 22, 2007)
"The Biggest Mies Collection: His Lafayette Park residential development thrives in Detroit"
''The Wall Street Journal''. Retrieved July 5, 2012. The development was originally called the Gratiot Park. Planned by Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Alfred Caldwell it includes a landscaped, park with no through traffic, in which these and other low-rise apartment buildings are situated. Immigrants have contributed to the city's neighborhood revitalization, especially in southwest Detroit. Southwest Detroit has experienced a thriving economy in recent years, as evidenced by new housing, increased business openings and the recently opened Mexicantown, Detroit, Mexicantown International Welcome Center.Williams, Corey (February 28, 2008
New Latino Wave Helps Revitalize Detroit
''USA Today''. Retrieved July 5, 2012. The city has numerous neighborhoods consisting of vacant properties resulting in low inhabited density in those areas, stretching city services and infrastructure. These neighborhoods are concentrated in the northeast and on the city's fringes. A 2009 parcel survey found about a quarter of residential lots in the city to be undeveloped or vacant, and about 10% of the city's housing to be unoccupied.Detroit Parcel Survey
Retrieved on July 23, 2011. The survey also reported that most (86%) of the city's homes are in good condition with a minority (9%) in fair condition needing only minor repairs.Associated Press (February 10, 2010)

''Mlive.com''. Retrieved July 5, 2012.Kavanaugh, Kelli B. (March 2, 2010
Intensive property survey captures state of Detroit housing, vacancy
''Model D''. Retrieved July 5, 2012. CassParkDetroit

To deal with vacancy issues, the city has begun demolishing the derelict houses, razing 3,000 of the total 10,000 in 2010, but the resulting low density creates a strain on the city's infrastructure. To remedy this, a number of solutions have been proposed including resident relocation from more sparsely populated neighborhoods and converting unused space to urban agricultural use, including Hantz Woodlands, though the city expects to be in the planning stages for up to another two years.. ''City of Detroit''. Retrieved July 5, 2012. Public funding and private investment have been made with promises to rehabilitate neighborhoods. In April 2008, the city announced a $300 million (~$ in ) stimulus plan to create jobs and revitalize neighborhoods, financed by city bonds and paid for by earmarking about 15% of the wagering tax. The city's working plans for neighborhood revitalizations include 7-Mile/Livernois, Brightmoor, Detroit, Brightmoor, East English Village, Grand River/Greenfield, North End, Detroit, North End, and Osborn, Detroit, Osborn. Private organizations have pledged substantial funding to the efforts.. ''DEGA''. Retrieved on January 2, 2009.Detroit Neighborhood Fund
. ''Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan''. Retrieved January 2, 2009. Additionally, the city has cleared a section of land for large-scale neighborhood construction, which the city is calling the ''Far Eastside Plan''.Rose, Judy (May 11, 2003)
Detroit to revive 1 neighborhood at a time
''Chicago Tribune''. Retrieved November 29, 2011. In 2011, Mayor Dave Bing announced a plan to categorize neighborhoods by their needs and prioritize the most needed services for those neighborhoods.

Demographics

In the 2020 United States census, 2020 United States Census, the city had 639,111 residents, ranking it the List of United States cities by population, 27th most populous city in the United States. Of the large shrinking cities in the United States, Detroit has had the most dramatic decline in the population of the past 70 years (down 1,210,457) and the second-largest percentage decline (down 65.4%). While the drop in Detroit's population has been ongoing since 1950, the most dramatic period was the significant 25% decline between the 2000 United States Census, 2000 and 2010 Census. Ethnic Origins in Detroit

Detroit's 639,111 residents represent 269,445 households, and 162,924 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 349,170 housing units at an average density of . Of the 269,445 households, 34.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 21.5% were married couples living together, 31.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 39.5% were non-families, 34.0% were made up of individuals, and 3.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59, and the average family size was 3.36. There was a wide distribution of age in the city, with 31.1% under the age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 29.5% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.5 males.

Religion

According to a 2014 study, 67% of the population of the city identified themselves as Christians, with 49% professing attendance at Protestant churches, and 16% professing

beliefs, while 24% claim Irreligion, no religious affiliation. Other religions collectively make up about 8% of the population.

Income and employment

The loss of industrial and working-class jobs in the city has resulted in high rates of poverty and associated problems. From 2000 to 2009, the city's estimated median household income fell from $29,526 to $26,098. , the mean income of Detroit is below the overall U.S. average by several thousand dollars. Of every three Detroit residents, one lives in poverty. Luke Bergmann, author of ''Getting Ghost: Two Young Lives and the Struggle for the Soul of an American City'', said in 2010, "Detroit is now one of the poorest big cities in the country". In the 2018 American Community Survey, median household income in the city was $31,283, compared with the median for Michigan of $56,697. The median income for a family was $36,842, well below the state median of $72,036. 33.4% of families had income at or below the federally defined poverty level. Out of the total population, 47.3% of those under the age of 18 and 21.0% of those 65 and older had income at or below the federally defined poverty line.

Race and ethnicity

Beginning with the rise of the automobile industry, Detroit's population increased more than sixfold during the first half of the 20th century as an influx of European, Middle Eastern (Lebanese Americans, Lebanese, Assyrian Americans, Assyrian/Chaldean), and Southern migrants brought their families to the city.Baulch, Vivian M. (September 4, 1999)
Michigan's greatest treasure – Its people
. Michigan History, ''The Detroit News''. Retrieved on October 22, 2007. With this economic boom following World War I, the African American population grew from a mere 6,000 in 1910 to more than 120,000 by 1930. Perhaps one of the most overt examples of neighborhood discrimination occurred in 1925 when African American physician Ossian Sweet found his home surrounded by an angry mob of his hostile white neighbors violently protesting his new move into a traditionally white neighborhood. Sweet and ten of his family members and friends were put on trial for murder as one of the mob members throwing rocks at the newly purchased house was shot and killed by someone firing out of a second-floor window. Detroit has a relatively large Mexican-American population. In the early 20th century, thousands of Mexicans came to Detroit to work in agricultural, automotive, and steel jobs. During the Mexican Repatriation of the 1930s many Mexicans in Detroit were willingly repatriated or forced to repatriate. By the 1940s much of the Mexican community began to settle what is now Mexicantown, Detroit, Mexicantown. Immigration from Jalisco significantly increased the Latino population in the 1990s. By 2010 Detroit had 48,679 Hispanics, including 36,452 Mexicans: a 70% increase from 1990.Denvir, Daniel
"The Paradox of Mexicantown: Detroit's Uncomfortable Relationship With the Immigrants it Desperately Needs"

