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Detroit: Then, Now, The Future

WSU MUP Student said:
Noted Urban Planner Coming to Detroit (And it's not an article about me going downtown yesterday evening for bowling night!)


Maybe something really will come of Detroit's downsizing plan. The Kresge Foundation has already hired a planner that will be paid by the foundation but work for the city's planning and economic development department. I can imagine others in the city (either regular citizens or folks in the city government) who might feel this is some sort of conflict of interest by having an outsider, paid for by a suburban foundation no less! gasp! :-c working in such a capacity.
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Kressge has given quite a bit to the City of Detroit. Even though it may be located in an old farmhouse across from the K-mart HQ, its ties run deep. WSU, The Historic Museum, the DIA, the Riverwalk, and countless other civic achievements have been helped by the KF.
 
So what does the Throbbing Brain™ see as the logical progression of things in and around Detroit over the next few decades?

^o)

Mike
 
DetroitPlanner said:
Kressge has given quite a bit to the City of Detroit. Even though it may be located in an old farmhouse across from the K-mart HQ, its ties run deep. WSU, The Historic Museum, the DIA, the Riverwalk, and countless other civic achievements have been helped by the KF.
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I don't question Kresge's motivations. As somebody who previously worked in the private foundation world, I always found the folks there to be pretty genuine... and living within a very easy bicycle commute to their HQ, I always keep an out for job openings there! ;)

My concern is how the esteemed members of the Detroit City Council will look at the situation or how a less informed but concerned citizen will look at it.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
My concern is how the esteemed members of the Detroit City Council will look at the situation or how a less informed but concerned citizen will look at it.
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Most realize that Detroit can't afford to snub an offer from a foundation as important as Kressge. Now it may ruffle some feathers of those who will work in the Department, I hope they can see the benefit of having another person to share the workload.
 
DetroitPlanner said:
Now it may ruffle some feathers of those who will work in the Department, I hope they can see the benefit of having another person to share the workload.
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This brings up an interesting point. Detroit seems like an excellent, bottom-up opportunity for creative urban planning and motivated planning professionals. But what's the atmosphere like for planners there? Is there a distinct insider v. outsider perspective?
 
Ah: supply and demand.

Any economist worth her salt would tell you that unless there is a reasonabel level of security, an area tha labors under a poor reputain/negative growth trend will find it difficult to rebound. I don't know what the newsworthy crime rate is like in 'urban' Detroit but, like NYC in soem ways, it needs for the rate to fall to well below national average for 5-10 years before the fact becomes ufficiently embedded in the collective unconscious. Easier said than done, I guess.

Another unpalatable hsitorical lesson si that for an 'asset' that is very badly undepriced due to reptuational/historical as well as actual commercial reasons, to rebound, a relatively small group of players need to be offered an 'unfair' prospect of massive gain.
Would someone build on (selected) urbain prairie areas if they were given, say, 20 lots for free, with no city taxes for 10 years? Yes? Do it. No? How about 100 lots? Just the construction jobs would attract secondary spin-off jobs, etc.

On the schools front, I think the current SecEd has some fairly good ideas, though not too radical.
 
Requiem for Detroit. Beautifully produced, but I think the BBC special oversimplifies the reasons behind Detroit's rise and fall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReqG6qbx_c0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXC6EjSMyh8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gQbP0nH06A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63AM-LkKcG4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2C9LnKDBDI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zreYUBIUmrM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CBoqs4Ze08

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sfkqb7boSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
 
The Detroit Declaration.

From what I'm seeing in Buffalo, there's a new generation of young adults -- really, Generation Xers, Generation Yers, and Millennials -- who no longer see Buffalo as a cesspool to be feared. Those behind the Detroit Declaration seem to be expressing similar thoughts towards the Motor City.

From the site:

PREAMBLE

Cities are the greatest expression of civilization. Great cities are filled with people who exercise their talent and creativity as the catalytic risk-takers, doers, and leaders who forge the dynamic marketplace of ideas that grow places into prosperity. We are the people who believe in cities and pledge to align our energies for the benefit of Michigan’s largest and most storied city, Detroit.

Detroit’s place in history is secure no doubt. But if Detroit is to have any chance at a prosperous future, we must act boldly and swiftly to address the structural deficiencies that have acted over the decades to conspire against our central premise. Because in the greatest irony of Detroit’s astounding story over the last hundred years, we acknowledge that our greatest single mistake has been to disinvest in our core asset, the very city itself.

