The following column is by longtime urban commentator Neal Peirce:
DETROIT — Could this moment — deep recession deficits notwithstanding — be a golden one of opportunity for America’s cities? Is it time to see them not as dragging anchors but rather as key national assets, the defining centers of our metro regions, essential for climate change progress, new technologies, creative arts and growing vibrant, livable communities?
Detroit, hit by horrendous losses in population and property, would seem the toughest big city in all America to make that case. But CEOs for Cities — a national group that’s celebrated urban renaissance since its 2001 founding — consciously selected Detroit for its annual meeting earlier this month.
There was honest talk about Detroit’s 40,000 abandoned buildings and the dilemmas of recycling the city’s immense, abandoned land tracts. But a group of young Detroit professionals — “we got tired of drinking and decided to push forward” — appeared to talk about “taking ownership” to reverse blight in neighborhoods, to inspire more start-up firms and attract young suburbanites interested in more diversity. They reported that their formal “Detroit Declaration,” including a focus on Detroit’s strengths in music, film, visual arts and design, has attracted 13,000 Facebook fans.
The Detroit initiatives that may seem “against all odds” do in fact mirror trends working for American cities. Reports are multiplying of a growing cohort of talented young people, many of them college graduates, drawn to cities by their dynamism and excitement. Plus, with the mortgage meltdown, paying city rents may trump the risks of suburban mortgages.
Then there’s a clear trend, notes Carol Coletta, president of CEOs for Cities: recognizing, then exploiting, cities’ sometimes hidden assets. A prime example is the Atlanta Beltline, a year a forlorn and abandoned 22-mile loop of rail lines now being made into a linear park of 1,200 landscaped acres with recouped industrial sites and transit service for 45 neighborhoods.
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