Perception of Detroit

April 26th 2017

PS 1010
Dr. DeNicolo Martin

Nainjot Mann
Amoolya Yetukuri
Lyubov Gavrilova
Nandit Patel
Michael Demetriou
 Gavrilova, Yetukuri, Mann, Demetriou, Patel 1

Table of Contents

Section I:

Background and Statement................................................................2-6

Section II:

Problem Needs Assessment...............................................................7-11

Section III:

III:A

Direct Action......................................................................................11-16

III:B

Clean and Green Policy.....................................................................16-18

Institutional and Structural Change...................................................18-19

Community Parks Policy....................................................................20-21

Detroit Riverwalk Policy................................................................... 21-23

Regional Transit Policy......................................................................23-24

Media Influencing Detroit..................................................................24-26

III:C

Benefits of Institutional change and Direct Action.............................26-28

SECTION I

Today, when people hear the word Detroit they do not immediately think about the

beautiful museums and recreational parks the city has to offer. Instead, images of abandoned

houses and buildings come to mind. There is an evident problem in how individuals outside of

Wayne County perceive the city of Detroit. (Turque, Bill) Many individuals have developed a

negative bias towards Detroit, labeling the city as dangerous and abandoned.

Detroit has lost much of its population over the last forty years. In between the years

1970 and 1980, the city lost around 31,000 residents per year. Furthermore, in between the years

2000 and 2010, Detroit lost 24,000 residents per year. Although Detroits latest population

numbers shows that the citys population decline has slowed, Detroit is no longer among the

nation's Twenty Largest Cities for the first time since 1860. The United States Census

Bureaus latest population sample shows a loss of 3,107 residents between July 1 st, 2014 and July

1st, 2015. (Kaffer, Nancy) There is reason to believe that the negative perceptions of Detroit held

by the country are driving people outside of the city. Agency, the actions of individuals governed

by their own free will, played a role in why many residents are leaving Detroit. As agents, many

Detroit residents are choosing to leave the city, believing they can build better lives for

themselves elsewhere.

The Daily Detroit Staff organized an interview on June 25th, 2015 asking pedestrians in

Chicago about their perception of Detroit. The video of the interview made it clear that there are

many individuals in the country who have a negative perception of the city. Many interviewees

described Detroit as a crime-ridden, poor city with little to offer its visitors and residents. One
pedestrian described Detroit to be a vacant city with no recreational areas or attractions for

tourists to visit. (Interview by Daily Detroit Staff)

On April 16th, 2017, a personal interview was conducted in Brampton Ontario by Nainjot

Mann, who received similar responses compared to the pedestrians from Chicago. One

interviewee from Brampton, who asked to remain anonymous, described Detroit as a very poor,

dangerous, and drug-ridden area. After asking him if he would consider visiting the Detroit, he

answered that he would not consider it due to his fear of being shot or harmed while in the city.

Along with this, there was another interviewee, named Ashwinder Suri, who described Detroit to

be a very violent, hopeless city with little to offer its visitors. After asking him how he developed

this negative perception of the city, he stated that his perception was most likely developed

through his high school peers and through popular media sources, including news channels and

movies. (Personal interview)

Nainjot Mann and Amoolya Yetukuri conducted a similar interview together in

downtown Detroit near Campus Martius: they observed that pedestrians inside of the city had a

much more positive perception of the city. One pedestrian, for example, stated that Detroit is a

beautiful city with a rich culture and bright future. Additionally, there was another pedestrian,

who worked at the Detroit Institute of Arts, who was actually impressed by the wonderful

nightlife and recreational areas Detroit has to offer. (Personal interview.)

In 2014, LaVERDAD Research, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, conducted a survey asking

4,685 Detroiters and non-Detroiters about their perception of the city, regarding its cleanliness,

walkability, and safety. The survey found that 96% of the respondents from Detroit believe in the

citys potential and growth, while only 77% of the respondents living outside of Detroit believe
in the citys development. Additionally, 91% of Detroiters believe the city is safe, while only

53% of non-Detroiters believe the city is safe. Overall, the survey found that Detroit residents

have a more favorable opinion of the city as opposed to non-Detroit residents. (Lee, Ardelia)

Research shows that popular media sources are one of the largest reasons for peoples

negative perception of the city. As a large societal institution, the media governs how individuals

living outside of Wayne County view the city of Detroit. Currently, news channels depict a

negative image of Detroit, pushing people to perceive Detroit as a hopeless, crime-ridden city.

As mentioned previously, there are many individuals who believe that Detroit has nothing to

offer its visitors; however, this is untrue! Detroit has many attractions available to tourists,

including the Detroit Institute of Arts, Belle Isle, Campus Martius, and much more. Many

individuals living outside of Detroit, however, are not aware of the recreational parks and

attractions in the city, because the media does not choose to show its audience the appealing

aspects of the city.

