Does Detroit has a master plan?

[iheartthed]

I was reading an article on the city in TIME [[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...887864,00.html), and a professor from U of M suggested that the city does not have one. Is this true?

[iheartthed]

Excuse the typo in the thread title... It's late.

[Lorax]

I think that's one of those questions that you could equate with:

1) Does Monica Conyers have a brain?
2) Does Matted Moron give a crap about his reputation?
3) Has Martha Reeves met a dessert cart she didn't like?
4) Did Swami Kilpatrick worry about being a pathological liar?
5) Does serving on the Detroit School Board require a literacy test?

I think we can all agree the answer to all the above, as well as the initial question is a resounding NO!

[Novine]

There's this on the city's web site:

http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/Departme...4/Default.aspx

Whether it's followed or of any use, I can't say.

[Novine]

This explains everything:

"People know that times are bad. But we're not going to roll over and die," says George Jackson, CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. "To me, this is war. And I think we're going to win."

Geo. Jackson must have gone to the "We had to destroy the village to save it" school of warfare.

[Lorax]

Geo. Jackson must have gone to the "We had to destroy the village to save it" school of warfare.

Instead of tilting at windmills, he's apparently flailing at historic buildings.

Quixote Jackson- this will be his new name. Thanks.

[Lorax]

There's this on the city's web site:

http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/Departme...4/Default.aspx

Whether it's followed or of any use, I can't say.

I understand for it's primary use it's a lot easier on the skin than corn cobs.

[ThaFuzz]

Excuse the typo in the thread title... It's late.

Drat, I was gonna go for the "Detroit has no master plan, but they has CHEESEBURGERZ!!!" joke

[Danny]

Does Detroit has a master plan?

NO!

If only we put away our race cards, then the master plan for Detroit's rise will begin.

[detmich]

Does Detroit has a master plan?

NO!

If only we put away our race cards, then the master plan for Detroit's rise will begin.

Does Detroit have a master plan?

[gnome]

Lorax, just wondering...do several people use your screen name? As in, are there people with wide ranging personalities that log-in using the name Lorax? A computer set up in the day-room of an in-patient psych-ward perchance?

Just wondering.

[Todd_Scott]

I was reading an article on the city in TIME [[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...887864,00.html), and a professor from U of M suggested that the city does not have one. Is this true?

I believe you've misread the quote. The UM professor was referring to the city not having a blueprint for dealing with vacant land.

[iheartthed]

I believe you've misread the quote. The UM professor was referring to the city not having a blueprint for dealing with vacant land.

Which would be what they would put in a master plan.

[ghettopalmetto]

Master Plan:

1. Demolish everything old.

2. Hope someone comes and builds something.

[urbanophile]

Almost every city in the United States has what is called a "comprehensive plan". They are required by law in most places. This includes land use maps, community goals, a thoroughfare plan, etc. Also, every urban area in the country has a federally mandated long range plan administered through a Metropolitan Planning Organization that is required to get federal funding for transportation projects.

Having said that, almost no cities have what I would call a proper strategic plan. That is, what are the customer segments they are going after, the value proposition to serve it, the things that are needed to bring it about, etc. This involves defining community goals and a real understanding of what is required to get to them in terms of talent/human capital, legal/regulatory regimes, tax structure, social practices and culture, facilities and infrastructure, cost base matters, organizational structures, etc.

I gave an overview of what one might look like here if anyone is interested:

http://theurbanophile.blogspot.com/2...-strategy.html

I've yet to see a city that has a good strategy document. However, you can argue that places like Portland took a strategy driven approach. That is, they decided that they wanted to build a city where many of the best and brightest who wanted an urban environment without the New York style cost and hassles would want to live. And their theory was that this would drive economic growth. Then they implemented an UGB, extensive transit system, land use policies, parks and other facilities, etc. to create a highly differentiated market with appeal to their market segment.

I'd argue Portland is exclusionary to some extent. Clearly its strategy is not right for Detroit. But Detroit desperately needs one. I might suggest starting with some "facts on the ground" - that is, things you can't change - and figure out how to reposition them as assets other cities can't match and/or mitigate the ones you can't change. Some of these are:

- Along an international border
- A transport bottleneck
- Largest percentage of African Americans in the country in the core city and county in the US
- Access to fresh water
- Large tracts of empty and/or largely underutilized land in the central city
- Large metro area population
- Centrality [[middle of the United States, though in a peripheral geography for its region)
- Flatness
- Four distinct seasons
- The Detroit River / major waterway
- Heavy unionization
- Heavy auto industry concentration
- By far largest city in the state
- Not the state capital
- State flagship university on edge of region

I'm not saying it is easy, but this is the path forward for Detroit and Michigan.

A proper city and regional strategy would probably take 3-4 years and cost several million dollars to pull off. Also, it would require leadership conditions to be successful that don't appear to exist at present, unfortunately. Politicians have no interest in this sort of thing. They need ribbons to cut. And few people appreciate the need for something like this. But something like a 21st century Burnham Plan is really needed for most of our Midwest cities.

[Lorax]

But something like a 21st century Burnham Plan is really needed for most of our Midwest cities.

Truly, this is what Detroit needs. In addition to political will, wealthy individuals who care enough to do the right thing [[attention Matted Moron), and politicians who know they will be held accountable if they refuse to do the public's business.

With the amazing architecture Detroit has, there is really no excuse for the condition of the city. No excuses for stripping vacant buildings, no excuses for not stepping up to the plate and bringing forward a vision for planning and development that is realistic and has a chance of working.

Any sane individual knows demolition of MCD and other historically significant structures will only add to Detroit's demise. The costs are simply not dollars and cents, and all too often we've allowed the bean counters to run the show, and haven't put the aesthetic police in charge enough.

I knew when I was a kid that demolishing Rose Terrace, the Dodge mansion in Grosse Pointe was a mistake- the adults around me said there were no servants to take care of it anymore, and taxes were too high for anyone to pay, not to mention the upkeep. No one tried to think of institutional or business purposes creatively that would have saved this treasure from being replaced with seedy tract housing.

It was the wrong decision then, it's the wrong decision now.

And we are the worse off for it.

Funny how in Europe it isn't even a bare consideration to destroy the built environment for new structures. Everything is re-used. If McDonald's wants to open there, it may be in a 17th century building. They are not allowed to clear land for acres of parking and throw-away structures. It wouldn't even be considered.

The mentality of the people has to change.

There is a value to preservation above and beyond the tax incentives and the accounting.

Sadly, if it hadn't been for tax incentives among other considerations, buildings like the Book Cadillac would never have been restored.

People in this country need to wrap their minds around the value of retaining the built environment, above and beyond any and all other considerations, and what it means to continuity with the past.

In many ways, it would have kept people from leaving Detroit and Michigan if buildings weren't treated as disposable.

If I could look forward to shopping at a downtown Hudson's, ride a streetcar instead of a bus, live in the neighborhood my family raised me in, I probably would have stayed. I think you'd find many others would have done the same.

Even now, in middle-age, I have bought a home locally, though live out of state. My hard work and my industry would have benefitted Detroit all these years had people thought it was worth saving, beginning by respecting the built environment.

It really disgusts me sometimes that we're still fighting socially retarded mind-sets at this late date when other cities look at us like we're from another planet and it makes me sick.