By 2010, Detroit had become the poster child for an American city in crisis. There was a housing collapse, an auto industry collapse, and the population had plummeted by 25 percent between 2000 and 2010, and many people were beginning to write it off, as it had topped the list of American shrinking cities. By 2010, I had also been asked by the Kresge Foundation and the city of Detroit to join them in leading a citywide planning process for the city to create a shared vision for its future. I come to this work as an architect and an urban planner, and I've spent my career working in other contested cities, like Chicago, my hometown; Harlem, which is my current home; Washington, D.C.; and Newark, New Jersey. All of these cities, to me, still had a number of unresolved issues related to urban justice, issues of equity, inclusion and access.
在 2010 年底特律已經成為了 危機中的美國城市的代言: 房地產市場崩塌, 汽車工業崩塌, 在 2000 到 2005 年之間, 人口也已經直線下跌了 25%; 很多人開始接受了這個現實, 因為底特律已經位列 美國正在萎縮城市的名單榜首。 在 2010 年的時候,我曾經被 克雷斯吉基金會和底特律城邀請 去加入他們,參與一個城市規劃專案, 構建城市未來的共同遠景。 我作為 一名建築師和一名城市規劃師 參與到這項工作當中, 在我的職業生涯當中, 我也曾經為其他對手城市工作過, 比如我的故鄉芝加哥、 我現在的家,哈萊姆區、 華盛頓特區,以及紐瓦克,新澤西。 所有的這些城市,對我而言,仍然存在著一些 和城市正義、公平、包容性 平等和接納性相關的未解決的問題。
Now by 2010, as well, popular design magazines were also beginning to take a closer look at cities like Detroit, and devoting whole issues to "fixing the city." I was asked by a good friend, Fred Bernstein, to do an interview for the October issue of Architect magazine, and he and I kind of had a good chuckle when we saw the magazine released with the title, "Can This Planner Save Detroit?" So I'm smiling with a little bit of embarrassment right now, because obviously, it's completely absurd that a single person, let alone a planner, could save a city. But I'm also smiling because I thought it represented a sense of hopefulness that our profession could play a role in helping the city to think about how it would recover from its severe crisis. So I'd like to spend a little bit of time this afternoon and tell you a little bit about our process for fixing the city, a little bit about Detroit, and I want to do that through the voices of Detroiters.
現在,2010年, 流行的設計雜誌也開始 更關注像底特律這樣的城市, 用了一整期的雜誌 去討論「修復城市」的問題。 我被好友福德博恩斯坦, 叫去為十月份的一本 建築雜誌做一次採訪, 做一次採訪, 我和他竊笑了幾聲 當我們看到雜誌的選題是 「這個規劃者能夠拯救底特律嗎?」 我的笑裡帶著一絲尷尬, 因為這很明顯, 某一個人,一個規劃者, 能去拯救一座城市是荒謬的。 但是我笑還因為這代表著 一種對我們職業的希望, 能夠在幫助這個城市思考 怎樣從嚴重的危機重振起來 的過程中,扮演一個角色。 因此我想用這個下午的一點時間 告訴你一些我們重整城市的過程, 和關於底特律的新聞。 我想通過底特律居民 的聲音來傳遞這些資訊。
So we began our process in September of 2010. It's just after a special mayoral election, and word has gotten out that there is going to be this citywide planning process, which brings a lot of anxiety and fears among Detroiters. We had planned to hold a number of community meetings in rooms like this to introduce the planning process, and people came out from all over the city, including areas that were stable neighborhoods, as well as areas that were beginning to see a lot of vacancy. And most of our audience was representative of the 82 percent African-American population in the city at that time. So obviously, we have a Q&A portion of our program, and people line up to mics to ask questions. Many of them step very firmly to the mic, put their hands across their chest, and go, "I know you people are trying to move me out of my house, right?"
我們從 2010 年 9 月開始。 那是剛剛在一次 特殊的市長選舉之後, 即將有城市範圍規劃的消息 已經被放出, 給底特律人帶來了一些 焦慮和恐懼。 我們已經籌劃了在這樣的 場合舉辦一些社區會議 來介紹這個規劃的過程。 人們從城市不同的角落過來, 包括住在穩定社區的人們 和住在已經開始出現 空城狀況區域的人們。 我們多數的聽眾代表來自 當時城市中佔百分之八十二 的非洲裔美國人。 當然,有一個關於 我們計劃的問答環節, 人們排起隊問問題。 他們中的很多人 非常堅定地走向麥克風, 雙手盤在胸膛上說: “我知道,你們這些人在嘗試 把我們趕出我們的房子,對吧?”
