30 years covering Detroit: My take on the Motor City's comeback

This month marks 30 years since I started covering Detroit’s revitalization efforts for the Free Press. These years have been marked by recession and tragedy in the city as well as many surprising victories.

Among much else, Detroit’s trip through municipal bankruptcy in 2013-14 played a key role in the city’s revitalization. Mayor Mike Duggan has energized municipal services, and businessman Dan Gilbert has stunned long-time downtowners with the speed and scale of his efforts to remake downtown.

But today I’d like to look back on these 30 years and talk about less-noticed trends. These are the things that seldom made headlines on their own but that, to me, seem essential to Detroit’s rebirth.

Urban farmers

Growing food inside cities has a long history, going back at least to Detroit Mayor Hazen Pingree’s “potato patches” during the recession of the 1890's. Urban agriculture began to flourish anew in Detroit in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

At sites like Malik Yakini’s D-Town Farm on the far west side and Earthworks Urban Farm near Mt. Elliott on the east side, urban farming has grown to the point where we’ve seen hundreds of vacant lots transformed into vegetable gardens.

The Detroit Future City report of 2013 made urban farming a key part of its innovative “greening” strategies for the city’s future. And many once-fringe greening strategies – from bee-keeping and raising chickens to reforestation projects such as Hantz Woodlands to the creation of parks, greenways, bike lanes and the development of productive landscapes where we grow fruits and vegetables – all these now occupy center stage in Detroit’s redevelopment strategy.

This urban farming movement was neighborhood-based, staffed by volunteers. And it gave Detroit that first flavor of the reinvention it now enjoys. From the international symbol of Rust Belt ruin, Detroit now evokes the possibilities of a reimagined post-industrial city. Urban planners, artists, academics, filmmakers and journalists from around the world come here to see what Detroiters are doing.

And for that, we need to thank the urban farmers.

Spin-off of municipal services

Increasingly broke and dysfunctional, the City of Detroit began to spin off municipal services around the year 2000 into a series of public authorities, conservancies and non-profit corporations.

Examples includeEastern Market and the Detroit Historical Museum, spun off in 2006, and Cobo Center, handed off to a regional authority in 2009. Workforce development, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and other city-owned or operated entities all wound up managed by their own non-profit boards and professional managers.

The results proved the wisdom of the tactic. Cobo, the Historical Museum, Eastern Market – all these have flourished under their new management systems. The long-neglected Cobo Center undertook its nearly $300-million expansion and renovation; Eastern Market revitalized its aging market sheds and introduced vast numbers of new vendors and special events. The Historical Museum updated its facilities, programs, and staffing.

Such spin-offs have fallen out of favor in the administration of Mayor Mike Duggan, who has said he needs to retain control of municipal services to ensure their proper functioning. That may be. But there is absolutely no doubt that Detroit has been well-served by giving a host of services once run so badly by the city the freedom to reinvent themselves under new management.

Entrepreneurialism

When I arrived in Detroit 30 years ago, giant corporations like General Motors and Ford had ruled Detroit’s economy for so long that it was hard to imagine anything else. But a series of shocks forced Detroiters to think anew about their economy.

Those shocks included the city’s economic collapse, its dwindling population, the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler in 2009, and the city’s own bankruptcy in 2013.

By the early 2000’s, we began to see hints of a new economic model emerging. Business incubators opened to nurture start-up firms: TechTown in Detroit, Ann Arbor SPARK, Automation Alley in Oakland County, and others. The New Economy Initiative, launched in 2007, used philanthropic dollars to promote entrepreneurialism.

Businessman Dan Gilbert’s move of his Quicken Loans downtown in 2010 shifted the focus even more from automotive to technology firms. That shift has accelerated. Venture capital is paying more attention to local startups; one Ann Arbor startup, Duo Security, which provides computer security services, recently received a valuation of more than $1 billion, the region’s first “unicorn” or high-valuation start-up in many years.

Detroit may still be the “motor city.” But the idea no longer applies that ambitious young people need to sell themselves for life to giant corporations. Detroit’s economy continues to evolve toward a more entrepreneurial model that values nimbleness, innovation and creativity.

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Philanthropy

It’s hard to imagine Detroit’s nascent recovery without the dollars and leadership provided by philanthropic foundations.

From the more than $300 million pumped into the “Grand Bargain” during Detroit’s bankruptcy to underwriting the birth of the Qline and many other projects, philanthropy has played a leading role in Detroit’s revitalization.

Leaders like Mariam Noland of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Tonya Allen of the Skillman Foundation, and Rip Rapson of the Kresge Foundation have provided critical thought leadership across a multitude of efforts, from the New Economy Initiative that spurs entrepreneurialism to the reinvention of education.

Eastern Market’s revitalization, the Detroit Future City plan, the birth of the Detroit RiverWalk, the role played by neighborhood non-profits such as Midtown Detroit and the Southwest Detroit Business Association – all these would have been stillborn without the dollars and leadership provided by philanthropy.

Critics sometimes assail the foundations as outsiders trying to dictate policy to Detroiters. But that’s not a valid criticism. Without the role played by philanthropy in recent years, Detroit would be many times worse off than it is.

Neighborhood non-profits

The Detroit neighborhoods that tend to flourish the best are those with strong community development organizations. These are non-profit groups that may have started decades ago as volunteer block clubs. In recent years, the best ones added paid professional staff with a variety of skill sets – business development, grant-writing, urban design.

Midtown Detroit Inc., led by Sue Mosey, is the best-known. Mosey and her team leveraged the presence of Wayne State University, the Detroit Medical Center and other anchor institutions, plus the assistance of philanthropic dollars, to promote Midtown’s revitalization. Midtown’s success would be inconceivable without that leadership.

Elsewhere, groups like the Southwest Detroit Business Association, Eastside Community Development Organization, U-Snap-Bac, and others focused attention on their specific neighborhoods when City Hall proved unable to do so.

A post-bankruptcy City Hall is better able to target municipal resources and intelligent planning to neighborhoods. But the role of these non-profit community development organizations remains far from done. They will remain leaders in their neighborhoods for many years to come.

Contact John Gallagher: 313-22-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep.