The 21st century is quickly becoming the age of the city. Today, half of the world's population lives in cities. And in the developing world, cities are constantly expanding to meet the demands of massive population growth in the urban core. This narrative however is quite different in the United States. While economically metropolitan centers are critical to the U.S. (90 cents of every dollar made in the U.S. comes from U.S. cities), many are facing declining tax revenues and massive population loss. Detroit, like Cleveland, is one of those cities that shares this narrative. Currently, the city has an $85 million budget deficit, an unemployment rate of 14%, and a high school graduation rate of only 37.5%.
Understanding the challenges facing the city, earlier this week, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announced his new campaign to revitalize the city. While the details of the plan will primarily depend on public input, the Mayor has boldly challenged his constituents and city officials to think differently about redeveloping a shrinking city. Like many other mayors of shrinking cities, Bing is beginning to embrace the new era of downsizing. Youngstown, Ohio and Flint, Michigan have paved the way for how we think about redevelopment in this new era. They have torn down blighted homes to create more green space and have consolidated city services with inner-ring suburbs to save tax dollars.
Now more than ever, cities like Detroit and Cleveland need to think critically about the merits of downsizing. For many urbanists this is a hard idea to accept, as the notion of downsizing an American city goes against our optimistic nature. Yet, their is immense opportunity for these cities if downsizing is done right. If Detroit can embrace its shrinkage through innovative land use plans, it could allow the city to focus more on addressing the systemic problems of creating jobs and improving public schools. Let's see if Detroit can prove us wrong and return to its glory days. Cleveland could use the competition.