Archive
''The Atlantic Cities''. September 24, 2012. Retrieved on January 15, 2013. DetroitGreektown

After World War II, many people from Appalachia also settled in Detroit. Appalachians formed communities and their children acquired southern accents. Many Lithuanians also settled in Detroit during the World War II era, especially on the city's Southwest side in the West Vernor-Junction Historic District, West Vernor area, where the renovated Lithuanian Hall reopened in 2006. While African Americans previously comprised only 13% of Michigan's population, by 2010 they made up nearly 82% of Detroit's population. The next largest population groups were white people, at 10%, and Hispanics, at 6%. In 2001, 103,000 Jews, or about 1.9% of the population, were living in the Detroit area. According to the 2010 census, segregation in Detroit has decreased in absolute and relative terms and in the first decade of the 21st century, about two-thirds of the total black population in the metropolitan area resided within the city limits of Detroit. The number of integrated neighborhoods increased from 100 in 2000 to 204 in 2010. Detroit also moved down the ranking from number one most segregated city to number four. A 2011 op-ed in ''The New York Times'' attributed the decreased segregation rating to the overall exodus from the city, cautioning that these areas may soon become more segregated. Chaldean Sacred Heart Church & Chaldean Center of America

Chaldean Sacred Heart Church & Chaldean Center of America

As of 2002, Detroit's percentage of Asians was 1%. There are four areas in Detroit with significant Asian and Asian American populations. Northeast Detroit has a large population of Hmong Americans, Hmong with a smaller group of Laotian Americans, Lao people. A portion of Detroit next to eastern Hamtramck, Michigan, Hamtramck includes Bangladeshi Americans, Indian Americans, and Pakistani Americans; nearly all of the Bangladeshi population in Detroit lives in that area. The area north of downtown has transient Asian national origin residents who are university students or hospital workers. Few of them have permanent residency after schooling ends. They are mostly Chinese and Indian but the population also includes Filipinos, Koreans, and Pakistanis. In Southwest Detroit and western Detroit there are smaller, scattered Asian communities.Archambault, Dennis
"Young and Asian in Detroit"

Archive
''Model D Media''. Issue Media Group, LLC. Tuesday November 14, 2006. Retrieved on November 5, 2012.

Economy

Several major corporations are based in the city, including three Fortune 500 companies. The most heavily represented sectors are manufacturing (particularly automotive), finance, technology, and health care. The most significant companies based in Detroit include General Motors, Rocket Mortgage, Ally Financial, Compuware, Shinola Detroit, Shinola, American Axle, Little Caesars, DTE Energy, Lowe Campbell Ewald, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and Rossetti Architects. About 80,500 people work in downtown Detroit, comprising one-fifth of the city's employment base.The Urban Markets Initiative, Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, The Social Compact Inc., University of Michigan Graduate Real Estate Program, (October 2006
Downtown Detroit in Focus: A Profile of Market Opportunity
. ''Detroit Economic Growth Corporation'' and ''Downtown Detroit Partnership''. Retrieved on June 14, 2008. Aside from the numerous Detroit-based companies listed above, downtown contains large offices for Comerica,

, Fifth Third Bank, HP Enterprise Services, HP Enterprise, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, and Ernst & Young.

is in the adjacent city of Dearborn, Michigan, Dearborn. Thousands more employees work in Midtown, north of the central business district. Midtown's anchors are the city's largest single employer Detroit Medical Center,

, and the Henry Ford Health System in New Center. Midtown is also home to watchmaker Shinola (retail company), Shinola and an array of small and startup company, startup companies.

bases TechTown, a research and business incubator hub that is part of the Wayne State University system. Like downtown, Corktown, Detroit, Corktown Is experiencing growth with the new Ford Corktown Campus under development. 1stNationalBldgingdetroit

Many downtown employers are relatively new, as there has been a marked trend of companies moving from satellite suburbs into the downtown core. Compuware completed its One Campus Martius, world headquarters in downtown in 2003. OnStar, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and HP Enterprise Services are at the Renaissance Center. PricewaterhouseCoopers Plaza offices are adjacent to

, and Ernst & Young completed its office building at One Kennedy Square in 2006. Perhaps most prominently, in 2010, Quicken Loans, one of the largest mortgage lenders, relocated its world headquarters and 4,000 employees to downtown Detroit, consolidating its suburban offices.Howes, Daniel (November 12, 2007)
Quicken moving to downtown Detroit
''The Detroit News''. Retrieved on November 12, 2007. In July 2012, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office opened its Elijah J. McCoy Satellite Office in the Rivertown/Warehouse District as its first location outside

's metropolitan area. In April 2014, the United States Department of Labor reported the city's unemployment rate at 14.5%. Distribution of Detroit's Economy

The city of Detroit and other public–private partnerships have attempted to catalyze the region's growth by facilitating the building and historical rehabilitation of residential high-rises in the downtown, creating a zone that offers many business tax incentives, creating recreational spaces such as the Detroit RiverWalk,

, Dequindre Cut Greenway, and Green Alleys in Midtown. The city has cleared sections of land while retaining some historically significant vacant buildings in order to spur redevelopment;Morice, Zach (September 21, 2007
Planting community in fallow fields
. American Institute of Architects. Retrieved on December 23, 2009. even though it has struggled with finances, the city issued bonds in 2008 to provide funding for ongoing work to demolish blighted properties. Two years earlier, downtown reported $1.3 billion in restorations and new developments which increased the number of construction jobs in the city. In the decade prior to 2006, downtown gained more than $15 billion in new investment from private and public sectors.The Urban Markets Initiative, Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program The Social Compact, Inc. University of Michigan Graduate Real Estate Program (October 2006

