Detroit’s Stakeholders: Financial Stability Agreement is just the Start

by Ryan Kelly and Nancy Kaffer|Crain’s Detroit

Dan Pitera, Civic Engagement Co-Lead for Detroit Works Project Long Term Planning was a presenter at an event hosted earlier this week by Crain’s Detroit Business and while Dan had alot to say about the work we are doing to shape Detroit’s future, here are some of the comments that were captured by Crain’s reporters Ryan Kelly and Nancy Kaffer.

“Dan Pitera, the head of Detroit Works Project and a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy, gave an overview of the project’s long-term planning and how it must track with the consent agreement’s government reform objectives.

“We complain more about the people that are leaving Detroit than about the people joining the party,” he said. “We keep beating ourselves up because we were at one point dropping to 700,000 (residents). We can have a great city at 700,000, 600,000, 500,000. …”

Pitera said it’s essential to allow room for input.

“Building a community dialogue is the framework,” he said. But transformative change “has got to live way outside city hall. It has to live within all of us, all nonprofits, all business leaders.”

Here is the article and video in its entirety.