Redesigning Detroit: Mayor Duggan’s blueprint unveiled

[M II A II R II K]

Redesigning Detroit: Mayor Duggan’s blueprint unveiled


18 August 2015

By Bill McGraw

Read More: http://bridgemi.com/2015/08/redesign...rint-unveiled/

.....

Led by the newly hired director of planning, Maurice Cox, a nationally known urban designer who last worked in New Orleans, the administration is quietly formulating a strategy to reimagine Detroit’s neighborhoods to take advantage of what has long been considered one of the city’s biggest problems: vacant land.

- It’s a “greening” strategy built on a blueprint laid out by Detroit Future City in 2013, but with a twist: Cox and his aides are drawing maps that throw out traditional neighborhood boundaries and combine largely vacant areas of the city with more stable neighborhoods nearby. The purpose of the new districts is to take existing empty green space, refashion it, and use it to benefit both the distressed and stable neighborhoods. --- “This is a very different way of thinking of neighborhood development,” Cox told Bridge recently in a bare office at city hall that had several maps of Detroit neighborhoods on the floor. “It’s thinking about the vacancy (in troubled areas) in conjunction with stable neighborhoods which are right next door, and it’s all a part of one unit,” he said.

- What constitutes “productive” land? Cox said empty lots in Brightmoor will be remade for recreation, nature, agriculture or so-called green and blue infrastructure, with engineered plots of land with plants and trees to dispose of stormwater or alleviate air pollution. Along with its blight, Brightmoor already has some of the most extensively developed agriculture in the city. Cox said Brightmoor residents eventually will benefit by living near carefully landscaped property, including parkland and wooded areas, rather than amid the wild and trash-filled parcels that mark many parts of the landscape now. “We will have a strategy of how to steward that land, that vacant land within the city, and make it contribute to why someone would actually want to live in Grandmont-Rosedale,” Cox said.

- The idea of using Detroit’s vacant land for innovative purposes beyond agriculture has been percolating among experts and various community groups for several years, but such discussions have been largely theoretical beyond the city’s numerous vegetable gardens and such projects as the “green corridor” of trees that the Greening of Detroit organization quarterbacked last year along the Southfield Freeway to reduce storm-water runoff, pollution and noise while providing shade and a non-motorized greenway around the city. Repurposing the city’s vacant land was one of the foremost proposals of the Detroit Future City recommendations unveiled in 2013, and significant green infrastructure plans have been hatched even before the Aug. 7 announcement.

- The vacant-land strategy, while designed to help depopulated areas, is also intended to bolster stable neighborhoods by creating nearby land for recreation or nature. The DFC framework also recommends strengthening vibrant districts, a strategy Duggan has already pursued through demolitions, vacant-house auctions, side-lot sales and nuisance-abatement lawsuits in specific neighborhoods. --- Taking other maps off the floor, Cox looked at far east-side neighborhoods centered around E. Warren Avenue and Cadieux, and, on the west side, around W. McNichols and Livernois, between the University of Detroit Mercy and Marygrove College. Both maps have thick red lines that tie together the prosperous districts with nearby areas that contained acres of city-owned land filled with abandoned houses and overgrown lots.

- Cox was firm on one important point: Under the new plans, no one will have to move from the largely vacant neighborhoods, a fear among many Detroit residents who recall urban renewal projects that displaced thousands of Detroiters, notably African Americans, from the 1950s through the 1980s. --- Cox said that fixing up the shabby, and what he called “intimidating,” abandoned property will enhance the surroundings for those who remain. The challenge, he said, is to make sure the land has the rural look that many of the remaining residents in these ramshackle areas say they want. “Some of us who think of cities in their most urban face kind of forget that people have enjoyed a kind of rural lifestyle within the city,” he said.

- John George, president of the Brightmoor Alliance a collection of community groups and nonprofits, and founder of Motor City Blight Busters, called the hiring of Cox “another brilliant move by this mayor.”“They are basically co-signing on what we have known for over 30 years,” he said. “If you can eliminate the blight, you can create community assets. I get what they are doing. I support it.” --- Tom Goddeeris, executive director of the Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation, said he met Cox recently when he came to the neighborhood to discuss strengthening the commercial corridor along Grand River Avenue, another of Cox’s priorities. Cox didn’t talk about his land-transformation plan, but Goddeeris said the general outlines make sense.

