What could it take to revitalize the City of Detroit? Your ideas. Read on to learn about the state of Detroit and to develop ideas on how to revitalize the city.
I interviewed Alan Mallach in late 2009 about what is needed to revitalize the City of Detroit. Alan explains in this interview that due to the nature of property abandonment in Detroit, traditional planning methods must be set aside and a new way must be developed to revitalize the City of Detroit. And I believe young people have the creativity and talent to do it.
Alan Mallach is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC and a senior fellow at the National Housing Institute in Montclair, New Jersey. He is a well-known and well-respected scholar of Planning & Community Development. He is also a visiting scholar in the community affairs department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and a lecturer in the graduate city planning program at Rutgers University. His area of expertise is housing policy and community development, and Alan is passionate about creating and identifying solutions to problems that affect communities in these areas.
His latest book, “A Decent Home: Planning, Building and Preserving Affordable Housing,” was published by Planners Press and the University of Chicago Press in the spring of 2009. Find his book here.
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Resident Planning Geek: How has the landscape of the City of Detroit changed since the 1950s?
Alan Mallach: Detroit back in the 1950s had a population of 1.85 million. Today the population is 800.000 thousand. Detroit has lost well over a million people. Hundreds of houses have been lost. 40 sq miles, land area, is vacant land and there are 30-50 thousand vacant buildings.
Resident Planning Geek: What does the City of Detroit look like today?
Alan Mallach: Detroit has a shrinking population, and shrinking jobs. In some areas you can buy a house for $9,000. The best way to visualize this change is to spend 20 minutes or more looking at Google Earth. You will find acres 10, 20, more acres vacant. Above is a visual of Detroit. It doesn’t show the vacant properties in the city, or the areas needing redevelopment.
There hasn’t been a uniform loss of population across the city. Parts of downtown Detroit have experienced revitalization. The Arts in Detroit have experienced a resurgence.
Resident Planning Geek: What is the main challenge facing the redevelopment of Detroit?
Alan Mallach: The reality is that the City of Detroit is shrinking. The population is shrinking. Empty lots can be found throughout the city, and there is limited market demand for the existing supply of buildings and land in the City.
Resident Planning Geek: What is local government doing to address these challenges?
Alan Mallach: City government is in state of flux. Dave Bing recently was recently elected as the Mayor of Detroit till the end of the year. Mayor Bing is a business man & former basketball star. He is expected to be elected to office during the next election.
Resident Planning Geek: How can Detroit be revitalized?
Alan Mallach: The traditional way for re-development won’t work. Traditionally the city is seen as a core with reducing densities. In this framework, the city has a continuous urban texture with few abandoned property and empty lots.
Detroit does not have a continuous urban texture. The city has large plots of vacant land with buildings knocked down.
To re-invent Detroit, a new way is needed. It would involve visualizing Detroit still as a core, but with distinct urban villages, or hubs, with green spaces. This would involve de-urbanizing parts of Detroit that were once part of the urban fabric but are now vacant. These areas would be redeveloped into areas for farming and lakes. These green spaces would replace land and property not utilized. It would involve visualizing Detroit still as a core, but with distinct urban villages, or hubs, with green spaces.
Areas that are still viable, areas that have assets, should have demand channeled into them by way of economic development.
© 2011 W. S. Hughes
I watched the 2008 documentary called Food Inc. last night and it really opened my eyes to another side of our food industry. As Organic food is becoming more popular (and necessary after watching that movie), I think there may be a great opportunity for the areas in Detroit to be used as small organic farms. It would provide jobs for workers in the city, also fresh food in the city, state, and if it took off enough possibly becoming a large scale organic provider for the country. I think Mayor Bing’s idea of shrinking the city would help creat areas where these farms could be set up. Just a thought, I really think that would be an industry that could work in this area, everyone needs food. Just a thought and I think the author above touched on it. I really hope the city can re-bound, it’s a wonderful area with so much potential.
Great interview! This is a topic that has dominated the urban planning world and Alan Mallach is definitely one of the foremost brains in the industry that can help.
Great blog I hope all these things will become true in the near future and Motown will be able to compete with NY and Chicago.
Meg, Bobby & Josh, the expertise exists and the vision has been crafted. I agree, it would be wonderful if something tangible like a redesign of the city comes out of the existing knowledge base.
Thanks for the kind words Meg, Bobby and Josh.