To return to prosperity we must seize this unprecedented opportunity to remake ourselves and our city in a fundamental way. We must have the vision to not only honor Detroit on its own terms today, but work towards what Detroit can become tomorrow. We must recognize that Detroit and its surrounding communities need each other and share a common destiny. We must value and empower those who imagine a city of more rather than a city of less, even while embracing the idea that we may need to become leaner to ensure that the city thrives, not just survives.

This vision of a greater, healthier, more vibrant, urban and livable Detroit is our single purpose, our manifest object and basis for this transformative moment. For Michigan to have a prosperous future, Detroit must be at the center of it.

PRINCIPLES

Building on Detroit’s assets to create opportunity and options for a prosperous city and people:

* Be welcoming and embrace our diversity. Move beyond mere tolerance of our differences to a true commitment to openness, understanding and cooperation, and the inclusion of multiple perspectives both in our neighborhoods and at the highest decision-making realms.

* Preserve our authenticity. Celebrate and elevate that which makes Detroit unique—local art, music, food, design, architecture, culture—to build a stronger local economy.

* Cultivate creativity. Build an infrastructure to foster and promote emerging talent in one of Detroit’s greatest strengths, the arts: music, film, visual arts, design, and other creative industries.

* Diversify our economy. Create a culture of opportunity and risk-taking, especially by investing in entrepreneurialism and small, micro-business.

* Promote sustainability. Embrace the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental benefit by retooling our infrastructure with green technology, adapting vacant buildings and open spaces for new uses, and creating healthy, family-supporting jobs.

* Enhance quality of place. Create a comprehensive vision for transit-linked, high-quality, walkable urban centers in Detroit.

* Demand transportation alternatives. Invest in an integrated regional transportation system that links communities and provides citizens with access to the jobs, health care, and education they need.

* Prioritize education, pre-K through 12 and beyond. Create a culture that values the wide, equitable educational attainment necessary to produce both economic opportunity and stronger citizens.

* Elevate our universities and research institutions. Create world-class education, new technology, and medical centers to attract and retain students and faculty from around the world.

* Enhance the value of city living. Demand public safety and services to improve the quality of life for residents.

* Demand government accountability. Reward civic engagement with responsive, transparent, and ethical governmental decision-making.

* Think regionally and leverage our geography. Maximize our position as an international border city and a Midwestern hub between Chicago and Toronto. Forge meaningful partnerships between Detroit and its suburbs to compete globally in the 21st century.

PLEDGE

We, the undersigned, endorse the principles in this document and accept the responsibility to be stewards of prosperity in our communities.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxH6WGqjX20
 
I wonder where certain urban-oriented subcultures that normally live in pre-WWII or city neighborhoods reside in in the Detroit area; hipsters, artists, the GLBT crowd, and young adults with a preference for more active, higher density environments. In Buffalo, those subcultures can be found mostly in city neighborhoods (Allentown, Elmwood Village, Delaware District, and increasingly North Park). In Cleveland, they're split between a couple of city neighborhoods (Tremont and Ohio City) and inner ring suburbs (mainly Cleveland Heights and Lakewood).
 
Dan said:
I wonder where certain urban-oriented subcultures that normally live in pre-WWII or city neighborhoods reside in in the Detroit area; hipsters, artists, the GLBT crowd, and young adults with a preference for more active, higher density environments. In Buffalo, those subcultures can be found mostly in city neighborhoods (Allentown, Elmwood Village, Delaware District, and increasingly North Park). In Cleveland, they're split between a couple of city neighborhoods (Tremont and Ohio City) and inner ring suburbs (mainly Cleveland Heights and Lakewood).
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I think for the past decade or so, besides a couple pockets in the city, those crowds have been concentrated in a few suburbs, mainly those north of the city along the Woodward and Main Street corridors (Ferndale, Royal Oak, Berkley). I've heard talk that those folks also exist in communities "Down River" and south of the city, but I couldn't tell you the last time I ventured south of Michigan Avenue so I can neither confirm nor deny these rumors.

Over the past couple of years, I have noticed that those remaining pockets in the city in neighborhoods like Corktown and Woodbridge seem to be growing. I don't know if the numbers will show this as well, but there seems to be a lot more activity going on in these places than at the start of the 21st century. Hamtramck, while always pretty vibrant, seems to be attracting more of a hipster crowd over the last couple of years as well.

