Detroit Tour Overview

Detroit is an industrial city and home to about 700,000 people.  There are many environmental hazards and threats in these neighborhoods that present risks to health and threaten the quality of life such as land use and industrial hazards (air pollution, ground contamination, and blight).  Nestled in those neighborhoods are small and medium-sized manufacturing facilities, which potentially expose residents to hazardous materials and may also negatively affect their quality of life.

In order for participants to gain an understanding of some of the challenges that Detroit faces, a bus tour will be offered to the East and the Southwest Side of Detroit.   On this tour, participants will receive a brief overview of the sites as well as hear directly from experienced local residents.  If weather permits, participants will be allowed to exit the bus at each site.

Limited seating is available on a first-come first-serve basis and preregistration is required.  Attendees will need to choose between the Eastside or the Southwest Tour. 

The specific sites selected were based on:

• evidence of challenges to children and family health (high infant mortality rates, high proportion of households below the poverty level)
  
  
• evidence of community strengths
  
  
• efforts to address health problems

Below is a list of the neighborhoods selected for the tour in southwest and eastside Detroit which examines a variety of environmental hazards.

Even though there are several challenges surrounding Detroit, there is also much strength that Detroiters can be proud of as well.

Printable Detroit Tour Overview (.pdf)