June Manning Thomas

Social Diversity and Economic Development in the Metropolis

Theories of regional economic development are increasingly focused on understanding the reasons for metropolitan economic growth. The “creative capital” perspective argues that such growth is extremely dependent on the presence of four main conditions: technology, talent, tolerance, and good quality of place. This article examines evidence for the importance of tolerance in promoting metropolitan economic development. Through his analysis, Richard Florida studied the association of economic growth with the presence of gays and lesbians, bohemians, immigrants, and racial minorities. Literature confirms that diversity is an important component of economic development, although this does not appear to be fully explained by Florida’s creative-cities model.

The City After Abandonment

Introduction: The City After Abandonment I. WHAT DOES THE CITY BECOME AFTER ABANDONMENT? Chapter 1. Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture as Antithesis to Abandonment-Exploring a Citizenship-Land Model -Laura Lawson and Abbilyn Miller Chapter 2. Building Affordable Housing in Cities After Abandonment: The Case of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Developments in Detroit -Lan Deng Chapter 3. Detroit Art City: Urban Decline, Aesthetic Production, Public Interest -Andrew Herscher II. WHAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN WHAT CITIES BECOME AFTER ABANDONMENT? Chapter 4. Decline-Oriented Urban Governance in Youngstown, Ohio -Laura Schatz Chapter 5. Targeting Neighborhoods, Stimulating Markets: The Role of Political, Institutional, and Technical Factors in Three Cities -Dale E. Thomson Chapter 6. Recovery in a Shrinking City: Challenges to Rightsizing Post-Katrina New Orleans -Renia Ehrenfeucht and Marla Nelson Chapter 7. Missing New Orleans: Lessons from the CDC Sector on Vacancy, Abandonment, and Reconstructing the Crescent City -Jeffrey S. Lowe and Lisa K. Bates Chapter 8. What Helps or Hinders Nonprofit Developers in Reusing Vacant, Abandoned, and Contaminated Property? -Margaret Dewar Chapter 9. Targeting Strategies of Three Detroit CDCs -June Manning Thomas III. WHAT SHOULD THE CITY BECOME AFTER ABANDONMENT? Chapter 10. Strategic Thinking for Distressed Neighborhoods -Robert A. Beauregard Chapter 11. The Promise of Sustainability Planning for Regenerating Older Industrial Cities -Joseph Schilling and Raksha Vasudevan Chapter 12. Rightsizing Shrinking Cities: The Urban Design Dimension -Brent D. Ryan Chapter 13. Planning for Better, Smaller Places After Population Loss: Lessons from Youngstown and Flint -Margaret Dewar, Christina Kelly, and Hunter Morrison Notes List of Contributors Index Acknowledgments

Racial Crisis and the Fall of the Detroit City Plan Commission

Abstract The events immediately following the 1967 Detroit race riot set in motion organizational changes within the city government that radically altered the status of planning in the city. In this paper, I document the impact of those changes on the Detroit City Plan Commission. Many of the changes developed because of the new postriot environment. Historical evidence focuses on the archives of the commission, and emphasizes the period from 1967 until Detroit implemented a new city charter in 1974.

Planning and Industrial Decline Lessons from Postwar Detroit

Abstract This article examines one citys public policy reaction to industrial change during the postwar period. The city of Detroits efforts to implement a creditable program to counter industrial exodus faltered both because of problems that faced other rustbelt cities and because of particular local political circumstances. Although the city began to participate more actively in economic development in the early 1970s, much industrial employment had already left the city, making the improved economic development tools less effective. Economic development efforts must adjust to new realities; rustbelt cities like Detroit need broader policies designed to help remedy important social and economic problems.

Neighborhood Planning: Uses of Oral History

Neighborhood planning for community improvement in America’s distressed central cities is particularly difficult because the physical environment may have daunting problems and the social environment may appear unapproachable. Oral history as a technique can help access information from those “at the margins” of society who live in distressed neighborhoods. This article analyzes the potential benefits of oral histories for neighborhood planning. It also analyzes interviews conducted with board members of two Detroit community organizations to glean lessons about the importance of residents’ personal experiences within the neighborhoods. The author suggests that collecting such historical insights could become a productive part of neighborhood planning.