I always see articles and hear stories about artists and the like coming to Detroit and moving into some house they bought for $100 and it seems like only a matter of time until the city hits a critical mass of artists (visual, music, etc.) and can maybe become the Portland (Oregon) of the Midwest in the world of music. To me, it seems like a natural progression - as Seattle became too expensive for artists living and working there in the 1990s, they began migrating south to Portland. Seattle never really lost its clout because big labels like Sub Pop and Barsuk stuck around, they just had to share the rest of the scene with Portland. I like to picture the day when artists start a massive exodus out of Chicago and come to Detroit where they can live and practice their art for a fraction of the cost of doing so in the Windy City and still have plenty of places to perform live and access back to their labels in Chicago. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
The Warrendale Neighborhood has several bars that cater to the LGTB community. It is located near Dearborn and is working class. Its a lot like a less yuppie version of Ferndale with way more muslims. The few gay couples that I knew that lived here however moved out a while ago and moved to Fasionable Ferndale. Don't know to what extent the community still exists here except for the bars and clubs.
 
Guess where most of the MSHDA (community redevelopment) new job postings are based.

Yup.

As a state agency, it's easy enough to find. And the fellow who posts these to LinkedIn will "connect" with anyone on there. Some of these look like pretty good gigs.
 
I miss Metro Detroit. I'd move back if the job opportunity was the right one. As many problems as it has, once it's in your blood, it's hard to get it our of your system. I was in town over the weekend and every time I return I just get this feeling that it's where I'm supposed to be. West Michigan will never be home like Metro Detroit.
 
That (the Palladium video) completely changed my idea of the city. Sounds like a cool place, and I'm not joking.

The obvious disclaimer, though - according to wikipedia, which I know isn't always accurate, over 80% of Detroit is black. Most of the people interviewed belonged to the white population of the city, which is a slim minority at 12%. The filmmaker gave us the viewpoint of a very select crowd, namely young, white artists. I wonder what the average citizen would have to say.
 
RPfresh said:
That (the Palladium video) completely changed my idea of the city. Sounds like a cool place, and I'm not joking.

The obvious disclaimer, though - according to wikipedia, which I know isn't always accurate, over 80% of Detroit is black. Most of the people interviewed belonged to the white population of the city, which is a slim minority at 12%. The filmmaker gave us the viewpoint of a very select crowd, namely young, white artists. I wonder what the average citizen would have to say.
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I love the city of Detroit and would love nothing more than to see it's rebirth. The Palladium videos are quite cute, but don't nearly capture the despair that most residents deal with on a daily basis. Most of the "artists" are wannabee Detroit residents...that is, they either live in the suburbs and just spend most of their time in they city, or are simply renters (NTTAWWT).

The majority would tell you to solve racism. I'm of the firm belief that racism is the biggest reason for what has happened to Detroit. Detroit was/is the epicenter of racism. Detroit was the epicenter of the great migration of blacks that came from the south to the north during the rise of manufacturing explosion.

Solve racism and you solve Detroit. Not an easy task. Unfortunately.

Honestly, as much as people wish it to not be true, I truly do not see a path where Detroit becomes a viable city any time soon, without some type of revolutionary movement. And I'm not even sure what I mean by "revolutionary".
 
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RPfresh said:
That (the Palladium video) completely changed my idea of the city. Sounds like a cool place, and I'm not joking.

The obvious disclaimer, though - according to wikipedia, which I know isn't always accurate, over 80% of Detroit is black. Most of the people interviewed belonged to the white population of the city, which is a slim minority at 12%. The filmmaker gave us the viewpoint of a very select crowd, namely young, white artists. I wonder what the average citizen would have to say.
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These do not show the average citizen. Detroit has a huge very poor population and those who are middle or upper class simply would not make a good story. Much of Detroit's black population is migrating to the suburbs. Detroit is a much smaller city than it was in the 2000 census, and it is a lot more diverse. It is still largely black though.

A lot of what makes the City cool is not shown in these videos. It is a very narrow slice made by someone who wants to tell a story.
 
The video was what it was in the sense that it represented the select few and not the many, but at least it made me want to visit. Also I should have paid attention to what year the census was; perfect example of wikiblowinit.
 
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I don't know if you guys are familiar with Next American City (the magazine), but their new issue is about Detroit and New Orleans as two American 'Comeback Cities.' Should be interesting, think I'll pick one up.
 
Interestingly, IMHO, if or, perhaps more likely, when true high-speed rail passenger service is ever brought to Detroit and, especially, if a 'Schengen' style border agreement between Canada and the USA can be negotiated, the very BEST place that I can think of for the Detroit stop would be...

.

.

.

...the Michigan Central station. (Imagining that place being rebuilt into a true HSR station.... :) )

---------

That said, one thing that does very much impress me about that series of video clips is that *ALL* of that effort and initiative is coming from the private sector with ZERO governmental involvement of any kind from any level.

