Wrap up discussion for a Community Development course that incorporates ideas discussed throughout the semester and has participants examine what went wrong with this community and brainstorm around steps that could taken to address the concerns and re-mediate its redevelopment.

1. COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT
What have we learned about it?
Where is it going in the future?

2. OK – WE WILL LOOK AT A FEW THINGS FIRST
HTTP://WWW.WHATWORKSFORAMERICA.ORG/IDEAS/THE-FUTURE-OF-COMMUNITY-DEVELOPMENT/#.VGPXCMMIIME [GROGAN, 2012]
▪ Over the last few decades, Community Development has helped many cities to
rebuild the physical fabric of neighborhoods. It has: activated people; created a
sense of momentum; helped people feel like they belong; and brought money into
cities [i.e., affordable housing, urban supermarkets, daycare centers, community
centers, repurposing buildings, etc.].
▪ Connections between government and its people [from the police in all types of
neighbourhoods to various federal/provincial and municipal government initiatives
and programs] as well as private and volunteer program support has helped
improve communities capacity. What do we mean by capacity? [remember our last
few talks].

3. OK – WE WILL LOOK AT A FEW THINGS FIRST
HTTP://WWW.WHATWORKSFORAMERICA.ORG/IDEAS/THE-FUTURE-OF-COMMUNITY-DEVELOPMENT/#.VGPXCMMIIME [GROGAN, 2012]
▪ In some places, we are seeing decreased physical problems such as
vacant lots, abandoned buildings, and crumbling streets and sidewalks
- in several places, they are now things of the past.
▪ Are all areas like this? Why are some improved and some are not?

4. A BLAST FROM THE PAST
▪ Herkimer (1993) gave us some “Qualities of a Healthy Community” way back
in Week Three. This is a partial list:
Clean and safe physical environment; Adequate access to health care services;
Strong, mutually supportive relationships and networks; Adequate access to
food, shelter, income, safety, work and recreation for all; Strong local cultural
and spiritual heritage; Diverse and vital economy; Protection of the natural
environment; Wide participation of residents in decision-making

5. MAIN AREAS OF STRENGTH/WEAKNESS OF A
COMMUNITY HTTP://VIBRANTCANADA.CA/FILES/UNDERSTANDING_COMMUNITY_DEVELOPMENT.PDF
We can look at community from five basic areas from our previous discussions
to determine how it is doing. These capital areas include:
Physical:
Financial:
Human/People:
Social:
Environmental:

6. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS PLACE?

7. DETROIT FACTS
▪ The city of Detroit, Michigan filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on July 18,
2013; it’s the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.
▪ Their debt is estimated at $18–20 billion. Toronto currently has a debt
of $4 billion [considered “reasonable” (+ it is in Canadian Dollars – ha!)].
http://torontoist.com/2014/08/campaign-fact-check-rob-ford-on-torontos-fiscal-health-and-future/
▪ They had their boom more than fifty years ago and the recent
bankruptcy has come on due to many different reasons.

8. DETROIT FACTS
HTTP://WWW.USATODAY.COM/STORY/MONEY/PERSONALFINANCE/2013/12/02/19-FACTS-ABOUT-DETROIT-BANKRUPTCY/3823355/
- The city has 78,000 abandoned structures;
- More than half of its parks have closed since 2008;
- Detroit has witnessed 11,000-12,000 fires every year for the past
decade;
- in 2012, Detroit had the highest violent crime rate of any U.S.
city with a population over 200,000; the overall crime rate is five
times the national average;

9. DETROIT FACTS
HTTP://WWW.USATODAY.COM/STORY/MONEY/PERSONALFINANCE/2013/12/02/19-FACTS-ABOUT-DETROIT-
BANKRUPTCY/3823355/
- the total assessed value of property in Detroit declined by
77% over the past 50 years in inflation-adjusted dollars
[compare to my Dads house];
- Unemployment has tripled since 2000 – in June 2012, it was
18.3%, [more than double the national average];
- it currently has just 9,700 City employed workers, yet has
21,000 retirees drawing benefits [what benefits/funding
remain].

10. SOME WORDS ABOUT DETROIT:
HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2014/07/13/MAGAZINE/THE-POST-POST-APOCALYPTIC-DETROIT.HTML?_R=0
▪ Citywide, a third of Detroit’s remaining residents say they still plan to
leave in the next five years. And why not? In a city with the second-
highest violent-crime rate in the country and an average of 14 arsons a
day, and the police and firefighters often don’t arrive when called.

11. SOME WORDS ABOUT DETROIT:
HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2014/07/13/MAGAZINE/THE-POST-POST-APOCALYPTIC-DETROIT.HTML?_R=0
▪ Just two years ago, one in three households lived in poverty,
a jump of 40 percent in just the last decade. There was only
one private-sector job for every four Detroiters, and only half
the working-age population was employed. Of the employed,
three-fifths commuted to jobs outside the city. A mere 70,700
people both live and work inside Detroit.

