Article

Urban Studies 2016, Vol. 53(4) 818–836 Detroit after bankruptcy: A case Ó Urban Studies Journal Limited 2014 Reprints and permissions: of degrowth machine politics sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0042098014563485 usj.sagepub.com Seth Schindler University of Sheffield, UK

Abstract It is widely accepted that neoliberalism is intensified in times of crisis, and Jamie Peck has argued that ‘austerity urbanism’ has been implemented at the urban scale since the 2008 financial crisis. This article questions whether this narrative of neoliberal expansion is applicable in cities where crisis is so severe that economic growth seems highly unlikely. I focus on Detroit, whose recent declaration of bankruptcy signals the recognition among local officials and elites that the city’s decline cannot be reversed with out-of-the-box neoliberal policies. Instead, the city’s bankruptcy precipitated a breakdown of an interscalar growth coalition, and local actors have embraced a plan for Detroit’s future which diverges from ‘austerity urbanism’ favoured by extra-local inves- tors in significant ways. Importantly, local actors have embraced a plan that seeks to improve the quality of life for the city’s residents in the context of irreversible degrowth. I refer to this as degrowth machine politics and I examine the extent to which its emergence may foster contingency and progressive urban politics.

Keywords austerity urbanism, degrowth, Detroit, growth coalitions, municipal bankruptcy, neoliberalism

Received March 2014; accepted November 2014

Introduction it is applicable in places where the severity of crisis makes economic growth seem highly It is widely accepted that neoliberalism is unlikely under any imaginable circumstances. intensified in times of crisis. The reasoning is Indeed, this assumption deserves to be re- that policies which would not be tolerable in examined in the context of the 2008 financial normal circumstances are enacted as sup- crisis, yet ‘there has been little systematic posed emergency measures (Klein, 2008; empirical analysis of the [2008] crisis as a Peck, 2012). According to this narrative pro- ‘‘laboratory’’ for urban governance models’ ponents of neoliberalism tout free-market (Oosterlynck and Gonzales, 2013: 1076). I reforms as the only way to resume economic focus on Detroit, which is a poignant growth, and this accounts for ‘the robustness of neoliberal institutions even in the face of repeated crisis’ (Peck and Tickell, 2002: 384). Corresponding author: Seth Schindler, Department of Geography, University of This article does not seek to challenge this Sheffield, Winter Street, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK. narrative tout court, but it questions whether Email: [email protected] Schindler 819 example because its recent declaration of growth machine politics and urban entrepre- bankruptcy has made it abundantly clear that neurialism. Harvey Molotch’s (1976: 309) decades of decline cannot be reversed by the seminal article entitled ‘The city as a growth usual mix of privatisation, deregulation and machine: Toward a political economy of dismantling of welfare programmes. Instead, place’, demonstrated that ‘the political and I show that local officials and elites have economic essence of virtually any given accepted the grim reality that the city will locality, in the present American context, is never again become a manufacturing hub, so growth’. He argued that local elites typically rather than try to jumpstart a round of capi- forge a coalition whose efforts are geared tal accumulation with out-of-the-box neolib- towards attracting capital and implementing eralpolicytheyareseekingtostabilisethe policies that determine land-use in an effort local economy, stem population decline and to augment property values. After nearly a ultimately transform the city. I conceptualise decade of neoliberal hegemony in the North this as degrowth machine politics,andIshow Atlantic David Harvey (1989) identified a how it has emerged in the context of conflict shift in urban governance, from managerial- between locally-based actors and extra-local ism to entrepreneurialism. He demonstrated elites who seek to recover their investments in that while cities remained ‘growth machines’ municipal bonds. I will examine proposals engaged in fierce inter-city competition for that have emerged in recent years which seek capital, by the end of the 1980s municipal to reverse the city’s decline and re-envision its governments pursued urban renewal pro- future, which both expose the limits of urban grammes through public–private partner- entrepreneurialism and diverge from its cen- ships that were often highly speculative. tral tenets. In particular I focus on a develop- Given the fact that municipalities assumed ment plan entitled Detroit Future City,which the bulk of the risk (Harvey, 1989, 2011) looks at quality of life issues and envisages a investors required little coaxing to invest in long-term transformation of the city. urban renewal projects, and by 2002 Neil This article has five sections. In the follow- Smith was able to demonstrate that gentrifi- ing section I review the emergence of growth cation was a global phenomenon remaking machine politics and the post-crisis emergence cityscapes around the world (Smith, 2002). of what Peck (2012) calls ‘austerity urbanism’. The concepts of growth machine politics In the third section I narrate Detroit’s decline, and urban entrepreneurialism have been its ultimate declaration of bankruptcy, and remarkably resilient in urban scholarship. the recent emergence of degrowth machine pol- Gordon MacLeod and Martin Jones (2011) itics. In the fourth section I review the pro- note that although there is not a single uni- posals that re-envision Detroit’s future. In the versal model of urban entrepreneurialism, final section I explore the extent to which two phenomena that correspond to the Detroit’s recent declaration of bankruptcy observations made by David Harvey (1989) has infused local politics with contingency, are still widely observed. First, the influence and the possibility that it could give rise to of the private sector vis-a` -vis local govern- truly progressive urban politics. ments continues to grow. Second, municipal governments continue to scale back efforts From growth machine politics to to manage collective consumption and austerity urbanism instead focus on ‘courting the private sector and cultivating economic enterprise across The intensification of neoliberalism in times the urban landscape’ (MacLeod and Jones, of crisis is closely linked to the concepts of 2011: 2444). However, they note some recent 820 Urban Studies 53(4) trends that distinguish new urban politics given way to ‘austerity urbanism’. This is from urban entrepreneurialism of the 1980s characterised by an imposition of austerity and 1990s. First, there has been a shift from by higher levels of government, and politics to governance which reduces