The following are my suggestions for moving forward to accomplish more and better preservation activity in Detroit. These suggestions are based on my 10 years of professional economic development activity in the City of Detroit, my personal observations on the foibles of parties on both sides of the issue and personal friendships and long conversations with any number of preservation activists, developers, governmental employees and residents.
1.Stop screaming that DEGC and the City have no vision and have done no preservation activity. It is amazing to me that leaders of the Friends of the Book Cadillac will publicly excortiate the very people who did the actual work on the Book Cadillac. Make no mistake about it, what was accomplished at the BC is nothing short of a miracle when it comes to financing.

2.Compliment and recognize the dozens of projects that ARE preservation projects that are a direct result of the DDA / DEGC and other City efforts – such as the 50+ historic buildings that received direct cash grants for façade restoration work.
These first two are key in establishing a working relationship moving forward. If you continually berate somebody for real or perceived transgressions while refusing to acknowledge their real successes, they will eventually tune you out completely. This is what has happened to the large portion of the preservation community that is most vocal. They have done nothing but fly off the handle with very little information in hand and no effort to engage for better information.
3.Engage the DDA / DEGC constructively. Simply filing lawsuits or standing up at Council meetings / HDC meetings and attacking staff continues to marginalize preservation activitists. One particular instance that sticks in my mind is the whole Statler Hilton kerfluffle. DDA staff spent innumerable hours with developers to assess the building and to look for any potential reuse. John Ferchill declined, saying there was no viable use for the building. Pres Kabacof looked Mayor Kilpatrick in the eye and said if he was mayor, there was no way he could justify to citizens what it would take for the City to participate in the redevelopment of the building. Here are two shining lights of preservation who said directly and bluntly – its hopeless. I spent several hours in private conversations enumerating the issues and the reasons why the building was not savable to PW leadership and to membership of FOBC. That included enumerating why the plans drawn up by some of their members had fatal flaws.
There were a number of well known issues that the DDA had not fully documented yet and should have been pressed to document. It is crucial to understand that full documentation would not change the fate of the building. It would have gone a long way to help deflect accusations of cover-ups and it is something I argued strenuously for internally. I was comfortable with the decision to demolish, I was not comfortable that the decision points were formally documented. That said I spend a good deal of time explaining the reality of the situation and the need for expediency to preservation activists. It was a direct attempt at backdoor diplomacy.
I laid all the cards out on the table and clearly indicated what the reality of the situation was. It wasn’t just the opinion of me or the DDA. It was the opinion of John Ferchill. FOBC and PW, instead of taking insider information at face value and picking battles carefully elected to file a lawsuit and attempt to delay the demolition leading up to the Superbowl. Their actions caused delays that resulted in a couple hundred thousand dollars in extra expenses. Not a wise move to throw a spanner in the works when the DDA / DEGC was in desperation mode to pull off the very ambitious plan [Side note: Did PW or any other organization ever publicly support and thank the City for its overhaul of say Washington Boulevard back to its historic configuration for the Super bowl?]. The City was spending millions for new streetscapes and façade improvements and FOBC takes actions to delay the removal of a complete eyesore. Not helpful engagement people.

This begs a question, why was is that FOBC was not diplomatic to engage John Ferchill constructively? It seems the deep pocketed, successful historic property developer would be the guy you became best friends with at all costs. It also begs the question, if they had earned John’s trust, would they have listened to him when he said there was no hope for the Statler Hilton?

Now, you might say that it is the DDA or the DEGC who ought to make outreach to the preservation community and to some extent you may be right. But the cold hard reality is that in special interest / issue politics, it ALWAYS has been and ALWAYS will be the special interest that has to take the high road. It is up to the special interest groups to win people over, not browbeat them. That means working patiently and diligently on #s 1,2,and 3 above.

Has screaming worked so far? Nope. Maybe its time to try something else.

4.Smarten up about the realities of budget priorities. Recognize that there are very, very limited resources and that your priorities may not be the same as a large portion of the communities priorities. Using money to mothball a building means other programs go unfunded. It’s simple math and until the activist community takes the time to truly understand where the money goes stamping your feet will not induce people to change their budget priorities. One way to begin doing this is cordially requesting copies of DDA board books as you are free to do as citizens. Ask sensible and non-threatening questions about what you don’t understand. Presuming or behaving that the DDA / DEGC is only hiding something will only alienate staff and earn you a stonewall of minimal cooperation. When looking at the board books take the time to understand the costs and imagine yourself as a board member having to reallocate dollars away from a small business that would occupy space in a restored building [[in which the DDA already has money) to mothball a vacant building. Engage a neutral party to help you understand deals and whether they work or not. Don’t go back to the same preservation architects who have a vested interest in getting contract dollars. Try a neutral party.

5.Earn a spot at the table and show value. The Preservation Coalition with help from the Chicago office of the NTHP drafted up a plan for engagement that, when stripped to its essence, said: “We want to be able to approve any and all demolitions and preservation activity. We will add another layer of review and bureaucracy to your already extremely difficult job. We will not bring new resources to the table and we have no action plan for what we will do to help. We demand a seat at the table.” Unsurprisingly, the document was completely ignored. The drafters of the document were given any number of suggestions of value add, of what they could bring to the table and each and everyone of those suggestions was ignored and did not make it in to the document. The document was not drafted with any real solicited input from the DDA or DEGC. That is a strategic blunder of colossal proportions.

All this said, there is a litany of missteps and petty actions on the City’s side of the equation as well. They have not been diplomatic, they have been dismissive and frankly, as time goes by they get more and more bullheaded. As soon as the usual characters show up and protest an issue it is a red flag for certain elements of leadership in the City. It is unfortunate. It is unprofessional. But really, I get how they got to that point to a large extent. It is easy to paint them as bad guys but really, with the number of issues facing them, they don't have the time or inclination to hold the hands of someone upset about a particular building they have already assessed. What the DDA / DEGC is doing not cosmetic surgery in Grosse Pointe. It is triage at an army hospital. And sometimes they make mistakes and sometimes they don't fill out all the paperwork just so, but 99% of the time, they are getting it right.

The tactics of the preservation activists are not working and will not work - ever. I am giving you the explicit insider’s perspective of how to engage constructively. The balls in your court.