A new "supergroup" called "One D: Transforming Regional Detroit" unites six Detroit-area groups in the quest to revitalize the region.
towards the ren cen by ryan southen
The organizations are New Detroit, the Detroit Regional Chamber, the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, Detroit Renaissance, United Way for Southeastern Michigan (see the post on the UWSEM Voice as well) and the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan (is this the last organization without a web site in America?).
The groups claim that what has been lacking in past efforts to transform Detroit has been sufficient collaboration between organizations which together can make transformation possible, and a scope that encompasses the entire Southeast Michigan region working as a whole. They will focus on several areas, including establishing mass transit, restructuring the economy, and improving education and the region's quality of life and present a plan for action at the annual policy conference on Mackinac Island in May 2007. There will also be a special 30-minute special broadcast on WTVS-TV56 at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 20. (if anyone finds a YouTube post of this, we'd love to hear about it!)
The editorial below suggests that business leaders (and funders) noticed that all six groups were working on strategic plans to better conditions in Metro Detroit, often duplicating each other's efforts.
Read Six Southeast Michigan Civic Organizations Coordinate Efforts for Transforming Region from Yahoo News and also see One D offers hope for regional solutions in the Detroit News.
Update Nov 17, 2006: Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry interviews Doug Rothwell of Detroit Renaissance and then in his essay on One D, Jack is skeptical of the effort and suggests calling on the Michigan Legislature to pass the one thing that would make a difference: a metropolitan government combining Wayne County and Detroit into one governmental unit, as they have in Miami and Nashville and Indianapolis.
7 Comments
I wonder where the city of Detroit and the schools are in this effort. Anyone else have any thoughts or comments?
I think the City and the schools should be involved as well. The City is in dire need, except for the downtown area it is pretty bad off.
I think the fact that the city and school system aren't involved demonstrates why Detroit is in the shape it's in.
I applaud this effort, but it needs in at least some respects to be brought to a meaningful level to people. I have a suggestion that could be included under both educational preparedness and quality of life.
We will never have a truly vibrant community that taps the resources of all its people until we rescue the myriad of young people who simply drop out, are not educated to their potential, are under employed and turn to behaviors destructive to themselves and others.
This is particularly true today of young men. As a society, we have done a much better job with mentoring and energizing young women over the last 20 years. More young women than young men now enter college, graduate from college and enter fields that require educational preparation. The schols alont cannot remedy this situation.
I think we need to do two things:
First, we need an organization focused on young men that is similar to what the Michigan Women's Foundation has done for young women. MWF has done a good job in fundraising for programs and creating groups called Young Women for Change. These groups of young women, which are now in several areas of the state, identify problems, ask for proposals for grants, make the grants and review and monitor the grantees. What an education they receive about problems young women face, and the potential for change. (The Ohio Bar Association sponsors a similar program for both young men and young women in Ohio. There, the students study and recommend solutions for issues students face every day in just getting safely to school, avoiding gangs, and avoiding drugs. The results have been astounding.)
Second, we also need to energize every man to mentor young men in the same way that women have been mentoring young women and being role models for them for a long time. Twenty-five years ago we thought it was young women who needed this kind of attention in order to achieve equal access. Now it is clear that all young people need this kind of individual attention. This mentoring has to be done by people at every spectrum of active life, no matter how busy they are or how tired. The alternatives are too devastating to contemplate.
If someone will get back to me via my e-mail, I will forward a copy of a presentation that I did on these issues some months ago to an alumnae group. It references the resources and other raw material on which these comments are based.
I also think there are two people you might want to involve for tapping ideas and resources if you like these ideas. They are Barbara Hill, Exec. of Michigan Womens Foundation, and Lorraine Weber, Exec of Metropolitan Detroit Bar Association.
Kay Felt
So, how do the little people in the suburbs assist in this "One D" effort? We live in the Village of Lake Orion and often enjoy our downtown Detroit adventures. I'm sure most suburban governmental units view this "One-D" movement as a threat. I believe we all lose if we don't become a regional authority in some form. I'm also sure very few of my neighbors share my view.
I'm a semi-retired CPA with some governmental background and some time to invest in a good cause. How do I plug in?
Jeff, I would recommend contacting one of the organizations listed above. If you have no preference, I think the United Way specializes in placing volunteers!
I'd also like to point out this article about the founder of the nonprofit Saving Our Kids. It's a group that was started by Denise Ford, a Detroit florist who was disturbed at the number of flowers she had to prepare to decorate the caskets of kids killed by violence. "I kept thinking … it all hinged on the parents," Ford said. "If parents spent more quality leisure time with their children, it would deter kids from getting into crime. I decided then it would be more important to get the message out than giving flowers out after they're gone."
The article says that the nonprofit is having a hard time maintaining funding and is now collecting donations through the United Way.
If you were not aware of the Interstate Traveler Hydrogen Super Highway under development here in SE Michigan, which has already been unanimously supported by the Michigan Legislature three years ago, you may want to check out the website. Doug Rothwell, and many many others already know about it, they are just playing "wait and see".
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[...] put another way) sneak away, smoke weed, giggle wildly in the backroom about something called One D, and then talk about the weather when the buzz starts to die. When reporters come near, they [...]
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