THINKING FOR OURSELVES

Building Anew

By Shea Howell

Michigan Citizen, Aug. 5-11, 2007

It seems natural that remembrances of 1967 shift into discussions of the question "Where do we go from here?" Like stories of the past, projections for the future hold values that are unstated but powerful. As over the last two weeks I read papers, listened to news, and attended various community events, I noticed two phrases recurring.

The first goes something like this. "If we want to get people to come back to the city, we have to improve the schools." There is a growing suspicion that our schools are in a crisis far deeper than drop-outs, closed buildings and overworked and under-resourced teachers. We are in a crisis of purpose. We are no longer certain that public education is necessary, no longer confident that what schools teach and what children learn in them matters.

Part of this problem is evident in the oft-repeated clause "If we want people to come." In this construction, education is seen as little more than a marketing tool. The audience is not the parents and children already here but the parents and children we hope to attract.

In order to reinvigorate public education, we need to start with the parents and children we have, not those we hope to attract. The public schools need to change because they are failing the children who are in them now. Part of this failure is the framing of the problem which positions young people in schools as something to be "fixed."

Yet the most vibrant activity in the city which holds the key to not only reforming public education but to restoring health to our neighborhoods, comes from recognizing that young people have the imagination, energy, resilience and resourcefulness needed to restore life to our communities.

One vivid example of this was last week's Back Alley Bikes fundraiser. Run by a collective of young people, Back Alley Bikes has been providing free or low cost bicycles to Cass Corridor families for five years. They run workshops, sponsor a "build-a- bike-to-own " program, and promote biking as a safe, energy efficient, healthy and fun way to get around the city. Young people working at Back Alley Bikes learn all sorts of important skills and ideas as they problem-solve broken bikes and organize together to provide a needed community resource.

This kind of collective youth activity, engaging people in solving an important issue of transportation in a city where more than a quarter of its citizens lack cars, at a time when depending on oil-based transport seems absurd, is the sort of activity that could become a hallmark of the Detroit educational experience. It begins with recognizing that engaging our youth in the task of restoring city life strengthens both our young people and our community.

The second phrase, invoked not only around the school situation but almost every other issue, assumes that the main object of developing our city is "attracting new people to live here." We need to get people to "come back."

While Detroit has always been a welcoming city and has a long history of providing opportunities for people from around the world, the idea that growth alone will solve our problems is foolish. The belief that cities of one or two million people are somehow better ways of living rests on notions of cities that evolved along with the creation of mass production. We should question whether such high densities are healthy for anyone anymore.

We are living in a new time when the purpose of cities is being re-invented. Detroiters are in the forefront of creating this future.

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