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[10023]

They're missing the boat by not relocating people, including some demolition and construction.

You can't just let the existing low density situation carry on, turning a few empty lots here and there into pocket parks. You need to take anyone living in an area of several square miles, move them into consistently developed blocks, and turn the rest into a several hundred acre park.

This plan will not make Detroit a viable city. At best it will make it like Chicago's southern suburbs. These aren't people trying to live the rural idyll (like affluent retirees) and they're certainly not professional farmers. You're talking about generally very low income communities, and for starters, this plan makes reliable, cost effective public transportation with frequent service impossible.

I'm increasingly convinced that listening to "community groups" (about anything, really) is generally a bad place to start.

[mhays]

I suspect a semi-wilderness concept would help massively vs. a manicured concept that would need to be well-funded.

As for the last couple holdouts in a given area, that's a tough one. It's not efficient but whatever happens will need to be politically palatable.

[Yuri]

What's Detroit's native vegetation? Forests or grassland?

[memph]

Originally Posted by yuriandrade

What's Detroit's native vegetation? Forests or grassland?

Most of Michigan and Southern Ontario had Carolinian forest as the native vegetation, but there were small areas of prairie including some in the Detroit/Windsor area so I'm not sure.

Anyways, I don't really know what would be best for Detroit's large vacant parcels. I'm still leaning towards urban agriculture. Wild areas seem like a good place for muggers to hide and probably won't solve any dumping problems since no-one's really responsible for them. Detroit isn't some idyllic rural community with no crime. I guess if the city is willing to manage certain areas as proper parks, and clean up after dumping, that can work but then it's not something that will be saving the city any money.

With urban agriculture you have someone with an incentive to manage the land. Same with converting 1-2 side lots to expanded yards in the more intact neighbourhoods.

How are things working in Acre Homes, Houston? That's one area with large parcels of "wilderness" (privately owned?) in a neighbourhood with similar incomes and crime levels as Detroit.

[10023]

But who will farm it? Are Detroit's inner-city residents suddenly going to develop green thumbs and a passion for heirloom tomatoes?

It all seems a bit far fetched, but I will admit that I'm not extremely well-versed in the specifics.

[toddguy]

This plan sounds like it may be in for some trouble. If they are going to leave every single block or street that still has just a few homes on it as is, then they will have to have that block connected to the grid-and have the costs associated with that in street maintenance, connection to the water and power grid and maintenance costs, etc. etc. etc.

Can the city afford that? It is like sprawl in a sense where large sums of money are required to maintain an infrastructure that is not dense at all. Detroit is NOT a rural area that is full of country roads, not water, no sewer, no streetlights, septic tanks and wells abounding.

How are people going to go about 'urban farming' in a city where motorists are advised not to even stop at red lights and told to 'only use gas stations in the suburbs' and the like?

What are the numbers for actual residents in these areas already engaged in any type of gardening at their current property?

This just does not sound thought out very well. It seems like they are so afraid of the past mistakes(wholesale uprooting of not only individual homeowners, but of the destruction of entire neighborhoods) that they are letting that cloud their judgement. JMHO.

Cox said Brightmoor residents eventually will benefit by living near carefully landscaped property, including parkland and wooded areas, rather than amid the wild and trash-filled parcels that mark many parts of the landscape now

Who is going to maintain 'carefully' landscaped property?

“Some of us who think of cities in their most urban face kind of forget that people have enjoyed a kind of rural lifestyle within the city,” he said.

At what cost? And is this really sustainable in what is generally a distressed and poverty ridden city? How can these 'rural lifestyles' support the working of a major city?

Lower income rural areas do not have to support or fund the costs of running a major city.

[10023]

^ This. Or in short, the plan as I read it was doomed the moment they decided it would not involve relocations of existing residents. Politically unpopular, but absolutely necessary.

[bnk]

Coyotes are thriving in the city limits. Its time to reintroduce the eastern wolves to bring natures balance back. Or continue the future existence of the coywolf which culls feral cats.




http://www.freep.com/story/news/loca...brid/24186739/





But seriously they should maintain the grid and preserve the sewers. If MMGW eventually takes a hold Detroit with its water resources are well positioned in the future to accept water immigrants from within and from outside of America.


