You have been asked to choose a particular issue facing the city of Detroit and to examine it in three parts:

Understand its root causes and current status. By current status I mean who is this issue affecting (positively or negatively) now, and how is it affecting Detroit or the metro area — socio-economically or politically?

Explaining the root causes should be the smallest section of your assignment that should function only as an introduction to your explanation of the current status. Given that your topic is current, events that occurred earlier than the 1950s are not directly relevant and therefore should not be included. (Exception: I would consider it appropriate to refer back to Detroit’s diverse industries prior to the automobile as a model for current economic revival)
The current status should be detailed and you should provide sufficient evidence (current data) to support any and all claims about the current status. For instance, if I say that crime rates are higher in neighborhoods with higher rates of vacancy and demolished homes (blighted neighborhoods), then I should either precede this claim with evidence (according to such and such study…) or provide the evidence to support it after I’ve made the claim (For instance, in such and such study …). Remember also that correlation alone does not adequately support a claim of causation. So, I should not conclude that blight alone causes crime merely from the correlation of the two.

Understand what is currently being done at the policy, civic, market or personal level (or combination thereof) to address this issue.
Analyze current efforts being put towards resolving this particular issue of concern. The question you are most interested in answering here is whether current efforts are addressing root causes. If so, what might be impeding their success could it be finances or human capital for instance. If current efforts are not addressing root causes, why not and how could these efforts be improved?

For both sections 2 & 3 be sure to use either Kalleberg, Biggs & Helms, Eliasph, or Kraft & Furlong where appropriate to give your explanation and analysis a solid framework. For example, you would say something like, 
Given Kalleberg’s definition of good jobs namely, “…(parenthetic citation)” the majority of African Americans in Detroit do not have access to good jobs.