On March 25th, 2017, three members of our group volunteered with Wolverine Services

to help clean and restore parts of the city. Most of their time was spent by picking up litter across

neighborhoods near the city. While they did view many negative aspects of the city that

reinforced Detroits negative stereotypes, such as one group member finding a gun and drug

paraphernalia, they experienced many aspects of the city that gave them hope for Detroits

future. After volunteering with an organization so committed to Detroits renewal, it was clear to

see that there are still many individuals out there who see Detroits unique beauty and future.

Along with this, on April 2nd, 2017, all group members volunteered with the Motor City Blight

Busters to help revamp aspects of Detroit. The organizations primary goal is to revamp
abandoned and damaged buildings in the city through civic workers and donations. Along with

our group, there were many other volunteers who were very devoted to the organization and

came to help almost every weekend! It was clear to our group that there were still many

individuals who believed in the citys future. Unfortunately, many of these individuals who have

a positive perception of Detroit and believe in its future are from the city themselves. As a

community, it is essential that we improve this negative perception of Detroit because it is

greatly affecting the residents living there.

As aforementioned, there are many individuals who are leaving the city of Detroit in

hopes of building a better life for themselves elsewhere. These individuals who are leaving

Detroit because of the citys poor image in the media lose their chance to build their life in such

a wonderful and growing city. Additionally, the countrys poor perception of Detroit also affects

the residents living in Detroit who cannot afford to leave the city and make a new life for

themselves and family elsewhere. Many individuals living in Wayne County own businesses

and restaurants inside Detroit, which will fail to succeed if people continue to leave the city,

taking their money and business with them. Along with the owners of these businesses, the

employees that work there will be greatly affected if the businesses close: they will not have a

place to work and will not have a stable income, lowering their quality of life. Furthermore,

children living in Detroit and its surrounding suburbs are greatly affected by the nations

negative perception of the city. As mentioned before, many residents living in Detroit are slowly

moving out of the city,

which may have resulted from their negative perception of the area. Many of the educational

sites in Detroit are being poorly funded as they have so few visitors, limiting the childrens
learning tools. After volunteering at civic organizations, conducting a series of interviews, and

conducting research, our group has developed many solutions to help improve peoples negative

perception of Detroit and to eliminate their negative biases towards Detroit.

The main cause for peoples negative perception of Detroit is due to how the United

States presents this city in their popular sources. Along with this, peoples lack of awareness,

regarding Detroits civic organizations, recreational areas, and museums, enforce their negative

perception of the city, believing the city is abandoned and has nothing to offer its people. Our

policies focus on revitalizing and renovating the city of Detroit to beautify the city. This,

however, is not enough to change peoples negative perception of the city. Our solutions enforce

large corporations and media institutions to inform people about Detroits urban renewal

projects, so they are aware of Detroits development and growth. This paper will discuss the

successful aspects of the Clean and Green Policy, a program which renovated abandoned and

broken-down houses from neighborhoods around Detroit, and how we can refine this policy to

improve peoples negative perception of the city. Additionally, this paper will inform readers

about the Regional Transit Authority system, a route that expands the city of Detroit, and how its

development can improve the countrys overall perception of the city. This paper will also

inform readers about the Community Parks Revitalization Act and how this policy would further

improve the physical appearance of Detroit, which in turn will improve the countrys perception

of the Detroit. Our solutions and policy refinements include working with the civic sphere,

involving non-profit organizations and volunteers, and the market sphere, involving well-known

corporations, to enforce the media to advertise the beautiful aspects of Detroit and make

individuals aware about Detroits development and growth.

SECTION II

In the process of exploring this problem concerning the perception of the city of Detroit,

our group spent some time volunteering and doing some fieldwork in order to better understand

the issues the city is facing. We chose causes that we believe attempt to solve the problem of the

citys perception through activities that aim to clean up and improve problem areas of the city. It

was our hope that by being a part of these causes we would contribute to the long term of goal of

changing the negative way people in and outside the city view Detroit. As a result of this, we

chose two organizations that seemed to best fit our solution in which to improve the perception

that people have of Detroit.

A few of the members of our group volunteered at an event hosted by the Community of

Scholars at Wayne State University in which students visited a few neighborhoods in order to

clean them up. This volunteering event focused on improving and cleaning up neighborhoods in

Detroit. It was during this event that our group was able to experience a few examples of why the

perception of Detroit needs to be changed and improved. While cleaning up the neighborhood,

our group came across a gun and drug paraphernalia left behind in the street for anyone to find.

