In my application to participate in the Leadership Service Seminar in Detroit, I wrote, “there’s no better time to be there as an urban policy student.” Only after we arrived did I realize that we had found ourselves in the city's throes of change and, as many said during trip, there was no better place we would rather have been than Detroit.
I wanted to contextualize today’s Detroit within its history and the impact of state and federal policies; I wanted to learn about how different actors come together to engage communities and revitalize an incredible city. Man, did we do all of that and much more.
Under the tireless leadership of Michael and Art, we saw and heard dozens of perspectives on the past, present, and future of Detroit. With nearly 700,000 people and a $1 billion general fund budget, Detroit is a large, complex system of people and organizations working independently and together to keep it humming. Somewhere along the way, policy and planning decisions were made that started to take the city off track. So the question we kept asking ourselves and our speakers was “is Detroit on track?”
I wanted to contextualize today’s Detroit within its history and the impact of state and federal policies; I wanted to learn about how different actors come together to engage communities and revitalize an incredible city. Man, did we do all of that and much more.
Under the tireless leadership of Michael and Art, we saw and heard dozens of perspectives on the past, present, and future of Detroit. With nearly 700,000 people and a $1 billion general fund budget, Detroit is a large, complex system of people and organizations working independently and together to keep it humming. Somewhere along the way, policy and planning decisions were made that started to take the city off track. So the question we kept asking ourselves and our speakers was “is Detroit on track?”
I’m nowhere near being able to answer that question. But to start somewhere, I tried to categorize the people and organizations we met with and talked about, in order to have a better sense of the different pieces of the puzzle:
Every piece has a role to play. Figuring out those roles as well as the right distribution of power is critical. Right now, local agencies, officials, and public advocates are weak—hanging in there like dull stars, reminding us of their bygone brilliance. Somebody has to go polish the stars.
More to come,
Linda
- Executive city government—most prominently, the mayor and city council
- Broader city governing structure—city agencies and services, as well as the infrastructure and resources they command
- State government—namely the governor, state senate and assembly, and appointed emergency financial manager
- Community organizers—in many ways, the truer representatives of the people of Detroit
- Local non-profit organizations—semi-permanent band-aids for social service provision
- Philanthropic organizations—funders for public and private efforts to develop and assist the city
- Anchor institutions—comprising medical institutions like Henry Ford, academic institutions like Wayne State University, and others, which are huge givers to and beneficiaries of the city
- Large, formidable businesses—those which tend to hold financial and political sway
- Small businesses—those generally more rooted in the community
- And, of course, the people
Every piece has a role to play. Figuring out those roles as well as the right distribution of power is critical. Right now, local agencies, officials, and public advocates are weak—hanging in there like dull stars, reminding us of their bygone brilliance. Somebody has to go polish the stars.
More to come,
Linda
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