The UMCI is expected to break ground this year and take three years to build. The university will handle construction of the $250 million, 200,000-square-foot building planned for the site bounded by Cass and Grand River avenues and West Columbia and Elizabeth streets, pending approval by the U-M Board of Regents.

The symposium, hosted by the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, is the culmination of the Michigan-Mellon Project on the Egalitarian Metropolis. Sessions are open to the entire University of Michigan community and beyond.

Detroit senior citizens and other underserved populations in the city have access to low-cost high-quality eye care, thanks to a nonprofit founded earlier this year.

“We appreciated U-M’s focus on equity and neighborhood development. I envision we’ll continue to work with them on a regular basis. The need is so great, the opportunity is there, and there’s alignment with our work. I can’t think of a better partner.”
~ Hector Hernandez, executive director of Southwest Economic Solutions

The UMCI director will be responsible for administrating strategic workforce development programs, supporting U-M units in their Detroit engagement efforts, supporting schools and colleges that offer degree programs at the UMCI.

State Sen. Chang, D-Detroit, will be honored on March 6 during a Policy Talks @ the Ford School event in which she will discuss environmental justice with U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and former Towsley Policymaker in Residence and newly appointed Director of the Wayne County Health, Human & Veterans Services Department Abdul El-Sayed.

Bryan Boyer, assistant professor at Taubman College, serves on the I-375 community advisory committee. The Lafayette Park resident hopes that the planners see this unique opportunity for what it is — the chance to rethink urban design and city planning on a grand, far-reaching scale.

Counterintuitively, the researchers found that the total area of urban green space was not an important indicator of equality. Instead, the shape of urban green space, the size of the largest green space in a census tract and the density of green space played more important roles in urban green space equality.

As the city’s economy approaches full employment and inflation subsides, the economists expect wage gains to outpace inflation from 2024 to 2027.