Detroit Future City — A Model for Baltimore?
Detroit and Baltimore often get lumped together as left behind cities with giant economic and social challenges. But with Detroit set to see its first population gain in more than 50 years, it begs the question — what is Detroit doing right?
Mayor Duggan, recently re-elected, has employed a strategy of revitalizing public spaces in the city center to bring back foot traffic, businesses and residents. But this revitalization is centralized, both in terms of government control and geography, and has yet to spread to often blighted neighborhoods where people already live.
For this reason, Detroit Future City seems to be an initiative on a better track. It’s a non-traditional think thank made of up 100,00 city residents and a coalition of businesses and non-profits all supporting a set of recommendations for the city’s future.
Detroit Future City has taken pains to involve residents in the creation of its book-length 50-year blueprint for the city. It has connected via interviews, community discussions, a hotline, a video game, a staffed roving cart set up in farmers markets and street corners, and a storefront “home base” with an open door. And at the end of this long, hard process it can claim those 100,000 residents as full members of this new kind of think tank.
This model may not be exactly replicable in Baltimore but the idea of a coordinated set of recommendations backed by citizens, coming from outside city government is a powerful one.
Learn more about Detroit Future City below:
