I've pretty much accepted the fact that the Michigan Central Station will not ever be repaired. It's not practical and the American dollar, steered by American people will never allocate enough of it. Especially, as we move forward in this country without a banking model that is capitalistic in nature. Even if we did, the contiguous fabric of Detroit is lost on so many minds of powerful decision makers with the ability to commit to renovating the MCS. I just don't believe it will ever happen.
As I watch Detroit, try to understand it's history, witness how present-day efforts attempt to sustain, as well as foresee where these efforts will take it in the future, I believe two major commitments, in addition to the commitments we are already making will help bring life back to Detroit.
They are
1) A commitment to mobility. Not just any mobility, but one that begins at the river (the core) and serves as a backbone to civilization-building along its routes and corridors. It must be something other than an automobile (bus included).
2) Corporate investment. To me, this is incredibly profound and something that isn't talked about enough. All we ever do is study Detroit and what went wrong, trying to paint pictures with facts and numbers and experiences. One that has ever really been disected is region-wide jobs. Let me explain...
There's over a trillion documents and articles written about Detroit's fall from grace. We always talk about how the people left and so did the jobs and that there's no employment in Detroit anymore and so therefore Michigan suffers and the city has no one to pay its bills...this is how we always talk about it as if it's the truth...I believe it is only partially true. The people never left. They're still here. They're in Detroit...they're in the Auburn Hills section of Detroit, the Novi section of Detroit, the Macomb section of Detroit, the Howell section of Detroit, the Canton section of Detroit, the Birmingham section of Detroit. Where are the jobs? The Auburn Hills section of Detroit, the Novi section of Detroit, the Macomb section of Detroit, the Howell section of Detroit, the Canton section of Detroit, the Birmingham section of Detroit... have I made my point?
Now, all this decade-long fact finding mission full of recommendations, solutions, best practices and projections is GREAT and it explains why Detroit is such an undesirable place to live for the average person. I think we've all mastered that concept. But when you look at Detroit as a region without boundaries, NO ONE HAS EVER LEFT!!! In fact, we (for the most part) have ALWAYS GROWN! Hmmmm...We've regularly been competitive on lists for job retention and growth, and have ranked on lists of great communities (those suburbs that are actually "communities".
So, the question I pose is, WHY HAVE WE NEGLECTED TO REVEAL THIS FACT ABOUT DETROIT? Is it because when we talk about it, we aren't confining our intellect to the city limit boundaries of the city proper? I think that's unfair and doesn't address the reality of what is really at work here.
What if...what if all the office parks in the region, all of the office jobs and manufacturing jobs and business in the region (those that can relocate to other parts of the country) all moved to within the city limits of Detroit? What if they were strategically placed in pockets or nodes throughout the city, like say, downtown, along the east riverfront, Midtown, New Center, Highland Park, Livernois & 7 Mile, and 8 Mile/Woodward? What would our city look like? Ok, so that's not practical, but what if 50% of all the employment of the region committed to Detroit? 40%, 30%, 20%???
My point is, I think we would have a different looking city and region, and it would be different for the better. How do we attract employment to commit to the city? I don't think we do. Even incentives aren't the be all end all (heck even GM is moving a large # of employees out of the Ren Cen towers). Incentives don't do it, otherwise we would see an influx of employment coming to the city. I think the corporate commitment in the region is to stay out of Detroit, much like real estate steering keeps newcomers to the region out of Detroit. It's just something you subconsciously avoid, maybe because so much of the status quo exists in a suburban format.
So, if we now change the conversation from one that is almost purely capitalistic in nature (that of business and the corporate world which we now realize does not chose to be in the city even though it is still in "Detroit") and talk about a collaborative effort between this sector and the public one, we may be able to convince ourselves that we can plant the seeds of a civilization in Detroit to make it a place that the capitalist world wants to be a part of as well as the private citizen.
People live near where they work, at least as a generalized statement. Detroit has a huge problem of job sprawl and I believe a system that has always been under the influence of social divide since the 1960s. We've consciously designed the way this metropolitan system functions, and of course, through all our reading, research, study and experiences, we know it's a failed system. Who loses? Detroit proper first and foremost, but ultimately the region does. The employment is still there, it's a lie to stay jobs left Detroit. That lie is just part of the system we've created for ourselves to our liking...I guess when I say "our" I mean the socially acceptable people among the human race (that's a whole other discussion for sure).
But what if for once we thought of the central city as a part of the status quo and treated it not like the suburb that we're so comfortable with and use to, but rather a safe, well rounded, functioning city COMMUNITY that can compete with all other cities throughout the country? Because, right now all we have competing against other American cities is Detroit's suburbs...because after all, they are Detroit and Detroit is them...again, it's the Detroit system we've created. I repeat, the jobs aren't gone, the growth hasn't necessarily stopped, even though we focus on the fact Detroit looses 15,000 people each year, which by the way all people will have left Detroit in about 60 years if that doesn't change. By then, will the bottom fall out on the rest of Detroit? That being the Detroit that doesn't include the city proper boundaries? Because, I mean, someone's going to have to be accountable for the city at some point, and I don't think the state of Michigan is going to adopt the burdon of a geographical area the size of Atlanta with zero people in it, which once was the 4th largest city in the world's most prosperous nation.
I could go on forever trying to prove my point, which I probably didn't do a very good job doing, but I'm going to finish by simply restating...
1) Mobilize this region by bringing people back to the nucleus. This must be done strategically and permanently by way of a plan that will attract citizens as they make the personal decision to reside in Detroit.
2) The corporate/capitalist world has a new responsibility of locating in the city limits like every other city in the world. Sure, we'll always have suburban job existence (that's just America). But, the fact is, jobs don't exist in Detroit, we all know that. But the fact also is jobs DO exist in Detroit, they just aren't in the part that we talk about, study, experience, predict, understand, etc...
So, now what? :-) Who wants to be the first to piss off suburbanites? Who wants to be the first one to force them to think of something other than their 3-car garage on one side of the fence and a burned down neighborhood on the other? Who's going to ask, "what are we going to do about it?" because you know darn well, the ears that you ask this to don't believe they are part of any problem. They are perfectly happy where they're at.