In Detroit the empty land is spread out in a haphazard fashion that makes many services too expensive to maintain.

I am in complete agreement with the amount of frustration, lack of true leadership, and a dysfunctional political scene (hopefully it’s changing). And the city will be different, no doubt…it has to be, there is no other choice. A new vision is indeed needed.

Petr, there’s no doubt that the very people Detroit needs are moving to places like Chicago, Seattle, D.C., etc, for the very reasons you mention. Unfortunately, it’s hard to have those great amenities with a declining population. I guess the the big challenge is how to both, bring the people in, and build the amenities and infrastructure almost simultaneously. It may not be possible, so Detroit, and the region will have to figure out new ways to attract the people it needs.

This city has continuously placed politics above place and people in a generations-long self-destructive movement. It is certainly time for a bold and courageous vision, and a recognition that the role of leadership is not to shrink our institutions and infrastructure to fit our depopulation, but instead to recognize that their real responsibility of leadership is to repopulate the city to fit the scale of its infrastructure and build the institutions to make it sustainable.

While I do not agree with all of their recommendations, I did like this phrase from the authors of “A Plan for Detroit” published recently in The New Republic – “Detroit will have to become a different kind of city, one that challenges our idea of what a city is supposed to look like, and what happens within its boundaries.”

I expect this is your point. Whether defined by gray hairs or Gen Y, it is time to envision a different kind of city.