the pressures: ability of local communities to challenge growth-oriented policies. Furthermore, con- operate downwards in both social and scalar flict has been observed among actors within terms: they offload social and environmental growth coalitions. While the imperative of externalities on cities and communities, while growth historically sutured differences at the same time enforcing unflinching fiscal restraint by way of extralocal disciplines; among a range of actors (Logan and they further incapacitate the state and the Molotch, 1987), conflict increasingly erupts public sphere through the outsourcing, mar- among actors at different scales (see Ancien, ketization and privatization of governmental 2011). Kirkpatrick and Smith (2011) explain services and social supports; and they con- that interscalar conflict is common in times centrate both costs and burdens on those at of crisis because there is a clear divergence the bottom of the social hierarchy, com- of the interests of local actors (e.g. municipal pounding economic marginalization with employees and local landholders) and extra- state abandonment. local investors. They note that investment in urban infrastructure was often a cornerstone The main incentive for cities to impose of growth machine politics, but in the 2000s and endure austerity urbanism is to placate municipalities began financing infrastruc- investors and avoid bankruptcy. This raises tural projects ‘in increasingly speculative, a number of questions with regard to cities risky and arcane ways’ (Kirkpatrick and that have declared bankruptcy. First, do Smith, 2011: 482). This debt can become local actors continue to embrace austerity unmanageable in times of crisis when capital urbanism? Second, what is the incentive of is scarce and tax revenues shrink. Ultimately enduring the pain of austerity if there is the result can be what they call an ‘infra- essentially no chance of jumpstarting eco- structure trap’ in which ‘investors want their nomic growth? In the following section I bonds to be honored, even if doing so would turn to Detroit, and I argue that local actors be socially, politically or financially devas- have rejected austerity urbanism in the wake tating for a particular city’ (Kirkpatrick and of its recent declaration of bankruptcy. I Smith, 2011: 496). narrate the city’s decline and bankruptcy, The 2008 financial crisis tested the extent and the emergence of a consensus – which I to which growth machine politics could sub- term degrowth machine politics – whose sume conflict among a range of multi-scaled objective is to improve the quality of life in actors because it originated in cities and its the city rather than simply augment the most disastrous effects are unfolding in cit- value of land and spur economic growth. ies. David Harvey (2012) argues that the cri- sis has ‘urban roots’, in the sense that Detroit: Decline, bankruptcy and overaccumulated capital flowed into risky degrowth investments like securitised sub-prime debt which encouraged the pre-crisis housing Detroit is often portrayed as emblematic of boom. Jamie Peck (2012: 650–651) argues urban decline in the United States that the most severe impacts of the crisis are (Millington, 2013). The causes of decades of unfolding in cities, as profligate federal decline in Detroit are multifaceted and com- spending in the immediate post-crisis era has plex, but the main driver has been the Schindler 821 collapse of the city’s manufacturing base. In running an extortion racket rather than a this section my objective is to show that growth machine (Detroit Free Press, 2013b). Detroit’s problems defy out-of-the-box neo- Thus, Detroit’s crisis is driven by economic, liberal solutions and as a result local officials social and political pressures which exacer- and elites have engaged ‘in the political work bate one another in increasingly devastating of managing contradictions and aligning the feedback loops. politics of austerity with the possibility of The factories that remained in Detroit alternative political, social and economic throughout the sustained period of restruc- rationalities’ (Newman 2014: 3302). In this turing in the 1980s and 90s shifted to ‘lean’ context, the vision of Detroit’s future which or ‘just-in-time’ methods of production, pro- has garnered support should not be inter- voking resistance from organised labour. In preted as a roll out of neoliberalism. 1998 workers at a General Motors metal The industrial geography of the United stamping plant in Flint went on strike and States was dramatically altered in the 1970s General Motors ultimately suffered losses of and 80s. Firms shifted production within the approximately $2.3 billion (Herod, 2001). United States to the south and west in an Elliot Siemiatycki (2012) argues that any effort to outflank organised labour, and gains made by labour in the 1998 strike were overseas in order to access cheap labour and limited and quickly reversed. He explains tap into emerging markets. These factors that in 2007 the United Auto Workers impacted many cities in America’s so-called (UAW) union was given little choice but to ‘Rust Belt’, and in many ways Detroit’s agree to benefits cuts and a two-tiered wage decline is consistent with other cities in the system. This agreement was followed by the region whose economies were historically 2008 financial crisis, and subsequently the based on manufacturing. John McDonald US Treasury bailed out Chrysler and (2014) explains, however, that in comparison General Motors. Siemiatycki explains that to other cities in the region, the 2000s were one consequence of the bailout was that particularly difficult for Detroit. The popu- organised labour was forced to accept a lation decreased by almost 25%, more than series of concessions that amount to what he 50% of the city’s manufacturing jobs were calls ‘permanent restructuring’: eliminated, and while Detroit did not experi- ence a real estate boom the collapse of its The rationale for providing such financial housing market began in 2006 (McDonald, assistance has been that well-paid manufactur- ing jobs must be protected. Yet, these same 2014). The city’s tax revenue decreased and governments have forced auto companies to from 2003 to 2009 its deficit grew to a stag- restructure in ways that dramatically cut the gering $280 million, and then to $326 million very jobs and wages which were deemed essen- by 2012 (McDonald, 2014). Additionally, tial to protect. Detroit has a long history of class conflict and racial tension (Georgakas and Surkin, George Steinmetz (2009) argues that 1975) which spurred an exodus from the city Detroit’s urban crisis should be distinguished that contributed to widespread abandon- from the crisis of the US auto industry. ment and produced the most segregated While the crisis of the latter has certainly urban landscape in the United States (Logan been the primary cause of Detroit’s decline, and Stults, 2011). Finally, from 2001 to 2008 Steinmetz (2009: 