Dream City: Creation, Destruction, and Reinvention in Downtown Detroit

Pub Date : 2021-03-04 DOI:10.1177/1538513221997801
Emily Talen
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Abstract

We have many studies of urban revitalization, but I find them to be heavy on text and weak on visuals. This is unfortunate, given that urban decline and rebirth is often fundamentally a story about changes in the tangible urban context. Thus, I find Conrad Kickert’s Dream City a particularly welcome addition to the urban revitalization library. The book is visually strong and reliant on graphical analysis to narrate the story of downtown Detroit’s ups and downs. This methodological approach is well motivated—the morphological transformation of Detroit from small-scale walkable city to modernist superblock haven is exactly the kind of change where a picture—in this case, a map—speaks a thousand words. There is a lot to learn by looking at the growth of parking lots and vacant lots in Detroit between 1911 and 2018. This is not to say the book skimps on written analysis. Clocking in at 444 pages (140 pages devoted to footnotes), Kickert has left no stone unturned in his effort to understand Detroit’s trajectory. He traces the story using a seasonal metaphor—“Spring” recounts Detroit’s hopeful founding as an elaborate city of radial boulevards; “Summer” takes us through its early growth spurt quickly turning to growing pains by the late 1920s; “Fall” tells the story of erosion and blight leading to its “boiling point” in the 1960s; and finally Detroit’s “Winter” season, where the tragedy of urban renewal is viscerally exposed, igniting a “Renaissance among the Ruins” and a quest to reinvent Detroit once again, coming to a “Roaring End” by 2011. Postseason, Detroit finds itself entering a “New Beginning,” with “the past as future” (a final map showing square footage added and removed between 2011 and 2018 tells the story). But the aim of Kickert’s exploration is not simply to offer yet another critique of modernist urbanism, an urban design theory with few remaining converts. His intent is to show the possibilities of a new city emerging in spite of it all—a city of lively sidewalks now filled with shoppers and office workers—but with a strong dose of realism about the limits of good intentions. Although cranes have replaced wrecking balls in the downtown neighborhood, Detroit’s revival is more complicated than any straightforward upswing from decline to renewal. For one thing, it is a spatially constrained rebirth. A short distance from the revitalized blocks forming Detroit’s comeback narrative, there are blocks “in any direction” that still suffer from decay and squalor. Detroit remains a puzzle and a paradox. Kickert wants us to learn from the complexities of this history, and he succeeds. He does this by connecting past, present, and future through narrative, personal story, charts, and maps. He shows how Detroit’s current mix of success and struggle is a direct outgrowth of its past conflicts. Journal of Planning History
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梦想之城:底特律市中心的创造、毁灭和再创造
我们有很多关于城市复兴的研究,但我发现它们在文字上很重,在视觉上很弱。这是不幸的,因为城市的衰落和重生往往从根本上讲是一个关于有形城市环境变化的故事。因此,我发现康拉德·基科特的《梦想之城》是城市复兴图书馆特别受欢迎的补充。这本书在视觉上很强,依靠图形分析来叙述底特律市中心的起起落落。这种方法是很有道理的——底特律从小型步行城市到现代主义超级街区天堂的形态转变,正是一幅图片——在这种情况下,是一张地图——所能表达的千言万语。通过观察1911年至2018年间底特律停车场和空地的增长,我们可以学到很多东西。这并不是说这本书忽略了书面分析。在这本444页的书中(140页都是脚注),基特不遗余力地理解底特律的发展轨迹。他用一个季节的比喻来追溯故事——《春天》讲述了底特律充满希望的建立,它是一个由放射状林荫大道组成的精心设计的城市;《夏天》带我们经历了它早期的快速成长,到20世纪20年代末迅速转变为成长的烦恼;《秋天》讲述了20世纪60年代侵蚀和枯萎导致其“沸点”的故事;最后是底特律的“冬季”季,在这里,城市更新的悲剧被发自内心地暴露出来,点燃了“废墟中的复兴”,并再次寻求重塑底特律,到2011年将“咆哮结束”。季后赛,底特律发现自己进入了一个“新的开始”,“过去即未来”(最终地图显示了2011年至2018年期间增加和减少的面积)。但Kickert探索的目的不仅仅是对现代主义城市主义提出另一种批评,这种城市设计理论几乎没有剩下的皈依者。他的意图是展示一个新兴城市的可能性——一个充满活力的人行道上现在挤满了购物者和上班族的城市——但同时也带有强烈的现实主义色彩,即良好意图的局限性。尽管起重机已经取代了市中心的破碎机,但底特律的复兴比任何从衰落到复兴的直接上升都要复杂得多。首先,这是一个空间受限的重生。在形成底特律复兴叙事的复兴街区不远的地方,“任何方向”都有一些街区仍然遭受着衰败和肮脏的折磨。底特律仍然是一个谜,一个悖论。Kickert希望我们从这段复杂的历史中吸取教训,他成功了。他通过叙述、个人故事、图表和地图将过去、现在和未来联系起来。他展示了底特律目前的成功与挣扎是其过去冲突的直接产物。规划历史杂志
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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