Written by Linda Campbell and Daniel Kravetz “On Nov. 8, 2016, Detroit residents voted into law the nation’s first Community Benefits Ordinance (CBO). The law requires any developer receiving over a certain threshold of local public subsidies or tax breaks to engage with a local advisory council to address community concerns. As with traditional Community Benefits […]
Written by Linda Campbell Detroit, Michigan, recently became the first city in the nation to pass an ordinance designed to give community members a voice in negotiations with big developers. Large-scale developers often receive financial support from taxpayers in the form of grants, tax abatements, and land transfers. In exchange, they sometimes promise community members […]
Written by Sean Thomas-Breitfeld with artwork by Sean Bieri, courtesy of www.metrotimes.com Detroit and many cities across the country that experienced disinvestment, white flight and redlining a generation ago, are now grappling with economic “redevelopment” efforts that notoriously and blatantly bypass communities of color. Since redevelopment so often means removing long-time residents to transform neighborhoods […]
Written by Tina Law Last week, The New York Times released an interactive dataset comparing what income mobility looks like in different neighborhoods across the country. This dataset, which comes from years of research conducted by The Equality of Opportunity Project, is remarkable in a lot ways. But what struck me the most about this dataset was how […]
Written by Frances Kunreuther Residents must be gaining some power in Detroit. Because each time they start to organize something, the state tries to intervene to usurp their gains. This time it is the Community Benefits Agreement ordinance. The Detroit People’s Platform introduced the need for a Community Benefits Agreement ordinance to ensure that developers – who are […]