The Detroit Future City is on the Move

In 2013, the Motor City founded The Detroit Future City Implementation Office, a strategy that aimed to help Detroit achieve economic growth in order to overcome the setbacks the area had been facing in the previous years.

In 2017, the Office began to make progress—moving into a new stage of the implementation.

The concept behind the Detroit Future City was to create a framework able to translate into reality easily. The project would repurpose the plots of vacant and abandoned land flooding the Detroit area in new and innovative ways. As of this month, the Office has completed their planning and is read to begin action.

The new plan, which has been referred to as a road map of where the office intends to go, drives the project to focus on continuing the current efforts of revitalizing neighborhoods, shifting the real estate market toward rental properties, and focusing on the 900-plus vacant industrial lots scattered across the city.

“We really see ourselves as both a thought leader, a supporter of new and innovative ideas, a convener, and a bit of a nag,” Anika Goss-Foster, director of the office, told John Gallagher of the Detroit Free Press. “We also need to be very clear and thoughtful about where Detroit is currently. And unless we address those issues head on, we’ll never get to the innovative aspects.”

Currently, the Detroit Future City Office is funded by several foundation grants. It operates with a budget of approximately $2.1 million a year, and employs 10 individuals—including urban planners and other such experts.

The Office is beginning the next stage of the project by relaunching its website, detroitfuturecity.com.

“We’re not going to let some issues go,” Goss-Foster said. “The board really wanted racial equity and community engagement to be guiding principles for us. If we’re going to be nagging about anything, it’s specifically about that, to make sure that everything that we do is inclusive. If it feels like there’s a stark inequity we’re going to have that conversation and we’re going to really talk about that.”
News Source: https://www.planetizen.com/news/2017/11/95741-detroit-future-city-enters-new-stage