Community Centered Urban Redevelopment in Detroit
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COMMUNITY CENTERED URBAN REDEVELOPMENT IN DETROIT The 2019 Humanity in Action Detroit Fellowship #HIA2019 #HIADETROIT RESILIENCE AT THE CORE: DETROIT FELLOWSHIP THEME Detroit’s City motto and emblem the ashes. Detroit’s population “Speramus meliora; resurget boomed during the 1920’s, cineribus” translates to “We jobs were plentiful, and car hope for better things; it shall production soared. However, arise from the ashes.” On June once the Depression hit, 11, 1805, a terrible fire swept thousands were out of work, and through Detroit. social services There was no had to step professional fire “SPERAMUS MELIORA; in; community department to RESURGET CINERIBUS” organizations like battle the blaze the Capuchins at the time, “WE HOPE FOR BETTER Soup Kitchen fed THINGS; IT SHALL ARISE so Detroiters 800 residents FROM THE ASHES.” formed a per day. Auto “bucket brigade.” production in the They passed a city dwindled bucket of water from person down to a mere 1,332,000 units to person, starting at the river per year, a far cry from its high and ending where the fire was. of 5,337,000 units two years Despite people’s best efforts before. “Detroit, which in Jan. to save their beloved city, 1931 was declared by the U.S. Detroit burned. Completely. Census to be the hardest hit of The fire destroyed most of the 19 cities, with 174,527 able to buildings in Detroit, leaving only work and out of a job and 49,041 a river warehouse intact. After laid off for an unemployed figure the fire, Detroit rebuilt itself of 223,568.” (Detroit News, over decades, becoming the Michigan History). automotive capital of the world in the early twentieth century. Detroit continued to struggle for years, until the advent of The 1805 fire may have been World War II when the city the first, but it was certainly not quickly became the “Arsenal of the last time Detroit rose from Democracy.” Factories employed 3 men and women to manufacture relocating through redlining the tools of the war effort, from practices and overt acts of jeeps to bombers. When the war intimidation. Notwithstanding ended, Detroiters, like much of other economic forces fueling the United States, experienced a deindustrialization, the 1967 measure of prosperity. However, Uprising accelerated this move, much like those other locales, as the number of white residents an underlying tension persisted: leaving the city doubled to over racial inequality. 40,000 in 1967, doubled again the subsequent year. The racial tension in the city exploded on a hot Sunday After the Uprising, the city made morning in July 1967, when various attempts to revitalize police officers raided a “blind its core, attract industry, and pig,” an after hours drinking increase its appeal, with efforts establishment, and arrested such as the 1977 development dozens of African American of the Renaissance Center, a patrons. This was the spark series of imposing skyscrapers that fueled discontent in the and the world’s largest private Black community, erupting development, meant to signal into what became the 1967 the rebirth of the historic Uprising,1 a historical moment city. These efforts proved that resulted in 43 people dead, futile, however, and Detroit’s 1,400 buildings burned, and population continued to shrink, $50 million dollars in property jobs became more scarce, blight damage. A myth persists that ravaged much of its housing the Uprising sparked the exodus stock, and crime escalated in of thousands of people from the city. By the 1990’s, the city’s Detroit. However, the heart of population had dwindled to economic production in the city, under 700,000 inhabitants, a far large automotive manufacturing cry from its peak of 1.8 million. and ancillary industries, had already begun to move to the In 2013, unable to support the suburbs in droves to pursue cost of public service provision lower costs of labor and capital with dwindling city revenues, and flee the strong influence Detroit officially declared of the industry’s unions. The Chapter 9 bankruptcy, the largest relocation of industry attracted municipal bankruptcy filing in economically mobile white US history based on debt. A families to the the city’s suburbs critical component of Detroit’s through choice economic plan to exit bankruptcy in incentives while also detering December 2014 was coined the non-white families from “Grand Bargain.” Its goals were 4 to prohibit the sale of artwork development of neighborhoods from the city-owned Detroit beyond of Detroit’s downtown Institute of Arts (DIA) to pay and City Center. There is new off the city’s massive debt, to energy being channeled toward preserve city pensions, and to rebuilding and reclaiming a city satisfy creditors. Under the terms that once was divested, and of the bargain, $816 million was neighborhoods and