764) points out that ‘it is Detroit’s mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick – who crucial to differentiate between the two crises was later convicted of multiple felonies – was if a solution for the city’s plight is to be funnelling public contracts to cronies and found’. In other words, reviving Detroit’s 822 Urban Studies 53(4) manufacturing base is not an option, so consolidate, and hold vast tracts throughout reversing the city’s decline calls for more the city with few limits on disuse so long as innovative responses. taxes are paid’. The most derelict properties fail to sell for even $500 and remain public property, and remarkably there has been From perpetual crisis to bankruptcy conflict between the city and county govern- The most visible symbol of Detroit’s crisis is ments as neither wants to assume ownership widespread abandonment. A significant of certain properties (Akers, 2013). amount of commercial property and approx- Meanwhile speculators are able to scoop up imately 80,000 residential properties are the better properties but, perhaps due to fall- abandoned (Detroit Future City, 2012: 99). ing property prices, Detroit has not experi- Some parts of the city have been more enced rampant speculation. Akers (2013) affected by abandonment than others, but shows that from 2002 to 2010 fewer than few areas have been spared altogether. 11,000 properties were cycled through this Iconic structures such as the Hudson auction process, which is rather insignificant Building and Tiger Stadium have been considering there are approximately 150,000 razed, and the Michigan Central Depot has abandoned properties in the city. Thus, this long been vacant. Some neighbourhoods effort failed to boost property values while it have been ravaged by abandonment to the made public authorities responsible for the extent that they are commonly portrayed as least usable properties. returning to a state of non-human nature The City of Detroit was caught in an ines- (Millington, 2013). This has engendered a capable cycle of financing its debts with fur- traumatic sense of loss among Detroiters ther borrowing, while tax revenues that is experienced universally regardless of continued to shrink. Default seemed likely, race or class (Montgomery, 2014). and in March 2013 Michigan’s Republican Policy makers have sought to tackle aban- Governor Rick Snyder put an emergency donment in Detroit by encouraging invest- manager in charge of Detroit’s finances ment in property and home ownership. The (State of Michigan Executive Office, 2013). key to this effort was state-level legislation The powers of the emergency manager were passed in 1999 – the Urban Homesteading far-reaching and included renegotiating con- Act and PA 123 – that streamlined the trans- tracts with unionised public-sector workers fer of abandoned properties to local govern- (State of Michigan Executive Office, 2013). ments. The idea was that authorities would Ultimately the emergency manager deter- seize tax foreclosed properties, and auction mined that the cycle of issuing municipal them to residents eager to own their own bonds to repay loans was untenable given homes. In other words, local authorities were the fact that a reversal of the city’s economic meant to become the fulcrum of a healthy fortune – and hence its ability to repay its property market by ensuring that property debt – is unlikely in present circumstances. was allocated efficiently (see Schindler, On 18 July 2013, Detroit became the largest 2013). Joshua Akers (2013: 1082) explains city in the United States to declare that the impetus for these reforms came from bankruptcy. a number of right-wing think tanks, but rather than significantly increase homeow- nership among families this regulatory Emergence of a degrowth coalition framework ‘expands the ability of specula- The decision to declare bankruptcy was con- tive and predatory investors to acquire, troversial, especially since it was made by an Schindler 823 appointed emergency manager rather than and degrowth is an inevitable outcome elected officials. There was tension between (Kallis, 2011). They argue that rather than actors at the state and city levels of govern- be left to market forces, the reduction of ment over what services and whose salaries resource use and subsequent degrowth would be reduced. For example, negotia- should be managed in ways that result in a tions between emergency manager Kevyn qualitatively different – that is, sustainable Orr and retired municipal employees over and equitable – economy and society cuts to pensions have been fierce (Helms and (Kallis, 2011; Odum and Odum, 2006; Bomey, 2014). Nevertheless, Detroit’s bank- Whitehead, 2013). This leads Schneider et al. ruptcy has not resulted in straightforward (2010: 512) to state that ‘what happens to austerity urbanism and officials are not sim- GDP is of secondary importance; the goal is ply acting on behalf of capital. On the con- the pursuit of well-being, ecological sustain- trary, bankruptcy has allowed city and state ability and social equity’. To this end, they governments to defy the demands of extra- (Schneider et al., 2010: 512) define degrowth local bondholders (Walsh, 2014a, 2014b). as the ‘equitable down-scaling of production Detroit’s complex problems defy easy and consumption that increases human well- solutions, and it is clear that the city cannot being and enhances ecological conditions’. cobble together a ‘grant coalition’ (see Bernt, Degrowth has hitherto had little purchase 2009) and secure a bailout from state or fed- beyond activist and academic circles because, eral authorities. Furthermore, the return of needless to say, politicians do not win elec- large-scale Fordist industry and manufactur- tions on platforms of scaling back consump- ing jobs – and hence people – is equally tion and shrinking the economy. Instead of unlikely. Thus, instead of fostering economic questioning the long-term viability of urban growth, the most immediate challenge facing entrepreneurialism, policy makers have Detroit’s policy makers is how to manage shown more interest in enhancing resilience the city’s decline in the short-term. In other and developing contingencies and technolo- words, how can schools remain open, and gies that will allow cities to extend or renew police and fire departments operational ‘growth spells’ (Benner and Pastor, 2015) in when the city’s coffers are empty? Since blue- the event of future ecological and economic prints for reversing urban decline prioritise crises (Gleeson, 2010). Furthermore, scholar- fostering economic growth, they are of little ship on degrowth has been critiqued for relevance when the main challenge is manag- being vague and lacking clear policy pre- ing inevitable degrowth. scriptions (van den Bergh, 2011), and for The concept of degrowth emerged from a requiring top-down measures anathema to range of disciplines; some of its proponents modern-day liberal democracy (Romano, have embraced