Planners in Detroit

Art Installation, Powerhouse Project, Hamtramck

Art Installation, Powerhouse Project, Hamtramck

I'm having a GREAT time at the Michigan Association of Planning's annual conference held in Detroit this year. Yesterday I attended a session with Philip Cooley, part owner of Slows Bar b Q  and Corktown booster, on why he came to Detroit and efforts to rebuild the neighborhood and Roosevelt Park at the foot of Detroit's greatest ruin.

This morning we heard from starchitect/star urban planner Toni Griffin and City of Detroit Deputy Planning Director Marja Winters on Detroit's much publicized, philanthropically-funded land use planning process, Detroit Works.

In the afternoon I attended a FANTASTIC tour of the City of Hamtramck, which I had not visited since high school when we hung out at Paychecks lounge.  Who knew- Hamtramck has retained it's density and walkability and is now an urban oasis amid the devastation of the surrounding City of Detroit.

The Polish population that founded the town in the 1920's is still present, comprising about 30-40% of the population, and has been supplemented by hardworking, entrepreneurial immigrants from Bangladesh and other countries.

It is fascinating to see these newcomers repeat the pattern of the Eastern and Southern Europeans of 100 years ago- they first land in New York, then come to Detroit for the cheaper cost of living, and start businesses.  Once they have gained financial stability, some move to the inner-ring suburbs, such as Warren, while others stay in the City.

Highlights of the tour included the Powerhouse Project,  a program to place national artists in residencies within an underserved Hamtramck neighborhood,  the Detroit Zen Center, which has been in existence since the 1990's and is working to create a neighborhood-scale sustainability model, and  the Polish Art Center, a purveyor and teacher of Polish folk art.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to Urban Agriculture Tour.

The Case for Suburban Renewal

Richard Florida in the Wall Street Journal:

Remaking America's sprawling suburbs, with their enormous footprints, shoddy construction, hastily built infrastructure and dying malls, is shaping up to be the biggest urban revitalization challenge of modern times—far larger in scale, scope and cost than the revitalization of our inner cities.

The Case for Suburban Renewal - WSJ.com

UPDATE: HERE is the unedited version.

Here are some resources on retrofitting the suburbs for sustainability and livability.

• The Sprawl Repair Manual
• Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning the Suburbs
• Design Charrettes for Sustainable Communities
• Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design With Nature
• Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability
• Superbia: 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods

The Only Real Option is Beauty

Fascinating interview with designer Bruce Mau, courtesy of The Climate Desk, a collaboration of Mother Jones,Slate, Wired, The Atlantic, PBS’s Need to Know, Reuters, Grist, and the Center for Investigative Reporting.


His arguments: suburbs are evolving, they are wildly successful so we have to work with them, it is possible to have a beautiful life experience in a low-density environment.  We need to reframe the sustainability discussion to make it positive, emphasize opportunities, and inspire people to live and work in a new way that is more compelling and more meaningful than the old way.

Place Samplings 10/9/2010

Better Burb Contest- "The time for thinking cautiously is over"
From the website: 
There has been a crisis of imagination, and your bold new ideas are urgently needed. There should be no preconceptions about what is or is not possible. What would you do on these acres of opportunity? Build a car-free community for thousands? Plant an oasis of urban agriculture? Produce renewable energy and provide well-paying green jobs? Use landscape systems to repair ruptures in regional ecologies? Introduce armatures to enhance public space and the civic realm?


Other Links of Note:

Obama Administration Rolls Out the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative

Designing Buildings that Battle Obesity

Creative Placemaking Through the Arts

Detroit

• How To Be The Ultimate Metro Detroit Locavore
• Time wanes for Detroit project: Some question impact after a year of reporting 

Blog Spotlight: PlaceShakers

Suburbs Go Head To Head With The City | Planetizen

Can suburbs be sustainable?  

According to some thinkers, the term "sustainable suburbs" is an oxymoron.  

Others have more hope that the suburbs can be retrofitted to increase density, mix uses, improve walkability, grow food, and provide alternative forms of transportation.  

The next fifty years will likely bear this out.  


Suburbs Go Head To Head With The City | Planetizen

Image Source: Financial Times

Let's Save Michigan | PARK(ing) Day Sign-up

This is neat: PARK (ing) day!!!

According to letssavemichigan.org:

"PARK(ing) Day is a quirky, annual, worldwide event where folks use their creativity to transform metered city parking spots into temporary parks for the public good for an hour or two."

Let's Save Michigan | PARK(ing) Day Sign-up

St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor returns to its farming roots by using hospital land to grow produce - AnnArbor.com

More urban farming! This time at a hospital: St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor.

From annarbor.com:


"St. Joe is in the midst of Phase 1 of a project to farm up to 30 acres of its campus. The hospital began planting produce — things like tomatoes and peppers — in April, and is beginning to harvest it for sale to staff, patients and the general public."


St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor returns to its farming roots by using hospital land to grow produce - AnnArbor.com

Image Source: annarbor.com

The Urbanophile's Detroit Post

The Urbanophile, one of my favorite urban planning blogs, recently re-posted it's most popular post ever.

The post, which ran originally in 2009, is on Detroit, and gives a pretty good synopsis of where things stood in 2009.  I am not sure much has changed since the original post..

All of this national media interest initiated  in 2008 when the national spotlight shone on the collapsing auto-industry. Time's Detroit Blog, Dateline's infamous piece and many other media pieces have put a magnifying glass on the City. The suburbs have escaped notice.

Now two years later, I wonder how long it will last. .

There are some pretty great Detroit bloggers out there.  Here is one of my favorites; I have a feeling this guy will be writing when and if the national spotlights fade:

http://bbandm.wordpress.com/

HAVEN Garden Project

Urban agriculture isn't just about Detroit and Flint.  I was excited to learn recently about the garden project at HAVEN, a domestic violence shelter located in the City of Pontiac.   The project, which seeks to produce food for consumption by HAVEN residents and the community, was launched this past April by a coalition of community members and urban agriculture activists.

The Michigan Young Farmers Coalition, founded by MSU senior horticulture student Benjamin Gluck, is taking a leadership role in the project, along with Alexis Bogdanova-Hanna of Abundant Succession, an urban agriculture consulting and education form, and women’s health website  AskInYourFace.com founder Allison Stuart Kaplan.  Community residents and schools provide additional support to the project. The harvest thus far has exceeded all expectations. Bogdanova-Hanna writes on AskInYourFace.com :

Since the initial planting in mid-April, the HAVEN Garden has been growing abundantly and beyond all expectations. Perhaps it’s the infusion of love and care from the HAVEN Community, the careful execution of an innovative crop plan, or the swell of support from generous donors that has brought us to the point of surplus and success. More likely, it is a combination of all of these – the perfect mix of the tangible (remay row covers) and the intangible (synergistic energy). Whatever it is, it’s working.

A notable success of the project has been the creation of a job for local Pontiac resident Aaron Kyle. Kyle, who has no prior horticultural experience, manages the daily operations of the garden, building technical and leadership skills in the process. 

Read more about the project here and here, and view pictures here.

Green Detroit: Why the City Is Ground Zero for the Sustainability Movement

This article by Metro Time's founder Ron Williams articulates so much of my hopes for the City of Detroit and my concerns about the "Green" movement:.

Green Detroit: Why the City Is Ground Zero for the Sustainability Movement | Economy | AlterNet

Image Credit: shorpy.com