DETROIT today is the world’s best laboratory for urban reinvention (What WORKS by Design)

 Analysis

HERE’S THE FULL TRUTH ON DETROIT

City is distressed, but bright spots shine

By JOHN GALLAGHER FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

   Fox News commentator Glenn Beck makes a living expressing opinions, the more extreme the better. But Beck’s unfavorable comparison Monday of Detroit with Hiroshima, the Japanese city destroyed by the first atomic bomb in World War II, is worth a little truth-squadding.

   Beck says Detroit lies in ruins while Hiroshima has rebuilt, thanks to a free-market spirit. But Beck brushed off the government money spent to rebuild Hiroshima, Japan’s policies and the 4-million-plus population of metro Detroit. The city of Detroit today is home to about 800,000 people. That means Detroit remains one of America’s biggest cities, with twice the population of Cleveland or Pittsburgh, and roughly the same as San Francisco.

   Urban planners around the globe sometimes say, “Detroit is the new Berlin.” They mean that Detroit is the place with the best chance of creating a new type of 21st-Century city — environmentally sustainable and producing much of its own energy and food. Whether we’ll get there is unclear, but Detroit today is the world’s best laboratory for urban reinvention.

   Huge numbers of academics, journalists and designers are following Detroit’s efforts to reimagine itself. In recent weeks, separate planning conferences on Detroit’s future were held in England and Denmark.

   Though clearly distressed, Detroit has been rebuilding for years, at least in some key areas. Billions of dollars have been invested in amenities such as the RiverWalk, new housing, urban farms, casinos, stadiums and, soon, a new light-rail system on Woodward.

   The Midtown district is thriving. Southwest Detroit is growing again, thanks to an increase in Latino immigrants.

   And Detroit is rebuilding its riverfront after more than a century of industrial uses there.

   Beck also is wrong about the causes behind Detroit’s decline. He blames unions and liberals for making Detroit uncompetitive. It had more to do with suburban sprawl and flight, and federal efforts to subsidize suburban growth with everything from road construction to tax breaks.

   Mayor Dave Bing lambasted Beck.

   “Like many national media members, Glenn Beck has probably never been to Detroit, understood Detroit, and doesn’t care about Detroit,” Bing said. “We welcome him to see and experience Detroit for himself so that he can deliver facts, rather than repeat fiction.”

   • CONTACT JOHN GALLAGHER: 313-222-5173 OR GALLAGHER99 @ FREEPRESS.COM  . STEVEN NEAVLING CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.

Photos by MIKE BROOKBANK/Detroit Free Press

   Joyce Sims of metro Detroit said Kid Rock should show Fox News commentator Glenn Beck “the good people of Detroit.”

Tim Mahoney of West Bloomfield said, “It’s pretty easy to criticize something when you don’t … have the feel of the city.”

Martha Lyford of Detroit said, “Those who want to believe it will believe it because Glenn Beck has a following.”

Steve Wilson of Ann Arbor said he was disgusted by the comparison to Hiroshima, Japan. “It really oversimplifies the issue.”