Land Use One Key to City's Future

There is no magic solution that will cure all of Detroit's ills and return it to its more livable past. But we still have to look for a set of interlocking solutions that will revive the city and make it once again attractive to existing and new residents.

One of those solutions lies in the reclamation and re-use of its vast acres of open space created by the abandonment of neighborhoods. According to a recent article in Harper's magazine, one-third of Detroit's 120 square miles is now open space where housing or commercial establishments once stood.

Some efforts to make use of this space have been underway for several years such as urban farming , small parks, and new housing. While commendable and holding promise, these efforts thus far are spotty. New housing in the neighborhoods is essentially replacement housing that will be purchased by current upwardly mobile residents who already live in the city and who will be leaving older housing that will eventually be demolished. This is different than the new lofts and condos popping up downtown that attract young, high-income residents who come from the suburbs or are job transplants from another city.

It might be too late to redevelop all the vacant land available today. We might have to find a way to physically "shrink" the city to accommodate its future residents that in about 10 years will number between 750-800,000, if current census trends continue. This population decline does not have to be a bad thing if the city's demographics change to include more upper middle class and affluent residents. But it would also include a massive selling to or trading-for-services with Wayne County to rightsize the city to fit its new, smaller population. A police force and fire department that with time will likely get smaller will not be able to patrol today's 120-square-mile city that once held nearly two million people.

Today's Detroit Free Press, has a front page feature story talks about the cost of duplicated public services in the suburbs and pros and cons of merging them to save money and improve delivery. This is always a cantankerous issue with often bitter debates about local home rule and local autonomy. Given Detroit's social history, any talk of merging or selling public services is usually stonewalled. Perhaps the time has come to get real.