UDC History

In the year 2002, Urban Development Corporation (UDC) evolved out of a need to support the community outreach of the Detroit Northeastern District Police Community Relations Council. It was during this era Detroit began to experience a massive migration of working-class residents from the city to nearby suburban communities in their quest for a better quality of life. On the contrary, many remaining residents were left to confront without real support what one might describe as urban negative norms such as random gunshot firing, slumlords, illegal dumping, and drug-dealers who parade throughout residential streets. UDC witnessed residents in despair thrusting upon the police issues which extended beyond their scope, magnitude, role, and responsibilities. An example is a cry by residents to the police to halt the establishment of new gas stations within the community for reasons of their known reputation of being a hang-out spot, fostering of criminal activity, and creating the potential for groundwater and soil contamination.

During this time UDC broaden its scope and devoted a considerable amount of time and energy to serving as a liaison between residents and local governmental agencies to address quality of life issues. Some of our accomplishments include working with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to mitigate environmental pollution, advocating for the re- development of Kern Park and the establishment of partnering relationships to provide summer employment opportunities for low-income at-risk Detroit youth.

Today, UDC’s efforts are concentrated on strengthening inner-city Detroit neighborhoods within our targeted area in District 3. We adopted a 9-block area with the hopes of it serving as a model of how-to bring stabilization, revitalization, and sustainability to a declining inner-city Detroit Neighborhood. Our efforts include community organizing, policing, mapping, rehabilitating of homes for moderate-income working families, remediating diseased trees/sidewalk repair project, hosting numerous clean-up/board-up blitzes, and advocating for wholesome neighborhood businesses and commercial business districts inclusive of small businesses and national retailers that will be attractive prospective home buyers.

Many of Detroit’s inner-city neighborhoods where people of color reside are filthy, trashed, in ruins, drenched in poverty, unsafe and saturated with negative influences such as liquors stores, marijuana dispensaries, and strip clubs. These negative influences are the IV that drips into the veins of the poor that keeps them alive amid darkness and serves as the gateway to a life filled with drama and mass incarceration of people color. UDC advocates that if we truly desire and want a better quality of life for people of color, it begins with us being proactive with a willingness to come together and remove these negative influences.