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Sunday, November 3, 2002
 Robin Buckson / The Detroit News
The Hill family -- David Hill, Phyllis Hurks-Hill and daughters Dagny, left, Naomi, Leah, with the family dog live on the Detroit Golf Club. "Our friends and family are in Detroit, and we wanted to be close to them," says Hurks-Hill, 41.
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Detroit golf-course home outweighs added expenses
By Shawn D. Lewis / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- They live on the Detroit Golf Club's south course.
Phyllis Hurks-Hill, a Pontiac attorney, and her husband, David Hill, a Detroit dentist, step outside their back door, walk past their towering beech and oak trees, and they're on the second hole.
It is a neighborhood of intricately landscaped lawns and imposing mansions priced at up to $1.5 million, some of which were once owned by auto barons.
"We saw this house and fell in love with it eight years ago," said Hurks-Hill, 41. "We feel like millionaires living here with the golf course in our back yard."
The family is typical of the area's black elite, who remain steadfast supporters of their community and Detroit.
Despite incomes of more than $200,000 a year -- enough to live virtually anywhere -- they generally pay high taxes and frequently send their children to expensive private schools because of concerns about the Detroit Public Schools.
To the Hills and families like them, there is little reason to consider the suburban life preferred by whites with similar incomes.
"They can live on the river, Indian Village, Palmer Woods or the University District," said Jason Booza of Wayne State University's Center for Urban Studies. "The value, ambience and grandeur of these neighborhoods are just as good as any posh suburban neighborhood."
The Hill family's four-bedroom, four-bathroom Tudor home, valued at about $750,000, is near the Seven Mile and Woodward area. Rabbits and opossums inhabit the dense surrounding woods, making the secluded area appear far away from the rest of Detroit.
This is by design.
In the not-so-distant past, when many of Detroit's neighborhoods were virtually all white, the Hills would have been excluded despite their income. Today, they are among the majority.
Homeowners' associations maintain high standards to keep property values high. The Hills say their neighborhood now is about 60 percent black, although census figures that include a wider area suggest the population is about 80 percent black.
The Detroit Golf Club, which the Hills joined when they moved in eight years ago, did not admit blacks for 87 years. Former Mayor Coleman A. Young broke the color barrier in January 1986. This year, the club elected its first black president. The Hills now regularly dine in the club's restaurant.
"We lived in Ann Arbor when we both were attending the University of Michigan, and thought about staying there," Hurks-Hill said. "But our friends and family are in Detroit, and we wanted to be close to them."
They pay for the choice. Their daughters, Leah, 7, Naomi, 5 and Dagny, 3, all attend Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, and tuition is between $12,000 and $15,000 a year for each. Hurks-Hill drops her children off on the way to her Pontiac office.
"It is important that our children grow up with children who look like them and those who don't look like them and then they can appreciate both," Hurks-Hill said.
They are active in the community -- Hurks-Hill is her street's representative -- and they enjoy activities in both the suburbs and the city.
"We just drive out Woodward to Ferndale or Birmingham to dine and shop, to Royal Oak for the Detroit Zoo, and then we go into downtown Detroit for the DIA, Orchestra Hall and the Detroit Science Center," Hill said.
Said his wife: "We're just two hard-working people trying to do the right thing, and have been rewarded for our efforts."
You can reach Shawn D. Lewis at (313) 222-2666 or slewis@detnews.com.
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