degrowth as an alternative 2012). These critiques assume that degrowth to capitalism (Latouche, 2009), while others is one of a range of policy choices from have argued that impending environmental which civil society and governments can crises necessitate reducing resource use choose after careful deliberation (Hamilton, (Kallis, 2011; Martinez-Alier, 2009; 2010; Mathey, 2010). However, for many cit- Martinez-Alier et al., 2010). The latter are ies and regions degrowth has been an una- sceptical of the prospects of decoupling voidable consequence of the 2008 financial resource use from economic growth (see e.g. crisis rather than a deliberate policy choice. UNEP, 2013). They reason that if environ- In this context, Martinez-Alier et al. (2010: mental catastrophe is to be avoided, the 1745) argue that that it is ‘better to start throughput of resources must be reduced adapting to forced de-growths . in order to 824 Urban Studies 53(4) find a prosperous way down’. This leads The limits to urban entrepreneurialism in Schneider et al. (2010: 517) to argue that the Detroit 2008 financial crisis is an opportunity to A number of redevelopment projects are ‘expose ‘‘growth fetishism’’. and [it] opens underway that can be described as textbook up some space for green policies . [that] cases of urban entrepreneurialism. Most can definitely contribute to a smooth sus- tainable degrowth’. notably, Mike Ilitch, the owner of two of In the following section I argue that local Detroit’s professional sports teams and pizza officials and elites in Detroit have embraced chain Little Caesar’s, proposed to build a some aspects of degrowth; stabilising the $650 million professional hockey arena and economy has been prioritised over economic surrounding entertainment district (Guilen growth, and more importantly, there is a and Reindl, 2014a). The Detroit city council realisation that the city’s long-term future voted to transfer 39 publicly held properties depends on improving the quality of life of to Ilitch’s development company, Olympia city residents. Thus, rather than attempting Development, for $1. The Detroit Free Press to foster short-term economic growth with (Guilen and Reindl, 2014a) reported that ‘the the hopes that a trickle-down effect will arena development would span eight desolate make life less unbearable for the city’s poor- blocks and transform the Cass Corridor, an est residents, improving the quality of life in economic dead zone between downtown and the short-term is now seen as the key to Midtown and once a notorious haven for making the city prosperous over the course crime and prostitution’. Given the sheer of the next five decades. I call this degrowth abundance of abandoned property in Detroit, machine politics because it is geared towards the question was not whether the project managing the city’s further decline and reim- should move forward, but rather, whether the agining its future. Unlike its growth-oriented supposed future benefits (i.e. jobs and tax rev- counterpart, degrowth lacks out-of-the-box enue) warranted the transfer of land for a pal- solutions offered by cosmopolitan consul- try $1. Subsequently, details surfaced that tants, and as a result policy makers are show this deal is a case of urban entrepre- forced to manage continued degrowth in neurialism par excellence. Currently the City Detroit in innovative ways. of Detroit receives approximately $7 million per annum from proceeds of Red Wings2 tickets, but the new deal excludes a provision Re-envisioning Detroit’s future for revenue-sharing. Furthermore the city will contribute a substantial amount of money to Detroit’s future has been imagined by a the arena’s construction. The Detroit Free range of actors at multiple scales. Some pro- Press reported that: posals are standard urban renewal projects (e.g. sports stadia and entertainment dis- Olympia Development will pick up 42% of tricts), while others are truly bizarre (e.g. a the arena’s construction cost. The other 58% zombie apocalypse theme park). In the first – the public’s share – will come from a com- part of this section I review a number of pro- plex financing arrangement that uses school posals which, while consistent with urban and local property tax revenue collected by entrepreneurialism also expose its limits. The Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority second part of this section reviews Detroit to pay off state-issued bonds. The authority Future City,1 which is the cornerstone of a will own the arena and lease it – rent-free – to long-term development plan around which a the Red Wings for up to 95 years. (Guilen and degrowth coalition has coalesced. Reindl, 2014b) Schindler 825

A similar project is moving forward at the renewal projects is the exception rather than historic Michigan State Fairgrounds, along the norm in Detroit. There are many the city’s northern border that it shares with counter-examples of truly bizarre proposals, suburbs. The State of Michigan discontin- and there has been a general lack of enthusi- ued subsidising the annual State Fair in asm among investors. The strangest pro- 2009 after the onset of the financial crisis, posal reported by the Detroit Free Press and maintaining the property cost approxi- (Satyanarayana, 2012) was from a suburba- mately $1 million per year (Gallagher, nite who envisioned a ‘zombie apocalypse- 2013). Michigan Governor Rick Snyder style theme park . with actors playing transferred the State Fairgrounds to the brain-eating zombies and players trying to Michigan Land Bank Fast Track Authority kill the hordes before they, too, become the in 2012, whose mission is to ‘return the land walking dead’. Investors were not forthcom- to productive use’ (Michigan Land Bank ing and there was an unsuccessful attempt to Fast Track Authority, 2014). The Land crowdsource $145,000 for the project. Bank issued a request for proposals in May Interestingly, the project would have 2012, and three investors expressed interest required acquiescence from city officials – in purchasing and developing the property. who were steadfastly opposed to the idea – The proposal that was ultimately accepted because so much land is publicly owned in was made by Magic Plus, a consortium of the most blighted areas of the city where the investors whose public face is former profes- theme park was to be built. sional basketball player Earvin ‘Magic’ The cases above demonstrate that city Johnson (Michigan Land Bank Fast Track officials have a tremendous amount of Authority, 2012). The deal transfers the agency in deciding which developments can property to Magic Plus for $4.6 million, and be realised given such extensive public land- Magic Plus has agreed to undertake a $120 holdings. However, the paucity of serious million renewal project that ‘includes a investors willing to undertake any develop- mixed-use development for the entire prop- ment project whatsoever limits their ability erty that includes retail, residential, green to steer urban