Detroit Wants To Be Just Like West Philly
February 28, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Detroit has had a pretty rough 40 years or so. The population is dwindling, the vacancy and unemployment rates are inordinately high, and much of the city's infrastructure is in ruins. To put it bluntly, the city's a post-industrial wasteland. In light of all this mess, there are lots of ideas for revitalizing the city floating around out there, and some forward thinkers have even suggested that West Philly serve as a model for the re-development of some Detroit neighborhoods.
The Detroit Free Press reports that the man in charge of West Philadelphia's rejuvenation project has been brought in to help fix the Midtown neighborhood of downtown Detroit. Planned initiatives include loan incentive programs geared at employees of the Detroit Medical Center, the Henry Ford Health System, and Wayne State University. It's almost a carbon copy of a program that Penn launched in 1998 to help keep professors and people affiliated with the university in the neighborhood. But is this sort of program suited to the unique problems of Detroit? West Philly never really had it quite that bad. URBS majors: read the article and let us know what you think in the comments.