In recent years, forces of economic restructuring and population decline have threatened the vitality of Detroit. Still, the city is a major metropolis with exciting potential for regeneration. What are the visions for the future of Detroit? This panel will bring together experts from across disciplines to envision the possibilities and chart out a course of action for the former ‘Motor City’.

Panelists:

Malo Hutson
Assistant Professor, Department of City & Regional Planning

Malo Hutson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley. His research focuses on community development, regional planning, urban sustainability, and population health. In addition, Professor Hutson focuses on urban policy and politics and the role of institutions in influencing urban and regional development.

Toni Griffin
Theodore B. and Doris Shoong Lee Distinguished Professor of Real Estate Law and Urban Planning

Toni L. Griffin was recently named Professor and Director of the J. Max Bond Center for Architecture at the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York. She founded and maintains an active private practice, Urban Planning and Design for the American City, whose current clients include the cities of Newark, New Jersey, and Detroit, Michigan.

Jennifer Granholm
Distinguished Adjunct Professor, UC Berkeley School of Law & Goldman School of Public Policy

Jennifer Granholm served as Michigan’s 47th governor from 2003 to 2011. As Governor, Granholm led the state through a brutal economic downturn that resulted from a meltdown in the automotive and manufacturing sectors. She worked relentlessly to diversify the state’s economy, strengthen its auto industry, preserve the manufacturing sector, and add new, emerging sectors, such as clean energy, to Michigan’s economic portfolio.

Michelle Wilde Anderson
Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

Michelle Wilde Anderson is a public law scholar and practitioner focused on state and local government, including urban policy, city planning, local democracy, and public finance. Her work combines legal analysis with the details of human experience to understand the local governance of high poverty areas, both urban and rural, and the legal causes of concentrated poverty and fiscal crisis. Her current research explores legal restructuring (such as bankruptcy, disincorporation, and receiverships) for cities and counties in distress—issues that affect not only Rust Belt capitals such as Detroit, but also post-industrial cities in California, rural areas in Oregon, and small towns across the Northeast and South.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of City and Regional Planning, the Institute of Urban Redevelopment, and the Center for Global Metropolitan Studies.