Architect Magazine talks with Toni Griffin, the urban planner who's leading the effort to rewrite Detroit's comprehensive plan to help the city through troubled times.
Griffin is heading the 12-18 month effort to rewrite the city's planning policies, and is facing many challenges along the way, one of which being the fact that the city now has roughly 40 square miles of vacant or abandoned land.
"Architect: Won't some people, in fact, have to move, if the city can no longer provide fire, sanitation, police, and other services to their present locations?
Griffin: The city is not looking at a forced relocation strategy. The team is sensitive to the scars left by federal urban renewal programs in the mid-to-late '60s, which in fact did uproot people. So we're talking about giving people choices to live in neighborhoods that can best provide the services they need.
It's going to be tough, but the planning process seeks to create more efficient and sustainable patterns of development and growth, as well as seeking new possibilities for the repurposing of land."
Read the full story: Can This Planner Save Detroit?
Learning loss and urban schools, part 2
Did test scores in progressive cities drop more post-COVID than test scores in moderate ones?
Detroit to transform waterfront with $2.2 billion investment
Developers will convert about 18 acres of unused parking lot space into civic spaces.
Detroit greenway brings revival — and fears of displacement
The planned Joe Louis Greenway is already bringing change to the neighborhoods near it.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
Move over, LA: St. Louis gears up for Olympics, invests millions in downtown redevelopment
The Missouri city will host the 2028 Olympic soccer group stage and knockout matches.
Mass. votes against statewide minimum lot size for single-family homes
Over 2 million residents voted on Question 7; it was decided by just over 30,000 votes.
Maryland’s $15 billion bridge project gains key approval
The Maryland Transit Authority said the project will create over 60,000 jobs and add $23 billion to the local economy.
‘No clear next steps’ for Chicago's permanent festival grounds
Eleventh Ward Ald. Nicole Lee has suggested Soldier Field as a possible location for the permanent event space.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority