My City Essay Sample

Detroit was first settled by the French in the seventeenth century, who gave it its name. The city has undergone many transformations over the centuries as it developed from a small French fur trapping settlement into first the Paris of the West, and then into a booming metropolitan center that dominated the automobile industry. Over the years Detroit has been the home of many championship sports teams, host to important cultural events, and is the location of a number of beautiful and historically significant buildings. The city has been going through dramatic changes in the last several decades. It is no longer considered the Paris of the West; it is now considered one of the worst places to live in America. “Detroit is America’s most dangerous city, with 1,220 violent crimes per 100,000 people, according to violent crime statistics from the FBI’s uniform crime report, issued in 2008. Detroit or Motown, also boasts the highest foreclosure and unemployment rates in the country” (In, 1). People are leaving Detroit to find a safer place to live and better chances of employment. In spite of these challenges Detroit is a city that can be saved. The citizens of Detroit need to use their innovative approach to industry and their willingness to try new things to re-create their city.

Detroit’s current depressing situation is the result of a mixture of circumstances; racism, public policy, and the downturn in the automobile industry. The re-organization of the car industry has improved opportunities for employment, but the industry that once employed so many people and dominated the economy of the city has downsized. It employs far fewer workers. The remaining unemployed population needs to find work in other industries. New industry must be brought into the city. The well-trained engineers who are no longer employed by the auto industry need to be re-employed in the industries of the future that are pollution free, creating products with long term viability that will help improve the city’s revenue. This will impact Detroit’s infrastructure because the city will have money to fix the roads and maintain the schools and parks.

During the era when Detroit was still considered the Paris of the West beautiful and culturally significant buildings were built. Many of those buildings are now in desperate need of repair. The buildings need to be maintained and used for alternative purposes. Detroit recently unveiled “Detroit Future City: Detroit Works Project Strategic Long Term Plan”. It is a new concept incorporating some of John Gallagher’s ideas for future development that he writes about in his book Re-Imagining Detroit-Opportunities for Re-defining an American.
The plan is very detailed. It is organized around six key concepts – economic growth, land, use, city systems, neighborhood revitalization, physical assets, and civic engagement. Even if the city loses more citizens, this project would be successful. The plan is to create an entirely re-designed Detroit by the year 2050. It involves maintaining the city’s physical history by developing other uses for Detroit’s irreplaceable buildings. The warehouse district would be turned into an arts district with creative spaces for artists and crafters, and a strong public arts program would be written into the city’s master plan.

Detroit is a very large city. It took advantage of the geography of Michigan when it was growing and spread out as far it as it could. The 138.5 square mile city was once home to 185 million people. Detroit is far too large for the remaining population of 912,000. The city’s immense geographic area has become a detriment to its sustainability in the 21st century. Detroit needs to downsize all of its services to become viable once again. It needs to become smaller while maintaining its history, the beauty of its buildings, and its wonderful parks. It needs to shrink its urban footprint so city services like police, fire, and parks can be maintained. City officials have already started the process by re-organizing the city’s public schools to deal with a smaller student body population. Gallagher has other innovative thoughts about methods to reduce the city’s costs. He suggests that the city save money by not re-paving the city’s wide highways, but turning them instead into narrower, mixed use thoroughfares for bikes and natural areas. Once again, not only saving money, but making the city safer. The citizens of the city can have beautiful places to walk and bike. Large city’s like Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, California, have proved that mixed use roads decrease accidents. Detroit has some wonderful parks. It is the only city in the United States with an island park. Gallagher suggests that the city save money on park maintenance and turn some of the city’s parks into natural areas.

Detroit has a cityscape that has ruined buildings and lots standing empty. The city needs to find a productive use for 40 square miles of vacant land. Once again, Gallagher suggests a unique response, urban farming. Ruined buildings can be razed and the occupants of the remaining decent buildings can be compensated and relocated. The nationwide movement for healthy eating led by the First Lady lends credence to this solution. The city has over 500 community gardens supplying 2% of Detroit’s food. Gallagher believes if the City uses another 40 acres for urban farming that the percentage of locally grown food would raise to 5-10%. This increase would not only provide healthier, cheaper food to the residents of the city, it would also add revenue to the city’s strained budget.

Detroit’s innovative approach to ideas and their willingness to experiment are demonstrated in Detroit Future City: Detroit Works Project Strategic Long Term Plan. The city wants to create green neighborhoods and high-speed 21st century transit to allow workers from the affluent suburbs to commute easily into Detroit for work. As a green city, Detroit, would maintain their parkways, support urban farms, and develop city rainwater and runoff plan to relieve the city’s heavily used and antiquated sewer system. Their goal is to attract high-tech firms and make sure that a smaller population is well-served by smaller city services. The plan’s contention is that more than 10,000 new jobs can be created through providing development opportunities to education, medical, manufacturing, technical, and minority businesses.

Detroit, the city I love, should downsize and go back to building something that America wants and needs. The city needs to re-invent itself so that it can once again become a thriving city with a productive population. It will be a different city, but it will still retain the beautiful buildings that make it Detroit. People will still be able to learn about the history of the city as they walk through the now well-maintained streets of Detroit. Detroit is worth saving.