Local Resiliency From the Ground Up

Shea Howell, of community group Detroit City of Hope, , writes in her open letter response to Time magazine’s recent feature series on Detroit:

“The story of Detroit’s decline… is that as the epitome of American industry in the last century, we are the first to have to deal fundamentally with deindustrialization and all that entails.”

What Howell implies is significant: that Detroit’s decline says less about the city’s unique problems, and more about the eggs-in-a-basket, industry-dependent approach most cities have taken on the road to becoming boomtowns. If your industry or two is lucky enough to stay on top, great. Otherwise you’ll end up like Detroit: sliding off the back of a car industry that’s having a hard enough time supporting itself — let alone a city once home to two million. Howell’s point, then, taken in reverse, is that there might be another route:  regionally resilient and diverse local economies.

Well-developed local economies, unlike single-industry economies dependent on the larger global economy, are diversified, internally competitive, and locally responsive. From a sustainability perspective, they also tend to be less energy and materials intensive, more accountable to their environments, and sources of community cohesion. And there’s not a single major city in the country — probably in the world — that’s really, truly achieved local rootedness. In the coming age of sustainability, that’s got to change. Part of what makes Detroit so interesting is that it’s a city of uncelebrated local richness and one of the first cities that has (unwillingly) said goodbye to industrialism. That makes it a candidate for becoming the first city to trade bigness for betterness.

One of green building’s pioneers, the Detroit-born architect Doug Farr, calls this approach “Asset Based Planning” — an approach he believes is applicable to Detroit’s rejuvenation:

“Instead of listing all of  the things you want or don’t have, list all of the things you do have. Detroit has hardworking people. Detroit has land. People need to eat. What’s missing is a little bit of seed capital. There are numerous federal and state programs that could help make it happen. When was the last time the Department of Agriculture had a program in Detroit?”

The city has already got  an urban agriculture scene and lively neighborhood organizations. Soon,  the energy and finance bases might be covered as well. Mayor Bing and (especially) Michigan Gov. Granholm have been pretty outspoken about their belief that Detroit’s way forward should be tied to renewable energy and green jobs. Granholm has already put hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tax incentives on the table to court alternative energy producers, and, lately, has been working hard to re-open Ford’s Wixom Assembly Plant as the Ford Renewable Energy Park. Two companies, Clairvoyant Energy and Xtreme Power, Inc., have been granted credits ($25 million and $100 million, respectively) towards photovoltaic and advanced battery projects — which are expected to employ around 4,000 direct workers. For more on Michigan’s green jobs initiative, go here.

In finance, one of my favorite organizations, ShoreBank, has a Detroit location that’s dedicated to providing micro-finance style loans to small businesses and property developers. Locally, they’ve partnered with the Vacant Property Campaign and the Detroit Local Initiatives Corp., and are loaning seed capital to people and organizations working to stabilize property values, reclaim abandonded buildings, and improve energy efficiency. There’s also been news of Michigan-based Quicken Loans moving their headquarters to downtown Detroit which could provide some much needed new bustle along the waterfront.

Urban farms and markets, lively community organizations, alternative energy, locally-focused finance, a lively art scene — these are all pieces of a puzzle that could add up to a locally resilient Detroit. If the city can do it successfully, we might see the birth of a new, post-growth, post-industrial urban model in this country. Ultimately, it’d be a model that’s built for economic shock, in step with natural capital scarcity, scaled to community and ecology, and designed for people (not car companies).

Maybe it’s time to stop standing around at old Detroit’s funeral, and start paying attention to what’s growing up through its cracks.

NOTE: For a fuller picture of some local economic initiatives in the city, check out the Detroit Green Map. Also, for the arts community, don’t forget Detroit Make It Here and Handmade Detroit.

Image credit: Detroit Make It Here & flickr/ Ellievanhoutte