{"id":18718,"date":"2016-12-31T20:35:04","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T20:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?p=18718"},"modified":"2016-12-31T20:35:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T20:35:04","slug":"development-disaster-detroit-can-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/development-disaster-detroit-can-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Development after Disaster (and what Detroit can learn from it)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s difficult to talk about disasters in part because we can\u2019t control them. But it\u2019s crazy to think in a moment, a city that millions call home can be altered forever. This was true for New York after 9\/11 and for New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. And it has been true for cities hit by fires, earthquakes, and attacks throughout urban history. From a planning perspective, it\u2019s intriguing to look at how affected cities recover from disaster, and how resources are distributed.<\/p>\n

\"\"I recently started reading a book by Gotham and Greenberg called \u201cCrisis Cities<\/a>\u201d that looks at how redevelopment coalitions sought to capitalize on neighborhoods in New Orleans and New York following their respective disasters. They basically argue that disaster relief is far more complicated than a charitable response to a national crisis. It is part of a much larger story, one rooted in inequitable development that leaves lower-income communities disproportionately affected. In the case of New Orleans, the story follows the Lower Ninth Ward and Lakeview, and in New York it follows Chinatown and the \u201cNew\u201d Lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Gotham and Greenberg show how market-centered redevelopment takes advantage of the host of tax incentives, abatements, and CDFIs available post-disaster to push through development in affected areas. Development that is intended for the \u201cpublic benefit\u201d is privatized, and city rebranding campaigns are used as powerful tools to attract business and tourism.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not writing about this to geek out over a book I\u2019m reading (well maybe a little). I\u2019m interested in the concept of what Gotham and Greenberg call disaster capitalism because Detroit, a city with shockingly similar redevelopment and branding, did not decline overnight. It wasn\u2019t hit by the impact of a plane or by the devastation of a storm.<\/p>\n

But Detroit did experience the largest municipal bankruptcy in history, and in many ways the impact has been similarly devastating, especially for the low-income communities that have endured the city\u2019s decline since the mid 20th<\/sup> century. Gradual demographic and economic shifts can be traced to things like industrialization, post-war suburbanization, and a variety of local and regional policies affecting housing, employment, and education.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And as more and more people acknowledge the city\u2019s \u201crebirth\u201d and \u201crevitalization\u201d, similar branding tools have emerged to attract investment and human capital. Countless slogans and products from \u201cSay Nice Things About Detroit<\/a>\u201d and \u201cDetroit Hustles Harder<\/a>\u201d to \u201cDetroit vs. Everybody<\/a>\u201d and \u201cDetroit is the New Black<\/a>\u201d reflect the city\u2019s resilience and rebranding. As I walked passed the baggage claim at the airport yesterday after a family vacation, the monitor greeted visitors with \u201cWelcome to Detroit, America\u2019s Great Comeback City\u201d.<\/p>\n

There is nothing wrong with celebrating Detroit\u2019s \u201ccomeback\u201d. That pride and resilience is part of what I love about this city. But don\u2019t just celebrate the fact that investment and development are happening, notice who is investing, what are they developing, and who are they doing it for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s difficult to talk about disasters in part because we can\u2019t control them. But it\u2019s crazy to think in a moment, a city that millions call home can be altered forever. This was true for New York after 9\/11 and for New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. And it has been true for cities hit by fires, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":18721,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,407,64,239,29,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-detroit-businesses","category-detroit-lives","category-renovations","category-revitalization","category-thoughts-on-cities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}