With “Drawing Boundaries: Histories of Segregation and Profit-Making in Detroit,” our in-depth graphic report on water, housing, and land in and around Detroit comes to a close. It’s been a fascinating, year-and-a-half-long process, tracking how denial of access to clean drinking water in Detroit and Flint contributes directly to blight and the foreclosure crisis in the area. In this, the final installment of our segment on land, we distill two centuries of history into a brief look at how city boundaries in the region are shaped, by whom and for what purpose. It’s a fitting way to close out a series on what will certainly be an ongoing story of deeply flawed infrastructure and the people who find a way not only to survive in it, but also to support each other and thrive.
ENDNOTES:
1. In truth, Banglatown blocks are quite long and abut the Davison highway, the nation’s first freeway. Consequently there are only about eight actual blocks in Banglatown, more or less.
2. “Why do Hamtamck and Highland Park exist inside the city of Detroit?”, Lydia Whitehead, WDET, September 19, 2014. Accessed April 10, 2018: https://wdet.org/posts/2014/09/19/80119-why-do-hamtramck-and-highland-park-exist-inside-the-city-of-detroit/
3. “The story of Hamtramck, Michigan’s Ellis Island, as Trump takes power,” Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press, February 4, 2017. Accessed April 14, 2018: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2017/02/04/hamtramck-michigan-immigrants-trump/97450148/
4. “Why do Hamtamck and Highland Park exist inside the city of Detroit?”, Ibid.
5. “Highland Park Ford Plant,” National Park Service website. Accessed April 14, 2018: https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/detroit/d32.htm
6. “Brief History of Dearborn,” Society for the History of Technology website, May 13, 2013. Accessed April 14, 2018: https://www.historyoftechnology.org/brief-history-of-dearborn/
7. “Ford River Rouge Plant,” Ford Motor Car Company History. Accessed April 14, 2018: https://www.fordmotorhistory.com/factories/river_rouge/index.php
8. “Brief History of Dearborn,” Ibid.
9. Reynolds Farley; Sheldon Danziger; Harry J. Holzer, Detroit Divided, Russell Sage Foundation (September 5, 2002).
10. “Bio: Henry Ford,” The History Channel. Accessed April 14, 2018: https://www.history.co.uk/biographies/henry-ford
11. “The slave roots of square dancing,” Erin Blakemore, JStore Daily, June 16, 2017. Accessed April 14, 2018: https://daily.jstor.org/the-slave-roots-of-square-dancing/
12. Origins of the Urban Crisis, Thomas J. Sugrue, Princeton University Press (1996, New Jersey), page 211.
13. “The Detroit Wall: A tale of how federal policy helped divide a city,” Ardelia Lee, Daily Detroit, June 6, 2016. Accessed April 16, 2018: https://www.dailydetroit.com/2016/06/06/detroit-wall-federal-policy/
14. “The Detroit Wall: A tale of how federal policy helped divide a city,” Ibid.
15. “Cadillac Heights,” Loveland Technologies. Accessed April 16, 2018: https://makeloveland.com/us/mi/wayne/detroit/cadillac-heights#s=/us/mi/wayne/detroit/cadillac-heights&b=none&o=CROWN+ENTERPRISES+INC
16. “Moroun company to implode part of old Detroit factory Saturday,” Chad Livengood, Crain’s Detroit Business, June 23, 2017. Accessed April 16, 2018: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20170623/news/632346/moroun-company-implode-part-old-detroit-factory-saturday
17. “Private bridge on Canada border a security concern,” May 21, 2007, NPR. Accessed April 16, 2018: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10241088
18. “Why duty free gas is at the heart of the bridge fight,” Dawson Bell and John Gallagher, Windsor Star, April 26, 2011. Accessed April 16, 2018: https://www.pressreader.com/canada/windsor-star/20110426/281573762254263
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