I like that.

:h:

Mike
 
Dan said:
Requiem for Detroit. Beautifully produced, but I think the BBC special oversimplifies the reasons behind Detroit's rise and fall.
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Watched this the other day. I agree.

It's great though for someone like me from Australia to see how things can go so wrong. I'll be watching American cities like Detroit and New Orleans very closely over the next few decades to see what happens. Maybe I'll come over and check it out for myself.
 
Squatters in Detroit

So, we all know that Detroit has copious amounts of abandoned buildings. But I heard a rumor that the city government is working with low-income and homeless people to simply give them vacant properties. And I don't mean in the old, rigidly bureaucratic Federal-Urban-Homesteading-Program-of-the-'70s-and-'80s type of way. I mean, I think that they're just giving buildings to squatters.

Does anybody know any more about this? All I heard was a rumor.

Thanks!
 
Dobbz said:
So, we all know that Detroit has copious amounts of abandoned buildings. But I heard a rumor that the city government is working with low-income and homeless people to simply give them vacant properties. And I don't mean in the old, rigidly bureaucratic Federal-Urban-Homesteading-Program-of-the-'70s-and-'80s type of way. I mean, I think that they're just giving buildings to squatters.

Does anybody know any more about this? All I heard was a rumor.

Thanks!
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I doubt that. Squatters cause a lot of problems for the City. Illegal gas, water, and electric hook-ups are a real problem and cause countless of fires while stealing tax revenues. Squatters live on the fringe of society and will do things like sell drugs turning the neighborhoods into areas that bring addicts and prostitutes.
 
DetroitPlanner said:
I doubt that. Squatters cause a lot of problems for the City. Illegal gas, water, and electric hook-ups are a real problem and cause countless of fires while stealing tax revenues. Squatters live on the fringe of society and will do things like sell drugs turning the neighborhoods into areas that bring addicts and prostitutes.
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Actually, it is really hard to generalize about squatters. Historically, they have been some of the first agents of gentrification in neighborhoods like the Lower East Side of New York. Indeed, there is certainly the brand of squatter that you are referring to—who gradually contribute to the degradation of a structure—but there is also the type of squatter who purposefully revitalizes a building with a plan (or at least a hope) to live in it long term.

In the case of Detroit and its relationship to squatters, my impression was that it was more like authorities were turning a blind eye to constructive squatters. (After all, why not? They weren't getting tax revenue from those thousands of empty properties anyway.) Nuisance squatters are a different story.
 
Detroit should give it's abandon homes to the wave of Japanese immigrants that I suspect will be coming soon.
 
Dobbz said:
In the case of Detroit and its relationship to squatters, my impression was that it was more like authorities were turning a blind eye to constructive squatters. (After all, why not? They weren't getting tax revenue from those thousands of empty properties anyway.) Nuisance squatters are a different story.
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My neighborhood has started to get some nuisance squatters in it. Its making my life very stressful. I'm looking to move.
 
"Soul-Crushing Sprawl"

This is a very succinct article.

We've got highlights:

People – particularly affluent and educated people – just don’t want to live here.

There’s a simple reason why many people don’t want to live here: it’s an unpleasant place because most of it is visually unattractive and because it is lacking in quality living options other than tract suburbia. Some might call this poor “quality of life.” A better term might be poor “quality of place.” In Metro Detroit, we have built a very bad physical place. We don’t have charming, vibrant cities and we don’t have open space. What we do have are several thousand of miles of streets that look like this:

http://rustwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Picture-8.png

Things are spread too far apart. You have to drive everywhere. There’s no mass transit. There are no viable cities. Lots of it is really ugly, especially the mile after mile of sterile and often dingy suburban strip shopping and utility wires that line our dilapidated roads (note above). There’s no nearby open space for most people (living in Birmingham, it’s 45 minutes in traffic to places like Proud Lake or Kensington). It’s impossible to get around by bike without taking your life in your hands. Most people lead sedentary lifestyles. There’s a grating “car culture” that is really off-putting to many people from outside of Michigan.

our political and business leadership does not view poor quality of place as a problem and certainly lacks motivation to address the issue.

For example, some boosters trumpet our “unrivaled” freeway system as if
freeways and sprawl they engender are “quality of life” assets. In San Francisco, the place sucking up all the talent and money, they have removed — literally torn out of the ground — two freeways because people prefer not to have them. I noted one “Quality of Life” page of a Detroit area economic development website featured a prominent picture of an enclosed regional shopping mall! Yuck. It’s theater of the absurd.

