The Kresge Foundation has supplied the money to lure Griffin to Detroit, where she will focus on Mayor Dave Bing's plans to downsize the struggling city.
"The 45-year-old comes to the Motor City with a considerable national reputation. Enter Rip Rapson, president of the $3.1 billion Kresge Foundation. While Griffin will work inside the city's planning department, she won't be on the public payroll. Her salary, plus the cost of assembling a team of consultants, is covered by Kresge.
Philanthropic dollars are seeding the reinvention of Detroit. Demographer Kurt Metzger heads up Data Driven Detroit (DDD), an agency that just completed a plot-by-plot analysis of the city's 139-square-mile footprint, without which Griffin would be flying blind. DDD is backed by $1.85 million from the Kresge and Skillman foundations."
