The Good Life Transformed: When Times Call for Radical Change

When 150 of the nation’s urban leaders get together in America’s richest urban change lab to share their experiences on what’s working in cities, hear about the big ideas driving new developments, and learn about the latest urban research, count on good things to follow.

CEOs for Cities Fall 2010 Urban Leaders Summit convened at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit November 8 and 9.  Supported by Microsoft and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, the meeting allowed participants to pour over the latest “big deals and small wonders” (as board member Kim Walesh would say) in America’s premier cities.

Rick Rogers, president of the College for Creative Studies and our national meeting host at the remarkable A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education, is demonstrating what a difference a creative anchor, with imaginative leadership at the helm, can mean for a city.  He showed us how CCS’ main campus and its Taubman Center (which houses CCS classes, student residents, and a charter school devoted to art and design) is making a new creative corridor for Detroit.

Big ideas have the power to create alignment, generate excitement, and attract resources.  That lesson was driven home by many of your associates, starting with U3Ventures’ Omar Blaik and Nancy Schlichting, who heads Henry Ford Health System. Together, they are working to put every asset in Detroit’s Woodward Corridor anchor institutions to work on behalf of the city.  Their mantra? Buy Detroit, Hire Detroit, Live Detroit.  And they are not shy about asserting it.

Even though depressed areas need multiple interventions in a specific geographic place, according to Omar, he also reminded us of the power of anchors to play a central role in the revitalization of central cities.  Twenty-five percent of eds and meds are located in central cities.

The much-celebrated U Penn model that Blaik led for Judith Rodin is “not scaleable,” Omar contends.  It was of another era.  By contrast, the Detroit anchor model is leveraged, demand-driven, place-based & implementation-focused. It has foundation coordination and inter-institutional collaboration for shared responsibility and shared impact.

The Woodward Corridor anchors have figured out how to share basic service provision (safety, cleanliness, and transport) to the area, refocus the institutions’ purchasing on Detroit-based businesses, even mapped where their employees live and what they pay in order to gauge the market for housing in the corridor. 

The anchor institutions are taking the work CEOs for Cities documented with ICIC and Michael Porter a decade ago (much of it inspired by the work of Judith Rodin and Omar at U Penn, Nancy Zimpher then at U of Cincinnati, Gene Trani at Richmond’s Virginia Commonwealth, and Nancy Cantor at Syracuse) and amping it up to a level and mix of institutions previously unseen.

But nothing about this kind of multi-institution effort is easy, as Nancy Schlichting warned. “Frankly it is easier to have only one anchor,” she acknowledged. “Collaboration is like working in the mud.”

Omar’s full presentation can be viewed here. And watch this partnership to result in great things for Detroit.    

The power of big ideas was echoed by Gordon Gill, partner at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill; Mark Jeffreys, brand manager at Procter & Gamble and founder of go Vibrant; and Ryan Gravel, senior associate with Perkins+Will and the man who conceived of the Atlanta Beltline while a grad student at Georgia Tech. 

All three introduced breathtaking concepts that could be (and ought to be) adopted in many cities.

Gordon described his plan for decarbonizing the Chicago Loop based on combining systems -- buildings, transit, water, waste, community engagement, and renewable energy.

Even though the projects Gordon described are massive, he also reminded us that small changes can yield big energy savings.  In fact, 15 percent of the projected energy savings in Chicago’s Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) are projected to come from the actions of the building’s occupants.

And with that point Gordon introduced the second big theme of the day:  Don’t ignore the small stuff (or the people who can produce it).  (More on this later.)

For all the talk of the importance of new green buildings, Gordon told us that 70% of buildings were built pre-1976 when energy use was not a concern.  If we don’t green those buildings, we have no hope of reaching sustainability.  And all the talk about LEED and LEED-ND also obscures the importance of walkability and transit accessibility to the sustainability of any building.

Gordon’s presentation is here.

[Third theme? Make it easier for people to do what you want them to do than what you don’t want them to do.]