. Downtown Detroit Partnership. Retrieved on July 10, 2010. Despite the city's recent financial issues, many developers remain unfazed by Detroit's problems. Midtown is one of the most successful areas within Detroit to have a residential occupancy rate of 96%. Numerous developments have been recently completed or are in various stages of construction. These include the $82 million reconstruction of downtown's David Whitney Building (now an Aloft Hotel and luxury residences), the Woodward Garden Block Development in Midtown, the residential conversion of the David Broderick Tower in downtown, the rehabilitation of the Book Cadillac Hotel (now a Westin and luxury condos) and Fort Shelby Hotel (now Doubletree) also in downtown, and various smaller projects. Downtown's population of young professionals is growing, and retail is expanding. A study in 2007 found out that Downtown's new residents are predominantly young professionals (57% are ages 25 to 34, 45% have bachelor's degrees, and 34% have a master's or professional degree), a trend which has hastened over the last decade. Since 2006, $9 billion has been invested in downtown and surrounding neighborhoods; $5.2 billion of which has come in 2013 and 2014. Construction activity, particularly rehabilitation of historic downtown buildings, has increased markedly. As of 2014, the number of vacant downtown buildings has dropped from nearly 50 to around 13. In 2013 Meijer, a midwestern retail chain, opened its first supercenter store in Detroit; this was a $20 million, 190,000-square-foot store in the northern portion of the city and it also is the centerpiece of a new $72 million shopping center named Gateway Marketplace. In 2015 Meijer opened its second supercenter store in the city. In 2019 JPMorgan Chase announced plans to invest $50 million more in affordable housing, job training and entrepreneurship by the end of 2022, growing its investment to $200 million.

Arts and culture

March for Science IMG 20170422 145254 (41912894840)

In the central portions of Detroit, the population of young professionals, artists, and other transplants is growing and retail is expanding.Harrison, Sheena (June 25, 2007)
DEGA enlists help to spur Detroit retail
. ''Crain's Detroit Business''. Retrieved on November 28, 2007. "New downtown residents are largely young professionals according to Social Compact". This dynamic is luring additional new residents, and former residents returning from other cities, to the city's Downtown along with the revitalized Midtown and New Center areas.Reppert, Joe (October 2007
Detroit Neighborhood Market Drill Down
. ''Social Compact''. Retrieved on July 10, 2010. A desire to be closer to the urban scene has attracted some young professionals to reside in inner ring suburbs such as Ferndale, Michigan, Ferndale and Royal Oak, Michigan, Royal Oak. The proximity to Windsor provides for views and nightlife, along with Ontario's minimum drinking age of 19. A 2011 study by Walk Score recognized Detroit for its above average walkability among large U.S. cities. About two-thirds of suburban residents occasionally dine and attend cultural events or take in professional games in the city.Bailey, Ruby L (August 22, 2007). The D is a draw: Most suburbanites are repeat visitors. ''Detroit Free Press''. New Detroit Free Press-Local 4 poll conducted by Selzer and Co., finds, "nearly two-thirds of residents of suburban Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties say they at least occasionally dine, attend cultural events or take in professional games in Detroit."

Nicknames

Known as the world's automotive center, "Detroit" is a Metonymy, metonym for Automotive industry in the United States, that industry. It is an important source of popular music legacies celebrated by the city's two familiar nicknames, the ''Motor City'' and ''Motown''. Other nicknames arose in the 20th century, including ''City of Champions'', beginning in the 1930s for its successes in individual and team sport; ''The D''; ''Hockeytown'' (a trademark owned by the

); ''Rock City'' (after the Kiss (band), Kiss song "Detroit Rock City"); and ''The Area code 313, 313'' (its telephone area code).

Music

Live music has been a prominent feature of Detroit's nightlife since the late 1940s, bringing the city recognition under the nickname "Motown". The metropolitan area has many nationally prominent live music venues. Concerts hosted by Live Nation Entertainment, Live Nation perform throughout the Detroit area. The theater venue circuit is the United States' second largest and hosts Broadway theatre, Broadway performances. The city has a rich musical heritage and has contributed to many genres over the decades. Important music events include the Detroit International Jazz Festival, the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, the Motor City Music Conference (MC2), the Urban Organic Music Conference, the Concert of Colors, and the hip-hop Summer Jamz festival. In the 1940s, Detroit blues artist John Lee Hooker became a long-term resident in the Delray, Detroit, Delray neighborhood. Hooker, among other important blues musicians, migrated from his home in Mississippi, bringing the Delta blues to Detroit. Hooker recorded for Fortune Records, the biggest pre-Motown blues/soul label. During the 1950s, the city became a center for jazz, with stars performing in the Black Bottom neighborhood. Prominent emerging jazz musicians included trumpeter Donald Byrd (who attended Cass Tech and performed with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers early in his career) and saxophonist Pepper Adams (who enjoyed a solo career and accompanied Byrd on several albums). The Graystone International Jazz Museum documents jazz in Detroit. Other prominent Motor City R&B stars in the 1950s and early 1960s were Nolan Strong, Andre Williams (musician), Andre Williams and Nathaniel Mayer—who all scored local and national hits on the Fortune Records label. According to Smokey Robinson, Strong was a primary influence on his voice as a teenager. The Fortune label, a family-operated label on Third Avenue, was owned by the husband-and-wife team of Jack Brown and Devora Brown. Fortune—which also released country, gospel and rockabilly LPs and 45s—laid the groundwork for Motown, which became Detroit's most legendary record label. Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Motown Records, which rose to prominence during the 1960s and early 1970s with acts such as Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Diana Ross & the Supremes, the Jackson 5, Martha and the Vandellas, The Spinners (American group), the Spinners, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Marvelettes, the Elgins, The Monitors (American band), the Monitors, the Velvelettes and Marvin Gaye. Artists were backed by in-house vocalists the Andantes and the Funk Brothers. "The Motown sound" played an important role in the crossover appeal with popular music, since it was the first African American–owned record label to primarily feature African-American artists. Gordy moved Motown to Los Angeles in 1972 to pursue film production, but the company has since returned to Detroit. Aretha Franklin, another Detroit R&B star, carried the Motown sound; however, she did not record with Berry's Motown label. Local artists and bands rose to prominence in the 1960s and 70s, including the MC5, Glenn Frey, the Stooges, Bob Seger, The Amboy Dukes (band), Amboy Dukes featuring Ted Nugent, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, Rare Earth (band), Rare Earth, Alice Cooper, and Suzi Quatro. The group Kiss (band), Kiss emphasized the city's connection with rock in the song "Detroit Rock City" and the movie produced in 1999. In the 1980s, Detroit was an important center of the hardcore punk rock underground with many nationally known bands coming out of the city and its suburbs, such as the Necros, the Meatmen, and Negative Approach. In the 1990s and 2000s, the city produced many influential hip hop music, hip hop artists, including Eminem, the hip-hop artist with the highest cumulative sales, his rap group D12, hip-hop rapper and producer Royce da 5'9", hip-hop producer Denaun Porter, hip-hop producer J Dilla, rapper and musician Kid Rock and rappers Big Sean and Danny Brown (rapper), Danny Brown. The band Sponge (band), Sponge toured and produced music. The city also has an active garage rock scene that has generated national attention with acts such as the White Stripes, the Von Bondies, the Detroit Cobras, the Dirtbombs, Electric Six, and the Hard Lessons. Detroit is cited as the birthplace of

