Detroit needs to rise together, or it cannot rise at all. Detroiters deserve a seat at the table and a voice in decision-making when huge developers come into their communities. The Community Benefits Ordinance ensures that every Detroiter, especially historic residents, can play an active role in the City’s future and benefit from new economic development.
I was dismayed to read Mike Aaron’s July 6th post questioning the role of Community Benefits in development. Fear is often used as a means of social control, a lesson that our friends in labor should understand better than most.
It is true that there is new economic development in the city, but the benefits of that development are not evenly shared. The notion of a tale of two cities resonates with the lived experience of most people in the city, particularly those in increasingly abandoned neighborhoods.
The most effective antidote to fear is information and education. The Community Benefits Ordinance is not a new idea. Community members have been working with members of City Council for more than three years developing and refining the proposal. I know, because I participated in many of those meetings.
It is true that the Community Benefits Ordinance empowers member of the community and focuses on those most affected by proposed developments. The Ordinance establishes a process whereby large scale developments that seek public subsidies for their private enterprise have to work with community members to ensure that public dollars produce real public benefits.
It is not true that City Council plays no role in the process. The Council Member in the district where the development takes place helps convene the first meeting. More importantly, the Ordinance allows developers to petition Council for an exemption if good faith negations fail to produce an agreement. There are other parts of the ordinance that allow flexibility in reaching agreements.
I am often asked to speak about how we can make economic development more inclusive. My answer is that we cannot trust “business as usual.” Business as usual is what has produced the tremendous economic imbalance that defines the City and the Region. We need a new model of equitable, people-focused development.
When I speak to national and international audiences about economic development, I tell them about the good things happening in Detroit. One of the post positive developments is the Community Benefits Ordinance. It builds upon a tested model that has worked in other major cities and has been embraced by businesses that want to build real relationships with the communities they serve.
Rather than stoking fear, people should take pride in what is just the latest example of Detroit exhibiting national leadership and blazing new trails to the future. This should resonate particularly strongly with those in labor. It was not that long ago that fear was rallied to oppose unions as a means to ensure that workers benefited fairly from their labor.
Sadly, fear is afoot in this country. Fear will be stoked further as the November election approaches. But the sky is not falling. The best lesson from new research on economic development is that political inclusion and economic inclusion provides the best formulas for driving our economy forward. The Community Benefits Ordinance is an example of both. The Ordinance reflects the return of grassroots democracy to Detroit after an era of bankruptcy and Emergency Management. The ordinance also ensures that community members play a role in their own economic futures.
The best thing to do it just read the Ordinance. The Community Benefits Ordinance produces real benefits for community.
Peter J. Hammer is Professor of Law and Director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University Law School and author of “Change and Continuity at the World Bank: Reforming Paradoxes of Economic Development.”
About Post Author
