Posted on 10/20/2010 8:54:08 AM PDT by Thebaddog
Time magazine called Toni L. Griffin a star urban planner, which doesnt have quite the same ring as starchitect, but properly describes the 46-year-old. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a Loeb Fellow at Harvard Universitys Graduate School of Design, where she still teaches, Griffin began her career in the private sector, working first for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in her native Chicago. While at SOM, she helped turn the Renaissance Center, John Portmans office and hotel complex in downtown Detroit, into General Motors Co.s world headquarters.
This spring, Griffin signed on for what may be Americas toughest urban planning challenge: helping to remake Detroit, a city that has seen its population decline by half over 60 years. In September, Griffin helped Mayor Dave Bings administration launch the Detroit Works Project, a 12- to 18-month effort to map the citys future. It began with a series of widely attended public forums.
(Excerpt) Read more at architectmagazine.com ...
Government can make some transformative moves, but those are going to be combined with a lot of smaller-scale efforts that bubble up from the grass roots. There are already examples of that happening. For example, people are using public art projects and community agriculture to transform entire neighborhoods
There is no discussion about tax abatement for businesses to move to the city. No real discussion about police protection, no real sense of how a city grows and rejuvinates.
I'm from Detroit and have witnessed numerous attempts to "save" the city. Until the fundamentals are addressed, this planner will produce more words than action. IMHO.
People won’t move into a blighted neighborhood without assurance of safety, an opportunity to safely raise families, readily available goods & services and work opportunities.
Safety has to be on the top of the list.
So nailing large stuffed animals to a falling down house, and subsistence agriculture and hunting raccoons is going to bring back Detroit? ( You'd have to be a Harvard graduate to believe that )
This chick isn’t even leaving her day job to save Detroit. What does that tell you about her expectations?
I deal with ‘planners’ all the time. Its no coincidence that the ascendency of planning and zoning in the early 60’s was the start of the decay for so many cities.
And this ‘planner’ is talking about urban gardening as the solution to Detroit’s problems?
I know very little about Detroit or its problems; but, I am doubtful they will be successful if they put their fate in the hands of urban planners.
So, she's a world-class pork procurer. And she evidently has close connections with Obama.
“There is a vibrancy to the downtown.”
There most certainly is a “vibrancy” to the downtown area - it can be felt in the sidewalk as a black urban predator closes in on its prey. The knocking knees cause the vibrations.
This Ivy League loon is just another willing servant of socialism.
Remove regulations and regulatory agencies, outlaw unions, and place a $50,000 bounty on all criminals killed during any violent crime.
Once criminals become a potential resource waiting to be harvested, people will once again move into high crime areas because those criminals are then seen as a resource rather than a risk.
First question for this genius should have been about how to expand the tax base. Not the tax rate, but the base.
“Remove regulations and regulatory agencies, outlaw unions, and place a $50,000 bounty on all criminals killed during any violent crime.”
Wash, rinse and repeat as necessary in any major city.
Cities exist for a purpose. If that purpose goes away, and a new one is not found, then the city dies.
Detroit was first a trading center, then became home for the American auto industry. What does Detroit have to offer today that can not be found elsewhere?
Without a purpose, cities will eventually cease to exist.
Forced busing and crime drove people out of the city. White flight turned into urban blight.
Maybe Detroit should move twenty miles north with the rest of the population.
The best thing I can think of for Detroit is to evacuate the place and turn it into a live-fire exercise area for ICBMs
Yes, architecture and city planning are the root causes of Detroit’s slide into anarchy...
I also have a toll bridge for sale...cheap.
I’m sure people are leaving Detroit for Dearbornistan where they can live under the “peaceful” arms of sharia law.
A W-53 performs miracles.
I suppose November trough March will be ‘slow’ months, in an otherwise rocketing revived Detroit.
/sarc
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