music in the early 1980s. The city also lends its name to an early and pioneering genre of electronic dance music, "Detroit techno". Featuring science fiction imagery and robotic themes, its futuristic style was greatly influenced by the geography of Detroit's urban decline and its industrial past. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May (musician), Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, and Jeff Mills. The Detroit Electronic Music Festival, now known as Movement, occurs annually in late May on Memorial Day Weekend, and takes place in Hart Plaza.

Performing arts

Major theaters in Detroit include the Fox Theatre (5,174 seats), Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts (1,770 seats), the Gem Theatre (451 seats), Detroit Masonic Temple, Masonic Temple Theatre (4,404 seats), the

(2,765 seats), the Fisher Theatre (2,089 seats), The Fillmore Detroit (2,200 seats), Saint Andrew's Hall, the Majestic Theater (Detroit, Michigan), Majestic Theater, and Orchestra Hall (Detroit), Orchestra Hall (2,286 seats), which hosts the renowned Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The Nederlander Organization, the largest controller of Broadway productions in New York City, originated with the purchase of the

in 1922 by the Nederlander family. Motown Motion Picture Studios with produces movies in Detroit and the surrounding area based at the Pontiac Centerpoint Business Campus for a film industry expected to employ over 4,000 people in the metro area.

Tourism

Because of its unique culture, distinctive architecture, and revitalization and urban renewal efforts in the 21st century, Detroit has enjoyed increased prominence as a tourist destination in recent years. ''The New York Times'' listed Detroit as the ninth-best destination in its list of ''52 Places to Go in 2017'',"52 Places to Go in 2017"
NYT Travel, ''The New York Times''. January 4, 2017. Retrieved on February 7, 2018. while travel guide publisher ''Lonely Planet'' named Detroit the second-best city in the world to visit in 2018."Top 10 cities to visit in 2018"
Lonely Planet. Retrieved on February 7, 2018.''Time'' named Detroit as one of the 50 World's Greatest Places of 2022 to explore. Many of the area's prominent museums are in the historic Detroit Cultural Center, cultural center neighborhood around Wayne State University and the College for Creative Studies. These museums include the

, the Detroit Historical Museum, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Science Center, as well as the main branch of the Detroit Public Library. Other cultural highlights include Hitsville U.S.A., Motown Historical Museum, the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant museum, the Pewabic Pottery studio and school, the Tuskegee Airmen Museum, Fort Wayne (Detroit), Fort Wayne, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, and the

. In 2010, the G.R. N'Namdi Gallery opened in a complex in Midtown. Important history of America and the Detroit area are exhibited at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, Dearborn, the United States' largest indoor-outdoor museum complex. The Detroit Historical Society provides information about tours of area churches, skyscrapers, and mansions. Inside Detroit hosts tours, educational programming, and a downtown welcome center. Other sites of interest are the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak, Michigan, Royal Oak, the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Bloomfield Hills, the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory on Belle Isle, and Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, Michigan, Auburn Hills. Greektown, Detroit, Greektown and three downtown casino resort hotels serve as part of an entertainment hub. The Eastern Market, Detroit, Eastern Market farmer's distribution center is the largest open-air flowerbed market in the United States and has more than 150 foods and specialty businesses. On Saturdays, about 45,000 people shop there.. ''Model D Media'' (April 5, 2008). Retrieved January 24, 2011. The annual Detroit Festival of the Arts in Midtown draws about 350,000 people.. ''Model D Media'' (April 4, 2008). Retrieved on January 24, 2011. Ford Piquette Avenue Plant - Model T Assortment

Ford Piquette Avenue Plant - Model T Assortment

Annual summer events include the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, Electronic Music Festival, Detroit International Jazz Festival, International Jazz Festival, the Woodward Dream Cruise, the African World Festival, the country music Hoedown, Noel Night, and Dally in the Alley. Within downtown, Campus Martius Park hosts large events, including the annual Motown Winter Blast. As the world's traditional automotive center, the city hosts the North American International Auto Show. Held since 1924, America's Thanksgiving Parade is one of the nation's largest. River Days, a five-day summer festival on the International Riverfront lead up to the Windsor–Detroit International Freedom Festival fireworks, which draw super sized-crowds ranging from hundreds of thousands to over three million people.Fifth Third Bank rocks the Winter Blast. ''Michigan Chronicle''. (March 14, 2006). An important civic sculpture is ''The Spirit of Detroit'' by Marshall Fredericks at the Coleman Young Municipal Center. The image is often used as a symbol of Detroit, and the statue is occasionally dressed in sports jerseys to celebrate when a Detroit team is doing well. A Monument to Joe Louis, memorial to Joe Louis is located at the intersection of Jefferson and Woodward Avenues. The sculpture, commissioned by ''Sports Illustrated'' and executed by Robert Graham (sculptor), Robert Graham, is a long arm with a fisted hand suspended by a pyramidal framework.