These finds exemplify why it is so vital for projects such as this to continue. However, overall

this project was very important to our cause in that we were able to contribute to solving a part of

the problem, which is the notion that Detroit is a rundown city that is not pleasant to live in. It

should be stated, however, that this project was limited in its timeframe. While it did strive to

solve an important issue that exists within the city, it also was not a project that extended as long

as it could have. It could be majorly beneficial to the city and the people within it if a project
such as this was an initiative that takes place every weekend over several months. It can be seen

that over only one day, a lot of cleaning was achieved in the neighborhood in which this event

took place. If the project was expanded to take place over several months, a lot more

neighborhoods can be included. This is a very possible solution as the entire event was volunteer

based and consisted of a majority of Wayne State University students. Therefore, it would serve

as a service opportunity for Wayne State students as well as a way for students, and others

interested, to give back to the city and at the same time improve its perception by solving a major

problem that exists in the citys neighborhoods.

Another organization that we took part in volunteering with were the Motor City Blight

Busters. The Motor City Blight Busters is an organization that has existed in Detroit for twenty

five years and seeks to remove areas of blight from the city and then renovate them to make

these areas seem safer and cleaner to the people of the city (Motor City Blight Busters, About).

A quote from the Blight Busters website states that over the duration of its existence it has taken

658,000 volunteer hours to paint 684 homes, board up and secure 379 abandoned buildings,

renovate 176 houses and build 114 new ones to make suitable housing for 1,160 people. From

these numbers it can be said that the Motor City Blight Busters are relatively successful in their

aim to improve the perception of the city.

In addition to volunteering their time to renovate parts of the city, Blight Busters

participates in the annual Angels Night patrols (Motor City Blight Busters, About). Angels

Night is an initiative created against events that take place during Detroits Devils Night.

Devils Night involves acts of vandalism and arson in the city of Detroit and Angels Night was

a community response in order to assist in keeping people in the city safe from the events

that
take place during this event (The Associated Press, Volunteer Patrols Help Keep Detroit

Angels Night Fires Low). Blight Busters gathered volunteers from the community to take part

in Angels Night and they utilize a van/truck with large floodlights attached to the roof. They

take this van on the streets during Angels Night and give assistance to people affected by the

events that take place during Devils Night in an effort to lessen the impact and harm done by the

crimes that take place (Motor City Blight Busters, About). Blight Busters reports that during

their time volunteering during Angels Night, they have brought 3,900 residents on their patrols

(Motor City Blight Busters, About).

Another one of the larger projects that Blight Busters has taken place in is the renovation

of the former Masonic Temple. The building had been left abandoned and was in a very rundown

state that affected the overall image of the area it was in. An article in the Detroit Metro Times

states that the former Masonic Temples windows were all busted out, and the building's

occupants were pigeons and alley cats and rats. This example can also be applied on a larger

scale to a lot of the large buildings in the city. Many buildings that can be plainly seen while

entering the city have the appearance of not being wellkept, while displaying the same qualities

that the former Masonic Temple had. The goal Blight Busters had was to renovate the building

and restore it to a state in which it could be beneficial to the surrounding area.

This project was headed by the executive director of Blight Busters, John George, who

aimed to use the money the organization had for a valuable reason (Guyette, Blight Busters).

They were able to purchase the empty building for $1 and then $1.4 million was put into

renovating it (Guyette, Blight Busters). This project resulted in the renovation of three floors

into a space in which many communities were able to set up and operate out of. One of the
organizations that took advantage of this renovation was Blight Busters, itself, whose

headquarters was housed in the renovated building for three years. In addition to this, the

building served as a community space for various organizations were able to hold community

activities (Guyette, Blight Busters). This was especially valuable as it was in an area in which

a public school and police station had closed down (Guyette, Blight Busters).

Blight Busters also appears to be received very well by the people who take part in it.

Alicia Marion, a volunteer who joined Blight Busters after several encounters with John George,

comments that Blight Busters is an organization in which one person can make a huge difference

(Guyette, Blight Busters). This viewpoint is then vital to understanding the limitations that

Blight Busters faces.

As a whole, this organization faces many obstacles in terms of financial limitations, lack

of manpower, lack of media exposure, and total lack of government input. With the amount that

Blight Busters has accomplished while still facing these obstacles, a lot more can be achieved if

these limitations can be dealt with. It is through this that the market and civic sphere come into

play. The market sphere would be useful to this cause in that connecting with businesses could

mean additional funding and sponsorship for the organization, as well as more media exposure

that can be vital to making these business connections and gaining these sponsorships.

The civic sphere would also be relevant to Blight Busters in that it would bring in the

help of additional volunteers and people willing to give their time to better the city. Having a

larger, and more consistent, volunteer base would greatly assist Blight Busters cause in that it

would allow the organization to tackle larger projects that they are only currently able to

undertake over the summer when there are many more people available. Instead of this, there
could be large projects achieved year-round, rather than having to wait till the summer months in

order to get substantial work done.

