detroit is cool. hamilton can be too.

Andres Duany, the father of New Urbanism, states that Detroit is cool. Which is, itself, a way cool thing. Detroit has suffered a lot in recent and not so recent years, so it's great to observe, as Duany does, that it is, in fact, not a total sinkhole of unrequited dreams.

What I like about Duany's conclusion, writing for Model D in the article "Andres Duany: Community building through 'Lean Urbanism'", is that Detroit is cool because it is letting young people get on with it. That is, get on with the business, inadvertent though it may be, the business of revitalization. He makes the case in this video too; a speech for the Michigan Municipal League.

Urban Thoughts - Why is Detroit the coolest city on earth? from Michigan Municipal League on Vimeo.

Admittedly, chunks of Detroit's good fortune are due to the Knight Foundation and Dan Gilbert (Chief of Quicken Loans) both of whom are investing heavily in the city, but, Duany points out, the young are there too. They are willing to take risks, fly under the radar, sell a cookie baked in a kitchen with no commercial licence, engage in tactical urbanism practices. And this reminds me of Northeast Hamilton. It has the elements you would want to see in a city: activities at the front door, new and young businesses, artists making a living - collectively building vibrancy. We have the elements but haven't cracked it yet.

Seeing the good in Detroit, Duany has started the Project for Lean Urbanism in an attempt to recreate that "Go west, young man" feeling elsewhere. As he terms it "...revitalizing cities by finding ways for people to participate in community-building -- specifically, by enabling everyday people to get things done." This is an excellent idea - a combination of New Urbanism and Tactical Urbanism? - and I look forward to learning more about it and seeing what we can adapt and use here in Bermuda.

a new way for local government

Watching the Corporation of Hamilton saga over the past year was depressing. Questions regarding the allocation of funds. Confusion over a lease. Takeover and then restoration of financial controls. Resolution couldn't come fast enough.

Assuming the business of city hall is back on track, it occurs to me that it is probably time to reconsider "the way we do things".

hamilton circa 2007I have written before about participatory budgeting. This time, though, I want to highlight co-producing the commissioning of public services, something the blog Polis introduced to me in the article Commissioning Democratic Renewal by Joe Penny.

It's a radical notion: planning for public services with people instead of just for them. Where participatory budgeting involves the community voting on the allocation of funds for projects, usually from a short-list of agreed options, co-producing the commissioning of public services takes the planning of those services a step further. It is a space "where professionals and citizens share power to plan and deliver support services together, recognising that both partners have a vital contribution to make" (source: new economics foundation).

In this world, the co-producers are public servants and citizens working together to decide what service is required, develop tender documents and take part in the selection of the successful bidder. This is hands on stuff. It seems tailor-made for an entity suffering from reduced financial controls that, nonetheless, must provide city services. Framed that way, the Bermuda Government might want to consider this option itself.

And what are the benefits? Get more from the services. Better value for money. More involvement on the part of the those providing the service and those using the service. In short: truly inclusive decision-making at a local level. So, instead of participatory budgeting, where the community votes on a project to receive funding, co-production means the community is a crucial part of the project. Radical indeed.

start with a big vision, take small steps

By now, everyone knows about the transformation of public spaces in New York City. Times Square is the example that comes to mind most immediately but there are other adaptations in all the boroughs. This enlightening and amusing TED Talk given by Janette Sadik-Khan, New York's Transportation Commissioner, shows the value of having a big vision that you achieve through incremental steps. Enjoy "New York's streets? Not so mean any more" and think about taking small steps here in Bermuda.janette sadik-khan