Brian Doucet
Urban Geographer
1. Introduction: Why Detroit Matters
Brian Doucet
Section I: Lessons from Detroit
2. Detroit’s Bankruptcy: Treating the Symptom, Not the Cause
George Galster
3. Detroit in Bankruptcy: What are the Lessons to be Learned?
Reynolds Farley
4. Between Economic Revival and Social Disruption: The Redevelopment of Greater Downtown and the emergence of new socio-spatial Inequalities
René Kreichauf
5. A New Urban Medicine Show: On the limits of blight remediation
Joshua Akers
6. Reshaping the Gray Spaces: Resident self-provisioning and urban form in Detroit
Kimberley Kinder
7. Preserving Detroit by Preserving Its Baseball History
Jason Roche
8. This is (not) Detroit – Projecting the Future of Germany’s Ruhr Region
Julia Sattler
Intermezzo I: ‘You may not know my Detroit’ jessica Care moore
Section II: Practices from Detroit
9. Evolution of Municipal Government in Detroit
John Gallagher
10. Detroit’s emerging innovation in urban infrastructure: how liabilities become assets for energy, water, industry and informatics
Dan Kinkead
11. Visions In Conflict: A city of possibilities
Sharon Howell and Richard Feldman
12. Reconstructing Detroit: The Resilient City
Khalil Ligon
13. Reawakening Culture among Detroit’s Resident Majority
Jessica Brooke Williams
14. Make Sure You’re Helping: Experts, Solidarity and Effective Partnering With Locals
Drew Philp
15. New Strategies DMC, Takin’ it all back home: Lessons from Detroit for arts practices in the Netherlands
Friso Wiersum, Bart Witte and Nikos Doulos
Intermezzo II: My Detroit, by Tyree Guyton
Section III: Conversations from Detroit
16. Lowell Boileau, artist and DetroitYES founder
17. Sandra Hines, Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality
18. Malik Yakini, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network
19. Dan Carmody, Eastern Market Corporation
20. Jackie Victor, Avalon International Breads
21. Phil Cooley, Slows Bar-B-Q and Ponyride
22. Wayne Curtis and Myrtle Thompson-Curtis, Feedom Freedom Growers
23. Julia Putnam, Amanda Rosman and Marisol Teachworth, The Boggs School
24. Yusef Bunchy Shakur, writer and community activist
25. Grace Lee Boggs, activist
26. Conclusion: Detroit and the future of the city
Brian Doucet
Detroit has come to symbolise deindustrialization and the challenges, and opportunities, it presents. As many cities struggle with urban decline, racial and ethnic tensions and the consequences of neoliberal governance and political fragmentation, Detroit’s relevance grows stronger. Why Detroit matters bridges academic and non-academic responses to this extreme example of a fractured and divided, post-industrial city.
Contributions from many of the leading scholars on Detroit are joined by influential writers, planners, artists and activists who have contributed chapters drawing on their experiences and ideas. The book concludes with interviews with some of the city’s most prominent visionaries who are engaged in inspiring practices which provide powerful lessons for Detroit and other cities around the world.
The book will be a valuable reference for scholars, practitioners and students from across disciplines including geography, planning, architecture, sociology, urban studies, history, American studies and economics.