Detroit embraces "new media"

Metromode covers Detroit's baby steps toward "new media". Of course, the best examples of new media in Detroit are Metromode itself and its sister publication, Model D. To that list you might add Detour Magazine, the online pop-culture magazine started by ex-Metrotimes staffers. But Detroit's web and media presence is definitely growing, both in scope and sophistication, and I'm glad to be part of that.

The business challenge

Attracting new businesses to Detroit is only part of the battle. The city must also retain the ones it has. Two stories this week highlight that challenge. The News reports that two retail stores in the RenCen are closing and Metrotimes covers yet another small business leaving the city for the suburbs.

Kwame apologizes but won't resign

Can rust belt cities revitalize?

Edward Glaeser, a prominent Harvard economist, argues no. His article, "Can Buffalo Ever Come Back?", outlines the rise and fall of Buffalo, a declining city that holds much in common with Detroit. In his view, Buffalo will never regain its past glory, and federal policies aimed at saving the city as a geographic place are destined to fail. "The best scenario," he concludes, "would be for Buffalo to become a much smaller but more vibrant community—shrinking to greatness, in effect. Far better that outcome than wasting yet more effort and resources on the foolish project of restoring the City of Light’s past glory."

His assessment is the same with regard to Detroit. He speaks of the city in a New York Times Magazine profile:

"I believe very strongly that our obligation is to people, not places, and I think we certainly have an obligation — ethical, economic, what have you — to the residents of Detroit," he told me. But he sees no economic or geographic reason to have a large city there anymore, and he views the prospects for any rebound as dim. (Detroit ranks last among cities with more than 500,000 residents in percentage of college graduates.) The city produced the cars that produced the sprawl that helped destroy the city; such tragedy might have been lessened had it produced more universities too. "There are no reasons why it can't, and shouldn't, decline," Glaeser says. "And I would say that for many other cities. There's no reason not to let decline go forward." The greatness of America is dependent in part upon regional evolutions and migrations, he adds. "Places decline and places grow. We shouldn't stand in the way of that."

His insensitivity is shocking: "There's no reason not to let decline go forward." The decline of Midwestern cities is not benign. That decline has meant suffering, poverty, and environmental degradation. While I agree with him that people matter more than places, places matter too. We cannot build cities today only to abandon them tomorrow. The costs, human and environmental, are too great.

Reasons to eat less meat

The New York Times explains the many drawbacks of modern meat production. To wit: deforestation, pollution, climate change, health problems, and rising food prices.

You may not object to the eating of meat on principle (I don't), but there are sound reasons to eat more plants and fewer animals.

Donate $10 to a good cause

Arts & Scraps, a cool non-profit on the city's east side, hopes 1,200 people will donate $10 each so it can purchase a new cargo van. According to the website, "Arts & Scraps is a non-profit organization that recycles industrial scraps into affordable learning and creative materials and provides educational programming. We serve 275,000 children and, recycle 28 tons annually."

Hat tip: Model D

Update: I fixed the link to Arts & Scraps.

DPS quickly losing students and money

I missed an important article on DPS two weeks ago. The News reports:

Nearly a third of Detroit's students -- or about 51,000 -- are attending charter schools and suburban public districts, causing enrollment and budgets at other districts to surge while Detroit Public Schools shrinks.

Control the boom-and-bust cycle

The New Yorker has a wise editorial on the current economic instability. The conclusion:

"Rather than waging old debates about tax cuts versus spending increases, policymakers ought to be discussing how to reform the financial system so that it serves the rest of the economy, instead of feeding off it and destabilizing it."

State to fund smaller high schools

The News:

Gov. Jennifer Granholm will propose in her State of the State address Tuesday a plan to spend $300 million on as many as 100 smaller, more personalized high schools to replace larger schools whose students are doing poorly and have high dropout rates.

Detroit, which has ten high schools with an enrollment of more than 2,000 students, will be a major target of the proposal.

A lamentable distraction

Daniel Howes explores the implications of the mayoral scandal from the perspective of the business community and asks some pertinent questions. How does this affect the image of the city? Will it set back redevelopment efforts? Who will provide the leadership the city so badly needs during the next few months? This scandal is a distraction that the city and the region can ill afford.

It's the money

I don't like its undertones, but Nolan Finley's analysis of the mayoral scandal seems essentially right to me: "It's not the sex or the lies, it's the money."

The mayor's sex life is a private matter and many will excuse the lies he told to hide his affair. But the city has already paid a $9 million settlement to two police officers fired for investigating his behavior, and the Free Press revealed today that city funds may have paid for his trysts. The more money this scandal costs the city, the less chance Kwame has of weathering it.

Transit meeting

Anyone interested in bringing rapid transit to Detroit should head downtown Monday to attend "Detroit Transit in 2008," a presentation by Transportation Riders United. Speakers include Rep. Marie Donigan, Chair of the Michigan House Public Transit Subcommittee, John Hertel, CEO of Detroit Regional Mass Transit, and Hayes Jones, the new General Manager of SMART.

The meeting is Monday, January 28 at 6:30 pm at the Boll Family YMCA's Marlene Boll Theater at 1401 Broadway Street. TRU requests a $5-10 donation to cover meeting expenses. Dinner will be provided.

We're all in this together

To celebrate its one year anniversary, Metromode compiled a list of its ten best articles from the past year. The overall message is clear: To thrive, Metro Detroit must act as a unified region anchored by the city of Detroit.

I don't agree with every point, but these four articles especially demonstrate how, through creativity and entrepreneurship, we can resuscitate the economy and reorient the region:

• Michigan's Aerotropolis

• Think Local, Act Regional

• Density vs. Transit

• Ann Arbor, Welcome Detroit

Don't forget Ypsi

This week Metromode gives props to the increasing hipster cache of Ypsilanti, which is often overshadowed by neighboring Ann Arbor. Calling it "the Brooklyn to Ann Arbor's Manhattan" probably gives both cities too much credit, but I'd definitely like to visit Ypsi soon and see what the hype's about.

Kwame perjured himself

Like Clinton before him, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick lied about his sex life. I post it because it's news, but I don't especially care so long as the revelation doesn't cost the city any more money in settlements.

Incineration vs. Recycling

Currently, the city of Detroit incinerates all of its trash at a plant at Russell Street and Ferry Avenue. The city's lease on the facility is set to expire in the summer of 2009. That means Detroit has the opportunity to implement a new trash policy. The Metrotimes discusses the opportunity for healthier, greener trash disposal.

Meanwhile, the Free Press notes the progress already being made to increase recycling.

Detroit design

Design*Sponge has a comprehensive guide to Detroit design including the city's best architecture, art galleries, design shops, and restaurants. I'm familiar with most of the list, but there are a few I'd still like to visit, like the Russell Industrial Center.

Hat tip: Model D.

A buyer's market

The News headline speaks for itself: "2008 may be brutal again for real estate".

Detroit, in particular, is feeling the pinch. The Free Press reports that the city's best homes are selling for a fraction of their true worth. And some of the new loft and condo projects can't find buyers. Crain's writes that the Mid-Med Loft project has failed. The building at 4265 John R St will be marketed as office space instead.