Structure plays a part in these obstacles that Blight Busters faces as there is a common

view that stems from those who believe Detroit cannot be saved that there is no point in

attempting to clean up the city. This belief comes from the idea that an individuals work will

have no effect on the overall goal to improve Detroits perception. As a result, people who have

this negative perception of the city do not take their time to do their part in attempting to better

the city as they believe that their contribution will not be significant to solving the problem. It is

at this point that individual agency is important so that individuals can realize that any amount of

time they put into improving Detroit allows Blight Busters to move closer to their goal of

improving the overall perception of the city.

SECTION III: A

No large-scale issue, like the poor perception of Detroit, can be addressed over night by a

single person. It will take a cooperation of many people to help the image of Detroit be changed

in viewers eyes. By having a united group work towards a similar goal, it will give our city the

best opportunity to make a return. Wayne State University provides an ideal setting to gather

volunteer students to work towards a similar cause in conjunction with volunteer organization

like Motor City Blight Busters. To give this solution more horizons, we hope to have large

companies like General Motors or Little Caesars, based in Detroit, involved in providing

financial and media support. Through the combination of the civic sphere, market sphere, and a

strong spirit to help the city, Detroits poor perception problem can immensely improve.
 In order to gain manpower from Wayne State students to help this problem, we must first

interest the students as to why they should help address Detroit poor perception. The best

incentive is to give students credit or fulfill graduation requirements by volunteering in Detroit.

We propose to design a one semester four-credit class, called Changing Detroit 1000, open to

both Honors and the rest of Wayne State students. This class can serve as a service-learning

requirement for Honors students, and provide a good addition to any students resume. Not to

mention, this opportunity will provide students with the feeling that they are helping the city they

are gaining their education in and build a stronger sense of community with the peers that they

volunteer with.

This course will be structured rather simply. Students will meet twice a week: once

during the school week and once on Saturday mornings for about 3 hours. There will be two

parts to these meetings: on Saturdays students will be addressing Detroits perception problem

by volunteering with organization like Blight Busters, and during the week they will reflect on

their experiences and help gain social media support by working with the market spheres. To

break this down a little more, the reason we ask students to volunteer or Saturdays is because this

is the day when most volunteer organizations operate. A typical volunteering day may include

helping restore old houses, remove unneeded ones, clean up trash, and overall beautify a

neighborhood. It is important that the students document their work through pictures and videos,

so it can be used in the other part of this course. Volunteering on the weekend is also beneficial

because it will allow students to not be in a hurry to get back on campus in time for their next

class. We hope to have one of the Wayne State buses transport the students to and from a needed

location, hence we should limit the class size to about thirty people.
 During the weekday, students would be able to analyze their progress and make

improvements with the help of big companies. They would be required to post pictures of the

class beautifying Detroit on social media accounts (like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc), these

accounts will be ran by the class collectively. In order to understand whether our proposed

solution is working, data will be gathered. The students will post polling questions on the social

media account that ask whether anyone has noticed Detroit being mentioned more online, or how

many attraction are people familiar with. To gain an even more hands on gathering of data,

students will be able to go down to Downtown Detroit and ask people there about their opinion

on the city or if they heard others talk about it more positively. Part of the problem with

perception of Detroit is that it does not receive enough recognition on social media for its

improvements or already existing attractions. This is where the market sphere will aid in

spreading this information. Our plan is to have a big company create a commercial for Detroit

that would focus on how students are helping change the city. We derive our model from the

2011 Eminem commercial, promoted by Chrysler, which helped show what Detroit really is. If a

similar effect is achieved through this advertisement, we can show outsiders that Detroit has a

strong sense of community, care for the city, and many attractions. Hopefully, this will help

break the stigma that Detroit is dangerous, unattractive, and boring. While it is easy to cooperate

with a volunteer organization, because there can never be too much free help, it may be more

difficult to get a company on board with our project. In order to win them over, we could

propose to have the company advertise a product of their own in our commercial so it is in

interest to both parties. For example, if our sponsoring company is General Motors, then the
commercial could be set in one of their vehicles, shown driving around through the streets of

Detroit and observing the beautifying changes occurring on the streets.

Even today, any person is able to choose to volunteer at an organization like Blight

Busters, the institution uses the ask tool in order to gain support. This tool is typical of the

civic sphere because no one can force volunteers to come and help, hence it is not as controlling.

The market sphere on the other hand can utilize tools such as teach and trade. With the help

of big company influence, we help to teach those who have a poor perception of Detroit, that

there is so much more good for the city. With the market sphere, the tool trade will always be

present because there will be an exchange of goods and services where the market sphere will

help create a commercial, which hopefully will allow more people to come to Detroit and

experience it.

With any proposed solution, there will always be benefits and setbacks in the plan. To

begin, it is first better to look at the costs to know where there should be room for improvement.