So that question is really powerful, and it was certainly powerful to us in the moment, when you connect it to the stories that some Detroiters had, and actually a lot of African-Americans' families have had that are living in Midwestern cities like Detroit. Many of them told us the stories about how they came to own their home through their grandparents or great-grandparents, who were one of 1.6 million people who migrated from the rural South to the industrial North, as depicted in this painting by Jacob Lawrence, "The Great Migration." They came to Detroit for a better way of life. Many found work in the automobile industry, the Ford Motor Company, as depicted in this mural by Diego Rivera in the Detroit Institute of Art. The fruits of their labors would afford them a home, for many the first piece of property that they would ever know, and a community with other first-time African-American home buyers. The first couple of decades of their life in the North is quite well, up until about 1950, which coincides with the city's peak population at 1.8 million people. Now it's at this time that Detroit begins to see a second kind of migration, a migration to the suburbs. Between 1950 and 2000, the region grows by 30 percent. But this time, the migration leaves African-Americans in place, as families and businesses flee the city, leaving the city pretty desolate of people as well as jobs. During that same period, between 1950 and 2000, 2010, the city loses 60 percent of its population, and today it hovers at above 700,000.
這是一個擲地有聲的問題, 對當時的我們非常非常震撼, 尤其當你把這個問題和 許多底特律人的故事, 特別是那些居住在像 中西部城市非裔美國人的 家庭經歷聯繫起來的時候。 他們當中很多人告訴我們 他們怎樣來到他們現在的家: 他們祖父母輩或曾祖父母輩, 作為一百六十萬人 從荒蕪的南方移民 到工業化的北方之中的成員, 情景如同這幅 雅各布勞倫斯的油畫 《大移民》。 他們爲了更好的生活 而來到底特律。 很多人為汽車工業工作, 正如同在這幅在底特律藝術館, 出自迪亞戈日瓦樂的壁畫當中描繪的 《福特汽車公司》。 他們勞動的果實支撐著他們的家, 那是他們之中很多人 所購置的第一份不動產, 也是一個和其他第一次 買房的非裔美國人組成的一個社區。 他們在美國北方生活的前幾十年 是非常不錯的,直到大約 1950 年, 城市人口數量達到巔峰, 有一百八十萬人。 這時,底特律開始出現 第二種形式的移民, 從城市遷往市郊。 在 1950 年到 2000 年之間, 這個區域增長了 30% 但是這次,移民潮留下了 非洲裔美國人在原處, 與此同時,很多家庭和商業逃出城市, 讓這座城市非常缺乏人 和工作。 同期,即在 1950 到 2000 和 2010 之間, 底特律人口減少了 60%, 以至於現在城市 人口數量在七十萬左右。
The audience members who come and talk to us that night tell us the stories of what it's like to live in a city with such depleted population. Many tell us that they're one of only a few homes on their block that are occupied, and that they can see several abandoned homes from where they sit on their porches. Citywide, there are 80,000 vacant homes. They can also see vacant property. They're beginning to see illegal activities on these properties, like illegal dumping, and they know that because the city has lost so much population, their costs for water, electricity, gas are rising, because there are not enough people to pay property taxes to help support the services that they need. Citywide, there are about 100,000 vacant parcels.
那晚在場的觀眾告訴我們 在一個人口匱乏的城市 是怎樣生活的。 很多人告訴我們, 他們的房子是街區裡 為數不多還住著人的, 他們坐在自家的門廊 就可以看到好幾座廢棄的房子。 整個城市有八萬空房子。 他們也能看到空置的房產。 一些非法活動開始出現, 比如非法傾倒垃圾, 他們也知道,因為城市人口大量流失, 他們的水費、電費、瓦斯費都在上漲, 因為沒有足夠人去交房產稅 以支撐他們所需要的服務。 整個城市裡大約有 十萬筆空置土地。
Now, to quickly give you all a sense of a scale, because I know that sounds like a big number, but I don't think you quite understand until you look at the city map. So the city is 139 square miles. You can fit Boston, San Francisco, and the island of Manhattan within its footprint. So if we take all of that vacant and abandoned property and we smush it together, it looks like about 20 square miles, and that's roughly equivalent to the size of the island we're sitting on today, Manhattan, at 22 square miles. So it's a lot of vacancy.