Taking a cue from Mark's background as a marketer, go Vibrant is targeting the lowest hanging fruit -- not the couch potatoes, but those who are ready and willing who need the extra push. 

(Talent Dividend Leaders, are you listening?)

Mark urged leaders attempting to launch a similarly ambitious initiative to adopt a compelling rallying cry, recognize and leverage all assets, ask BIG, get all companies to own it, and involve thought leaders for credibility.

Just imagine the impact if go Vibrant could actually make healthy living the easier choice. Mark, CEOs for Cities Cincinnati Cluster leader Eric Avner, and all who have contributed to go Vibrant will have shown us all the way to solving one of America’s most urgent challenges.  Their work shows us all that cities really can be the solution.

Ryan Gravel had an important idea when he was a grad student at Georgia Tech:  Take the underused asset of a rail line circling the city (all 6,000 acres of it) and turn it into a 22-mile necklace of parks and transit that will stimulate new in-fill development throughout the core city.

Fortunately, somebody important was willing to give Ryan, the student, an audience.

[Fourth theme: Give the people with good ideas an audience, no matter their status. Connect them to the people who can turn their ideas into reality.]

After almost three years of town hall meetings to build support, the Atlanta Beltline “is changing the way we think about the city,” Ryan said. The discussions caused Atlanta to ask, “What kind of city do we want?” Interestingly, the public believed in this before political and corporate leaders, Ryan said. Fortunately, developers, environmentalists and community organizers all wanted the same thing – the Beltline.

Ryan proves that powerful ideas attract unexpected resources, a fifth theme of our summit.

Ryan’s presentation is here.

Helen Johnson, co-founder of Chattnooga’s CreateHere, and Detroit restaurant impresario Phil Cooley reported on the Detroit Civic Intervention that was underway in the city’s Roosevelt Park, powered by emerging urban leaders from across the country.  Johnson explained the effort by saying, “We understand that real change takes time, but real change also needs animation to create energy. (And consider “create the animation” as our sixth theme of our meeting.)

More on the Detroit Civic Intervention and Roosevelt Park Revival here.

On the subject of “What to Do with All That Land” that stands vacant in many cities losing population, Dan Kildee, co-founder and president of the Center for Community Progress, asked an equally important question: Why do we have all that land? “It’s dumb and expensive.” Dan also challenged the way we dispose of “extra” land. “How many of you have marched down to public auction to find your next home?” he asked. “That’s not the way it works.”

We treat land as a transaction, rather than as a system, he said. “We act as if land is a one-time use commodity."

“We must treat land in cities as if it has value, not like a rusty tractor that needs to be disposed of.”

He also pointed out that cities are unique organisms. All land is not equal. Cities deliver more value than land in other places.  (Thank you, Dan.)

He also observed that land bank and city agencies must have alignment on how to use land in future. That is not usually the case.

Dan called for a change in how the federal government treats land. “The systems we are working against are so obsolete that they make our work hard,” he said.  “The federal role will have to change to incite reform. We need a game changer equal to Race to the Top. We need to develop systems to reuse land intentionally.

View Dan's presentation here.

Toni Griffin, the uber planning consultant charged with making sense out of Detroit’s vast acres of underused land, urged cities to lead with their strengths, theme #7.  Organizing a city with the land, service and economic challenges Detroit faces requires, first, maintaining and building on strengths. Detroit Works is the city’s attempt to answer the questions of how Detroit will live, work, move, invest, decide…the services Detroit will need and what the city look like (not unlike the US Initiative).

Detroit wants to be the best 800,000 population city in the country. What will that take?

Toni also told urban leaders who face tough choices to think near-term and long-term simultaneously because “you don't want to foreclose opportunities to use land in future.” “We tend to organize our thinking around balancing next year's budget or next election,” she said. We have to change the question.  

Toni picked up Dan’s call for federal reform. The feds are asking cities to be reformers, but the federal government must also reform itself.  Federal tools and siloed operations are not relevant to today's challenges.

Toni's presentation is here. Learn more about Detroit Works here. 

