This score rates the overall livability of a selected neighborhood, city, county, or state on a scale from 0 to 100. It is based on the average score of seven livability categories—housing, neighborhood, transportation, environment, health, engagement, and opportunity—which also range from 0 to 100. We score communities by comparing them to one another, so the average community gets a score of 50, while above-average communities score higher and below-average communities score lower.
All scoring begins at the neighborhood level. Cities, counties, and states receive a score based on the average scores of neighborhoods within their boundaries. Most communities have a range of more- or less-livable neighborhoods, but for a community to get a high score, neighborhoods throughout it need to score well. This makes it even more challenging for a city, county, or state to get a high score: the more neighborhoods there are within a given boundary, the less likely it will be that all of them have high scores.
Creating a livable community is challenging, and so is getting a high livability score. To get a perfect score of 100, a neighborhood would have to be among the best in the country in each of the seven livability categories. Scoring highly across all categories is difficult. For example, a transit-rich neighborhood has its benefits, but it can also drive up housing prices. To help that neighborhood score highly in both categories, community leaders would have to commit to ensuring affordable housing near public transit is available.
Highland Park, MI
47
Highland Park is the birthplace of the Ford Model T Ford (introduced in 1908), assembly-line mass production, and the first paved mile of highway in the United States. It’s also, many say, the birthplace of the American middle class, due to Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford paying his workers a living wage, establishing a set 8-hour workday, and a 5-day workweek. In fact, the city itself exists only because Ford had purchased the land in 1907 to build his automobile plant. Although Highland Park is fully surrounded by the city of Detroit, the 3-square-mile enclave was incorporated in 1918 as an independent city.
Much has changed over the past century, during which time Highland Park’s fortunes went from being a pioneering and thriving city to a community that struggles with the same economic and urban woes facing Detroit. The Ford plant that created Highland Park closed in 1973.
According to the US Census Bureau, 12,888 people live in Highland Park. That’s quite a difference from the city’s population peak of 53,000 residents in 1930. Today, roughly 3,342 Highland Park residents are age 55 or older. Four out of 10 households are made up of individuals living alone, and 15 percent of those involve a person age 65-plus. The median household income is $18,981.
In 2012 Mark Binelli, a Detroit native and the author of Detroit City is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis, likened the distressed Highland Park to being "the Detroit of Detroit." In January 2014 the Michigan Department of Treasury declared Highland Park to be in a financial emergency.
Still, Highland Park is not giving up. Several national and regional retailers are successfully operating in the urban redevelopment project of Model T Plaza, which opened in 1998. A seating manufacturer opened a plant in 2010 that supplies automakers. A large call center operates a site in Highland Park. Various small manufacturers have set up shop as well.
In December 2013, Highland Park joined the AARP Network of Age-Friendly Communities. By participating in the network, Highland Park intends to, among other goals, reduce traffic and increase community walkability by creating ways for residents to walk to and from destinations and encouraging retailers to locate within walking distances of housing.
At a welcome event with AARP Michigan in July 2014, Highland Park Mayor DeAndre Windom declared, “Crain’s Detroit Business recently reported that ‘Highland Park is a city ready to rise.’ The [AARP age-friendly] initiative will help us as we continue to rise by working toward our goal of fulfilling the needs and aspirations of more of our residents.”
To learn more about the Highland Park, visit: highlandparkcity.org.
Published: April 2015
Photo of Highland Park provided by: Hane C. Lee.
The 8 Domains of Livability
As a member of the AARP Network of Age-Friendly Communities, Highland Park’s leaders commit to a continual cycle of improvement in the eight domains the World Health Organization has identified as influencing the health and quality of life of older adults:
- Outdoor spaces and buildings
- Transportation
- Housing
- Social participation
- Respect and social inclusion
- Civic participation and employment
- Communication and information
- Community support and health services
Learn more about the domains by visiting the “8 Domains of Livability” slideshow.
For more information on the Age-Friendly Network, go to aarp.org/agefriendly.