First, because implementing such a class has never been tested at Wayne State, or at any

University that we tried to find, there is no guarantee that students will be interested in signing

up for this class or how successfully it will run. One possible community that we can compare

this plan to is Wayne States Community of Scholars group. This is a group of students who

help reach out to their community, they have served food to the elderly and homeless, painted

schools, and participated in neighborhood clean-ups within the city of Detroit. (Community of

Scholars). Our group was fortunate enough to volunteer with this organization along with

Wolverine Human Services and experience their impact first hand. Within a few hours of picking

up trash in a neighborhood, we were able to remove dangerous materials from the piles, as well
as make the streets more welcoming. A similar goal is hoped to be achieved by the class that

could be implemented. However, this makes us run into another issue, as to why students would

want to choose this class over just volunteering with the Community of Scholars. To answer that,

the class will provide more freedom, where students can choose where to volunteer and what part

of the project to work on. Instead of being assigned what volunteer organization to cooperate

with, the class will decide what they think is more beneficial. Another cost of this project is that

it will require to be run for longer than one semester. Because its main source of progress will be

student volunteers, this project will take perhaps years to show significant results. This may

cause us to run into problems where the university may choose not to support this class or

funding will be limited. An opportunity cost to solve this problem can be used where the

classroom can try to be run by students themselves in later years. For example the first semester,

there will be a professor to supervise, but after that can be run by student assistants who have

already taken the class. This is an alternative to saving funds, yet Issues that can arise as a result

of this problem should all be fixable or not so extensive that they limit the project.

The benefits from our solution however, will outweigh the costs that come with the

proposal. To begin, students will be able to give back to they city they spend most of their time

in. This will be rewarding for everyone because it creates a more comfortable environment in

Detroit. It will be a place that shows evidence that its citizens can come together as a community

and care about fixing it. It is the act of caring public that we hope will change the way outsiders

view Detroit. Perception will not be changed by the amount of garbage that is picked up or

houses that are removed, but by showing that there is an effort to help. To continue, both the

market and civic spheres that agree to participate in this project will benefit. Volunteer
organizations like Blight Busters will receive a steady flow of committed people that will help

get a job done faster. A company from the market sphere will also benefit by having their name

promoted in a commercial and get more people considering coming to Detroit, which would

mean a rise in customers. Finally, if this class proves to be successful, it could inspire more

people to partake in such an activity. Perhaps Wayne could begin to offer other volunteering

classes that would address more problems in Detroit. Using the poor perception of Detroit

problem as a test run for this class is best because it is so open ended. Students can choose from

many projects that they believe will help beautify the city and allow themselves to grow closer to

it too.

Wayne State students would be an ideal group of people to help work to change peoples

perception of Detroit. By grouping devoted students to change our city and giving them credit in

return, the solution becomes a win win. A combination of civic and market spheres will provide

direct contact to areas of Detroit that need attention as well as gain media attention by the help of

large companies.

SECTION III: B

There are a lot of things that can be said to help solve the poor perception and image of

Detroit but not all of the solutions are feasible enough to play out on a larger scale. Solutions that

require involvement of many different organizations and coordination of many different groups

of people can be difficult to handle. One thing that needs to be understood with this problem of

negative image of Detroit is that it really does not have to do with what downtown Detroit looks

like, in fact most of the poor perception of Detroit comes from what the neighborhoods and areas

on the outskirts of Detroit look like. In order to improve the perception of Detroit, the
neighborhoods, factories, and places surrounding Detroit need to be fixed. The reason for this is

because when one drives to Detroit, they drive by broken down factories and through soiled

neighborhoods. Although there has been a lot of new developments within the 7.2 square miles

of Detroit downtown that definitely do help improve the perception and attract people to it, the

rest of Detroit, roughly 139 square miles of the city (Counts, MLive) still are in need of great

development and change.

In order to implement different policies and programs to solve the problem, one has to

completely understand and see the problem. The neighborhoods with the ubiquitous small liquor

store, burned or abandoned houses along streets filled with litter and garbage are claimed to be

more recognizably Detroit. I once drove through Woodward from Troy one weekend, instead

of taking the freeway, so I could see the discrepancies in the neighborhoods near downtown

Detroit. I personally saw claims of the neighborhoods being regarded as poor, black, and crime-

ridden while the suburbs as affluent, white and safe to be very true (Counts, MLive). There

were very distinct transitions between safe and clean neighborhoods to unsafe and garbage-

strewn neighborhoods. This should not be the case and this is primarily why the negative

perception and bad image of Detroit has stayed this long and sadly will continue to stay if not

taken care of.