Rebuilding inner cities: Basic principles

ConclusionIn summary, Porter’s concepts offer a welcome framework for improving the business vitality of inner-city areas. He does this by highlighting the natural advantages such areas enjoy, and by offering empirically based advice about which firms could do well in areas others have given up for lost. Undoubtedly his concepts will have a major impact upon how we think about, and carry out, economic development in central cities.

Teaching Planning History as a Path to Social Justice

It is important to consider ways to help planning students develop a concern for social justice before they enter professional life. In previous decades, particularly the 1960s and 1970s, the task of instilling a sense of social commitment among planning students was not so difficult. Students were very likely to come into the classroom with a heightened awareness of social justice concerns, in great part because of the civil rights movement and because of an “urban crisis” that may have actually called them into the profession. In the current situation, in which such background and sense of urgency cannot be assumed, it is important to consider ways in which to create classroom learning experiences that foster a sense of social consciousness. Only a limited number of tools exist that can help with this process, however, and each has advantages and disadvantages. Planning history is one of these tools, but it has value only if used carefully and with purposeful preparation on the part of the instructor.

Symposium on Woods's Development Arrested:

“Planning history” might at first impression sound like a narrow field. But a forum such as this one underscores the extraordinarily broad and interdisciplinary reach of research that contributes to our understanding of how cities and regions have been shaped. The history of planning offers an unusual opportunity to investigate the past with an unapologetic eye toward the present and the future. The very nature of the topic invites these multiple orientations. This forum on Clyde Woods’s Development Arrested: Race, Power, and the Blues in the Mississippi Delta is intended to raise a set of issues that reframe the past in startling ways, integrate the multiple orientations of planning history, and challenge readers to weigh the implications for their own work, academic and otherwise. Here, George Lipsitz, Charles E. Connerly, June Manning Thomas, Bobby M. Wilson, and author Clyde Woods carry the vital exchange of a session at the November 2003 Society for American City and Regional Planning History conference into printed form. The contributors draw upon the fields of history, American studies, geography, ethnic studies, African American studies, and planning as they engage with and extend Woods’s insights. The Journal of Planning History expects that this exchange will help readers see, from their own different perspectives, reasons for rethinking the way they teach U.S. history surveys, as well as new frameworks for understanding contemporary planning practices, to name two disparate examples. Woods’s work also highlights the potentially transformative outcome of incorporating more grassroots and indigenous community development initiatives into the history of

Socially Responsible Practice: The Battle to Reshape the American Institute of Planners

This article explores how events of a particular era, 1959–1974, contributed to the reshaping of ideas about planners’ social responsibilities. It describes encounters between Planners for Equal Opportunity and American Institute of Planners (AIP) relating to the need for planners to help protect the disadvantaged and to counter racial or economic oppression in professional practice. It suggests that the years from 1959, when AIP issued a slight revision of its code of professional conduct, to 1974, when it developed a proposal for dispersed advocacy planning, were the setting for major changes in understanding about the need for social justice in planning practice.

Saving Strong Neighborhoods From the Destruction of Mortgage Foreclosures: The Impact of Community-Based Efforts in Detroit, Michigan

Abstract Mortgage foreclosures hit Detroit, Michigan hard between 2005 and 2014, especially in what we define as strong neighborhoods; there, more than one third of homes experienced foreclosure. Before the crisis hit, these selected tracts had largely intact physical environments and higher owner occupancy, household income and property value than the citywide median. In some of them residents worked intensely to abate the neighborhood effects of mortgage foreclosures. This study examines those efforts’ effectiveness. We selected neighborhoods with the most extensive efforts, as measured, for instance, by creation of community-based plans and applications for grants, and we conducted interviews and field observations to examine those efforts. To assess strengthening of neighborhood housing markets, we applied a modified adjusted interrupted time-series approach to evaluate changes in prices as one measure of neighborhood change. We found that strong resident initiative supported by community development organizations and external assistance led to increased neighborhood housing prices, compared with comparable neighborhoods. However, when initiative, context, and support were weaker, community-based efforts could not prevent considerable decline.