“We need jobs” is the mantra of many when it comes toimproving Michigan’s economy. So why should we care about cities? The answer issimple: Vibrant cities create jobs.
That was one key message of two events hosted at the Lansing offices of the Michigan Municipal League Friday. The two events were: A presentation on making “walkable” communitiesby international walkability expert Dan Burden, sponsored by the Michigan Municipal League; and a session on “Creating a Vibrant Future for Michigan’s Cities why Urban Revitalization Matters”, sponsored by University ofMichigan’s Wolverine Caucus, Office of Governmental Relations and AlumniAssociation.
In one room, Burden, founder of Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, talked to about 50 people representing nearly 40 Michigan cities, townships, villages, businesses and organizations. He showed how communities built around people and not cars lead to a stronger economy.
“You can’t have a city that works well for cars and people,” Burden said. “You want a town that’s focused on pedestrians and accommodates vehicles.” By putting people, not cars at the center of design, communities across the country are building attractive, livable environments with strong economies.
Burden explained creating jobs happens in walkable and visually pleasing communities that attract people. He said communities can increase local home values by improving their walk score just a few points. (Go here to learn what a walk score is – you can even find out what the walk score is at your house.)
A handful of Michigan communities have already realized the benefits of improving walkability in their downtowns and neighborhoods. Burden of Florida has done a lot of work in Michigan and said some of his favorite “walkable communities” in our state are Brighton, Holland, Milford, Birmingham,Traverse City, Kalamazoo, East Lansing, Mackinac Island, Marquette, Saugatuck, Grand Haven and Niles.
In the “Creating a Vibrant Future” event, three educators talked to about 50 university students, business people, organization representatives and others about Michigan’s role in strengthening our cities and improving their infrastructure into the future. The speakers were University of Michigan Professors Margi Dewar, professor of urban and regional planning; Joe Grengs, assistant professor of urban and regional planning; and June Thomas, centennial professor of urban and regional planning.
They are some pretty heavy hitters when it comes to urban planning and their talk was very informative.
They discussed how cities started to be abandoned about 50 years ago and where they are today, with large numbers of abandoned properties. Grengs talked about the importance of cooperation to revitalized our cities.
“When Detroit suffers so does the rest of the metropolitan region,” Grengs said. “So when Detroit is competing for new business withSouthfield or (another area) that’s harmful to the entire region. We need tocome up with some form of cooperation. Regional cooperation is one way. Portland and Minneapolis … have examples of that.”
Added Thomas: “I would not want for people to view urbancity revitalization as a separate issue to Michigan’s revitalization. Theyreally are one in the same,” Thomas said.
Dewar compared Detroit to Cleveland and how Cleveland leaders seemed to work together in redeveloping abandoned property and were fairly successful. She showed numbers indicating Detroit still has a long ways to go in dealing with its abandoned property.
“It means as we focus on how we deal with this state’s cities – with so many of them facing huge property abandonment - we can learn from different successes in different cities and from other states where their cities also have experienced this,” Dewar said.
One audience member asked what assets a city needs to become vibrant again.
“There are numerous components we know they should have,” Dewar said “We need to focus on areas that can be strengthened and saved. It means putting limited resources we have in targeted areas. It’ll probably mean in order for a city budget to be balanced that the service and infrastructure need to be withdrawn so it becomes virtually a rural area again.”
I thought Dewar’s answer was fine, but if an MML staffer had been on the panel I know what we would have said: There are eight keys to revitalizing our cities and the league has established an entire program around those. If you haven’t heard about our Center for 21stCenturies Communities you can read about it here.
With more than 100 people attending the two sessions, I was impressed with the strong attendance at both of these meetings and it gave me a great deal of hope that there are many people out there interested in Michigan’s future and willing to do something about it.
Matt Bach is communications director for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at 734-669-6317 or mbach@mml.org.