Sports

Detroit is one of four U.S. cities that have venues within the city representing the four major sports in North America. Detroit is the only city to have its four major sports teams play within its downtown district. Venues include:

(home of Major League Baseball, MLB's

(home of the National Football League, NFL's

), and

(home of the National Hockey League, NHL's

and the National Basketball Association, NBA's

). Detroit has won titles in all four of the major professional sports leagues. The Tigers have won four World Series titles (1935 World Series, 1935, 1945 World Series, 1945, 1968 World Series, 1968, and 1984 World Series, 1984). The Red Wings have won 11 Stanley Cups (1936 Stanley Cup Finals, 1935–36, 1937 Stanley Cup Finals, 1936–37, 1943 Stanley Cup Finals, 1942–43, 1950 Stanley Cup Finals, 1949–50, 1952 Stanley Cup Finals, 1951–52, 1954 Stanley Cup Finals, 1953–54, 1955 Stanley Cup Finals, 1954–55, 1997 Stanley Cup Finals, 1996–97, 1998 Stanley Cup Finals, 1997–98, 2002 Stanley Cup Finals, 2001–02, 2008 Stanley Cup Finals, 2007–08) (the most by an American NHL franchise). The Lions have won 4 NFL titles (1935 NFL Championship Game, 1935, 1952 NFL Championship Game, 1952, 1953 NFL Championship Game, 1953, 1957 NFL Championship Game, 1957) . The Pistons have won three NBA titles (1989 NBA Finals, 1989, 1990 NBA Finals, 1990, 2004 NBA Finals, 2004). In the years following the mid-1930s, Detroit was referred to as the "City of Champions" after the Tigers, Lions, and Red Wings captured the three major professional sports championships in existence at the time in a seven-month period (the Tigers won the World Series in October 1935; the Lions won the NFL championship in December 1935; the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in April 1936). Founded in 2012 as a semi-professional soccer club, Detroit City FC plays professional soccer in the USL Championship. Nicknamed, ''Le Rouge'', the club are two-time champions of National Independent Soccer Association, NISA since joining in 2020. They play their home matches in Keyworth Stadium, which is located in the enclave of Hamtramck, Michigan, Hamtramck. In college sports, Detroit's central location within the Mid-American Conference (MAC) has made it a frequent site for the league's championship events. While the MAC Basketball Tournament moved permanently to Cleveland starting in 2000, the MAC Football Championship Game has been played at Ford Field since 2004 and annually attracts 25,000 to 30,000 fans. The University of Detroit Mercy has an NCAA Division I program, and Wayne State University has both NCAA Division I and NCAA Division II, II programs. The NCAA football Quick Lane Bowl is held at Ford Field each December. The city hosted the 2005 MLB All-Star Game, Super Bowl XL in 2006, the 2006 World Series, 2006 and 2012 World Series, WrestleMania 23 in 2007, and the NCAA Final Four (college basketball), Final Four in April 2009. The Detroit Indy Grand Prix is held in Belle Isle Park. In 2007, open-wheel racing returned to Belle Isle with both Indy Racing League and American Le Mans Series Racing. From 1982 to 1988, Detroit held the Detroit Grand Prix, at the Detroit street circuit. In 1932, Eddie "The Midnight Express" Tolan from Detroit won the 100- and 200-meter races and two gold medals at the 1932 Summer Olympics. Joe Louis won the heavyweight championship of the world in 1937. Detroit has made the most bids to host the Summer Olympics without ever being awarded the games, with seven unsuccessful bids for the 1944 Summer Olympics, 1944, 1952 Summer Olympics, 1952, 1956 Summer Olympics, 1956, 1960 Summer Olympics, 1960, 1964 Summer Olympics, 1964, 1968 Summer Olympics, 1968, and 1972 Summer Olympics, 1972 summer games.

Government

Guardian Building with flag - Detroit Michigan

The city is governed pursuant to the home rule ''Charter of the City of Detroit''. The government is run by a mayor, the nine-member Detroit City Council, the eleven-member Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, Board of Police Commissioners, and a clerk. All of these officers are elected on a nonpartisan ballot, with the exception of four of the police commissioners, who are appointed by the mayor. Detroit has a "Mayor–council government, strong mayoral" system, with the mayor approving departmental appointments. The council approves budgets, but the mayor is not obligated to adhere to any earmarking. The city clerk supervises elections and is formally charged with the maintenance of municipal records. City ordinances and substantially large contracts must be approved by the council.Ward, George E. (July 1993)
Detroit Charter Revision – A Brief History
. ''Citizens Research Council of Michigan'' (pdf file). The ''Detroit City Code'' is the codification (law), codification of Detroit's local ordinances. Presently three Community Advisory Councils advise City Council representatives. Residents of each of Detroit's seven districts have the option of electing Community Advisory Councils. The city clerk supervises elections and is formally charged with the maintenance of municipal records. Municipal elections for mayor, city council and city clerk are held at four-year intervals, in the year after presidential elections. Following a November 2009 referendum, seven council members will be elected from districts beginning in 2013 while two will continue to be elected at-large.Nelson, Gabe (November 3, 2009
Voters overwhelmingly approve Detroit Proposal D
''Crains Detroit Business''. Retrieved on December 23, 2009. Detroit's courts are state-administered and elections are nonpartisan. The Probate Court for Wayne County is in the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in downtown. The Circuit Court is across Gratiot Avenue in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. The city is home to the Thirty-Sixth District Court, as well as the First District of the Michigan Court of Appeals and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The city provides law enforcement through the Detroit Police Department and emergency services through the Detroit Fire Department.

