Katy Locker, vice president of programs at the Hudson-Webber Foundation in Michigan, will join Knight Foundation as its Detroit program director on Sept. 16. Locker, a Detroit resident, is a highly experienced philanthropy and policy professional. She has a long history of giving back to Detroit. Below, she talks with Carol Coletta, Knight’s vice president for community and national initiatives, about the challenges and opportunities in the city.

Carol Coletta: Katy, we are thrilled to have you lead Knight’s work in Detroit. What is the one thing you need to know as a philanthropist if you want to be part of Detroit’s future?

Katy Locker: I’m thrilled to be continuing my work in philanthropy by joining Knight. After five years of working in this field and 10 years working in Detroit, I think you have to know optimism. Daily headlines in Detroit can try to convince us that we’re headed the wrong way. No one ever solved a problem by focusing on why it’s insurmountable. I believe that every step toward a better future for Detroit is a good step—even on those days when we are also taking several steps backward. We have a bad habit here in Detroit of criticizing optimists and contributors, not to mention newcomers…. In order to reach the vibrant future for Detroit that we all aspire to we must focus on building it together. 

If I had an option to add a second thing, it would be partnership. Detroit’s challenges are too big for one person, one entity or one sector to conclude that they, alone, can overcome the challenge. We are making slow change here by working together: schools, enhancing public spaces, M1 Rail, entrepreneurship, etc.

As a resident of Detroit and a philanthropist, you “eat” your own dog food. Every day, you live with the results of your work. How does that shape your philanthropic investments in the city?

Tangible change in the city means something different when it surrounds your life. When a new store or restaurant opens, I’m one of their first customers. When a fun event fills the streets, I’m there with my friends and family—whether that’s a parade, an art festival or Eastern Market on a Saturday morning. 

The philanthropic community has played a huge role in the building of Detroit’s greenways and the riverfront amenities. As a field, these are tangible achievements to take pride in and celebrate. As a resident of Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood who lives alongside the Dequindre Cut [a greenway built upon an old railway line which leads to the river], the Cut and the riverfront are my front yard.  They give me, personally, a better quality of life. Great designers may have input into the future design of these types of amenities, but, as a resident, I bring the lens of a regular user. (I’m getting famous—or infamous—for asking for a stairwell into the Cut that would provide easier access to the residents.)  Nothing in Detroit brings me more joy than a Saturday morning run on the Cut and riverfront alongside the diverse community that includes my neighbors, tourists and other Detroiters seeking out these great amenities spearheaded by philanthropy in Detroit. I’m ready to top it off with a ride on M1 Rail in a couple years! 

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge that being a resident makes me very aware of Detroit’s challenges too: safety, infrastructure, city services, etc.  Sadly, I go home to a street with broken streetlights too.

You were one of the architects of the “15×15” initiative in Detroit.  That makes me one of your biggest fans.  You put a stake in the ground on what you expected to achieve: 15,000 college-educated 25- to 34-year-olds living in greater downtown Detroit by  2015.  Brilliant. And courageous. What gave you the chutzpah to do that, knowing you could easily fail?

When we threw out the crazy idea of 15×15 one of our partners responded in support of a defined goal by saying, “Some is not a number and soon is not a time.” It’s a quote that has led to some change in the field of improving patient safety in hospitals, and it’s true. You can talk about talent attraction and retention and—unfocused—it tends to lead to marketing campaigns and one-off events.  We wanted to talk about ensuring that there was a tangible and sustainable place where young talent (and the empty-nesters and others who tend to follow them) would want to live, work and engage. That meant focusing on things like housing units, jobs and business opportunities, retail and third places, and safety and perceived safety. 

The Hudson-Webber Foundation envisioned 15×15 in 2008. This was not a time of optimism in Detroit; the automakers were in trouble, foreclosure rates exceeded anything we had ever seen before, and our city’s mayor was very publicly imploding. However, we saw the hint of the national trend toward a return to urban neighborhoods impacting Detroit already. And, we recognized that there were some key partners in greater downtown (e.g., Midtown Detroit Inc., Detroit Economic Growth Corp., Invest Detroit and Downtown Detroit Partnership) that could truly build the infrastructure for the envisioned 15,000 if philanthropy could make a sustained commitment to their efforts. The trustees of the Hudson-Webber Foundation, together with the leadership of the Kresge Foundation [which partners on most of the greater downtown efforts], were willing to make a commitment and stick to it so that the partners could plan for change over a five- to 10-year period rather than the typical philanthropic cycle of one to three years.

By the way, the biggest impediment to achieving 15,000 by 2015? The number of available housing units in greater downtown. We can’t build or rehab them fast enough. We never would have imagined a 95 percent-plus occupancy rate in greater downtown Detroit when we envisioned this in 2008.

How does bankruptcy influence the work we will do together in Detroit?

Bankruptcy is the great unknown. I’m not an expert, and even the bankruptcy experts can’t predict exactly what’s to come in Detroit’s future.  What I do know is that a lot of people—on all sides— are trying to build a sustainable future for Detroit. I’m a fan of a number of the brave people running for elected office right now in the face of great uncertainty, and I’m a fan of Kevyn Orr for tackling a challenge that most people would run away from. As it relates to our work, it means we have to be nimble and look for the best opportunities to support those partners working toward a positive future for Detroit. Also, as part of a national foundation, we have an opportunity to more clearly tell the story of lessons learned here in Detroit. No one here is unaware that the eyes of the nation are upon us.

What are the levers to continuing Detroit’s turn around?

How many levers do I get to list? Safety. Beautiful places to gather. Jobs. Green space. Good government. Art. Education. Maintaining our diversity. Respecting old and new.