Tagged: detroit land use

A project that aims to radically re-shape Detroit’s geography and better align resources with its declining population is starting to wrap up.

After a rocky launch in 2010, city officials split the Detroit Works Project into short-term and long-term planning teams.

The long-term plan organizers have been holding community meetings for months. They’re trying to develop a comprehensive blueprint for the city’s future.

Detroit residents interested in Mayor Dave Bing’s planning project for the city have a place to go for information. The Detroit Works long-term planning team has just opened a walk-in office in Eastern Market.

In Detroit, massive population loss has forced people to envision new ways of using space.

Urban gardens have gotten a lot of attention. But there’s also a movement afoot to use art in a similar way.

One group of people has done just that this year with a vacant lot in an industrial corner just north of Detroit’s Midtown area. It’s called the Lincoln Street Art Park.

The Lincoln Street Art Park sits in one of Detroit’s many semi-abandoned neighborhoods, nestled between railroad tracks and old industrial buildings.

The walls of those buildings are dotted with colorful murals. There are a couple of sculptures, and a kind of “Zen garden” fashioned out of concrete.

The federal government is throwing its support behind Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s Detroit Works Project.

That’s a controversial effort to focus resources on Detroit’s more vibrant neighborhoods. It appeared to have stalled in recent months.

But when federal officials were in Detroit announcing the city’s participation in the “Strong Cities, Strong Communities” program, they made it clear that they believe in Detroit Works.

Bing says the city is on the verge of identifying the handful of Detroit neighborhoods it wants to re-build.