On Tuesday, Detroit Future City is hosting a session for the public to come and Think Big Thoughts on “opportunities for innovation in Detroit.” And while we at Crain’s like to think big thoughts with the rest of them, we can’t lie that we’re most excited about the location: Packard Automotive Plant Building 22. So […]
The verdure of spring is on full display in Detroit — but so, too, are the challenges of maintaining open land in a fiscally challenged city where over 30 percent of all parcels are vacant. Overgrowth and illegal dumping are not atypical features of many of the city’s 100,000-plus vacant parcels. In no section of […]
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” —Mahatma Gandhi This quote resonates deeply with me these days, because in my Detroit neighborhood, the change I wish to see seems so far away. Imagining places that are clean, safe and vibrant threads my work as an urban planner and sustainability advocate. Yet, […]
Detroit Strategic Framework
The DFC Strategic Framework, a shared vision for Detroit’s future, is the result of a massive, citywide public-engagement effort. It recommends a series of ideas, strategies and approaches on how to best use the city’s abundance of land, create job growth and economic prosperity, ensure vibrant neighborhoods, build an infrastructure that serves citizens at a reasonable cost, and maintain the high level of community engagement integral to the long-term revitalization of Detroit.
The Field Guide to Working with Lots is a user-friendly tool to connect Detroit residents, businesses, and institutions to resources to learn, collaborate, and better practice land stewardship in Detroit. This step-by-step guide provides readers with instructions on how to transform vacant land in their neighborhoods into 38 landscape designs ranging from installation by beginning gardeners to professional contractors. View the interactive guide now.
Detroit Future City’s (DFC) report, “The State of Economic Equity in Detroit,” illustrates the deep disparities that persist in Detroit and provides recommendations that provide a path to an economically equitable Detroit in which all Detroiters are meeting their unique needs, prospering, and fully and fairly participating in all aspects of economic life within a thriving city and region.