Guest Commentary: Seeing Philly Through Detroit-Colored Glasses

Aug. twenty, 2018

Over three days I spent in Detroit, the people, the place, and the spirit captured my imagination. I was in Detroit to represent the Economic system League of Greater Philadelphia at the annual meeting of the Governmental Enquiry Clan , a national network of independent state and regional think-tanks. The briefing itself, organized past the Citizens Research Quango of Michigan, was rich with idea-provoking panels and even more than thought-provoking informal evening discussion at local restaurants and watering holes among a very sharp grouping of "meaning-makers and wayfinders" in GRA president Mebane Rash's felicitous phrase.

Detroit and Philadelphia are about the same size, roughly 140 square miles. In 1920, Detroit was the 4th most populous metropolis in the country, abaft New York Urban center, Chicago, and Philadelphia. In 1950, the Motor City and the City of Brotherly Love both boasted roughly ii million residents. Over the next 50 years, while Philadelphia lost 25 per centum of its population to bottom out in near 1996 at ane.4 million, Detroit lost no less than x percent of its residents per decade, and today there are fewer than 700,000 souls residing there. For those of united states who think the Philadelphia of the 1980s or early on 90s as a challenged place, Detroit's challenges are another guild of magnitude.

I often talk most ii Philadelphias. The first, which I sometimes call "Boston-adelphia"—and which others telephone call "Greater Center City"—is doing quite well: very high labor strength participation, very low unemployment, high rates of educational attainment, rising holding values, vibrant commercial corridors, depression crime rates, relatively thriving neighborhood schools, etc. The other, which I sometimes phone call, yes, "Detroit-adelphia," not so much: low labor force participation, high unemployment, depression rates of educational attainment, declining real property values, moribund commercial corridors, blight, half empty and underperforming schools, etc.

My characterization is, of course, a dramatic over-simplification that ignores our many and so-called 'heart neighborhoods,' but I think it is still a useful heuristic. That's non to say that neighborhoods are uniformly rich or poor; in my own Queen Hamlet, the disparities between the due north and s sides of Christian Street are quite dramatic, every bit they are in many gentrifying neighborhoods. Yet heatmaps of the metropolis by income, educational attainment, vacant backdrop, ascension versus declining property values, and violent crime graphically illustrate the "tale-of-ii-cities" phenomenon.

Detroit's recovery, incomplete and uneven and uncertain and frail equally it may be, has been and continues to be a true team effort, a collaboration among the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, robust philanthropic support, and regional and land-level cooperation.

Since the near-bankruptcy of the early 1990s and the imposition of fiscal discipline by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, which floated the bonds that restored the Metropolis's solvency, the Urban center of Philadelphia has been on a positive trajectory. Budgets have been balanced; debt loads accept been reasonable; the City's credit rating has improved (in large part due to the Bodily Value Initiative belongings taxation reforms); the city'southward competitive position has improved in part due to moderate wage and business tax reforms, in part due to rise revenue enhancement burdens in the suburbs; there'southward a plan to pay downward some of the unfunded pension liability; population has grown along with the taxation base; and we've seen decent job growth, particularly in the past x years.

The Metropolis managed to ride out the Great Recession without fiscal calamity, in part due to sound fiscal management and in part due to the stability of our eds-and-meds economic base. Nosotros've seen at to the lowest degree two major waves of residential construction since the implementation of the generous 10-year tax abatement in the late 1990s, aided by the national "back to cities" trend; every bit leisure tourism has boomed and convention business has recovered in the wake of the expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and the celebrated labor deal a few years ago, several major new hotels have been built; commercial function rents are at celebrated highs and vacancy is lower downtown than in the suburbs.

Notwithstanding these observations and aggregate statistics elide the fact that growth has been incredibly unevenly distributed. Over the by 20 years, Greater Middle City has grown denser, richer, and whiter, while the rest of the City has declined in population, incomes accept stagnated, and poverty remains stubbornly high at just under 26 percent.

What can we practice about this disconnect betwixt the prosperity in Boston-adelphia and the stagnation in Detroit-adelphia?

I signed on to lead the Economy League, with its history of information-driven civic innovation, in big role to endeavor to figure out how to bridge this gap with a holistic, inclusive and equitable growth strategy.  As I draft the Economy League's strategic plan, a plan for all of Philadephia, I'g reading Disinterestedness, Growth, and Customs: What the Nation Tin Acquire from America'southward Metro Areas by Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor. It's virtually the ways in which a select number of metro regions—not ours, sadly—have managed to link economic prosperity and social inclusion, and the importance of what they call "dynamic noesis communities" in doing so. As Pastor and Benner put information technology "our power to grow together may be fundamentally rooted in our ability to know together."  Which brings me dorsum to Detroit…

Past some measures Detroit is Philadelphia circa 1995—on the upswing after bottoming out. Reeling from the Great Recession, in 2009 Detroit'due south unemployment level hitting Great Low-era heights at 28 pct. The beginning decade of the 2000s saw Detroit lose 25 percent of its population. The Motor City's fiscal situation was then dismal that the Land of Michigan imposed an emergency managing director, who filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history in 2013. All the same, thanks in part to a then-chosen "chiliad deal" that leveraged the art collection of the Detroit Institute of the Arts as collateral for over half a billion dollars in foundation back up, Detroit emerged from bankruptcy a year later, much faster than expected. (Interestingly, office of the grand bargain included a 3-county levy that supports the operation of the DIA.)

