On Friday, May 29, 2009, the Metro Detroit One D Scorecard was released, outlining Detroit's rankings among other metro areas in five key areas: economic prosperity, education preparedness, transit, quality of life, and race relations. Seventy-five measurements were taken to ensure accurate findings, overall placing Detroit right in the middle of the pack with mainly mediocre results, but also including rather high and some devastating low rankings.

Edsel B. Ford, the chariman of One D, said, "Given all that the region has been through recently, it is reassuring that the results show that the region is in the middle of the pack on the majority of indicators."

Although the average ranking of the overall state of Detroit shows that the city is doing better than roughly half of the cities included in these rankings, it does not reflect the past of this once thriving city. From the once boobing auto industry, to the music of Motown, Detroit was once on of the wealthiest cities in the country and a great place to raise a family. Now with a population under a million, 2 of the 3 major automakers filing chapter 11 bankruptcy, and one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, Detroit is not the city it once was and action needs to be taken to bring the city back to greatness.

In the category of economic prosperity, Detroit ranks 29th (of the 54 Metro areas ranked) in per capita income and 53rd in total job loss, greatly due to closing factories in the area. Also with only 12 percent of the cities population between the ages of 25-34, Detroit is not seeing a large number of college graduates staying or coming back to the area. However, Detroit was ranked 7th in creative and art related business, 10th in Science and Engineering employment, with the 2nd largest number of engineers thanks to companies like GM and Ford.

In education preparedness, Detroit ranks 25th in the number of adults with college degrees (29 percent), with only 69 percent of adults holding a High School diploma. The city is also ranked 49th in growth of university appropriations, a number that needs to be raised especially with Detroit's great universities, such as Detroit Mercy and Wayne State.

Transit is well below average rankings, Detroit being ranked 1st in number of alone drivers and 50th in carpooling numbers. The city was also ranked 38th in walking to work, a number that needs to be raised in a city ranked 5th in most obese population with 30.4% of residents diagnosed as obese, according to a study by Forbes.

In the category of Quality of Life, Detroit ranks very low with a volunteering rate of only 27 percent, which may be directly related to the 33 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/14/health-obesity-cities-forbeslife-cx_rr_1114obese.html

The Michigan Suburbs Alliance was formed in June of 2002, when 14 mature suburbs of metro Detroit unanimously agreed to establish an alliance. The organization was established with the goal of uniting the 1.9 million inhabitants within the cities to demand an end to the systematic disinvestment in older cities. The 14 city managers and mayors decided that regional cooperation would be necessary in achieving their goals. The Michigan Suburbs Alliance has grown to include 31 mature suburbs and works to facilitate local action and collaboration.