Indeed, MDOT officials lie awake at night thinking of ways to thwart the efforts of local communities along Woodward to become more walkable.
 
Cities provide "critical mass"

No, not the infamous monthly bike ride!

http://www.freep.com/article/201103...al-mass?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

Greektown isn't any neighborhood. It's a 24-hour urban village, a place where a polyglot of people -- casino-goers and diners, cops and judges, janitors and musicians, criminal suspects on their way to the county jail and bail bondsmen on their way to spring them -- share the same sidewalks, restaurants and bars.

...
In the end, the robbery was foiled by critical mass -- the same concentration of fundamentally law-abiding people that keeps the public safe at a crowded baseball stadium, on a busy college campus, or on city streets lined with well-populated porches and stoops. It's the concentration Bing wants to re-create or reinforce in a city whose eyes and ears are currently dispersed across too many blocks.

Critical mass is the reason cities were invented. It's what makes them interesting and exasperating, challenging and fun.
 
Trying to link critical mass of Greektown to the issues of Detroit Works is a bit of a stretch. Detroit Works is about neighborhoods looking for better services, schools, parks, and safety. Greektown is a small district of Downtown that mostly services the Courts during the day and the drunks at night. Hence it has a lot of both police presence and people. You don't have this in your average neighborhood.

The concerns of the residents are valid. The writer of this article is a bit flippant about those concerns.
 
The saxophonist would make a better living busking than basking. Or is just that the writer and/or editor didn't know the difference?
 
ofos said:
Isn't electronic journalism great? Did they acknowledge the revision? Back in the day, I much preferred the Daily Freep to the Morning Snews.
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No acknowledgment on-line. I'm guessing it was a copy editor (surely Brian Dickerson understands the difference). May be the one who tagged the new Mexicantown bridge in front of a video camera, and subsequently was relieved of her blogging duties.

My family was a Snooze subscriber, and it wasn't until junior high (dating myself!) that I knew there was an alternative. George Puscas' son was in my homeroom class, and he'd be sitting there reading a morning newspaper. I became a Freepie, and used to correspond with the likes of Bob Talbert and M.L. Elrick. (I think he won an award for something a couple years ago.)

Helpful hint: if you contribute tips to a journalist, those might get published. And sometimes this can be helpful in your career or causes.
 
This is cool

"Your great idea about Detroit media could net you $5,000!

The sky’s literally the limit. You can submit as often as you like. Ideas might include covering people and places across Michigan — in print, digitally, and other ways; they might be about more effectively helping others in the community; about saving readers time and money; about doing business more effectively."

http://ideaquest.michigan.com/
 
DetroitPlanner said:
Trying to link critical mass of Greektown to the issues of Detroit Works is a bit of a stretch. Detroit Works is about neighborhoods looking for better services, schools, parks, and safety. Greektown is a small district of Downtown that mostly services the Courts during the day and the drunks at night. Hence it has a lot of both police presence and people. You don't have this in your average neighborhood.

The concerns of the residents are valid. The writer of this article is a bit flippant about those concerns.
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Well, golly gee, why don't these local yokels hire private contractors to pick up their garbage, clean their streets, and patrol their neighborhoods? Everybody knows that private schools are infinitely superior to public schools, so why are they sending their kids there? Do they want to doom them to mediocrity?
 
Linda_D said:
Well, golly gee, why don't these local yokels hire private contractors to pick up their garbage, clean their streets, and patrol their neighborhoods? Everybody knows that private schools are infinitely superior to public schools, so why are they sending their kids there? Do they want to doom them to mediocrity?
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80 mills plus high levels of poverty. Unless you live in the few uber rich areas of the City it is impossible. This is a city built for 2 million rich relatively well-off folks trying to survive with a total population of 700,000 mostly broke folks.
 
Good news finally!

http://www.detnews.com/article/20110405/BIZ/104050376/1001/biz

State's job growth 10 times expected recovery rateBrian J. O'Connor / Detroit News Finance Editor
Michigan will add more than 10 times as many new jobs as economists predicted just months ago, thanks to recent data revisions that show the Michigan economy is off to a stronger-than-expected start for the year.

All told, the state should add 64,600 jobs this year compared with the 6,300 predicted when the University of Michigan's Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics released its forecast in November.



From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110405...10-times-expected-recovery-rate#ixzz1IeUy14NT

While it is doubtful we will never recover all of the nearly 1 million jobs lost, it is a step in the right direction. We need more diversification in our economy but need to do so while tending the the billion pound gorrillas of our manufacturers.
 
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