transformation. A case in space and entertainment uses’ (AlHajal, point is the iconic Packard Plant, a sprawl- 2013; Michigan Land Bank Fast Track ing automotive plant that stopped producing Authority, 2012). The plan has generated cars in the mid-1950s (Reindl, 2013). It considerable controversy, however, because became public property when its owners fell many local residents are opposed to the con- into arrears in property taxes, and Wayne struction of big-box retail outlets and have County authorities sought to find an inves- supported an alternative proposal with more tor who could at least cover the back taxes, open green spaces and public transit links and an auction was held. The winning bidder (AlHajal, 2013). Negotiations and public was a Texas-based medical doctor who bid consultations are ongoing. $6 million and released plans to redevelop The Red Wings arena project and the the site in an incoherent statement entitled redevelopment of the State Fairgrounds The Posential Energy in Detroits Assets [sic] have grabbed headlines because of the celeb- (Van Horn, 2013). When the $6 million rity status of the investors, and they may be failed to materialise the plant was awarded financially viable because they seek to rede- to the second bidder for $1 million, a develo- velop the heart of downtown and the border per from the Chicago area who planned to with Detroit’s northern suburbs. However, transform ‘it into housing, restaurants, large-scale investment in entrepreneurial offices, shopping and a hotel’ (Reindl, 2013). 826 Urban Studies 53(4)

After paying a $200,000 deposit he failed to The DWP was launched in 2010 with the deliver the balance (Reindl, 2013), so the support of then mayor Dave Bing, and it property was finally purchased by the third enjoys at least moderate support from cur- bidder for $405,000 (Reindl, 2014). The rent mayor Mike Duggan (Blac, 2013; Detroit Free Press reported that the investor Deadline Detroit, 2014). Its steering commit- is a Peru-based Spanish developer who tee includes prominent members from hopes to renovate the 40-acre industrial site Detroit’s public, private and philanthropic and attract automotive parts manufacturers, sectors, and it has received substantial finan- as well as ‘light-industrial businesses, green- cial backing from a range of corporations energy companies and firms that specialize and foundations including Ford Motor Co., in basic outsourced office functions. He the Kresge Foundation, and the Hudson plans to add retail, residential and cultural Webber Foundation (Lacy, 2013). The components in the future, and perhaps a DWP developed the Detroit Future City high-end go-kart racing track’ (Reindl, report, whose implementation is entrusted to 2014). This initiative could indeed become former Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockerel Jr. another example of urban entrepreneurial- and whose objective is ‘to recognize and ism, although perhaps more remarkable adapt to an unpredictable future’ and than the Packard Plant’s transformation into thereby ‘uplift the people, businesses, and a high-end go-kart track would be if such a places of Detroit by improving quality of life venture stayed in business for any length of and businesses in the city’ (p. 17 and p. 7). time. The report claims that it: In summary, municipal authorities strug- gle to find serious investors willing to marks the first time in decades that Detroit develop Detroit’s vast abandoned spaces, has considered its future not only from a perhaps because in spite of generous land standpoint of land use or economic growth concessions these projects are far from com- but in the context of city systems, neighbor- hood vision, and the need for greater civic mercially viable. The projects reviewed capacity to address the systemic change neces- above expose the limits of urban entrepre- sary for Detroit’s success. (p. 5) neurialism in Detroit. A Detroit Free Press editorial exclaimed that . Detroit Future City: Beyond austerity ‘it’s not a patch; it’s a revolution [that] should be implemented without delay’ urbanism (Detroit Free Press, 2013a). A number of proposals that imagine The Detroit Future City plan divides Detroit’s future and diverge from austerity action into five ‘planning elements’: eco- urbanism have recently gained traction. For nomic growth, land use, city systems, neigh- example, one proposal seeks to create an bourhoods, and land and buildings assets. It expansive urban farm, and envisions ‘oaks, reads like standard urban entrepreneurialism maples, and other high value trees planted in the economic growth section, which uses in straight, evenly spaced rows’ (see http:// jargon such as ‘public, private, philanthropic www.hantzfarmsdetroit.com/). The most investments’, action plans, cluster strategies, comprehensive plan for Detroit’s future has industrial business improvement districts, undoubtedly been developed by the Detroit and so on. While manufacturing remains Works Project (DWP), which has served as part of the vision, the report emphasises a platform through which a coalition has diversifying the city’s economy and identifies been forged among local officials and elites. a number of sectors that have the potential Schindler 827 for growth such as food processing, medical restore ecological habitats, and produce locally technology, education and digital/creative sourced food. (p. 93) industries. The plan notes that a lack of qualified labour is a barrier to growth in Seven districts are identified, and each these sectors, and it calls for targeted educa- will be targeted for specific interventions tion and training programmes. The absence and interconnected with a series of transpor- of capital is not emphasised as a barrier and tation corridors. The plan calls for signifi- vacant land is considered the ‘greatest – and cant investment in ‘blue infrastructure’ (i.e. most challenging – asset . for long-term waterways that collect and filter runoff) and development’ (p. 45). Interestingly, the plan ‘green infrastructure’ (i.e. parks and cordons acknowledges the existence of an informal near expressways that improve air quality). sector and calls for its formalisation. Finally, The plan goes so far as to claim that the economic growth section of the report ‘Detroit has an abundance of available land has an implementation section whose recom- resources that can be leveraged to create a mendations are consistent with growth new green and sustainable city unlike any machine politics: ‘Through preferential zon- other in the world’ (p. 97). Abandonment is ing, targeted infrastructure investments, recognised as the main threat to Detroit’s attraction of new capital into the city, and future, and the stabilisation of neighbour- innovative approaches to address under- hoods is prioritised. Neighbourhoods are utilization of land, the strategy aims to classified into one of three categories increase the value of and investments in the depending on their level of