It’s not news to anyone at this point that Detroit is in bad shape. That’s a pretty widely acknowledged fact. This MSNBC article details a lot of the factors in the decline, but also shines a light on a few signs of hope. What is missing is a view of the good and the bad which is focused on an unconventional approach to taking the good things that have been happening on a small scale and applying those en masse to the bad.
Let’s start with the good. Detroit has had an active program of downtown revitalization that is viewed by the city government as the key component to showing the best face of Detroit to visitors. Detroit has been relying on hotels, casinos, and sports arenas to lure visitors and provide them with an environment that leaves them feeling energetic and positive about the city. And this is important. Detroit features a very beautiful downtown, quite a forlorn looking place at its worst but when viewed on a map and in pictures, reveals itself to be quite an amazing design, signifying Detroit’s status as one of the oldest cities in the US.
This work downtown has been accompanied by a focus on economic development. Compuware, an IT consulting firm, completed construction of a headquarters building in downtown Detroit several years back. Quicken Loans also established a facility in Detroit. Condo developments have been targeted at bringing in new residents. Repopulating Detroit from the center out has understandably been a priority for Detroit.
The further north one goes away from downtown Detroit, the more blighted the neighborhoods become. Abandoned industrial manufacturing facilities, many auto plants among them, litter neighborhoods filled with the wreckage of long-abandoned houses. The average home price, according to the MSNBC article, is $18,500.
Some positive developments have occurred in these areas, however. The article mentions a budding urban gardening movement that provides a glimmer of hope. Mark Covington, a Detroit resident, joined together with some friends to clean up some abandoned lots in his neighborhood. Covington then got the idea that a garden would be a great waypoint for local residents on their way to shopping at stores. Conveniently, there was space available in the form of the lots he and his friends were already cleaning up.
The incarcerated are committing new crimes upon release merely so they’ll end up back in jail where they know they’ll have food and shelter until the economy improves in Detroit. The article doesn’t mention what the unemployed Covington does to survive, but when you consider the price of real estate in Detroit, that may be irrelevant in the short term if he properly managed the resources he acquired while employed.
The city government is trying to get $47 million in federal funding to deal with its abandoned houses. Demolish some houses and fix up some others. This is a good starting point. If the prices of the rehabilitated houses remain low due to lack of demand and are not artificially inflated after rehabilitation, there is a real opportunity to do something truly innovative in Detroit.
Working with the city government, private charity interests should acquire the houses. Local and outside volunteers and the unemployed, including those petty criminals who are currently keeping themselves locked up to guarantee access to food and shelter, should be brought in as part of the solution.
The contract: Occupy the houses. Keep up the property. Reliably appear at community redevelopment meetings. Carry out assigned tasks to ensure the security and safety of the neighborhoods. Duties might also include working in the aforementioned gardens, an effort that should be expanded.
The same private charities that acquire the properties and manage the contracts with the tenants, would subsidize broadband internet access for these houses, computers to place in the houses, as well as basic utility service sufficient to keep the houses powered at all times and free of plumbing damage during wintertime.
Governments would work to create reliable, affordable and effective public transportation linking all city neighborhoods and to restore police, fire, and schools.
The contracts negotiated with the tenants would share one thing in common: a commitment equal to the term of the average auto loan in terms of time and effort (For example, a 5 year commitment). The tenant’s commitment is the property taxes due on the house, which go into the government coffers and help bolster already ailing transit, police, fire and school services.
Once the tenant has completed the terms of the contract, the ownership of the house is turned over to that person with all the responsibilities that entails.
This strategy has a few things going for it. First, upon release the former inmates are often already faced with parole officers to report to anyway, and a commitment to find a job and place to live within a reasonable amount of time. In so many cases in the criminal justice system, especially in depressed economies such as Detroit’s, this whole process is such a waste of time as to be a farce. Parole in effect becomes the compulsory community involvement in this model. The place to live, the daily activities and the community monitoring arrive automatically.
For the volunteers from healthier backgrounds, the day-to-day work is the community organizing and management. Keeping the gardens running and seeing to it that the contractually obligated maintenance and other community work is happening becomes the bread and butter of these people, who get the same payoff in terms of the house as the rest of the participants.
As for an economic activity for Detroit’s outer rings, it’s important to look to the abandoned industrial facilities. Many of these need to be knocked down immediately. That’s jobs. But some of them might possibly be preserved, as in the case of a few rotted out Ford and GM plants, as museums. That’s also jobs. Some of them might find new life in replacement economic activities the likes of which are required in order to give a city new life when the formerly dominant industries vacate due to structural and global economic factors.
One form of new life these facilities might be suited for is the reprocessing of used merchandise into its next most useful form, and subsequent resale on the market.
A few examples. One, stripping wrecked vehicles, used electronics, furniture, or other consumer goods down to the recyclable and reusable parts, separating, packaging and shipping those parts. Two, refurbishment of those goods which could be usable as refurbished goods. Three, packaging and distribution of any surplus agricultural products from Detroit’s urban farms.
The suggestion here is not one of government control of the end-to-end process. The government in this model is providing government services. Transportation, police, fire, education. Basic infrastructure. The private sector (in this case charities) is providing the incentive-based package aimed at increasing ownership and overall community health. And the private sector would be the only thing capable of getting into place the replacement economic activities discussed here (including the urban farming program).
While the property tax payments as the only financial commitment for the duration of the contract might seem like a great deal for the participants, and the productive use of the participants’ time is well accounted for in this model, without an outlet to external markets bringing in capital, even that relatively minor burden of tax payments in the short term is untenable. In the end, it all comes back to jobs, and jobs come back to money, and money comes back to providing something that other people need in exchange. Getting Detroit back on track means having a well rounded economy which is not subject to failure based on one set of factors. What is being suggested here is a model to accomplish just that.
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