As part of his Great Society Program in the mid to late 1960s, President Lyndon B. Johnson persuaded Congress to enact the Model Cities Program.  It was a five-year program to develop new antipoverty programs and alternative forms of municipal government. The ambitious federal urban aid program succeeded in fostering a new generation of mostly black urban leaders. However, the nation moved to the right after the urban riots of the late 1960s. This led to a shift in goals to bricks and mortar housing and building projects. The program ended in 1974.

At the time, there was some discussion of a totally different model cities program.  Rather than distributing resources amongst a host of cities, the idea was to provide resources to cities in need on a one-by-one basis.  Could America take one of its decaying inner cities with an aged infrastructure and a host of socio-economic problems and modernize it so that it had the physical and social amenities “new towns” such as Reston, Virginia or Columbia, Maryland?

Whether it’s Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, Oakland, or St. Louis, what we know for sure is that a half-century of urban renewal programs have only helped in selected areas of the cities.  While “jewels” in the form of new stadiums, concert halls, and university expansions have been constructed, the poverty has remained.  As a nation we are all affected by our failure to turn our core cities around and have them be the hubs of revitalized metropolitan areas.  Our patchwork approach has not worked and it will not be the solution to Detroit’s present problems.

In many ways, what we need to do is to go back to scratch, literally to scratch.  What is the best way to utilize all the land in a city such as Detroit which has 80,000 vacant buildings and empty lots?  Let me suggest something that Detroit and a host of other cities have already started, but only started – urban farming.  This is a form of continuing the cycle of metamorphosis.  First there was the founding of a city, then development and growth, and more recently decay and flight.  White flight has been joined by black flight.  Some cities such as Detroit have less than a third of the population they had in 1950.

Before our cities became the centers of American civilization, the land on which they currently sit consisted of healthy woods and plains.  Then much of the land was developed into farmland.  That is where we need to go again, this time starting from decay rather than virgin land.

This is the easiest thing for us to do with the abandoned parts of our cities.  It can be done in a comprehensive way rather than piecemeal.  The land that is now vacant as well as that on which dilapidated structures sit need to bulldozed and cured to remove the toxins from the land.    We have to literally clean up our cities.  As that is done, we will be able to put people to work with special considerations given to those living in the core city and who have skills but not jobs.  Some of the land might be renovated into small “new towns” with the likes of townhouse residences and new small businesses providing basic necessities for residents.  Those people who would be the new urban pioneers would also be the people who would have first chance at farming the now available land.

The work could be done by adults and children in school as well.  Schools in the community could involve real experiential education.  They would get away from the boring test-driven curricula and rather teach students to maintain and strengthen their innate curiosity and desire to learn.  Additionally it would provide students with jobs skills that would make them “work-force ready.”

As areas within the city limits became productive, safe, and clean, more and more people would be motivated to move in.  This is one of the beauties of a transition to farming.  New development in the areas that were farmland would not run against current obstacles to potential growth such as neighborhood opposition.  Rather than people living impoverished lives in these areas, the land would be used for farming.  Owners could make healthy profits off the sale of their land while not uprooting residents and businesses.

This model cities program would really be an experimental program.  Could it work in Detroit?  If so, how long would it take?  Would enough federal money be available for several years to fund the project?  If it worked in Detroit, could it be replicated elsewhere, utilizing the lessons learned in Detroit?  Would we actually learn how to take a decaying city and turn it into a vibrant area in which to live and work?  Would we have discovered a new way to rebuild our urban areas and not be the kind of half-way measures that have been used the past half-century with limited success?

Progressives do have the insight to base many of their beliefs on promoting the common good while protecting individual liberties.  Could a real model cities program demonstrate how we can improve our society by taking a holistic rather than half-way approach to renovation?  We don’t know the answers now, but it certainly is worthwhile to make something as concrete as a real model cities program a cornerstone of progressive thinking.

The post Detroit’s troubles can help us find the way to full recovery appeared first on Occasional Planet.

The first US Social Forum (USSF) took place in Atlanta in June 2007.  Twelve thousand progressive social-justice advocates from all over the country came together to celebrate, organize, teach, debate and otherwise contribute to a growing sense that we need a more fair,  just and democratic United States.  This year the USSF will meet June 22-26 in downtown Detroit, where 20,000 are expected to attend. Cost is $10 to $120 depending on ability to pay.