Works of the Detroit Land Bank Authority in the Clean and Green Program Policy is

primarily what needs to be done. It is foundation to the change that needs to happen in the

neighborhoods. As of right now the Detroit Land Bank Authority acquires broken down and

abandoned houses, does basic renovations to bring them back to the standards of the city and

sells them again to individuals who sign off to keep the place well managed and up-to-date with
city requirements. Examples of their work can be seen in the appendix. This program needs to be

taken to the next level and developed much further on a larger scale because 139 square miles is

a lot of space and it all needs to be cleaned, renovated, and developed to match the areas around

like the suburbs and downtown. It also needs to be understood that due to the situations of these

neighborhoods, they are breeding grounds of crime. Abandoned/boarded-up houses and vacant

lots tend to be prime locations for criminal activity to occur. Crime is another major issue that

plays a role in creating this negative persona of Detroit. Cleaning up these neighborhoods and

eliminating these breeding grounds for crime, the problem of crime and the image of Detroit

will start improving. If the works and aims of the Detroit Land Bank Authority are tweaked a

little and brought to a larger scale, improvement will definitely be visible in the next couple of

years to the people within Detroit and outside.

There are many ways in which the Clean and Green Program Policy can be effective on a

much wider scale. Beautifying the outskirts of Detroit can only come from institutional change.

There has be more government and market intervention for projects that help clean up blight

from the surrounding areas. Small individual organizations doing small individual projects will

not get the job done in a timely fashion. In order for change to occur regarding this problem, the

entire structure has to change and put in the efforts compared to individual agents trying to bring

change. Bigger media and government pressure to have the citizens of these run down

neighborhoods clean the streets and fix up their houses is what is necessary. Monthly check ups

and assessing fines to houses and properties that do not meet the requirement should be enforced.

Although all of this is not feasible in the short term due to the demographics of these

neighborhoods. Most of the residents will not be able to pay the fines and cause it may cause
further backlash from the public. A way government intervention can start immediately would be

to make cleaning up these neighborhoods are service events for small time criminals. This would

not only make the neighborhoods better but also influence others to help out and clean their

neighborhoods themselves.

A structural change of the market sphere in Detroit needs to take place as well in order

for organizations that are revitalizing the city, such as the Detroit Land Bank Authority, can have

their efforts displayed to people from all over the United States and attract both help and

resources from the country. Media campaigns by major Detroit companies, like the big three

automotive companies, are essential to promote these efforts and to attract more help to

improve peoples perception of the city. Media campaigns showing these efforts will not only get

more work done in these neighborhoods but also start changing the image of Detroit into

something more positive. The problem right now tends to be that people from across the country

and even the state are not aware of these efforts. Making all these efforts would be the first step

in solving the problem of the negative perception. The companies have an incentive to do all this

as well as it promotes their brand and makes it seem like they are the good people helping the

ones in need. As the perception of the city improves, more individuals would come to Detroit,

increasing the economy of the city. Institutional and Structural changes like this is what Detroit

is in need of right now because direct action can only go so far. Only institutional and structural

change and bring about change for such a large area of the city.

Community Parks Policy

On February 7th, 2015, representative Albio Dires introduced the Community Parks

Revitalization Act, also known as H.R. 20, to the United States government. This legislation
would authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide distressed

communities with grants, which can be used to develop and maintain their recreational parks.

Furthermore, the Community Parks Revitalization Act would provide grants for innovative

programing, with an emphasis on at-risk youth and military families. This legislation would also

create a federal program that provides loans and lines of credit for the construction of larger scale

urban renewal projects. ("Advocacy." Issue Brief: Community Parks Revitalization Act.)

The Community Parks Revitalization Act would benefit communities across the nation

playing a large role in a communitys ability to create jobs, stimulate growth, and gain tourism

dollars. Along with this, quality recreational parks would positively impact public health by

improve physical activity and helping reduce health problems. Furthermore, this legislation

would beautify neighborhoods and communities, which will help improve peoples perception of

the area. ("Advocacy." Issue Brief: Community Parks Revitalization Act.)

As aforementioned, many individuals living outside of Wayne County view Detroit as an

abandoned, crime-ridden city. The Community Parks Revitalization Act, however, would

rehabilitate the community parks in Detroit, which would beautify the city and offer both

residents and tourists a more enjoyable place to visit. Although the Community Parks

Revitalization Act fails to recognize and solve the main issue, regarding peoples negative

perception of Detroit, the government can give projects under this act additional funding to

advertise themselves to other communities. By making individuals outside of Detroit aware of

urban revitalization projects happening within the city, the government and civic organizations

can change their negative perception of Detroit. Instead of seeing the city as abandoned and

hopeless, they would recognize the citys development and growth. In addition to beautifying
communities and neighborhoods in Detroit, this legislation would potentially lower juvenile

crime rates by giving teenagers a healthy alternative option to crime, like playing in their local

community parks. Overall, this may reduce crime rates, which in the long run, can help change

peoples perception of Detroit as a crime-ridden city.

To improve this policy, the government can be authorized to give community projects

additional funding under the Community Parks Revitalization Act to advertise themselves and

show citizens the communitys progress. Moving forward as a group, it is essential we advertise

future community rehabilitation projects taking place in Detroit in popular media sources.

