Originally Posted by
casscorridor
Michigan needs to try something radical with Detroit, but within the framework of urbanity, and transforming Detroit into a true urban city. This means concentrating development at the center, and at least doubling if not quadrupling the density of the center. Will this require eminent domain? I don't know. But I do know that a plan to revive Detroit will not come unless we start thinking of the entire metro as one city, that for 50 years has had a rotting center, and a major city can't exist without a center. We need to "shrink the city" or "right size" but on a metro-region-wide scale, not the just within the official city limits.
I don't really see NYC having large assemblages of land for factories, why should Detroit? I think the idea that we need to make room for large factories is silly, and if we made "metro Detroit" into one city, it wouldn't be an issue. The tax money from the factory would benefit the entire metro city. What we need is dense vibrant urban blocks, and in Detroit those can be counted on one hand. West Willis Street at Cass, E Grand River at Broadway, and a few other pockets here and there. This is what the whole central city needs to be! We also need to start thinking bigger than just one light-rail line. We need an entire system that serves the whole region, but with Downtown at the center as the hub, so that jobs are accessible in and out of the city, people can move and an out of the city efficiently and rapidly.
I wonder if Michigan's leaders have ever lived in a functioning city. I have my doubts, because if they did they would see how Michigan is extremely backwards and far behind other states with major cities. I feel like Michigan is in a constant state of delusion. We can't keep on keeping on letting our central city rot, or else it will bring down the entire state. Young people as well as families are fleeing at a rapid pace, this is no joke. And the only way to reverse this is to have a vibrant urban center capable of attracting new residents, which as of now does not exist in Michigan.