Detroit Population Trends Map

Here's one of the cool maps being produced by the census results. Blue dots indicate a doubling of population, while a red dot indicates population loss.

http://www.datapointed.net/2011/04/m...0-2010-census/

Check out Detroit. We see a lot of the same trends -- tons of homes being built in the furthest possible suburbs, which now practically border Flint.

But look closely -- downtown, you can see lots of little blue specks, showing that the population is, indeed, starting to come back downtown.

http://www.datapointed.net/visualiza...roit-michigan/

http://www.datapointed.net/media/201..._ann_arbor.jpg

I'd like to see near-downtown neighborhoods revitalized. All this business Snyder and Bing anticipate bringing in have to put their relocating employees someplace.

I'd be willing to bet that the growth that occurred in and around downtown didn't even really start to pick up speed until around 2005. I think the numbers for greater downtown will continue to steadily improve into this decade.

The problem with these kinds of maps is they don't give you any sense of the actual numbers involved. An area that had 1 person and now has 2 has doubled in population and gets a blue dot. That's much different than when an area goes from 1,000 to 2,000 people.