The USSF created the forum because it saw a need for progressives and the left to effectively and affirmatively articulate the 
values and strategies of a growing and vibrant movement for social justice in the
 United States and around the world. Members and participants saw themselves as part of a new kind of progressive movement that reaches
 beyond national borders, and practices democracy at all levels.

From the USSF website:

Why Detroit?

To win nationally, we must win in places like Detroit. The Midwest site of 
the USSF marks a fierce resistance movement for social, racial, gender, and
 economic justice. Detroit has the highest unemployment of any major city in the 
country—23.2% (March 2009)—with nearly one in four Detroiters unable to find
 work. Michigan has had the highest number of unemployed people in all 50 states
 for nearly four years. Thousands of living wage jobs have been permanently lost
 in the automotive industry and related sectors. Some think that it will take at 
least until 2025 for Michigan to recover from the economic collapse and social
 dislocation.

What is happening in Detroit and in Michigan is happening all
 across the United States. Detroit is a harbinger for what we must do in our communities!
 As grassroots activists and organizers, we work to address the indignities 
against working families and low-income people, and protect our human right to 
the basic necessities of life. In Detroit, we can make change happen!

The US Social Forum provides this space—drawing participants from
 different regions, ethnicities, sectors and ages across the U.S. and its 
colonies. Community-based organizations, Indigenous nations, immigrants, 
independent workers organizations, unions, unemployed, youth, children, elders,
 queers, differently-abled, international allies, academics, and advocacy organizations will be able to come together in Detroit for dialogues, 
reflection and to define future strategies.

A partial list of workshops:

• How Communities are Building the Domestic Human Right to Housing Movement and Utilizing U.N. Interventions

• Ending all drug wars – stopping racist prison policy against the poor & working class people of color

• Organizing on a Shoestring: Getting the word out cheap

• Fighting for a Moratorium on Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs

• The Militarization of America: At What Cost?

• Feminist Economics: value of care

• BuildTheWheel.org: Sharing Political Education Workshops, Trainings and Resources

• For a Health System based on Equity and Solidarity: Building a Movement for the Human Right to Health in the U.S.

• Re-localization and the Role of the Rustbelt: Young Farmers, Urban Farmers & Sustainable Redevelopment

• “African American Social Cooperatives: Addressing Needs of Women, Youth, and Families for Economic Development and Health Services”

• From Oil to Clean Energy: The Transition from a war-based, carbon-based economy to one that meets human needs sustainably

• U.S. Techie Congress

• CEDESA, Women, and the Mexican Food Sovereignty Movement

• Another Peace Is Possible–Understanding How Militarism Harms Women and Working Together To Create A Women-Inclusive Peace

• Building support for a basic income guarantee

• True Cost Economics: the real potential and problems

• Hip Hop Culture in the Third Space: Building Mind Power Collective

• Single payer Health Care Solution to the Health Care Crisis

• Songwriting for Social Change

• Megaprojects and the Militarization of Mexico

• Homeless Resistance

• Domestic Fair Trade Association: A Movement Based Approach to Fair Trade

• Cultural Space & Community Self-Determination: An East Oakland Story of Radical Change

• Responding to an Amnesiac Culture with Grassroots Social History

• “AMARC and Community Radio around the World”

• Resist the Testing! Transform Public Education!

• Promoting Youth Leadership and Governance in Social Justice Organizations

• Who Says You Can’t Change the World: Just Economies and Societies on an Unjust Planet

• The Social Context of Schools: Building a more liberatory possibility

• Fighting to Defend Public Education in America: Kindergarten through University

• Scholar Activism in the Global Justice Movement

• Rapid solarization can drive sustainable economic growth while preventing catastrophic climate change.

• The Truth Is Not Enough: How to create social change that sticks

• Reimagining Society Project 1: Envision What We Want

• Reimagining Society Project 2: How Do We Get the Society We Want?

• ChainofChange.com: A Multimedia Youth Response to Violence

• Human Rights Campaigns to Build Power at the State Level: Healthcare and Workers’ Rights

• Global Cultural Activism through the Arts

The post Progressive Forum to be held in Detroit appeared first on Occasional Planet.