Without informing the public about Detroits progress and growth, individuals will continue to

view the beautiful city of Detroit negatively. Campus Martius, for example, is a small park

located in the heart of Detroit. Without popular media sources advertising this fun and relaxing

park, visitors and residents wouldnt be aware of its existence or what Detroit has to offer them.

This is one policy that could slowly change the perception of Detroit, with one project at a time

the city will become better and better.

Detroit Riverwalk Policy

The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy (DRFC) is a nonprofit organization formed back in

2003. The goal of the riverwalk was to transform Detroits international riverfront-the face of

the city- into a beautiful, exciting, safe, accessible world-class gathering place for all (Detroit

Riverfront Conservancy). Previously, the area around the river was a bare piece of land, with

gravel parking lots filled with abandoned cars, construction equipment, cinder blocks, and trash.

An image like this was not the ideal look for the city which is already known for such poor

environments. DRFC decided to put an end to this poor perception and took on a 5.5-mile long
project of renewing the face of Detroit. Their hope was to create an inviting destination that

would bring visitors to the river as well as to the lonely streets of the city. One major impact of

the [Renaissance] Centers configuration was that visitors would no longer contribute to

Detroits street life or spend money on small businesses they passed along the citys avenues

(Desiderio). The river walk would work to reverse this problem, by bringing visitors outside of

the massive glass towers, and back into the city.

Since the beginning of the project, 3.5 miles have already been completed, mostly on the

East Riverfront. This section includes a walk past the citys skyscrapers, monuments, a Carousel,

interactive fountains, lighthouses, and even Michigans first urban state park. The Board

Chairman of the DRFC, Matthew P. Cullman proudly states that the Riverfront welcomes about

3 million visitors annually. Board members hope to elongate the River walk to the West toward

the Ambassadors Bridge and to connect it to the Dequindre Cut Greenway which can provide

direct access to neighborhoods and the Eastern Market.

After people began to see how successful and driven the organization is, the donations

would come in themselves. In only a decade, the nonprofit had over $1 billion in investment,

plus an additional billion for continuing projects. Not only that, but spending by visitors reached

about $43.7 million per year. The organization shows strong growth and therefore is able to

expand and continue to beautify the city. Besides giving back to its city by bringing in visitors

and changing the face of Detroit, DRFC was able to provide 16,700 construction jobs and

continues to support 1,300 jobs annually, allowing for those in need of work to become

employed. It is very difficult to find a nonprofit that is able to create such a big network of
support in a relatively short period of time, making it evident than their policy is successful and

will continue to prosper and help Detroit become a better, more well known, city once again.

Regional Transit Authority Policy

A current policy that was recently voted on earlier in the year unfortunately did not pass,

but had a great idea to help Detroit prosper even more. This policy is one step closer to

connecting the city and the suburbs which will cause a large influx of money and people to the

downtown area. If people begin to travel downtown, they will slowly start to see Detroit truly is

not bad. Once the word gets out it will spread bringing in more and more from the state then

eventually, nationally. This policy would help people who dont have easy access to cars or to

convenient bus systems. This would help people to no longer continue to struggle to get to

jobs, shopping and other necessities of life. What this also means is that if the policy passed

Detroit's soon-to-open Qline streetcar system along Woodward Avenue downtown would not

operate as a stand-alone system rather than as part of a broader regional transit system making

one entire connected system through the state of Michigan. RTA plans to add many types of

different bus services to meet the requests of the citizens of Michigan. The biggest addition

would be the Bus Rapid Transit. BRT is a fixed route, limited stop service. The buses will

have stations with seating and message boards allowing for pre paid bus passes. The shorter

intervals of time between buses mean that there is a higher level of speedier service, compared

to traditional bus service. It would even have premium express services to Detroit Metro

Airport allowing easy access to the city from the states main airport. The RTA plan would be

covered through a property tax millage over 20 years costing 4.6 billion dollars, three billion

from taxes and 1.7 billion from state and federal funds. On average this will cost homeowners
approximately 100 dollars a year. Once Detroit becomes known through the state and the

regional transit helps bring millions to the city yearly it will exponentially grow and eventually

start bring in people from many different states.

Media Influencing Detroit

People still perceive Detroit in a significantly negative manner although it is no longer

one of the worst cities in the country. In fact its on the road to becoming one of the countrys

greatest citie. In order to inform the remainder of the country about Detroits comeback, Little

Caesars should create an advertisement promoting the city of Detroit. The Ilitch family has

almost finished redeveloping the Detroit District which has the ability to be one of the world's

most advanced arenas and entertainment districts to date. Not only would an advertisement of

such create positive publicity for the city nationally but it would also bring more revenue to the

Little Caesars Company.

