Having spent several months in Detroit, driving to and from various locations around the city to meet with project partners and non-profit organizations, I’ve had plenty of time to think about the topography passing by me during my commutes. It can take roughly anywhere from twenty to twenty five minutes to drive from one end of the city to the other, even when using exclusively highway roads. I’m not sure if this is uncommonly long among most major cities in the U.S., but it feels as though it is.

Here’s a short list of some common buildings you may see in outskirt Detroit neighborhoods, buildings that you might not otherwise notice too often in a typical city: pawn shops, cash advance stores, liquor stores, and churches.  Yes, you’ll also see abandoned houses in Detroit driving through its numerous neighborhoods, but let’s focus on what purpose these developments have in communities.

Unfortunately, liquor stores are often substitute as a grocery store for under-privileged neighborhoods. Rarely do you find nourishing foods at a corner store, but convenience in proximity is simply too important for those without transportation – and who can blame them.

Pawn shops and cash advance locations really have very limited use in healthy communities. These are the sorts of establishments that pop up when scarcity is abundant, and they prey on that scarcity for the sake of profit. However, they’re able to provide temporary relief in dire situations – situations that are unavoidable for many people in Detroit.

Finally, churches are scattered throughout Detroit with no real rhyme or reason. While it is important to have religious communities for people to practice their beliefs in every neighborhood, I’ve never seen as many churches in any other city.

When vices are present at often every street corner in the form of alcohol, and when it is abundantly easy to succumb to predatory lending, there must be something that helps to heal the mind and spirit. This is what churches provide for residents in hard times, relief from troubles in a religious pursuit.

But what sort of life is it to live in the extremes of vice and grace? It’s much to easy to fluctuate from one end of a spectrum of hope, to the other end, one of hopelessness and addiction. Surely, this can’t be healthy for any individual.

Hopefully, Detroit and its leaders will soon realize that buildings and developments are important to the health of communities on a much deeper level than simply providing property tax revenue. It’s important that we think about the services we’re providing to residents before handing out permits to property owners, and the effects that an establishment will have on its environment.