That said refill and repair the past wrongful dredging of St. Clair River and everyone dependent upon the Michigan-Huron lake, some 40 odd million people will have all the freshest water they will ever need for centuries. IMO Detroit is well located and well positioned in the not to distant future. The Demographics will have to not be so monolithic in one ethnic group otherwise the federal and public monies needed to really turn it around will not happen. It could be an international and even domestic destination for water thrived peoples if America could or would accept them.








http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/45123797.html

"But the erosion in the St. Clair River stands out among these problems as a man-made issue that can be corrected fairly easily and within a relatively short timetable," the report says.

It suggests covering the eroding areas with rock and installing gates to regulate water flow southward from Lake Huron.


...

[toddguy]

Originally Posted by bnk

Coyotes are thriving in the city limits. Its time to reintroduce the eastern wolves to bring natures balance back. Or continue the future existence of the coywolf which culls feral cats.




http://www.freep.com/story/news/loca...brid/24186739/





But seriously they should maintain the grid and preserve the sewers. If MMGW eventually takes a hold Detroit with its water resources are well positioned in the future to accept water immigrants from within and from outside of America.


That said refill and repair the past wrongful dredging of St. Clair River and everyone dependent upon the Michigan-Huron lake, some 40 odd million people will have all the freshest water they will ever need for centuries. IMO Detroit is well located and well positioned in the not to distant future. The Demographics will have to not be so monolithic in one ethnic group otherwise the federal and public monies needed to really turn it around will not happen. It could be an international and even domestic destination for water thrived peoples if America could or would accept them.








http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/45123797.html

"But the erosion in the St. Clair River stands out among these problems as a man-made issue that can be corrected fairly easily and within a relatively short timetable," the report says.

It suggests covering the eroding areas with rock and installing gates to regulate water flow southward from Lake Huron.


...

I think that 'disconnecting some of the grid' is going to have to happen. The city has too much infrastructure and too few people with too little money to maintain it. It reminds me of school systems in areas with reduced enrollments- do you keep all the schools open, with all the costs associated with that, with each school only 10 percent full, or do you consolidate?

How many thousands of people are way behind on their water bills in Detroit? If people cannot(or I guess in some cases, will not) even pay for basic utilities then how is the city to survive?

I think there are going to have to be some very difficult decisions upcoming for Detroit.

But if there are reductions or disconnections, they should be done with the idea that they may be not permanent. With water, sewer, power, etc. main lines and critical lines would be maintained in all areas. In most areas, any repopulation would be new builds(because of older, run down cheap when it was built housing stock, or simply because the land is all vacant) and new individual or local lines could be replaced as areas are 'brought back in'-if ever.

Also I think that if relocations are needed, they should be done fairly and with sensitivity. What happened before was that people sometimes were given 30 day notices before bulldozers went in and leveled entire neighborhoods, and people had no help or direction or financial assistance and were left to fend for themselves. No wonder many people(especially older people who went through this before) are so wary of relocation.

If they can somehow make this work economically, then great, I would just like to see the numbers about how the city is going to be able to take care of itself and maintain itself any better with this idea than with what they have now, or with some kind of consolidation.

[fflint]

I hate the neologism "coywolf." Why not "wolfote" instead?

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by toddguy

I think that 'disconnecting some of the grid' is going to have to happen. The city has too much infrastructure and too few people with too little money to maintain it. It reminds me of school systems in areas with reduced enrollments- do you keep all the schools open, with all the costs associated with that, with each school only 10 percent full, or do you consolidate?

How many thousands of people are way behind on their water bills in Detroit? If people cannot(or I guess in some cases, will not) even pay for basic utilities then how is the city to survive?

This actually gets to the core of why all of this revert the city back to nature talk is bullshit. The city of Detroit is the infrastructure hub of the Detroit Metro area. You can't just take parts of the city offline without it having wider ramifications beyond Detroit's city limits. And the problem isn't that Detroit itself has too much infrastructure; it's that Metro Detroit has too much infrastructure.

[Double L]

I'm all for replacing the vacant land with urban farming as that can be taxed and used to improve the cities financial position so it can have the money to turn around the economy but I'm not for building recreational parkland. That will not only waste the cities money, which it could be putting into better things but it will increase cost in a neighborhood already struggling.