Conclusion: Detroit and the future of the city

In this concluding chapter, the main strands of through within the book are brought together. The main narrative of Detroit as a symbol of urban failure is briefly discussed before shifting to a critical assessment of the city’s emerging narrative: that of comeback and renaissance. Both these one-dimensional narratives are treated as problematic and critiqued by using relevant chapters from the book. Two main policy and political insights are highlighted. The first is that much of Detroit’s decline has been a factor produced outside its boundaries so its solutions need to be thought of at these geographic scales. The second relates to working towards including different voices and perspectives about the future of the city and rethinking how power relations can give marginal groups real input into the systems which shape their lives. The many interviews and perspectives in this book provide pathways towards inclusive, fair and just cities.

Author and neighborhood organizer

In this interview chapter, Yusef Bunchy Shakur discusses his life’s transformation from a gangster to a community organiser. He describes how meeting his father in prison had a tremendous impact on transforming and redeeming his life. Shakur has committed his life to making his community and neighbourhood a better place. He is also active in resisting gentrification and in this interview, he discusses the racial injustices of Detroit’s contemporary gentrification and renaissance.

Avalon International Breads

When Jackie Victor and her then partner, Ann Perrault, opened Avalon International Breads on Willis Street in June 1997, they challenged the narrative that Detroit was closed for business. They were one of the first new businesses to open in Midtown and the success of their business helped to change the narratives about Detroit. In this interview, Jackie Victor discusses her triple bottom line (earth, community, employees) business model, the role that Avalon played in gentrification and changes in Midtown, the challenges still facing Detroit, such as growing economic, social and spatial inequality and the role that businesses and entrepreneurs play in shaping cities

Visions in conflict: a city of possibilities

This chapter casts the deindustrialization of Detroit as part of a larger transition providing new dangers and opportunities. The disappearance of industrial economy has created opportunities for the emergence of alternative means of creating new, sustainable and vibrant urban life. The resources of African American culture and imagination provide a perspective on developing innovative ways of making a living that nurture our capacities for cooperation and care. Rooted in Detroit’s long history of social struggle, a vision of self-determining urban life based, on local production for local needs is emerging. Mainstream elites and media generally ignore or deride these efforts. This chapter explores specific examples of the practices and programs emerging from the community. New forms of resisting dehumanization, especially since the takeover of the city by emergency management, are combined with creation of concrete alternatives to questions of land, water new ways of thinking.

Detroit’s bankruptcy: treating the symptom, not the cause

In 2013 Detroit became the largest municipality to declare bankruptcy. Unfortunately, bankruptcy does not treat the long-term cause of Detroit’s financial crisis: the ongoing fiscal death spiral triggered by loss of industrial, commercial and residential tax base starting in the 1950s. The first loss came from manufacturers who abandoned older factories in the city in favor of suburban locations. The second came from the federal government, whose guarantees for FHA-VA mortgages and subsidies for expressway construction spurred suburbanization of Detroit’s (overwhelmingly white) middle class. Detroit trimmed services and raised tax rates in response. But this made it an increasingly uncompetitive location, thereby further contracting its property and income tax bases, forcing still more cuts in services and increases in tax rates. What is required to break out of the fiscal death spiral in which Detroit finds itself is substantially more federal and state revenue sharing and regional growth management.

The James and Grace Lee Boggs School

The James and Grace Lee Boggs School is a community-based public charter school on the east side of Detroit. It employs a placed-based model of learning, which is rooted in the local. This means that it stems from history, geography, community members, businesses, and the challenges and possibilities in the community. The core values of the school are: high levels of critical thought; creativity and learning; excellence in teaching; authentic and trusting relationships; community empowerment; and equity within both human relationships and the natural world. The core purpose is: to provide the tools to achieve ambitious goals and live lives of meaning, to nurture a sense of place and develop a commitment to a better Detroit, and to grow our souls by developing a connection with ourselves, each other, and the earth. This interview chapter is with Julia Putnam, Amanda Rosman, and Marisol Teachworth: the three co-founders of the school. They were influenced by the philosophies of Grace and Jimmy Boggs and the school was born out of many conversations about the role of education in a city like Detroit.

Eastern Market Corporation

Dan Carmody is President of Detroit’s Eastern Market Corporation. In this interview chapter, he discusses the history of the market and why it is important to food access in the city of Detroit today. He explains the visions and aims of the Eastern Market Corporation and how and why it came into existence. The corporation, a not-for-profit, public-private partnership, started in 2006. Carmody discusses the role of urban agriculture in Detroit as well as the new wave of gentrification which has the potential to significantly impact the Market in the future.

My Detroit

Quotes by Tyree Guyton: “When I was five years old, my great-grandmother Katie told me that I would be a great man.” “At the age of nine, my grandfather put a paintbrush in my hand and it felt like my hand was on fire.” “...

New Strategies DMC, takin’ it all back home: lessons from Detroit for arts practices in the Netherlands

A Dutch urban do tank sets up a residency program in Detroit to further investigate the phenomena of shrinking cities, of cities with various development speeds and of local-global connections. The gained insights prove vital for the artistic program of the do tank in their gentrifying home city.

Make sure you are helping: experts, solidarity, and effective partnering with locals

Detroit has attracted many people who come to the city to try to work towards making it better. However, not all who come to the city end up improving the conditions for Detroiters. In this chapter, Drew Philp discusses what constitutes "good development" stemming from outsiders coming into places of long-term financial and cultural turmoil. Using William Easterly’s distinction between “searchers” and “planners,” Philp differentiates between people coming in to implement their own ideas versus those who arrive willing to listen and contribute to the efforts of those who are already there. On the basis of his personal experiences of living in Detroit, Drew Philp examines five common practices of overlooked and unexamined biases of those entering into communities. These include: the amputation of dignity, entering with false assumptions, giving people ‘busywork,’ tasks that do more harm than good and not treating people like adults.