A version of this op-ed originally appeared in the January 2015 issue of EDGEcondition magazine. Above: portion of fresco ‘Detroit Industry’ by Diego Rivera, 1886-1957, at Detroit Institute of Arts.

Detroit is a city that invites ideas for its revival and re-establishment. Every day, it seems, we receive advice and plans for how to “save” our city. As a Detroit native who has been working on issues of revitalization in Detroit for more than a decade, I’m thankful we continue to invite new ideas and, most importantly, new energy for the work.  Many of the ideas proposed are about placemaking in this city rampant with vacant places. While I welcome the new ideas, I’m hopeful that we can start 2015 mindful of some key knowledge.

Katy Locker

When a city puts its distinctiveness on display, has a deep understanding of its differences and can spin economic vibrancy out of difference, it has a real advantage.  One of Detroit’s great advantages is that it attracts people with ideas.  I believe that’s because Detroit has its own unique magnetism.  In other words, Detroit has soul.  Motor City.  Motown.  “Detroit Hustles Harder.”

But how does Detroit make this distinctiveness a true advantage.  At Knight Foundation, we ask ourselves three questions as we approach investments in Detroit and in all communities:

•       Will this decision increase the supply of talent for the city?

•       Will this decision increase opportunity for the people of the city?

•       Will this decision increase the quality of this place?

Talent.  In order to grow our economy and continue to build our city, we must develop, attract and retain talented people.  Detroit must grow its population of college-educated talent.  The percentage of college graduates in a metropolitan area’s population explains 58 percent of its success (measuring success by per capita income).  A population with higher educational attainment serves the entire community, particularly benefiting those who don’t have that attainment.  The earnings of the average high school graduate increase about 7 percent as the share of college graduates in a city increases by 10 percent.  Detroit has been lagging on this important asset and must take advantage of renewed investment and renewed attention to invite more talented individuals with a college degree to stay in or to choose our city.  In my own experience, I can attest that Detroit provides a uniquely robust environment for success when a talented and passionate individual knocks on its door.

Opportunity.  There is no denying that Detroit is a city with an unacceptably high poverty rate. If the ZIP code of your birth determines your destiny, then Detroit’s children are largely born already behind. We need to change this prognosis to reflect another truth. Children’s futures are brighter when they grow up in economically integrated neighborhoods. Detroit must be at the forefront of providing pathways to opportunity for its residents. Education is a part of the answer, but building better neighborhoods, where economic and social opportunity are abundant and equitably available, is also part of the answer. This challenge – the challenge of growing economically integrated neighborhoods – is one that Knight Foundation takes seriously, together with many partners.

Place.  Over the past four decades, there has been a steady increase in the relative preference of young adults (ages 25 to 34) for close-in neighborhoods – that’s the Central Business District in metropolitan areas and the 3-mile radius around it.   In fact, college-educated young adults are more than twice as likely to live in these close-in neighborhoods compared to other Americans. This trend just keeps accelerating.

And now, jobs are following them.  Since the recession, in major metro areas, all of the new jobs have been created in America’s core cities.  That’s a complete reversal of what was happening before the recession. Here in Detroit we’ve seen several major corporations relocate from suburban office parks to the heart of the city, echoing this national trend.

It’s also true that since the recession, housing prices in America’s most walkable neighborhoods – the ones with higher Walk Scores and that have more daily destinations nearby — have recovered far more quickly than housing in neighborhoods where you have to drive to get to everything. Although Detroit’s housing market lags many others, we have also seen our walkable neighborhoods come back faster.  Many city partners are working on some key commercial districts (e.g., West Village, 7 Mile/Livernois, Vernor Highway) to enhance existing small businesses and re-enliven the walkable experience.

In Detroit and other communities, it is often perceived that building place (i.e., placemaking) is only for newcomers or only for the elite.  It’s my hope — and Knight Foundation’s hope — that Detroit finds a way to be more inclusive in our placemaking.  It starts with valuing our existing assets. 

•       Detroit has a beautiful and unique waterfront that serves as an international border with our neighbor to the south, Canada.  The Detroit Riverfront has been redeveloped as a public space that attracts all for beautiful, healthy and safe activities. 

•       Detroit boasts a six-block public market that has been feeding Detroit since 1891, Detroit Eastern Market.  There is no other place in Detroit so representative of the city’s and the region’s diversity as Eastern Market on a Saturday morning in spring.

•       Detroit is home to a longstanding and renewed artistic community garnering international attention.  The Knight Arts Challenge  has recognized more than 100 winners in the last two years spanning all fields of the arts.  Notable to Detroit, much of the art takes advantage of inexpensive housing, open land, an emerging food and agriculture community, and Detroit’s rich cultural heritage.

•       Detroit is home to the unexpected – including remarkable natural beauty.  Pheasant, coyote, falcons, beavers and eagles have all been sighted within city limits recently.  Nothing beats the view of the city from Detroit’s 2.5-mile-long, 982-acre island park in the Detroit River between the United States and Canada, Belle Isle.  In addition, the city boasts other unique parks including Rouge Park, Palmer Park, downtown’s Campus Martius Park and a robust and evolving greenways system.

•       Finally, although some seem to forget our might, Detroit continues to be one of the top 20 largest cities in the U.S., with a population of approximately 700,000. 

Where does Detroit still lag? 

•       Our transit system – two inadequate and underperforming bus systems and a circling PeopleMover – is woefully behind (but showing small signs of improvement).  2016 will witness the opening of a streetcar line serving the center city.

•       We offer wide, flat streets for biking but are just at the beginning of building a true bicycling infrastructure. But don’t tell that to the folks of Detroit’s Slow Roll.

•       To say we’re lacking density is an understatement.  We’re a city built primarily of single-family homes spread across 139 square miles.  In our greater downtown area, the density is approximately 5,000 people per square mile.  In comparison, Philadelphia’s center city boasts approximately 20,000 people per square mile.  Current real estate development activity is almost entirely focused on multi-unit, multi-story apartment buildings in Detroit’s greater downtown in response to robust demand for this type of density.

•       Public safety and the public lighting crucial to it are deficient.  As the city emerges from bankruptcy, improving these crucial public services is Job One and early signs show improvement.

•       We are failing Detroit’s children. Our school system — made up of public, private and charter schools — consistently ranks at the bottom of national assessments.  Despite many efforts, there is still a long way to go to serve Detroit’s children.

Good places play a critical role in the economic mobility that is at the heart of the American Dream. Detroit is a place that has made significant strides in reestablishing its economic strength. As a place, its magnetic pull has brought newcomers, retained natives and inspired those who once lived here but moved away, to return. All of the steps underway to improve talent, opportunity and place, are starting to show signs of promise. And progress needs to be swift because, at the heart of all the ideas and change, there are people’s futures on the line here. I, for one, am optimistic about our city’s future, because of the distinctive strides we’ve made in the present.

Katy Locker is Detroit program director Knight Foundation.