Bob Brown’s presentation rounded out the panel on land and its reuse.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, a CEOs for Cities founder, joined Skillman Foundation President Carol Goss to talk about the challenges of talent development.

As Carol noted, jobs that don't require high skills don't exist anymore. Therefore, education has to be the #1 priority for cities. But that requires informed citizens pressuring the city for better schools and able to make better school choices. “Parents have to be good shoppers,” she said. “They must be well informed.”

Mayor Daley made the same point, expressing deep disappointment that too many people settle for mediocre (or worse) schools. “Everyone says we must raise the standards of charter schools,” he pointed out, “but no one wants to increase standards of [other] public schools.” After working for 20 years on schools, it’s clear that Mayor Daley will leave office frustrated that he couldn’t do more, even though progress is real and measurable.

Carol described a unique organization, Detroit Parent Network, that offers bus tours for parents of high performing schools and helps them understand data on test scores.

While Mayor Daley called for more charter schools (“the only way to push real improvement”), Carol warned that all charters are not created equal. In Detroit, the charter school movement is gaining traction, and Carol predicted that it will grow, creating an environment where Detroit Public Schools will have to compete.

Most significantly, Mayor Daley insisted,  “Someone has to take responsibility for the public schools.”  And in Chicago, Mayor Daley took responsibility.

Crowdsourcing the City with Microsoft TownHall technology was the subject of a presentation by Microsoft’s Stan Freck and Syneractive’s Evan Burfield. They described the way public engagement is being transformed through technology.

As Stan said, “Microsoft Town Hall lets you stage a town hall 24/7, 365 days a year. A big question for cities is how to orchestrate the energy of the people who want to help. Technology tools can help you engage the energy in a city, giving you new ideas & new eyes on a problem.”

CEOs for Cities used TownHall to gather ideas from across the country to support the Detroit Community Challenge. The TownHall query remains open, and we are still looking for ideas, so join the conversation.

The presentation by Stan and Evan can be viewed here.

And if you were one of the many who asked Stan and Evan how you can use TownHall in your work, here’s a link to the info you need. 

Dan Gilbert, best known as the founder of Quicken Loans, owner of the Cleveland Cavs and major downtown tenant, had the best of quote of the day at our reception.

"It's hard to get employees excited today about working next door to 500 feet of asphalt and a Costco."

Enough said.

Day Two began with an overview of CEOs for Cities initiatives.  Our work can be organized this way:

• We are unabashed advocates for the success of strong core cities as fundamental to the success of metro areas and, therefore, to the success of the nation.

• To ensure the success of strong core cities, we much ensure the Quality of Talent.  And to retain and attract talent, we must ensure Quality of Place and Quality of Opportunity.

This is an easy way to categorize all of the work we do – City Dividends, Anchor Institutions, the US Initiative, all of our research.

Paul Grogan, chairman and founder of CEOs for Cities and chairman of The Boston Foundation, reminded us of the special niche CEOs for Cities occupies.

Ten years ago at its founding, CEOs for Cities asked, “How do we hit the fast forward button on cities.”  The answer was to recognize that success is possible and that’s what we are after. We get there by focusing on the positives, distributing ideas and mobilizing leaders.

“This is an optimistic, restless organization,” Paul said. “In the mid-70s pessimism about cities was pervasive. But no one talks about the extinction of cities any more.

“We must recognize that cities are different and that there is a market for distinctiveness. We must stop papering over the differences between cities and suburbs. Instead, we need to elevate them.

“CEOs for Cities is an idea factory joined with a network of local leaders. We must build coalitions of CEOs for Cities partners locally that are multi-sector, optimistic, forward-looking with a sense of urgency about our issues.

“By doing that, we can manufacture better choices for elected officials.”

Amen to that!

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Kresge President and CEO Rip Rapson described their partnership for Detroit.  As Rip put it, Detroit has managed to craft a seamless civic agenda among the civic, philanthropic and government.  “You can't really tell where the city starts and other sectors begin.”  Rip also noted the cross-disciplinary nature of the agenda for Detroit.  “Integrated planning and implementation is really hard, but cross-disciplinary work must happen.”

