Letter on Detroit

Jan. 13, 2012 — Your series on Detroit is very good and I’ve learned quite a bit. I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit during the 1960s and 1970s, so all of this shines new light on my own childhood experiences.

I am writing to see about obtaining better maps than what is presented in the story. The third part shows maps of the concentration of African Americans but I cannot see the names of the streets and when I zoom into the map; it’s blurry so nothing is much clarified.

Anyway, good work and I look forward to reading the fourth part and hope to hear how Detroit can get itself out of this mess.

— Laurie Russman, Los Angeles, California

Editor’s reply:

You may wish to take a look at a mapping tool we’ve published that is very good at showing extremes of racial concentration. The tool has terrific functionality, including a find feature that allows one to input a street address if one wishes.