Future Detroit
Detroit is in a unique position as the best-known "shrinking city." For the most part, the world concerns itself with growth - how to stimulate it, how to control it, how to accommodate it. Until recently, very little scholarship has attempted to understand how to help a city shrink. Cities that have lost huge portions of their population often have lower population densities, scattered communities, stretched public resources, and decaying downtowns. Detroit is now in a position in which creativity can be used; there are so many vacant lots, for instance, that creative reuse has become a big part of community development and short-term planning. While Detroit may never have a population of 1.8 million again, it has great opportunity to transform itself.
Case Study: Detroit Schools
One of the most important factors determining where families will locate is schools. For the past four years, Detroit has been overhauling it’s school system, closing down many dilapidated buildings, and building new facilities or renovating those with healthy student populations (Zirkle and Lynn 2013). Since 2000, more than 100 schools have been out of commission in Detroit, due in part of declining enrollment (Ibid). The images below show the number of schools in the Detroit Public School system (DPS) in 2000, and in again in 2012. The blue dots represent new or revitalized schools. Though the results from this effort have yet to be seen, these schools could becomes centers for new cultural, community and neighborhood nodes through the city.