Rip praised Mayor Bing for his remarkable consistency and actively seeking out partnerships. “The administration is genuine,” he said, “and he is a relationship builder. That is very different from previous administrations.”

Mayor Bing explained his approach to governing. “In Detroit, you have a white sheet of paper. I'm in it for the long haul to make the changes that are necessary for sustainability.”

He emphasized the need for Detroit to develop, attract and retain talent. “Without an educated population there is no way our city can come back,” he said. And while money is important, human capital is equally important.

“It is easier to support the expansion of businesses that are already here in Detroit, than to bring businesses from the outside,” he said.  “We also need young entrepreneurs. Government should create the environment for business to succeed. “Then we can market Detroit based on their success.”

Like Mayor Daley, Mayor Bing expressed his frustration with public employee unions.  Detroit has 48 unions, and Mayor Bing insists that “consolidation and change are necessary.”

“I have to build a winning team.  We have to think and act differently. A plan for a plan's sake doesn't matter; we must execute.”

Brian Payne, Faye Nelson and Paula Ellis shared the podium on livability.

Brian, president of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, presented his astonishingly imaginative project for Indianapolis, the Cultural Trail. His ambition was to make a project that was big enough and bold enough idea to change the way the rest of the country sees Indianapolis.

Although the Cultural Trail connects many of the city’s strengths (another theme here), the trail “had to be a place-making idea, not just a connectivity idea,” he said.  “We wanted to position Indianapolis as a progressive 21 century city.”  And the Cultural Trail clearly does that.

Brian echoed a theme Ryan Gravel and Toni Griffin both raised:  When you commit to a big idea, you don't know how it is going to evolve. But you have to be ready for the journey. As Brian said about the Cultural Trail, “The journey becomes the destination. It’s a collection of spontaneous experiences.” That’s also what the pursuit of any big idea feels like.

Brian's presentation can be viewed here.

Faye Nelson, who leads the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, showed us the amazing work that’s been done there with a charming video that can be viewed here.

Paula Ellis, vice president of Strategic Initiatives at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, gave us a deep dive into the foundation’s Soul of the Community research that seeks to understand what makes people passionate about the places they live.

Like previous CEOs for Cities research, Soul of the Community shows that jobs are not what drive attachment to a particular community. Instead, attachment is driven by three primary factors: social offerings, openness, and aesthetics, followed by education. 

These findings correspond completely to the way in which CEOs for Cities organizes its work. Social offerings (What can I do there?) and aesthetics are all about Quality of Place. Openness (Can I put my talent to work there?) is all about Quality of Opportunity.

These drivers are linked to increases in GDP, they help optimize talent, and they result in higher resident satisfaction. 

You can find the latest Soul of the Community results released earlier this month here.

Paula's presentation can be viewed here.

Sometimes, it takes a new lens to remind us of what’s right in front of us, and a panel of young Detroiters provided that in describing their motivation that resulted in the Detroit Declaration. It was described by Claire Nelson as a “loving set of demands” for their city.

Sean Mann presented a charming viewpoint on ten reasons he’s excited to wake up every morning in Detroit. “Detroit is the most fun place I could imagine being right now,” he said. Why? Detroit’s great indie businesses, the level of engagement, urban agriculture and local food, the sustainability movement, new neighborhood traditions, and its public art projects.  Sean reminds us that it’s all about authenticity and possibilities.

Here is Sean's presentation.

Distinctiveness: The Latest in City Brands was the topic tackled by Columbus Foundation President and CEO (and original CEOs for Cities member) Doug Kridler and Julia Deans, CEO of the Toronto City Summit Alliance (and newest CEOs for Cities member).

Doug reminded us that stories about cities are told everyday. The question is, are they aligned to forum unified voice?  He urged cities to develop their brands in the citizens’ voice and with citizen participation.  (Yes!)  The job is to find the city’s brand essence, not a slogan. What are your city’s points of distinction (with Sean Mann’s words ringing in our ears)?