現在,我簡單解釋一下 這是怎樣的規模, 因為我知道這聽起來 像是一個很大的數字, 我認為你得看一看 城市地圖才會更加清楚。 城市面積是 139 平方英里。 其面積可以將波士頓、 舊金山 和曼哈頓島 包括在內。 因此,如果我們把所有的 空置和遺棄的不動產 加在一起, 有約 20 平方英里, 其面積就大致相當於 今天我們身處的曼哈頓島, 約為 22 平方英里。 所以它意謂著很多的空置面積。
Now some of our audience members also tell us about some of the positive things that are happening in their communities, and many of them are banding together to take control of some of the vacant lots, and they're starting community gardens, which are creating a great sense of community stewardship, but they're very, very clear to tell us that this is not enough, that they want to see their neighborhoods return to the way that their grandparents had found them.
我們觀眾中的一些人 也告訴我們正發生在他們 社區的一些正面的事情, 很多人團結在一起 採取一些措施 控制空置土地, 他們開始在社區建造花園, 這建立了社區管理責任感, 但他們非常、非常清楚地告訴我們 這是遠遠不夠的, 他們想要看到他們的社區 回到他們祖父母時期的生活方式。
Now there's been a lot of speculation since 2010 about what to do with the vacant property, and a lot of that speculation has been around community gardening, or what we call urban agriculture. So many people would say to us, "What if you just take all that vacant land and you could make it farmland? It can provide fresh foods, and it can put Detroiters back to work too." When I hear that story, I always imagine the folks from the Great Migration rolling over in their graves, because you can imagine that they didn't sacrifice moving from the South to the North to create a better life for their families, only to see their great-grandchildren return to an agrarian lifestyle, especially in a city where they came with little less than a high school education or even a grammar school education and were able to afford the basic elements of the American dream: steady work and a home that they owned.
自 2010 年起,就有很多關於 如何處置空置房產的猜測, 關於如何打理社區園藝, 也就是我們稱為的都市農業。 很多人跟我們說: 「可以把空置的土地變成農田嗎? 這樣可以提供新鮮食物, 也可以讓底特律人願意 回來這座城市工作。」 每當我聽到這個故事, 總是想像著大遷徙時代的人 翻身爬出他們的墳墓, 因為你可以想像 他們付出了多少努力 從南方遷徙到北方 若要創建更好的家庭生活 只是為了看其曾孫 返回到一種耕地的生活方式, 尤其是當他們拿著 比高中文憑更低的學歷 甚至是初中文憑來到這座城市 能夠負擔得起 美國夢的基本所需: 穩定的工作和屬於自己的一個家。
Now, there's a third wave of migration happening in Detroit: a new ascendant of cultural entrepreneurs. These folks see that same vacant land and those same abandoned homes as opportunity for new, entrepreneurial ideas and profit, so much so that former models can move to Detroit, buy property, start successful businesses and restaurants, and become successful community activists in their neighborhood, bringing about very positive change. Similarly, we have small manufacturing companies making conscious decisions to relocate to the city. This company, Shinola, which is a luxury watch and bicycle company, deliberately chose to relocate to Detroit, and they quote themselves by saying they were drawn to the global brand of Detroit's innovation. And they also knew that they can tap into a workforce that was still very skilled in how to make things. Now we have community stewardship happening in neighborhoods, we have cultural entrepreneurs making decisions to move to the city and create enterprises, and we have businesses relocating, and this is all in the context of what is no secret to us all, a city that's under the control of an emergency manager, and just this July filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy.
現在,第三次移民潮 在底特律出現了: 一些新興的文化企業家。 這些人視那些空置土地 和那些同樣被遺棄的住房 為新的機會, 創業想法和利潤, 此前的發展模式 可以照搬到底特律, 購買物業,開始成功的 企業和餐館, 成為社區積極分子, 帶來了非常積極的改變。 同樣的,有小型製造業公司 決意遷往這座城市。 這個公司,Shinola(公司名), 是一家經營名貴手錶 和自行車的公司, 選擇搬遷到底特律, 他們引述自己的話說 他們要成為底特律 創新的全球品牌。 他們也知道,他們可以僱用 對工作非常熟練的團隊。 現在我們的居民區 有了社區管理, 我們有文化企業家決意 遷往這座城市創建企業, 我們有企業迴流, 在這樣的狀況下 對我們所有人來說都不是秘密, 這座城市在緊急情況處理下 運作情況正常, 今年 7 月只有 9 起破產申請。
So 2010, we started this process, and by 2013, we released Detroit Future City, which was our strategic plan to guide the city into a better and more prosperous and more sustainable existence -- not what it was, but what it could be, looking at new ways of economic growth, new forms of land use, more sustainable and denser neighborhoods, a reconfigured infrastructure and city service system, and a heightened capacity for civic leaders to take action and implement change. Three key imperatives were really important to our work. One was that the city itself wasn't necessarily too large, but the economy was too small. There are only 27 jobs per 100 people in Detroit, very different from a Denver or an Atlanta or a Philadelphia that are anywhere between 35 to 70 jobs per 100 people. Secondly, there had to be an acceptance that we were not going to be able to use all of this vacant land in the way that we had before and maybe for some time to come. It wasn't going to be our traditional residential neighborhoods as we had before, and urban agriculture, while a very productive and successful intervention happening in Detroit, was not the only answer, that what we had to do is look at these areas where we had significant vacancy but still had a significant number of population of what could be new, productive, innovative, and entrepreneurial uses that could stabilize those communities, where still nearly 300,000 residents lived.
