“While these changes seem to have occurred suddenly and spontaneously, many of the organizations, partnerships, and projects behind the current boom in greater downtown Detroit were the result of a strategic, shared vision led by the Hudson Webber Foundation, which coalesced key members of Detroit’s philanthropic, nonprofit, and corporate sectors around what would come to be called the 15×15 Initiative.”
Model D Media: “How a unified vision helped transform Detroit’s greater downtown”
“What does it really mean to engage the public? Engagement has become so much more than just a required step to a planning process. When engagement is actually the process, one asks different questions, solves problems more collaboratively, and starts a genuine dialogue with the community—letting plans emerge that previously might never have been possible.”
ArchDaily: “How to Foster Civic Engagement in the Age of Twitter”
“By shifting our markets from interactions that are predominantly distant and socially weak to those that are near and socially strong, we can start to move beyond our fragile dependence on growth and debt to a stronger America based on strong cities, towns and neighborhoods.”
Strong Towns: “Understanding Growth, Part 4”
“Libraries can serve as public stewards of the history of a town, for example, with their archives of newspapers and photographs, often on display. They speak to the current wants of a town with their programming and to the needs of a town by attention to its problems.”
The Atlantic: “A Public Library Tells the Civic Story of a Town”
“A garden is a solution that leads to other solutions. It is part of the limitless pattern of good health and good sense.”
Project for Public Spaces: “Beyond Food: Community Gardens as Places of Connection and Empowerment”
“Historic designation is a valuable tool not only for asset revitalization but for neighborhood revitalization.”
MLive: “Developers, preservationists puzzled by bills to update historic district statutes”
“56 percent of millennials and 46 percent of baby boomers prefer to live in more walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods.”
Strong Towns: “Americans want walkable neighborhoods”
“There is a very strong track record of places that attract talent becoming places of long-term success. The most successful economic development policy is to attract and retain smart people and then get out of their way.”
New York Times: “Where Young College Graduates Are Choosing to Live”
“But downtown ambitions of any sort are a positive sign, and second- and third-floor apartments and condos over restaurants and stores with lights on at night suggest that the downtown has crossed a decisive threshold and will survive.”
The Atlantic: “Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed”
“As we traveled around the U.S. reporting on the revival of towns and cities, we always made the local library an early stop. We’d hit the newspaper offices, the chamber of commerce, city hall, and Main Street for an introduction to the economics, politics, and stresses of a town. The visit to the public library revealed its heart and soul.”
The Atlantic: “The Library Card”