Little Caesars falls under the commercial institutions of the American economy which

accounts for millions of for-profit enterprises that make up the market sphere. A company like

Little Caesars, now sells nationwide and fluctuates between the country's number two and three

top pizza franchise. In 2013 Little Caesars generated sales of approximately 3.07 billion U.S.

dollars in the United States. This was over double the earnings they made in 2011, in just two

years the company grew so much. Everyone knows what Little Caesars Pizza is, whether they

have ate it before, seen an advertisement of in on television or the internet. In fact, 35 percent of

U.S. adults recall seeing a Little Caesars ad in the past two weeks proving that this company is

well known. Little Caesars is currently ranked number 14 in the most popular ranked

commercials in the country, with over 14,367 airings in the past 30 days.
 After reviewing all these facts it is evident that Little Caesars is popping up in many

peoples lives around the country. During each delivery or order Little Caesars also adds in

promotional offers and other information which could easily be changed to promote the city of

Detroit. These papers could have a picture of Detroit that catches the eye and maybe a quote that

explains that Detroits better than ever. At the bottom of this pamphlet there could be the link to

a page created by Little Caesars promoting the city. The page would be created by professionals

in attempt to catch the eye of people and draw them to the city. Another ability for the company

is to create a national advertisement that will run for a few months which could be similar the

Eminem super bowl commercial, this would promote the pizza but also the city of Detroit.

Little Caesars has not attempted to perform any of these solutions to help Detroits

problem due to the fact that the cost outweighs the benefits. The company would be spending

millions to promote Detroit but get almost nothing out of it. Somehow we would need to

convince or even prove that by bringing more people to Detroit it will benefit the company. We

already know that Little Caesars needs to create advertisements, so making a Detroit

advertisement is not an absurd idea. The perception of Detroit can be improved easily. An

advertisement promoting the city and showing its beauty can improve peoples perception of the

city, while also increasing revenue for the company.

SECTION 3C

The recurring problem with solving the poor perception of Detroit revolves around two

main categories. The first is manpower: we need many people to help fix peoples negative

perception of the city this problem as mentioned previously and in our direct action plan. As you

know the manpower falls under the civic sphere. The second category is money: we need money
to develop all these policies, put them into action, and keep them functioning. The two spheres

that have the most money is the government and market sphere. This is why we developed a few

proposals and policies that revolve around these two spheres due to their high influential

potential on todays society.

Our plan of direct action falls under the civic sphere revolving mostly on the generosity

and will to volunteer from the wayne state students. The plan itself is very effective for what it

costs. We are essentially cleaning the city of Detroit, helping make it a better place using

minimal amounts of money. The city of Detroit benefits greatly because it does not have to pay

anything to become a more welcoming city. Additionally, wayne state students will receive class

credits and community service. This plan can be easily implemented into the Wayne State

University's curriculum, if it was not for the following costs. First, it would not be guaranteed

that students would be willing to take such a class even if it did give out community service and

credits. Second, the plan has no financial backing. Once the students go out and do the work, it

will not be on a large enough scale to make a fast impact to the city. Nobody would know what

was going on due to minimal advertisements from big powerful organizations such as the

government or the market sphere.

Our plan requiring institutional change has two different options. One involves the

government sphere and one involves the market sphere. The power these two institutions have

are tremendous. The government and big corporations have millions of dollars to spend,

allowing them to have a major impact on the things they chose to support. Their ability to pay for

huge renewal projects like the riverwalk or the transit policies shows that they can create large

changes the city needs. The big corporations have the ability to advertise their products as
described in the Little Caesars proposal while also creating a huge impact on the city. The costs

of doings things like this is what causes many plans to fail or never come into effect. Even

though the two spheres have all this money, they don't always want to spend it in these places.

The government does not always get the support of the people stopping them from being able to

put plans into action. The market sphere does not see a big enough profit to make it worthwhile

spending a fortune advertising the city of Detroit.

The institutional change has the ability to truly help the perception of Detroit. A plan

created by the market or government sphere will have such a tremendous affect on the city that a

direct action plan could not even compete with. One plan that could come in effect through a

government or market economy can do more for the city of Detroit in a few months than the

direct action plan could do in many years. The only problem is that if a government cannot come

to an agreement for a policy or if an organization does not want to invest in the city, ultimately

the direct action plan will be more effective due to it actually doing something unlike the other

two plans which did not manage to be implemented.

Detroit was known to the outside world as the Murder Capital of America. The city

of Detroit has been perceived as one of the worst cities in the United States and even became

known globally for its crime, corruption and problems. Since those dreadful times we have

tremendously improved but the country does not know it. No one believes that a city so torn

down could ever come back and potentially become one of the countrys best cities again. With

these policies and plans of action we believe we can come one step closer to solving this

treacherous problem that has been haunting Detroit for decades.

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