Growing A Shrinking City

With dwindling commercial & retail businesses being paired with a lack of population, there are now huge vacant pockets in the city of Detroit. Being a leader means making unpopular decisions some times. Mayor Dave Bing had to do just that when he made the choice to tear down vacant residential and commercial structures. Turning what were once bountiful urban communities into flatland. This would effectively stop the urban sprawl and make better and more efficient use of the current infrastructure. By not having to service these areas, it will allow for some relief of the stressed city budget. While this could actually be a great idea for the city, what is the plan for this land? Will they simply be replacing horrible eyesores for more tolerable ones? Let’s take a look at a few ideas that are being tossed around.

Urban farming seems to be the front runner among the ideas being considered. Ground has already broken on a downtown farm plot sponsored by MGM Grand and Greening. John Hantz has created a farming company that wants to do business in the city on a huge scale also. With promises of “green” jobs and a new industry to the area, this definitely could be promising. Critics like Patrick Crouch of Earthworks Urban Farm believe that smaller plots are a better idea to fit the immediate surrounding community as oppose to the large scale plans that people like Hantz has. Crouch believes that the commercial plans are "a substitute for community redevelopment instead of being a catalyst for community redevelopment."

City parks are another idea for the currently unused land. Using the land for recreational space would be an ideal use as well. The city has about 9 square miles of park space already. Letting many of the open plots of land return to nature would be much more cost effective then redeveloping it for residential use.

In the fall of 2008, the American Institute of Architects held a session to brainstorm solutions to the spacing/planning issues plaguing Detroit. Alan Mallach, research director of the National Housing Institute in Maplewood, NJ, led the session. He stated:

To re-invent Detroit, a new way is needed. It would involve visualizing Detroit still as a core, but with distinct urban villages, or hubs, with green spaces. This would involve de-urbanizing parts of Detroit that were once part of the urban fabric but are now vacant. These areas would be redeveloped into areas for farming and lakes. These green spaces would replace land and property not utilized. It would involve visualizing Detroit still as a core, but with distinct urban villages, or hubs, with green spaces.”

Creating new or rejuvenating current “urban villages” with the combination of the aforementioned ideas of farm and parkland, has become popular as well. The idea is for the communities to have everything that’s needed for everyday life within a 20 minute walking distance; moreover, these neighborhoods would have smaller farm plots along with natural forests growing around the village as well. Blogger John Cruz has some really great insights on how this can become a reality. Cruz explains that some key benefits for this idea is that will be easier to identify electric power station & water line problems and service them more efficiently, the population would not be as scattered with denser communities being created, and the denser areas would be prime for retail growth.

With Detroit’s back against the wall, the city leaders are forced to make some tough decisions to bring the city out of stagnation. As long as they remain open minded, the city can become a prototype for other shrinking cities so that they will once again rise into the urban centers that they once were. Stay tuned.