12. DETROIT HISTORY
- Reliance on a single industry – which was --?
- Cars! The North American auto industry boom started
here; growth like we had never seen before; in 1950
almost 2 million people lived in Detroit to get a big three
job [Toronto not quite 1 million people in 1950].
- Problems started with industry expansion to other
cities, auto unions, automation, jobs moving overseas,
+ successive rising labour and medical costs.

13. FACTORS THAT LED TO DETROIT’S PROBLEMS.
HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2014/07/13/MAGAZINE/THE-POST-POST-APOCALYPTIC-DETROIT.HTML?_R=0
▪ Poor leadership and planning –
▪ they had many consecutive leaders without any political experience,
planning education, or future vision.
▪ many accusations of corruption and improprieties for decades.
▪ did not see problems on the horizon and some actively contributed to the
demise.

14. FACTORS THAT LED TO DETROIT’S PROBLEMS.
HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2014/07/13/MAGAZINE/THE-POST-POST-APOCALYPTIC-DETROIT.HTML?_R=0
▪ Racial tensions – historical accounts of problems with white people not
wanting to live with black people from the south moving in to work. The
belief is as the migration of black people who swept into Detroit became
especially intense, middle-class whites slowly started moving to the newly
built suburbs. And the violent 1967 riots turned this stream into a torrent.
During the 1950s, the city lost 363,000 white residents while it gained
182,000 black residents. In 1950, the population was 16 percent black, and
by the time of the 1967 riot it had grown to about 33%. Today, about 82
percent of the city's population is black.

15. FACTORS THAT LED TO DETROIT’S PROBLEMS.
HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2011/03/23/US/23DETROIT.HTML
▪ The number of people who have recently vanished from Detroit
[237,500] — was bigger than the 140,000 who left New Orleans.
▪ The loss in Detroit seemed to further demoralize some residents who
said they already had little hope for the city’s future.
▪ “Even if we had depressing issues before, the decline makes it so much
harder to deal with,” said Samantha Howell, 32, who was getting gas on
Tuesday on the city’s blighted East Side. “Yes, the city feels empty
physically, empty of people, empty of ambition, drive. It feels empty.”
What would the impact of an “empty” city have?

16. OUR FIVE EARLIER AREAS - PHYSICAL:
▪ Lots of concerns here including:
▪ No efficient transit system – “Motor City” had policies to actively encourage
people to buy cars. Adding to racial separation was the idea that most
white people drove in from the suburbs and while white people not only
lived in the city but also rode the bus. Do differences like these have a
psychological impact on community?
▪ Buildings abandoned – Some Detroit images
- note that these are not ghettos and “bad” neighbourhoods. They were well
respected, important, and often beautiful buildings.

17. GEOGRAPHICAL PERCEPTION
▪ I hate this classroom and it’s lousy technology
despite being one of the most recent classes at the
college; let’s see if I can get this to work:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/detroit-
and-bankruptcy-decay-how-went-bankrupt-
why_n_3620004.html

18. OUR FIVE EARLIER AREAS - FINANCIAL:
▪ We covered a lot of this already. Here are some more facts:
▪ The city has unfunded pension liabilities of $3.5 billion and
unfunded health care liabilities of $5.7 billion.
▪ Without restructuring, the city is projected to have negative
cash flows of $198.5 million in the 2014 fiscal year.

19. OUR FIVE EARLIER AREAS – HUMAN/PEOPLE:
▪ Poverty – many reasons for this that we have covered. These include: about
36 percent of the city’s population is below the poverty level, and, by 2010,
the residential vacancy rate was 27.8 percent.
▪ With fewer people to pay taxes, the city has starved financially and has
struggled to maintain social services. Many areas of the city are in total
darkness because of non-functioning street lights. And the average police
response time, including top priority calls, is 58 minutes, according to a
report by the emergency manager.
▪ The student enrollment at Detroit's public schools has drastically declined to
52,981 in 2012 from 164,496 in 2002, according to Michelle A. Zdrodowski, a
spokeswoman for the district. In response, several school buildings have
been shuttered.

20. SOCIAL - GOVERNMENT CONCERNS
▪ No jobs and poor infrastructure equals people moving away from the city.
The result is increased poverty and need + a city in freefall.
▪ Is it a problem when people are unable to pay property taxes? How much
of an economic impact does that have on a city? Slides.
Should the city try to collect this money?
If they could afford it, should they forgive these debts?
What are the repercussions of either of these actions?