Politics

Beginning with its incorporation in 1802, Detroit has had a total of List of mayors of Detroit, 74 mayors. Detroit's last mayor from the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party was Louis Miriani, who served from 1957 to 1962. In 1973, the city elected its first black mayor,

. Despite development efforts, his combative style during his five terms in office was not well received by many suburban residents. Mayor

, a former Michigan Supreme Court Justice, refocused the city's attention on redevelopment with a plan to permit three casinos downtown. By 2008, three major casino resort hotels established operations in the city. In 2000, the city requested an investigation by the United States Justice Department into the Detroit Police Department which was concluded in 2003 over allegations regarding its use of force and civil rights violations. The city proceeded with a major reorganization of the Detroit Police Department. In 2013, felony bribery charges were brought against seven building inspectors. In 2016, further corruption charges were brought against 12 principals, a former school superintendent and supply vendor for a $12 million (~$ in ) kickback scheme. However, law professor Peter Henning argues Detroit's corruption is not unusual for a city its size, especially when compared with Chicago. Detroit is sometimes referred to as a sanctuary city because it has "anti-profiling ordinances that generally prohibit local police from asking about the immigration status of people who are not suspected of any crime". The city in recent years has been a stronghold for the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, with around 94% of votes in the city going to Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate in the 2020 United States presidential election, 2020 Presidential election.

Education

Colleges and universities

Detroit is home to several institutions of higher learning including

, a national research university with medical and Wayne State University Law School, law schools in the Midtown area offering hundreds of academic degrees and programs. The

, in northwest Detroit in the University District, is a prominent Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Mixed-sex education, co-educational university affiliated with the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law is downtown across from the Renaissance Center. Grand Valley State University's Detroit Center hosts workshops, seminars, professional development, and other large gatherings. Located in the heart of downtown next to Comerica Park and the Detroit Athletic Club, the center has become a key component for educational activity in the city. DeRoy Auditorium WSU Detroit MI

Sacred Heart Major Seminary, founded in 1919, is affiliated with Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, ''Angelicum'' in Rome and offers pontifical degrees as well as civil undergraduate and graduate degrees. Other institutions in the city include the College for Creative Studies and Wayne County Community College. In June 2009, the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine which is based in East Lansing, Michigan, East Lansing opened a satellite campus at the Detroit Medical Center.

Primary and secondary schools

many K-12 students in Detroit frequently change schools, with some children having been enrolled in seven schools before finishing their K-12 careers. There is a concentration of senior high schools and charter schools in the downtown area, which had wealthier residents and more gentrification relative to other parts of Detroit: Downtown, northwest Detroit, and northeast Detroit have 1,894, 3,742, and 6,018 students of high school age, respectively, while they have 11, three, and two high schools, respectively. because of the lack of public transportation and the lack of school bus services, many Detroit families have to rely on themselves to transport children to school.

Public schools and charter schools

Western International High School (Detroit)

With about 66,000 public school students (2011–12), the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) district is the largest school district in Michigan. Detroit has an additional 56,000 charter school students for a combined enrollment of about 122,000 students.Dawsey, Chastity Pratt (October 20, 2011). Detroit Public Schools hits enrollment goal. ''Detroit Free Press'' there are about as many students in charter schools as there are in district schools. DPS continues to have the majority of the special education pupils. In addition, some Detroit students, as of 2016, attend public schools in other municipalities. In 1999, the Michigan Legislature removed the locally elected board of education amid allegations of mismanagement and replaced it with a reform board appointed by the mayor and governor. The elected board of education was re-established following a city referendum in 2005. The first election of the new 11-member board of education occurred on November 8, 2005. With growing charter schools enrollment as well as a continued exodus of population, the city planned to close many public schools.Hing, Julianne (March 17, 2010
Where Have All The Students Gone?
. ''Color Lines.com''. Retrieved on August 19, 2010. State officials report a 68% graduation rate for Detroit's public schools adjusted for those who change schools.Detroit Public Schools news
(June 15, 2007). Retrieved February 13, 2017. Traditional public and charter school students in the city have performed poorly on standardized tests. and 2011, while Detroit traditional public schools scored a record low on national tests, the publicly funded charter schools did even worse than the traditional public schools. there were 30,000 excess openings in Detroit traditional public and charter schools, bearing in mind the number of K-12-aged children in the city. In 2016, Kate Zernike of ''The New York Times'' stated school performance did not improve despite the proliferation of charters, describing the situation as "lots of choice, with no good choice". Detroit public schools students scored the lowest on tests of reading and writing of all major cities in the United States in 2015. Among eighth-graders, only 27% showed basic proficiency in math and 44% in reading. Nearly half of Detroit's adults are Functional illiteracy, functionally illiterate.

Private schools

Detroit is served by various private schools, as well as parochial Roman Catholic schools operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, Archdiocese of Detroit. there are four Catholic grade schools and three Catholic high schools in the City of Detroit, with all of them in the city's west side.Detroit area's Catholic schools shrink, but tradition endures

Archive
. ''Detroit Free Press''. February 1, 2013. Retrieved on September 13, 2014. The Archdiocese of Detroit lists a number of primary and secondary schools in the metro area as Catholic education has emigrated to the suburbs. Of the three Catholic high schools, two are operated by the Society of Jesus and the third is co-sponsored by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Congregation of St. Basil.

