Tears Idle Tears
Detroit is the largest city in Michigan, located in Wayne County. It is in the Southeastern part of Michigan on the Detroit river that connects lake Saint Claire and lake Erie. Detroit shares international borders with Canada on the south of United State. The City of Detroit anchors the second-largest economic region in the Midwest, behind Chicago, and the thirteenth largest in the United States (Infoplease, 2016) . Detroit is the home of Motown records; it offers music enthusiasts the chance to learn about the history of musicians such as the Temptations, Diana Ross or the Four Tops, while sports teams like the Pistons, Tigers and Lions enjoy a rabid following among local fans. A variety of restaurants and shops can be found in downtown along with the stadium for the Detroit Lions, the International Riverfront, and General Motors headquarters. Detroit, Michigan, grew into the worlds automotive capital during the early 20th century (Wikipedia, 2015).
In July 2013, Detroit saddled with almost $20 billion in debt, filed for bankruptcy becoming the largest U.S. city in history to do so. Detroits protracted decline has resulted in severe urban decay and thousands of empty buildings around the city. Some parts of Detroit are so sparsely populated that the city has difficulty providing municipal services. The city has considered various solutions, such as demolishing abandoned homes and buildings; removing street lighting from large portions of the city; and encouraging the small population in certain areas to move to more populated locations As of 2014 U.S. census estimates, Detroits population is 680,250. Detroits residents are 82.7% African-American, 7.8% white and 6.8% Hispanic. Residents of Arabic descent also make up a large portion of the metro area population.
Assessment Tools
The assessment tools I used for this community assessment are the population economic status, disaster assessment, and planning, community safety inventory, cultural assessment, windshield survey and a scavenger hunt. The date collected will be discussed in the next paragraphs.
Population Economic Status.
According to the united states census bureau, in 2015, The population of Detroit is estimated at 677,166. According to 2010 U.S.Census, the racial composition of Detroit was 82.7% Black or African American, 10.6% are white (7.8% non-Hispanic), other races are 3%, 1.1% are Asian, Two or more races are 2.2%, and American Indian are 0.4%, Pacific Islander is 0.02%, and Hispanic or Latino of any race are 6.8%.
The percentage of the population age 25 and older with high school graduate or higher is 77.8%, while Bachelors degree or higher is 13.2% in 2010-2014.
The population of Detroit has continued to drop, since 2010, the city has lost 22,600 residents, which is 3.2% of the city’s population mostly to domestic out-migration.