21. ONE OF THE “DOWNFALLS” OF DETROIT
IS SAID TO BE RACIAL TENSION.
Is this a fair statement?
It is clear that statistics show African-Americans live in the core
of Detroit and more Caucasian people live outside of the city.
http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer?ref=us
But lets look at other areas in the US too.
What do we see in other major US cities?

22. DETROIT TAX INFORMATION:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23detroit.html
What could a city do with this kind
of money?

23. OUR FIVE EARLIER AREAS - ENVIRONMENTAL:
▪ Lost parks – more than 50% fewer than 20 years ago.
▪ Broken buildings….. many broken buildings
▪ Failed manufacturing and industry leaving behind
ecological problems. Here in Canada too? – Randle
Reef
▪ What other environmental impact do you see in
Detroit?

24. OK – KNOWING WHAT WE DO; HOW COULD
WE ADDRESS SOME OF THESE PROBLEMS?
Physical:
Financial:
Human/People:
Social:
Environmental:

25. SOME NEW IDEAS
HTTP://VIBRANTCANADA.CA/FILES/UNDERSTANDING_COMMUNITY_DEVELOPMENT.PDF
▪ Virtual communities: groups of people who interact using
communication media rather than face to face. So when
using a computer network, it is called an online community.
Online communities are "social connections that emerge
from the Net when people carry on those public
discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to
form webs of personal relationships"
– will these replace traditional communities?
- your communication for projects?

26. SOME NEW IDEAS
HTTP://VIBRANTCANADA.CA/FILES/UNDERSTANDING_COMMUNITY_DEVELOPMENT.PDF
▪ Upstream Approach: Using a river as a metaphor for the increasing
impact of conditions and events which affect a community over
time and how we react to it. For example, if there is a toxic spill
upstream, it will affect the quality of the water in the river for
everyone living downstream. You can focus either on dealing with
the illnesses that are experienced by the downstream people
(downstream approach) or you can stop the spill and prevent
others from happening in the future (upstream approach). We
traditionally follow a downstream approach.
▪ How could Detroit use an upstream approach to address so concerns?

27. FUTURE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
▪ We started off today a rosy picture of what Community Development can do.
▪ However, in the words of Charles Grogan (2012),
“despite great successes we still face persistent poverty and fragile families. The
economy has little opportunity for low-skilled workers so low/middle-income
families struggle in an increasingly difficult landscape. The “back-to-the-city
movement” means competition for land and drives up rents, schools continue to
fail students, and globalization hurts past jobs that once meant a decent living & a
ladder of opportunity for workers without college or advanced degrees”.
▪ Will these problems continue in the near future?

28. FUTURE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
▪ Grogan continues:
“ I see a spirit of localism—local solutions at a workable scale—as the
engine that brought cities back block by block. This dynamic, flexible
model can lead to new practice and research to support child
development, health, education, and employment creation”.
Problem-solvers need to look beyond the neighborhood, to link regional
economies, labor markets, and education and training/jobs now located
outside of cities.
Community development will continue to find practical solutions to
connect communities and capital.

29. CHELSEA BURKETT’S THOUGHTS
HTTP://FOURTHECONOMY.COM/THE-FUTURE-OF-COMMUNITY-DEVELOPMENT-THROW-OUT-YOUR-TEXTBOOK/
▪ In these times of fiscal austerity, however, government funding for
community development, like everything else, is dwindling. And what
remains, is often a whole new beast.
▪ Trends are visibly pushing the community development world towards
greater collaboration, and often, smaller organizations. Governments and
organizations themselves want to combine services and specialize to “do
more with less”, they are determining what they do better than anyone else.
▪ It’s still too early to know exactly what the new face of community
development is. However, if you’re looking to begin a career in the field,
organizations are looking, not for textbook solutions, but for flexible,
innovative ideas to push community development forward into the future.

30. GOVERNMENT AND CD IN THE FUTURE
▪ Government needs to be clear that any investment and decisions that they make
will have real impact on real lives. They represent the entire population and
should therefore speak for everyone.
▪ Often the political conversation drifts into the abstract [i.e., reducing the deficit,
changing policy and plans, focusing on a single issue when there and many real
issues at hand, etc.].
▪ Problems like affordable housing, employment for everyone, an aging society, and
old infrastructure are constant now and need to be addressed head on.
▪ The key to a successful community development program is the unwavering belief
that communities do not receive lasting help unless they themselves identify their
needs as well as the solutions.

31. IS THIS JUST A DETROIT/USA PROBLEM?
▪ Seema Dhwan - http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/10/calgary-detroit-bankruptcy_n_4421178.html
▪ Matthew Kellway - http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/matthew-kellway/canadian-communities_b_4100380.html
▪ Toronto is booming - Here; and Here. But look Here….. OK, here too.