Media

The ''Detroit Free Press'' and ''

'' are the major daily newspapers, both broadsheet publications published together under a joint operating agreement called the Detroit Media Partnership. Media philanthropy includes the ''Detroit Free Press'' high school journalism program and the Old Newsboys' Goodfellow Fund of Detroit. In March 2009, the two newspapers reduced home delivery to three days per week, print reduced newsstand issues of the papers on non-delivery days and focus resources on Internet-based news delivery. The ''Metro Times'', founded in 1980, is a weekly publication, covering news, arts & entertainment. Founded in 1935 and based in Detroit, the ''Michigan Chronicle'' is one of the oldest and most respected African-American weekly newspapers in America, covering politics, entertainment, sports and community events. The Detroit television market is the 11th largest in the United States;Nielsen Media Research Local Universe Estimates (September 24, 2005)
''The Nielson Company'' according to estimates that do not include audiences in large areas of Ontario (Windsor and its surrounding area on broadcast and cable TV, as well as several other cable markets in Ontario, such as Ottawa) which receive and watch Detroit television stations. Detroit has the 11th largest radio market in the United States, though this ranking does not take into account Canadian audiences. Nearby Canadian stations such as Windsor's CKLW (whose jingles formerly proclaimed "CKLW-the Motor City") are popular in Detroit.

Crime

Detroit has gained notoriety for its high amount of crime, having struggled with it for decades. The number of homicides in 1974 was 714. The homicide rate in 2022 was the third highest in the nation at 50.0 per 100,000. Downtown typically has lower crime than national and state averages.Booza, Jason C. (July 23, 2008
Reality v. Perceptions: An Analysis of Crime and Safety in Downtown Detroit

Archive
Michigan Metropolitan Information Center, ''

Center for Urban Studies''. Retrieved August 14, 2011. According to a 2007 analysis, Detroit officials note about 65 to 70 percent of homicides in the city were drug related, with the rate of unsolved murders roughly 70%. Although the rate of violent crime dropped 11% in 2008, violent crime in Detroit has not declined as much as the national average from 2007 to 2011. The violent crime rate is one of the highest in the United States. Neighborhoodscout.com reported a crime rate of 62.18 per 1,000 residents for property crimes, and 16.73 per 1,000 for violent crimes (compared to national figures of 32 per 1,000 for property crimes and 5 per 1,000 for violent crime in 2008). In 2012, crime in the city was among the reasons for more expensive car insurance. Areas of the city adjacent to the Detroit River are also patrolled by the United States Border Patrol.

Infrastructure

Health systems

There are over a dozen major hospitals, which include the Detroit Medical Center (DMC), Henry Ford Hospital, Henry Ford Health System, St. John Health, St. John Health System, and the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center. DMC, a regional Level I trauma center, consists of Detroit Receiving Hospital and University Health Center, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Harper University Hospital, Hutzel Women's Hospital, Kresge Eye Institute, Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, Sinai-Grace Hospital, and the Karmanos Cancer Institute. DMC has more than 2,000 licensed beds and 3,000 affiliated physicians. It is the largest private employer in the city. ''Wayne State University'' Retrieved January 24, 2011. The center is staffed by physicians from the Wayne State University School of Medicine, the largest single-campus medical school in the United States and the fourth largest medical school overall. DMCOct2009

DMC formally became a part of Vanguard Health Systems on December 30, 2010, as a for-profit corporation. Vanguard has agreed to invest nearly $1.5 B in the DMC complex.Anstett, Patricia (March 20, 2010
$1.5 billion for new DMC
''Detroit Free Press''. DMC.org. Retrieved on June 12, 2010. Vanguard has agreed to assume all debts and pension obligations. The metro area has many other hospitals including William Beaumont Hospital, St. Joseph's, and University of Michigan Health System, University of Michigan Medical Center. In 2011, DMC and Henry Ford Health System substantially increased investments in medical research facilities and hospitals in the city's Midtown and New Center.Greene, Jay (April 5, 2010
Henry Ford Health System plans $500 million expansion
''Crains Detroit Business''. Retrieved on June 12, 2010. In 2012, two major construction projects were begun in New Center. The Henry Ford Health System started the first phase of a $500 million, 300-acre revitalization project, with the construction of a new $30 million, 275,000-square-foot, ''Medical Distribution Center'' for Cardinal Health, Inc. and Wayne State University started construction on a new $93 million, 207,000-square-foot, Integrative Biosciences Center (IBio).Henderson, Tom (April 15, 2012
WSU to build $93M biotech hub
''Crains Detroit Business''. Retrieved on March 15, 2015. As many as 500 researchers and staff will work out of the IBio Center.

Transportation

Test train at Campus Martius station, May 2017

With its proximity to Canada and its facilities, ports, major highways, rail connections and international airports, Detroit is an important transportation hub. The city has three international border crossings, the

, Detroit–Windsor Tunnel and

, linking Detroit to Windsor. The Ambassador Bridge is the single busiest border crossing in North America, carrying 27% of the total trade between the U.S. and Canada. In 2015 Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced Canada agreed to pay the entire cost to build a $250 million U.S. Customs plaza adjacent to the planned new Detroit–Windsor bridge, now the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Canada had already planned to pay for 95% of the bridge, which will cost $2.1 billion and is expected to open in 2024. "This allows Canada and Michigan to move the project forward immediately to its next steps which include further design work and property acquisition on the U.S. side of the border", Raitt said in a statement issued after she spoke in the House of Commons.

Transit systems

Mass transit in the region is provided by bus services. The Detroit Department of Transportation provides service within city limits up to the outer edges of the city. From there, the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) provides service to the suburbs and the city regionally with local routes and SMART's FAST service. FAST is a new service provided by SMART which offers limited stops along major corridors throughout the Detroit metropolitan area connecting the suburbs to downtown. The new high-frequency service travels along three of Detroit's busiest corridors, Gratiot, Woodward, and Michigan, and only stops at designated FAST stops. Cross border service between the downtown areas of Windsor and Detroit is provided by Transit Windsor via the Tunnel Bus. An elevated rail system known as the Detroit People Mover, People Mover, completed in 1987, provides daily service around a loop downtown. The QLINE serves as a link between the People Mover and the Detroit station, Amtrak station via Woodward Avenue. The Ann Arbor–Detroit Regional Rail line will extend from New Center, connecting to Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor via Dearborn, Michigan, Dearborn, Wayne, Michigan, Wayne, and Ypsilanti, Michigan, Ypsilanti when it is opened.Ann Arbor – Detroit Regional Rail Project
''SEMCOG''. Retrieved on February 4, 2010. The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan, Regional Transit Authority (RTA) was established by an act of the Michigan legislature in 2012 to oversee and coordinate all existing regional mass transit operations, and to develop new transit services in the region. The RTA's first project was the introduction of RelfeX, a limited-stop, cross-county bus service connecting downtown and midtown Detroit with Oakland county via Woodward avenue. Detroit Amtrak station

Amtrak provides service to Detroit, operating its ''Wolverine (Amtrak train), Wolverine'' service between Chicago and Pontiac, Michigan, Pontiac. The Amtrak station is in New Center north of downtown. Intercity bus service is offered at the Detroit Bus Station. Greyhound Lines, Flixbus, Indian Trails, and Barons Bus Lines connect Detroit with numerous cities across the Midwest.

