Creative Detroit?Re-imagining The Motor City
Neal Baj and Taylor Brydges
Why Detroit?
Post-Industrial City
Epitome of Financial Crisis
Post-Recession Recovery?
Where is Detroit?
http://geology.com/satellite/cities/map/detroit-map.gif
Where is Detroit?
http://clickmetrodetroit.info/images/Click_city_M_detroit_map_net.jpg
Boom Time Detroit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUbsw28PCpA
Postwar Expansion
Postwar era saw extensive freeway construction
This opened up the Motor City, connecting Detroit to the growing region
Period of optimism and growth for the city
Detroit in Decay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Qp5io9UqY
Detroit’s Decline
Departure of automotive industry
Mass exodus of people and jobs to suburban municipalities
Growing unrest within the Detroit population
Impact of Recession
Decline in innovation (Chan, 2011)
$20 Billion Dollar Deficit (The Citizens Research Council)
Conflicting discussions on how to move forward
What Remains: Focus on Architecture
Abandoned districts in the city
The need to preserve the existing architecture
How can existing architecture be leveraged in redevelopment?
Creative Approaches to Redevelopment
The work of Richard Florida (Rise of the Creative Class, Who’s Your City?, The Great Reset)
Manchester and the CIDS (O’Connor and Gu, 2010)
Create Berlin to Creative Balitmore (Evans, 2009)
Creative Problems
“Creativity is the new black” (Peck, 2008, p.1)
Neoliberal inequality (Zimmerman, 2008)
“Creative class theory has a dark-side” (Donegan and Lowe, 2008)
Is Creativity The Way Out?
What is Detroit doing to innovate out of crisis? The Detroit Creative Cultural
Corridor Detroit ‘Make It Here’ campaign Creative Cities 2.0 Summit 2008
Imported From Detroit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKL254Y_jtc
Discussion
If you were the Mayor of Detroit, would you pursue creative city strategies?
What place does Detroit’s history have in planning the economy of the future?