Over the next two weeks, Next City will unroll short profiles of 77 people, places and ideas that have changed cities this year. Together, they make up our 2012 Disruption Index. Forefront subscribers can download the Index in full as a PDF, complete with beautiful designs and graphics by Danni Sinisi. Readers who make a $75 donation to Next City will have a full-color printed copy of the Index mailed to them.

As a career move, it was a bit surprising to see Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Charlie LeDuff follow up a gig at the Grey Lady with a job as a correspondent at a local TV news station in Detroit. But following convention is not LeDuff’s way. After two years in television news, LeDuff has distinguished himself as one of the most creative and interesting reporters working in the medium.

In July, in what is emblematic of the sort of reporting and storytelling LeDuff does so well, he turned the city into a single, 18-mile golf hole and literally golfed the city. Passing through Detroit’s vast emptiness, struggling neighborhoods, resurging pockets and even abandoned homes, LeDuff’s golf hole (par-3,168) painted an intimate, if slightly bizarre, portrait of a city so easily misunderstood. The absurdity of being able to drive a golf ball through a major American city was not lost on LeDuff, or the countless locals he interviewed along the way.

Through this type of innovative reporting, LeDuff is telling a refreshingly honest story about Detroit as it continues to evolve and the people who are part of its changing course.

Nate Berg is a writer and journalist covering cities, architecture and urban planning. Nate’s work has been published in a wide variety of publications, including the New York Times, NPR, Wired, Metropolis, Fast Company, Dwell, Architect, the Christian Science Monitor, LA Weekly and many others. He is a former staff writer at The Atlantic Cities and was previously an assistant editor at Planetizen.