vacancy, and city’s highest-potential jobs-producing land’ interventions are made accordingly. A series (p. 49). of neighbourhood and landscape typologies Land use is the second ‘planning element’ is envisioned, and land in neighbourhoods in the report, and the city’s land is identified with the highest levels of vacancy is allowed as its ‘greatest liability and its greatest asset’ ‘to return to a maintained version of its nat- (p. 93). The ultimate aim of the report’s land ural state’ (p. 111). Meanwhile, the plan calls use strategy is to complement efforts to spur for concentrating the city’s population into economic growth. However, the report states areas that already have relatively high densi- that this will require ‘innovative approaches’ ties. Thus, while the plan seeks to gear land- and that it uses the word ‘productive’ ‘in a use towards economic growth it envisions a very broad sense’ that includes urban agri- post-Fordist future and goes beyond simply culture, biomass production and wood prod- putting land in the hands of developers. ucts (p. 127). The Fordist residential pattern The report shifts focus in the third and of sprawling neighbourhoods with single- fourth sections – city systems and neighbour- family homes is rejected in favour of: hoods, respectively – to quality of life issues. First, the section on city systems is premised stronger, greener, and more socially and eco- on the necessity of realigning service delivery nomically vital Detroit, where neighborhoods with the size of Detroit’s population, so that feature a wide variety of residential styles from efforts to deliver services are targeted apartments to houses, and where residents are towards neighbourhoods with low levels of connected to jobs and services by many trans- vacancy. The provision of services comple- portation options (and especially a regional ments the land-use strategies by guiding resi- network of transit) in a ‘canvas of green’ that features stately boulevards, open green space, dents from high vacancy neighbourhoods urban woodlands, ponds and streams, and that need to be ‘re-patterned’ (p. 167), into new uses of natural landscape to clean the air, more densely populated neighbourhoods 828 Urban Studies 53(4) which will be ‘a critical step in reducing the intermodal transportation. The restructuring financial problems faced by service providers of Detroit’s transportation services could and end users’ (p. 157). Infrastructure in reinforce the land-use strategy and contrib- areas whose population is expected to ‘stabi- ute to the densification of certain areas and lize at a level above current capacity’ is ear- the further isolation of others. marked for upgradation and maintenance. The ‘neighbourhood element’ of the plan Meanwhile, in areas with high levels of envisions ‘distinct and regionally competitive vacancy: neighborhoods’ that are ‘welcoming to all, including those moving in from neighboring where the land use plan designates a change of cities, those who are originally from other land use it will make little sense to invest in countries, and those with limited means’ renewing the systems in these areas because . (pp. 203–205). To this end the plan calls for when the new land use is adopted, they will the creation of ‘a range of neighborhood either be replaced in their entirety, repurposed choices’, including ‘well-known neighbor- and refashioned for a different function – hood types’ as well as ‘new neighborhood or, in some cases, simply decommissioned. (p. 177) typologies’ (p. 208). First and foremost, these types differ in terms of the housing Three key strategies are proposed to lower choices they offer (i.e. apartment blocks, the cost of service provision. First, the plan mixed-use neighbourhoods, single-family calls for ‘strategic’ renewal of service sys- homes). The revitalisation and development tems, which is demand-driven ‘differentiated of each neighbourhood ‘type’ is addressed level of investment across the city’ that com- with a specific set of strategies. Importantly, plements the land-use plan (p. 158). Second, the plan proposes an initiative to assist resi- landscapes are meant to function as dents in low-density areas to relocate to infrastructure, by being ‘adapted to serve high-density areas. Places that are signifi- stormwater/wastewater, energy, roads/trans- cantly depopulated become ‘alternative use portation, and waste infrastructure systems’ areas’ whose transformation: (p. 163). The report explains that landscape infrastructure can contribute to environmen- hinges on the re-imagination and reuse of vacant land for productive uses or, where tal sustainability and reduce exposure to there is excess vacant land, returning it to an environmental hazards. Finally, the plan ecologically and environmentally sustainable notes that while roads must be well- state. Large contiguous areas should be assem- maintained so that Detroit remains a freight bled under public control for future disposi- corridor (a significant amount of freight tion and productive reuse. (p. 261) between the US and Canada passes through Detroit), ‘residents urgently need more The plan acknowledges the need for transportation choices beyond driving’ (p. improved safety and education in each of 158). This is a major shift in tone for the so- the types, and calls for decentralised called Motor City. The plan calls for ‘on- decision-making at the neighbourhood level. demand [bus] services that match capacity to The final planning element is the manage- demand, improving efficiency and allowing ment of public land and buildings. A range smaller fleets’ (p. 159). While it is unclear of public agencies own a significant amount how the city’s already overstretched bus sys- of vacant properties in Detroit, and this sec- tem could simultaneously be downsized and tion challenges ‘all public agencies – whether become more efficient, the plan also calls for city, county, or state – . to change how they the creation of a network for cyclists and think about land, and make equally Schindler 829 fundamental changes to the way they efficient operational reforms, strategic invest- acquire, manage’ (p. 267). While the ultimate ments, and stabilization or modest improve- goal is to augment the exchange value of ment in the economic conditions of the city. these vacant properties and transform them (p. 31) into assets, this part of the plan is unique in the way it constructs property rights. It In the second phase from 2020 to 2030 states that: ‘Detroit is beginning to see the results of pre- paring residents and business (existing and all land, whatever its legal ownership, is public new) for economic growth opportunities’, in the sense that how it is used and maintained and it is not until 2050 that ‘Detroit regains affects its neighbors and the community as a its position as one of the most competitive whole, and affects the city’s ability to preserve cities in the nation’ (Detroit Free Press, its neighborhoods and build its economy. (p. 