所以 2010 年,我們開始這個案子, 在 2013 年的時候 我們推出底特律未來城市計劃, 這是我們用於指導城市的計畫 引導城市更加繁榮 與更多永續發展的可能性—— 不是過去,而是未來的可能性, 我們尋找新的經濟增長方式, 新的土地使用方式, 更多永續且高密度的居民社群, 一個改組後的基礎設施 和城市服務系統, 和能力得到提高的公民領袖 來採取行動和實施變革。 三項關鍵要務 對我們的工作很重要。 一個是,城市本身並不一定太大, 但是,經濟規模太小。 每百人僅有 27 個工作崗位, 這和丹佛、亞特蘭大 或費城情況非常不同, 那些城市每百人就有 35 到 70 個工作崗位。 第二,必須接受 我們不打算使用 以前的方式來使用 所有的空置土地, 也許要等待一段時間。 它不會是我們傳統的住宅社區 如同以前那樣, 城市農業,在底特律 非常成功且高效, 並不是唯一的解決方法, 我們所要做的是,看看這些領域 這些有大量空缺 但仍有相當多的人口的區域 能否有新的、 更有成效的、 創新的, 創業用途 能穩定這些, 仍有近三十萬居民居住的社區。
So we came up with one neighborhood typology -- there are several -- called a live-make neighborhood, where folks could reappropriate abandoned structures and turn them into entrepreneurial enterprises, with a specific emphasis on looking at the, again, majority 82 percent African-American population. So they, too, could take businesses that they maybe were doing out of their home and grow them to more prosperous industries and actually acquire property so they were actually property owners as well as business owners in the communities with which they resided. Then we also wanted to look at other ways of using land in addition to growing food and transforming landscape into much more productive uses, so that it could be used for storm water management, for example, by using surface lakes and retention ponds, that created neighborhood amenities, places of recreation, and actually helped to elevate adjacent property levels. Or we could use it as research plots, where we can use it to remediate contaminated soils, or we could use it to generate energy.
所以我們想出了一個鄰里類型學 — — 有幾個 — — 稱為社區發展, 在那裡,人們可以重拾 被遺棄的結構 然後將它們發展成創業企業, 再次特別強調 大多數占 82% 的非洲裔美國人人口。 所以他們,也可以開展商業活動, 他們也許能從本地發展 增長成為更繁榮的產業, 並且購置產業, 這樣他們實際上是 物業的業主,同時也是企業擁有者 就在他們所居住的社區。 我們也想看看其他 除了種植糧食的土地使用方法 和發現土地能夠 更有效率的用途, 它以前於雨水管理,例如, 通過使用湖泊表面、 池塘滯洪區, 為鄰里帶來歡樂, 娛樂消遣的場所, 這實際上提升了 社區的級別。 或者我們把它用作試驗田, 我們可以用它來 補救受污染的土壤, 或者我們可以 用它來試著產生能量。
So the descendants of the Great Migration could either become precision watchmakers at Shinola, like Willie H., who was featured in one of their ads last year, or they can actually grow a business that would service companies like Shinola. The good news is, there is a future for the next generation of Detroiters, both those there now and those that want to come.
所以大遷徙的後代們 可以成為在 Shinola 工作的精密鐘錶匠, 像威利 H.,他出現在了去年的廣告上, 或者他們可以自己創辦企業 為 Shinola 這樣的公司提供服務。 好消息是,總有一個未來在等待著 下一代的底特律人, 包括那些已經在這裡的 和那些想要來底特律的。
So no thank you, Mayor Menino, who recently was quoted as saying, "I'd blow up the place and start over." There are very important people, business and land assets in Detroit, and there are real opportunities there. So while Detroit might not be what it was, Detroit will not die.
所以不說謝謝,市長曼甯諾, 市長曼甯諾最近說, 「我會炸掉這個地方,然後從頭開始。」 底特律有很重要的人、 商業和土地資產, 並且有實在的機會。 所以也許底特律 不會重現舊日輝煌, 但底特律不會消亡。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)