Car ownership

The city of Detroit has a higher than average percentage of households without a car. In 2016, 24.7% of Detroit households lacked a car, much higher than the national average of 8.7%. Detroit averaged 1.15 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8.

Freight railroads

Freight railroad operations in the city of Detroit are provided by Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, Conrail Shared Assets, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway, each of which have local yards within the city. Detroit is also served by the Delray Connecting Railroad and Detroit Connecting Railroad shortlines.

Airports

DTW_McNamara_terminal_interior_(29559579673)

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), the principal airport serving Detroit, is in nearby Romulus, Michigan, Romulus. DTW is a primary hub for Delta Air Lines (following its acquisition of Northwest Airlines), and a secondary hub for Spirit Airlines. The airport is connected to Downtown Detroit by the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) FAST Michigan route. Coleman A. Young International Airport (DET), previously called Detroit City Airport, is on Detroit's northeast side; the airport now maintains only charter service and general aviation. Willow Run Airport, in western Wayne County near Ypsilanti, is a general aviation and cargo airport.

Freeways

Metro Detroit has an extensive toll-free network of freeways administered by the Michigan Department of Transportation. Four major Interstate Highways surround the city. Detroit is connected via Interstate 75 in Michigan, Interstate 75 (I-75) and Interstate 96, I-96 to Ontario Highway 401, Kings Highway 401 and to major Southern Ontario cities such as London, Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area. I-75 (Chrysler and Fisher freeways) is the region's main north–south route, serving Flint, Michigan, Flint, Pontiac, Michigan, Pontiac, Troy, Michigan, Troy, and Detroit, before continuing south (as the Detroit–Toledo and Seaway Freeways) to serve many of the communities along the shore of Lake Erie. Interstate 94 in Michigan, I-94 (Edsel Ford Freeway) runs east–west through Detroit and serves Ann Arbor to the west (where it continues to Chicago) and Port Huron to the northeast. The stretch of the I-94 freeway from Ypsilanti to Detroit was one of America's earlier limited-access highways.

built it to link the factories at Willow Run and Dearborn during World War II. A portion was known as the Willow Run Expressway. The I-96 freeway runs northwest–southeast through Livingston, Oakland and Wayne counties and (as the Jeffries Freeway through Wayne County) has its eastern terminus in downtown Detroit. Interstate 275 (Michigan), I-275 runs north–south from I-75 in the south to the junction of I-96 and Interstate 696, I-696 in the north, providing a bypass through the western suburbs of Detroit. Interstate 375 (Michigan), I-375 is a short spur route in downtown Detroit, an extension of the Chrysler Freeway. I-696 (Reuther Freeway) runs east–west from the junction of I-96 and I-275, providing a route through the northern suburbs of Detroit. Taken together, I-275 and I-696 form a semicircle around Detroit. Michigan state highways designated with the letter M serve to connect major freeways.

Floating post office

Detroit has a floating post office, the ''J. W. Westcott II'', which serves lake freighters along the Detroit River. Its ZIP Code is 48222. The ZIP Code is used exclusively for the ''J. W. Westcott II'', which makes it the only floating ZIP Code in the United States. It has a land-based office at 12 24th Street, just south of the Ambassador Bridge. The J.W. Westcott Company was established in 1874 by Captain John Ward Westcott as a maritime reporting agency to inform other vessels about port conditions, and the ''J. W. Westcott II'' vessel began service in 1949 and is still in operation today.

Notable people

Sister cities

Detroit's Sister city, sister cities include the following: * Chongqing, China * Dubai, United Arab Emirates * Kitwe, Zambia * Minsk, Belarus * Nassau, Bahamas, Nassau, Bahamas * Toyota, Aichi, Toyota, Japan * Turin, Italy

Notes

References

External links

*
Detroit Regional Chamber

Labor, Urban Affairs and Detroit History archival collections
at the Walter P. Reuther Library
Virtual Motor City Collection
at

Library, contains over 30,000 images of Detroit from 1890 to 1980
"In Energized Detroit, Savoring an Architectural Legacy"
''The New York Times''. March 26, 2018. {{Authority control Detroit, Cities in Wayne County, Michigan County seats in Michigan Detroit River Michigan populated places on the Detroit River Former state capitals in the United States, Michigan Government units that have filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy Inland port cities and towns of the United States Metro Detroit Michigan Neighborhood Enterprise Zone Populated places established in 1701 Populated places on the Underground Railroad 1701 establishments in New France

History

Toponymy

Early settlement

French settlement

19th century

20th century

Postwar era

1970s and decline

1980s

1990s & 2000s

2010s

Geography

Metropolitan area

Topography

Climate

Architecture

Neighborhoods

Demographics

Religion

Income and employment

Race and ethnicity

Economy

Arts and culture

Nicknames

Music

Performing arts

Tourism

Sports

Government

Politics

Education

Colleges and universities

Primary and secondary schools

Public schools and charter schools

Private schools

Media

Crime

Infrastructure

Health systems

Transportation

Transit systems

Car ownership

Freight railroads

Airports

Freeways

Floating post office

Notable people

Sister cities

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

Primary sources

External links