2013a). Thus, while the ultimate aim of the 268) plan is to foster economic growth, its post- ponement until 2050 is evidence of the This section of the plan emphasises the need schism between locally-based actors with an to embrace a holistic notion of urban trans- interest in Detroit’s long-term future, and formation that would seem to reject entre- extra-local investors seeking short-term preneurial development such as the profits. constructions of new sports stadia. More The Detroit Works Project has sought to than any of the preceding sections, this sec- elicit participation among city residents, and tion departs from growth machine politics, these efforts supposedly influenced the and states that ‘the reality is that, outside Detroit Future City plan. Its website claims certain key locations, continuing demo- that the plan was ‘grounded in robust com- graphic and economic trends mean that little munity engagement that included hundreds new development will take place in Detroit of meetings and 30,000 conversations. for many years’ (p. 271). In response to this People were connected with over 163,000 reality the plan advocates a comprehensive times, and we received more than 70,000 sur- land-use policy with ‘greater emphasis on veyed responses and comments from partici- holding rather than selling public land, and pants’ (Detroit Future City, 2012). on making it more costly for private entities Furthermore, the DWP claims to have – often speculators – to hold onto vacant worked with existing community based parcels instead of using them productively organisations. Nevertheless, the transparent or relinquishing them’ (p. 271). nature of the DWP has been criticised by The most significant feature of the Detroit residents convinced that officials seek to Future City is the realisation that the city evict them from their homes and ‘shrink’ the must genuinely reinvent itself. The long-term city (Dolan, 2011). This is partly due to the plan to transform Detroit has multiple structure of the DWP, which was separated phases. The first phase lasts until 2020, and by Mayor Bing in 2011 into ‘short term is simply geared towards stabilising the econ- actions’, which are managed by city officials, omy and population. It states that: and ‘long term planning’, which is underta- ken by a steering committee comprised of 12 residents and stakeholders of Detroit will mayoral appointees (City of Detroit, 2014). believe new future is possible if they begin to This organisational structure could foster a see an elevated level of reliable and quality ser- vices to meet their basic needs, as well as stabi- division of labour in which elected officials lisation of physical conditions through more simply manage day-to-day affairs, while 830 Urban Studies 53(4) long-term planning will be the province of attractive to other municipalities in financial appointed officials who are largely unac- distress. countable to city residents. Thus, spectre of In summary, the Detroit Works Project urban entrepreneurialism looms large as the has served to fuse public, private, philan- steering committee could simply change thropic and community-based actors into a course and return to growth-oriented poli- degrowth coalition. Given the reality that cies without warning. Indeed, urban entre- Detroit is likely to experience further preneurialism has its proponents in Detroit. degrowth, the Detroit Future City report Michigan Governor Rick Snyder recently postpones robust economic growth until proposed a plan to issue 50,000 visas for 2050. While the plan focuses on neighbour- skilled immigrants willing to live and work hood stabilisation, community development in Detroit (James, 2014), and Mayor and the construction of landscape infrastruc- Duggan expressed his support for the plan ture, local elites’ commitment to these goals to President Obama (AlHajal, 2014). In remains unclear. Indeed, their commitment many ways this plan seems representative of could be severely tested in coming years if Richard Florida’s (2002) roundly criticised the Detroit Future City plan enjoys initial version of urban entrepreneurialism centred success and willing investors step forward to on attracting the so-called ‘creative class’ build more sports stadia and big-box retail (see Peck, 2005). Meanwhile, one of the outlets. In other words, long-term degrowth- DWP’s former consultants opines that oriented urban transformation could be jeo- Detroit’s low-income residents, who she pardised if the plan is perceived as successful refers to as ‘cultural designers’, represent in the short-term and a return to growth financial opportunity: ‘the untapped skills machine politics becomes a viable option. and ingenuity of low-income residents can Furthermore, while the city’s economy will be harnessed via entrepreneurial ventures likely continue to shrink, that does not pre- that take advantage of new crowd-funding clude well-positioned elites from profiting networks’ (Griffin, 2012). from the city’s transformation. Thus, while Detroit’s bankruptcy infused urban poli- a degrowth coalition has certainly emerged tics with considerable contingency, because to manage Detroit’s decline, the question it: (a) disrupted the city’s interscalar growth that emerges is: degrowth for whom? A cyni- coalition; and (b) forced local officials and cal observer may ask whether degrowth elites to abandon growth-oriented policies in machine politics is ultimately meant to the short-term. This has allowed for a thor- secure economic gains for local elites? In the ough re-envisioning of the city’s future. The following section I examine the extent to steering committee that will advance the which degrowth machine politics in Detroit long-term plans outlined in the Detroit offers the city a truly progressive future. Future City report assumed leadership in January 2014. A number of pilot projects Conclusion: Developing have been launched and it is important to alternatives in times of crisis note that they represent the full range of ‘planning elements’ (see: http://detroitfuture- In this article I have challenged the notion city.com/projects/). Thus, it is clear that the that financial crises inherently engender neo- plan cannot be summarily dismissed as liberal urban governance. In the case of rhetoric, and if the quality of life for Detroit Detroit, the city’s declaration of bankruptcy residents improves in the short- and was a manifestation of intra-elite conflict medium-term then bankruptcy may seem that could not be contained within its growth Schindler 831 coalition. While the primary concern of but also fundamentally change the ways in Detroit’s creditors is to recoup their invest- which resources are managed and services ment, actors at the city and state levels are delivered. Landscape infrastructure is focused – at least in the short-term – on stabi- embraced as an alternative to a technologi- lising the economy and population, and ulti- cal fix precisely because of Detroit’s unique mately transforming