Doug characterized the typical Midwestern approach to branding: We hope you'll like us but we totally understand if you don't.

Doug’s research found that Columbus residents want both a comfortable place to live (commonly accepted wisdom) and a progressive vibrant city (new understanding). The city’s brand essence is an open and smart community, with a remarkable number of firsts that actually matter.

See a first take on expressing Columbus’ brand essence here.  

Doug is approaching the development of its brand essence by expressing  confidence,  optimism, being real and being sophisticated.

Here is Doug’s presentation.

Toronto City Summit Alliance focuses on initiatives where no one is authorized to act. Its three summits have spawned seven initiatives.

Julia Deans told us about the efforts TCSA has initiated to put the talent of immigrants to work in Toronto as quickly as possible. “Toronto is a place where you can see the whole world every day and feel connected to the world every day,” Julia said. Nearly 50% of Toronto's population is foreign-born, and no one culture is dominant.  All of the city’s net new labor force will come from immigrants.  As a result, the ability to use this human capital is urgent to the city’s future. In fact, Toronto views immigration as a key driver of its economic success.

More on Toronto City Alliance and its work on developing immigrant talent and putting it to work is here.

The panel of connectivity previewed some of the issues we will tackle December 8-10 in Chicago at the Connectivity Challenge. 

“Connectivity is the new black,” declared Sue Zielinski, who heads SMART at U of Michigan.

Sue picked up a theme introduced by Mark Jeffreys: People act when they have opportunities to act as long as it's easier than watching TV. And that is certainly the case with transportation. In fact, young people are opting not to get their driver’s license, preferring to use travel time texting with friends.

Sue warned against the use of “alternative” transportation. “That’s like saying women are alternative men,” she said. Instead, we should see transportation as a system of linked quadrants of service, technology, product/modes, and design. Innovation is happening around new modes of transport, fractional use, and technology (fares, linking, info, traffic management, and seamlessness).

We have to be think about moving less, she said, (or what the Vienna Mayor calls “intelligent immobility”).

Sue’s presentation is here, along with a terrific video from Veolia that shows what life could be like without everyone needing a car for transportation.

Walter Hook, who advises on transportation issues all over the world from his position as head of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, shared a robust set of photos of transit systems in cities worldwide. You can see it here.

Global trends he identified include the explosion of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), new pedestrian-oriented spaces, bike sharing networks and parking reform.

Sadly, US cities are woefully behind much of the rest of the world when it comes to transportation.

Joe Cortright recapped his latest report for CEOs for Cities, Driven Apart, that strongly challenges the widely accepted method of calculating congestion.

Contrary to popular wisdom, if you adjust for distance, travel time in peak hours has actually declined in past 20 years. Sprawl -- longer distances to destinations -- is the culprit for increased travel time, not too few highway lanes. 

Yet, funding is directed to more highway lanes because that’s what the (faulty) data point to as the solution.

In fact, current measurements of congestion even penalize compact cities – exactly what we should be incentivizing if we want to save money, increase convenience and reduce greenhouse gases.

Driven Apart is another example of how better information produced with your support and put to work in your communities can lead to smarter, more cost effective outcomes.

View Joe's presentation here.

In our final session, we raised the question of the role of the core city in a metro or regional context. Are the interests of the core city lost when the focus is put on regionalism?

As Joe Cortright said, the core city is the nucleus of a metro area. A healthy core is the reason a metro area works. And a strong core city gives a metro asset it needs.

As Dan Gilmartin, who heads the Michigan Municipal League, put it, “People from this state are not flocking to Chicago because Michigan has weak suburbs.”

Dan believes we need to pursue “strategic regionalism” with the core city as a strength. Global competition is, indeed, regional, but young professionals in particular are attracted by the power of place, and that often means the uniqueness, authenticity and vibrancy of a strong core city.

We have to acknowledge that “every state economy that is performing well is doing so because of its metro centers,” as Dan put it. 

This will be a subject for future discussions at CEOs for Cities meetings.