On September 8, 2010 I asked Detroiters to join me in redefining the physical, social, and economic landscape of our city by participating in The Detroit Works Project.

Detroiters responded to the invitation with overwhelming interest.  Nearly 10,000 people attended 28 community meetings to share their perspective about how we can create a new path from today’s Detroit to a city that works better for all residents.

At those meetings we were candid with residents about the challenges our city is aggressively attempting to overcome as our population has decreased along with our tax base, and revenue sharing on the state and federal levels continues to be cut.

The Detroit Works Project when we began was to be a way for our community to collectively create a new roadmap for our city’s future, and our intention for creating that long-term vision has not changed.

But it was during the meetings with residents that it became clear to me and members of my team that a short-term set of actions were going to be required to help strengthen our neighborhoods for today while we continued to create a new roadmap for an improved Detroit of tomorrow.

We started with the comments received from the community, and then we examined the physical conditions and market trends as part of a comprehensive Neighborhood Analysis.  Now we have a short-term action strategy to align some city services, resources and investments in neighborhoods based on their existing market conditions.  This approach in the short-term will help to inform our decisions about the long-term vision we are developing.

As we continue with the process of creating a Detroit that works better, the ongoing involvement of our community will be imperative.   The commitment that’s already been made by Detroiters to support the Detroit Works Project has been invaluable, and we need your continued partnership and support going forward.

Dave Bing, Mayor
City of Detroit