I visited Recovery Park Farms , a remarkable urban farming initiative on 60 acres of vacant land that was once a densely populated working-form neighborhood of 2,500 people most GM's huge Hamtramck Assembly Plant. It employs returning citizens and recovering addicts to grow food at commercial scale.

In the wake of the Swell Recession, Quicken Loans founder and native son Dan Gilbert declared that he would invest a pregnant portion of his personal fortune in the revitalization of Detroit; to 'walk the talk,' he moved his company's HQ to downtown, with what's turned out to be roughly 15,000 jobs. Gilbert's real manor company bought and rehabbed more than than ninety downtown office buildings. Swain billionaire and Little Caesar's Pizza scion Chris Ilitch is investing heavily in revitalizing a large commune that surrounds the new Detroit Redwings hockey arena. Today Detroit's official unemployment stands at nigh 7 percent, downtown office vacancies are depression, and cranes edifice new apartments dot the skyline.

I first visited Detroit in 2015, and downtown was nonetheless pretty desolate in the evening, reminiscent of Center Urban center Philadelphia circa 1990. Three short years subsequently the alter, at least downtown, is astounding. The city heart is bustling, with prissy hotels, fancy shopping that rivals Walnut Street, dozens of bars and restaurants that are packed at nighttime, lots of nice co-working spaces. There's a new low-cal rails line, the Q Line, that connects downtown and midtown, dwelling of the Detroit Institute of the Arts and Wayne State University. There's a can-do spirit in the air, almost a swagger.

It could exist tempting to conclude that "Philadelphia has the x-twelvemonth revenue enhancement abatement, Detroit has Dan Gilbert and Chris Ilitch." And from the perspective of downtown Detroit, that might make sense. Notwithstanding just beyond the downtown core, at that place are huge swaths of vacant land and abandoned neighborhoods. The poverty rate is a crushing 36 percent. And despite a relatively low official unemployment rate, Detroit'south labor force participation rate, that is the proportion of working-age adults in the formal economy or looking for work, is nigh 54 percent, the lowest rate among the summit 40 cities in the nation. (For comparing, Philadelphia'south is at about 59 percent, also quite low.)

Yet from my perspective on the basis, while Detroiters within the downtown core are benefiting from straight investment by Gilbert, Ilitch, and others, those outside the cadre are making remarkable strides to turn challenge into opportunity. I visited Recovery Park Farms , a remarkable urban farming initiative on sixty acres of vacant country that was one time a densely populated working-class neighborhood of two,500 people well-nigh GM'south huge Hamtramck Assembly Plant, at present reduced to fewer than 200 residents. Recovery Park is currently employing a dozen or so returning citizens and recovering addicts to grow food at commercial scale, driven by demand from Detroit's burgeoning restaurant scene, with plans for growth that include major expansion of the greenhouse functioning also as an indoor hydroponic operation.

As fellow GRA participant Molly Osborne of EducationNC wrote in a recent summary of her Detroit experience, "Most states do not have a Detroit… but the metropolis'south decline and recent comeback offer lessons to all of us." Subsequently three days interacting with Detroit leaders and exploring the city, my initial thoughts on these lessons are: Detroit's recovery, incomplete and uneven and uncertain and fragile as it may be, has been and continues to be a truthful team endeavor, a collaboration among the public, individual, and nonprofit sectors, robust philanthropic support, and regional and state-level cooperation. In sum, it seems like it could accept the hallmarks of sustainability.

Which brings me back to Philadelphia. Information technology is undeniable that the Metropolis of Brotherly Love is presently in amend shape than Detroit, in amass, by nigh indicators. Yet our City's current trajectory is likewise quite fragile, incomplete, and uneven. Though we have a stable economic base of "eds, meds, and beds," current growth rates are insufficient on their own to lift tens of thousands out of poverty and into decent-paying jobs. While we are starting to come to terms with what the Urban center's Manager Mike DeBerardinis calls "managing growth rather than reject," nosotros seem to fall a piddling short not but in the cocky-confident swagger of Detroit but also in the realms of civic infrastructure, philanthropic back up, and regional cooperation.

As United Fashion CEO Neb Golderer noted in his eulogy/call to action in the wake of the recent deaths of both Jeremy Nowak and H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest , neither "shied from stepping into those disquisitional moments that can change another's life, and each devoted a lifetime to addressing complex issues through advancement and philanthropy… And then must we."

We at the Economy League are looking forward to addressing these complex issues in new ways. We volition be taking 145 cantankerous-sector leaders to Seattle adjacent month to acquire how that metropolis has dealt with unfettered growth. We're launching a borough incubator this fall chosen GPLEX Labs, with a public policy challenge and fellowship program. We're edifice out the Ballast Procurement Initiative to create inclusive growth and jobs by leveraging institutional purchasing power. And we will continue producing high-quality independent analysis and insight to assist civic leaders brand data-driven decisions.

From Boston-adelphia to Detroit-adelphia, we want all of Philadelphia to feel a tin can-do spirit in the air, a swagger, a capacity to abound now and in the time to come together.

Jeff Hornstein, the Executive Manager of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, formerly served as the Policy Director in the Part of the Urban center Controller. This piece also ran in the Economy League's monthly newsletter.

Photo: Peter Miller via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/guest-commentary-seeing-philly-through-detroit-colored-glasses/

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