Andrés Duany, a nationally influential urban planner, speaks out forcefully against a key recommendation in the Detroit Blight Removal Task Force report released two weeks ago.
"So-called adults have been in charge for Detroit’s long decline." -- Andrés Duany
"It is shocking how conventional the thinking still is," the Miami architect says in a New York Times letter disputing the value of demolishing abandoned homes at an estimated cost of $850 million.
Millions have been spent over the years on demolitions, to negligible effect.
There is an alternative. Detroit is filling with young people starting businesses, restaurants and renovations of all kinds. . . . What if those millions of dollars were granted, say, for start-ups, to the folks with proven initiative: those under 30.
Duany, a co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism in 1993, suggests $50,000 loans or grants.
Detroit would explode with activity and success. Its emerging reputation as the “next Brooklyn” would be fulfilled even more quickly.
Earlier at Deadline Detroit:
