Piece together cooperation
One D plan for region needs to show value of teamwork
June 10, 2007
There's a suburban county commissioner hereabouts who cracks that every time he hears "regionalism" he reaches for his wallet. That's not a joke -- it's a perception, one of many that the leaders of "One D: Transforming Regional Detroit" will have to counter if their concept is really going to become a movement.
That particular perception assumes regionalism means taking from the suburbs and giving to the city. But there's another one that says regionalism means the city surrendering some of its control to the suburbs. Both are deeply rooted in thinking that anything regional must have winners and losers, that the whole of southeast Michigan cannot be more important than any of its parts.
Suburban political leaders pay lip service to the importance of Detroit but don't believe their constituents see much value in the city, and they act accordingly. The city's political leadership, meantime, seems to see regionalism as a threat to Detroit's power over its own affairs.
At the Detroit Regional Chamber's recent policy conference on Mackinac Island, there was overwhelming enthusiasm among attendees for regional problem solving but a tepid response from political leaders. These entrenched attitudes do not reflect the thinking among ordinary southeast Michigan folks who just want good jobs and a great place to live. They are why One D has to work around the political establishment but also speak to it with one voice on behalf of the public.
The very existence of One D -- representing thousands of large and small businesses, service organizations, civic and cultural institutions and progressive community leaders -- shows there is a majority constituency for throwing out old attitudes and finding a new, more united path to the future.
The One D priorities -- economic prosperity, educational preparedness, quality of life, race relations and regional transit -- have no boundaries other than old-line "what's in it for me?" thinking.
Given where that has brought this region, isn't it time to ask "what's in it for us?"
Soon enough will come the old arguments about who's paying for what and who's controlling what. But sharing resources or power becomes less of an issue when a region shares goals and aspirations, and focuses on projects that make a difference. Think mass transit, aerotropolis, Cobo Hall expansion. Every thriving region in the country has been able to pull together, despite differences that are as pronounced as any around here.
The One D folks have put forth a set of goals that nobody in this region can sensibly argue about.
They don't cover everything, but they do cover a lot, and they are all interrelated. Each would play a role in remaking this region for the future. One D needs to demonstrate that with a short-term win-win project in order to set the stage for larger, regional things to come.
The political leaders who recoil at the word "regionalism" need to look around. To describe the situation of people locally as "uneven" is a major understatement. And the reality is that what's wrong with this area is doing more to drag it down than what's right about it can do to lift it up. If that ratio is not reversed, and soon, it's a lose-lose for everybody.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
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