Detroit, Michigan: Community Engagement Resources for Stabilizing Communities http://www.federalreserve.gov/communitydev/stablecommunities.htm In Detroit, decades of population loss coupled with the foreclosure crisis has created a pivotal moment in which the city must reinvent itself. The city is partnering with community leaders to bring together thousands of residents to help make the tough choices that will shape Detroit's future. OPEN Governor Elizabeth A. Duke In Detroit the nexus between decades of population loss and the foreclosure crises have created a pivotal moment in which the city of Detroit must reinvent itself. The city is partnering with community leaders to bring together thousands of residents to help make the tough choices that will determine the city's future. SHOTS OF DETROIT Karla Henderson "When the foreclosure crises hit Detroit, people were being evicted from their homes, our vacancy rate was skyrocketing and we really did not have a mechanism to deal with the population that was leaving the city of Detroit." "It's a challenge that the city has been facing over the last 50 years. The city was built for 2 million and we lost almost a million people so something has to be done about it. And that's really what The Detroit Works Project will address." Announcer Welcome to the Detroit Works Project Community Meeting. Karla Henderson "The Detroit Works Project will lay out the blueprint for the future of our city. Woman from Grandmont Rosedale We know that the biggest and most impactful changes result from listening and working with residents." Tom Godderris "It almost took this much of an economic and housing crisis to kind of jolt people to saying, "You know, we really need to—to come up with bolder, more creative ideas." Karla Henderson "We kicked off in September of 2010 with community forums, had feedback from almost 5,000 residents." Marja Winters What is the most damaging impact of population loss in your neighborhood? Marja Winters What is your neighborhood's most important asset? Detroit video transcript 2 Karla Henderson It's going to give us a guide in terms of how we allocate resources, how we do zoning for particular parts of the city and the civic engagement component is crucial to the success of the plan." Marja Winters 44% of you responded that a sense of community is your neighborhood's most important asset. Karla Henderson "Every citizen, every stakeholder, our suburban counterparts everybody has a voice in the future of the city of Detroit." OUT OF MEETING AND ON THE STREETS OF DETROIT Karla Henderson "We know we're going to have some tough conversations with our community. Being able to explain the level of service a citizen or stakeholder can expect in a certain neighborhood. Lighting and trash removal and snow plowing and road resurfacing - we are going to be making very strategic decisions of where we put our resources. We're not going to say that one neighborhood is going to get benefit at the cost of others but we know we don't have enough resources to go around." WE ARE IN BRIGHTMOOR NEIGHBORHOOD Riet Schumack Brightmoor is a very impoverished, very thinly populated, very blighted neighborhood in Detroit. The vacancy rate is probably 70%. Chazz Miller In Detroit obviously we've got a lot of blight and I was looking at different ways to deal with the blight. The struggle that a butterfly goes through so it can fly for me is symbolic for Detroit and what it is going through. Karla Henderson "Probably perhaps the tougher conversations will be to go to a community like Brightmoor and say, the city will not be aligning its resources for your redevelopment strategy on single family homes. But if there is urban agriculture or some kind of community garden, we perhaps can support those kinds of efforts. We just have to be very, very strategic with our limited resources." TRANSITION TO GRANDMONT ROSEDALE NEIGHBOR...