S T A T E & HILL
Fall Harvest Festival at D-Town Farm, operated by the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. Co-founder Charity Hicks (not pictured) spoke with workshop participants and other members of the U-M community during the panel, “After 8 Mile: Race, Class, and Regional Transformation in Metro Detroit.”
corridor, and urban agriculture. “Cities coping with financial and economic challenges have found a way to bring disparate elements of government, business, labor, and community interests into a coalition—maybe an uneasy one—but one that still improves the ability to make tough decisions.” Pittsburgh: A Post-Industrial Case Study
A workable solution in one locale, however, may or may not translate into workable solutions elsewhere. Miranda encouraged students to see Detroit within the wider context of urban policy and the future of cities. He chose as the workshop’s case study and counterpoint Pittsburgh—a city he served as budget director from 1994–96—which is currently being hailed as an honest-to-goodness post-industrial comeback. The course was structured to allow students to take an optional spring break trip to Pittsburgh. About ten students made the trip with Miranda and met with business and policy leaders such as former Mayor Tom Murphy; Yarone Zober, who chairs the Urban Redevelopment Authority; and current County Controller Chelsa Wagner. “Why not choose a city,” Miranda asks, “that more and more is viewed as a post-industrial economy that is emerging from the ashes?”
Photo: © Nora Mandray/detroitjetaime.com
Once the center of America’s steel industry, Pittsburgh—like Detroit—saw its manufacturing base evaporate by the 1980s, and the city that boasted a population of nearly 700,000 two generations ago steadily lost residents and spiraled into economic crisis. That Pittsburgh bears little resemblance to the city today, however. It’s much smaller at just over 300,000 residents—and not entirely out of the woods— but Pittsburgh’s post-industrial economy has shifted to healthcare, education, finance, and technology, and is steadily growing. Indeed, Pittsburgh fared the recent recession better than most American cities, maintaining a stable housing market and adding jobs. “There isn’t a blueprint. Detroit can’t do exactly Pittsburgh,” observes workshop participant Perry Zielak (MPP ’12). “There are lessons,
though.” Workshop participants were charged with analyzing a key policy issue and making actionable policy recommendations. Zielak and his partners focused on regional cooperation. “Were there specific areas,” they asked, “that could cooperate or consolidate?” They focused on the Detroit public health department, which is currently at the center of an investigation into the alleged mismanagement of state and federal grants. Zielak’s recommendation entails seeking out ways for the city’s public health department to leverage the assets of the Wayne County health department. “We wanted to see how they could potentially merge together and share resources, with the county bearing the lion’s share of the financial responsibility,” he said.
“What policy solutions are being offered? What are the efforts to re-imagine Detroit? Some people are proponents of ‘rightsizing’— so how do you get to a city that is both vibrant and much smaller?” Citrin also travelled to Pittsburgh and agrees that the cities have significant differences. “Can the strategies used in Pittsburgh be scaled to work in Detroit?” she asks. Pittsburgh has multiple world-class universities, while Detroit has experienced a so-called brain drain. Citrin’s solution would pair resource-rich institutions, such as U-M, with city partners in education, healthcare, business, and the community to leverage existing relationships, attract companies to the area, and, ultimately, improve the local labor force. “Studying Detroit is a great opportunity for Michigan faculty and students,” Miranda says, thinking about the big picture. “If we can craft policy solutions to Detroit’s challenges, there’s definitely hope for cities.” ■
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