{"id":9648,"date":"2013-08-03T18:47:56","date_gmt":"2013-08-03T18:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/?p=9648"},"modified":"2013-08-03T18:47:56","modified_gmt":"2013-08-03T18:47:56","slug":"detroit-urban-landscape-architecture-planning-and-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/detroit-urban-landscape-architecture-planning-and-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit urban landscape architecture, planning and design"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_9650\" style=\"width: 785px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/detroit_landscape_architecture1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9650\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9650\" title=\"detroit_landscape_architecture\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/detroit_landscape_architecture1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"775\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/detroit_landscape_architecture1.jpg 775w, https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/detroit_landscape_architecture1-300x108.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/detroit_landscape_architecture1-768x277.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/detroit_landscape_architecture1-624x225.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 775px) 100vw, 775px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-9650\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detroit urban landscape architecture and design<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Detroit is bankrupt, derelict, ruined and dangerous to know. So anyone with an interest in urban landscape design and planning should ask two questions<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why did it happen?<\/li>\n<li>What can be done about it?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many people are in fact asking these questions and they could put be on school curricula &#8211; in Europe, in America and, most of all, in China. Similar catastrophes happened in Europe yesterday and may be expected in China tomorrow. In Britain, as the <em>Guardian<\/em> explains, the school history curriculum is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2005\/feb\/15\/schools.historyandhistoryofart\"><em>too focussed in Hitler<\/em><\/a>. It is a preposterous state of affaris: the man is dead. His ideas are dead. Everyone hates him. Really, one would think school history teachers had heard about this.<br \/>\n <em>So why is Detroit going down the drain?<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is the CIA behind it? (Probably not)<\/li>\n<li>Is it because American engineers don&#8217;t know how to design cars? (Probably not)<\/li>\n<li>Is it because Detroit is, largely, an African American city? (Probably not)<\/li>\n<li>Is it because American managers are obese? (Probably not)<\/li>\n<li>Is it because American trade unions are so strong? (Probably not)<\/li>\n<li>Is it because Asian workers work much harder for lower rates? (Probably not)<\/li>\n<li>Is it because the US has dumb policies on gun control and drugs (Probably not)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>So I cannot answer the question<\/em> &#8211; but other cities have found ways of dealing with the declines of their auto industries and, in due course, it will be interesting to see what policy China adopts for its soon-to-be rustbelt industries. Karl Marx explained that creative destruction is integral to capitalism &#8211; and China has become a capitalist country.<br \/>\n <em>So what can be done about Detroit?<\/em> Edward Glaeser, in <em>Triumph of the city<\/em> (2011 pp 64-7) recommends a policy of &#8216;shrinking to greatness&#8217;. Following the examples of Leipzig in Germany, and Youngstown in Ohio, he recommends demolishing empty buildings. He writes that Mayor Bing, &#8216;knows that Detroit can be a great city if it cares for its people well even if it has far fewer structures&#8217;. Instead of &#8216;demolition&#8217; I recommend a plan for regenerating the city&#8217;s ecosystem. It needs a habitat plan: for humans, fauna and flora. Humans need safety. Perhaps the 25% of the city which is now un-inhabited should be demolished, or perhaps the empty buildings should be fenced off. I don&#8217;t know &#8211; but high schools would surely learn more from studying Detroit than from studying Hitler. A class could begin with an old Detroit-made car. Kids could learn to take it apart, clean it up,\u00a0 put it back together and drive round the playground. While doing this they would learn about physics,\u00a0 architecture, chemistry, industrial design, labour relations, politics, economics, trade unions, finance, pensions, international trade, entrepreneurship, urban design, database management, landscape architecture, ecology &#8211; and, of course, an approach to art and music which draws upon the <em>Nature of Detroit<\/em>. &#8216;Ah&#8217;, you may say, &#8216;good idea &#8211;\u00a0 but school teachers know nothing of these subjects&#8217;. <strong>Well then<\/strong>: they should not be teaching kids who need to know about these subjects.<\/p>\n<p>(Images courtesy nic-r and LHOON)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Detroit is bankrupt, derelict, ruined and dangerous to know. So anyone with an interest in urban landscape design and planning should ask two questions Why did it happen? What can be done about it? Many people are in fact asking these questions and they could put be on school curricula &#8211; in Europe, in America [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,18,28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}