community donated by multiple foundations organizations are playing an (consolidated into the active role in defining what Foundation for Detroit’s Future), Detroit’s new story will be. Detroit Institute of Arts donors, and the State of Michigan. These community efforts are deeply important and of To this day, there remain acres great consequence. Therefore, and acres of vacant lots in the 2019 Humanity in Action Detroit, and abandoned houses Detroit Fellowship will center and closed retail storefronts its programming around remain a staple in its cityscape. the development efforts of From within this desertion, community organizations, neighborhood stewards have neighborhood residents, and emerged, championing efforts to small businesses. The goal of this restore lots and structures back program is to understand urban to their former distinguished development according to the status and maintain their efforts of those on the ground vibrant communities. Through rebuilding their neighborhoods its Strategic Neighborhood and highlighting their successes Fund, the City is looking to addressing grave economic, strategically invest in the racial and social inequities. 1 We use the term 1967 Uprising in accordance with the Detroit Historical Society. They use the term in their Encyclopedia of Detroit. Please visit https:// detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/uprising-1967 for further information. Or visit the Exhibition DETROIT 67: PERSPECTIVES open through May 2020 in the Booth-Wilkinson Gallery. 5 SUPPORTERS The 2019 Humanity in Action Detroit Fellowship is generously supported by the RNR Foundation, the William H. Donner Foundation, Open Society Foundations and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). The participation of Greek Fellows in Humanity in Action’s programs internationally is generously supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. This publication does not represent an expression of opinion by the Fellowship’s supporters. The authors bear responsibility for the content. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS 08 11 30 ABOUT THE SCHEDULE VENUES FELLOWSHIP 32 42 45 FELLOWS STAFF COMMUNITY PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS 50 65 67 SPEAKERS ABOUT INTERNATIONAL HUMANITY IN OFFICES AND ACTION STAFF 69 71 NOTES IMPORTANT CONTACT INFORMATION ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP The city of Detroit is spread who are our 2019 Community across a sprawling 139 square Partners, on projects supervised miles or 360 square kilometers by the Community Partners of flat landscape in Southeast ongoing efforts around relevant Michigan. Observers often note development and equity issues. that the cities of San Francisco, Cutting across a diversity Boston and the borough of of issues, neighborhoods Manhattan could all fit together and types of projects, the within Detroit. The Detroit variety of projects will allow metropolitan region is 10 times Fellows with different skills larger than the city itself—1,327 and experiences to contribute. square miles or 3,437 square The 2019 Community Partner kilometers. Understanding organizations are: Live6 Alliance, the sheer size of Detroit and The Tuxedo Project, Urban the interplay between its Farmers Inc., and Zachary & urban core and its suburban Associates. margins is fundamental to understanding the American The Fellowship program will city—its development, its provide participants with diversity, and its inequalities. opportunities to: More importantly, understanding • Network and build urban and the city’s communities’ efforts international relationships in to revitalize their city is Detroit and transatlantically; fundamental to understanding • Increase intercultural how development, unique to this competencies; city and its inhabitants, must be defined. The 2019 Humanity • Navigate differences; in Action Detroit Fellowship • Draw cross-cultural program is a 10-day immersive connections; program which will focus on • Practice in cross-functional these community-centered teamwork; efforts in urban redevelopment in the city of Detroit. • Build mentoring relationships among participants; The Fellowship program will • Gain a deeper understanding immerse Fellows in community- of what successful policies, based efforts to promote projects and strategies (good inclusive urban development practice examples) mean in through thoughtful instruction different contexts; and practical engagement. Participants will have the • Enhance and share their opportunity to work alongside knowledge, skills and four Detroit based organizations, expertise in redevelopment- 9 related issues; perspectives on human rights and development to support • Reflect collectively on their the work of the Detroit-based own positions and practical Community Partners; experiences in and for the development of their • Provide professional