the city. Importantly, circumstances; its aging infrastructure there is a consensus that the extent of the requires upgradation, but budgetary con- decline of Detroit’s manufacturing base, pop- straints prohibit capital investment. Thus, in ulation decline and widespread abandonment many respects the development of landscape preclude out-of-the-box neoliberal solutions. infrastructure is an example of managing Thus, the emergence of Detroit’s degrowth forced degrowth. Finally, perhaps the most coalition represents a failure of urban entre- important aspect of the Detroit Future City preneurialism, a main tenet of which is that is that it represents a willingness to experi- the public assumes the risk and absorbs the ment, rather than try to ‘neoliberalise’ the fallout in the event of crisis. Detroit’s bank- city out of crisis. This is an implicit rejection ruptcy inverted the relationship between pub- of the single-minded pursuit of economic lic and private institutions, as bondholders growth at the expense of marginalised urban are forced to accept a fraction of their residents that is the cornerstone of what investment. Jamie Peck (2012) calls ‘austerity urbanism’. The Detroit Future City plan retains some Detroit may implement further budget elements of urban entrepreneurialism, but it cuts, but it is important to recognise the very represents an important evolution in three real budgetary constraints that it faces. important ways. First, there is a realisation Interpreting any and all budget cuts as a roll that any economic growth on Detroit’s hori- out of neoliberalism renders the concept zon will not be a result of the rejuvenation rather meaningless and threatens to obscure of the city’s Fordist manufacturing base. efforts to develop alternative models of gov- Thus, there is a need to carefully think ernance that may emerge from crises. through policies aimed at engendering Indeed, recent research in Detroit shows that growth, rather than succumb to knee-jerk in the absence of investment in infrastruc- reactions from the neoliberal playbook. ture, some residents counter abandonment Second, there is an emphasis on community by taking matters into their own hands and development and quality of life issues. The destroying abandoned properties in order to proposal envisions comprehensive urban prevent them from being used for drug deal- transformation aimed at making the city ing and prostitution (Kinder, 2014). The more liveable. While urban transformation strengthening of communal bonds in times and place-(re)making is inherently conten- of crisis is not limited to Detroit. Rebeca tious and any proposal is bound to have Solnit (2009) has convincingly argued that detractors, it is significant that there is a crises are apt to foster emancipatory com- consensus that economic growth alone will munities of practice because ‘in the suspen- not reverse Detroit’s decline. Thus, it is sion of the usual order and the failure of entirely feasible that a strong local state most systems, we are free to live and act could implement a series of development another way’. Thus, crises do not automati- projects that improve Detroit residents’ cally lead to an intensification of market- quality of life rather than benefit capital. oriented governance, but rather, they can The development of landscape infrastruc- foster contingency and in some cases lead to ture, for example, would reduce resource use emancipatory urban politics. 832 Urban Studies 53(4)

The recognition that crises can lead to embraced the concept of resilience to exam- progressive alternatives to neoliberalism has ine the former, the latter are often inter- relevance beyond Detroit, as cities around preted through a lens of (under)development the world that are deeply embedded in global (Robinson, 2002). Thus, in addition to production networks can suddenly find demonstrating that urban politics in times of themselves bypassed. For example, cities in crisis deserves more – and more nuanced – the Zambian Copperbelt whose residents scholarly attention, the emergence of enjoyed a living standard on par with degrowth machine politics in Detroit may Southern Europe in the 1970s have witnessed provide the basis for comparative research a dramatic reversal in fortune (Ferguson, on cities in crisis. 1999). In China the shift from a planned economy to more market-oriented policies Acknowledgement has left many cities struggling to deal with increased inequality (Wu, 2004). This is par- I would like to thank John Lauermann, Yuko Aoyama and an anonymous reviewer for com- ticularly the case in cities that were centres of ments on a previous draft. The usual disclaimers state-owned industries which have been apply. unable to compete against cities that have attracted unprecedented amounts of foreign investment (Kwan Lee, 2007). Stephen Funding Collier (2011) explains that after the collapse This research received no specific grant from any of the USSR, municipal authorities in some funding agency in the public, commercial, or Russian cities spent a significant amount of not-for-profit sectors. time maintaining infrastructure and simply keeping the heat on. Post-Soviet reforms Notes included cost recovery measures – meaning 1. The report is available in its entirety at: http:// consumers were meant to pay for services detroitfuturecity.com/framework/ (accessed 27 such as heat – but successive shocks to the November 2014). Russian economy meant that many end- 2. The Red Wings are a professional ice hockey users could not afford to pay heating bills. team. Municipalities were in a ‘fiscal vice’ (Collier, 2011: 231) but nevertheless managed to sub- sidise heat to residents hopelessly in arrears. References Significantly, many of these municipal Akers J (2013) Making markets: Think tank legis- authorities were committed to market lation and private property in Detroit. Urban reforms but the severity of winter meant that Geography 34(8): 1070–1095. they had little choice but to maintain Soviet- AlHajal K (2013) Residents call Magic Johnson’s era policies and provide residents with heat. Michigan State Fairgrounds development ‘big- Thus, municipal governance in many cities is box boring’. MLive, 8 February. Available at: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/ geared towards managing crisis, and even if 2013/02/residents_call_magic_johnsons.html municipal governments are ideologically (accessed 11 March 2014). committed to urban entrepreneurialism cir- AlHajal K (2014) Detroit mayor Mike Duggan cumstances may force them to practise talks Obama meeting, Belle Isle skepticism. degrowth machine politics. MLive, 10 February. Available at: http:// The above examples demonstrate that the www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2014/ cities struggling to manage degrowth span 02/detroit_mayor_mike_duggan_talk.html the North/South divide. While scholars have (accessed 11 March 2014). Schindler 833

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