Detroiters have long made it clear that they love their city and want the best for it, and the pride and commitment that is so indicative of Detroit’s residents paid off in the Knight Cities Challenge.
Today the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced 126 finalists in its first Knight Cities Challenge. The contest called for ideas to enhance the 26 communities where the Knight Foundations invests. Despite its new status, the challenge received over 7,000 entries from organizations and individuals who were eager to make an impact in their communities.
The Knight Cities Challenged asked participants: What’s your best idea to make cities more successful?
The rules of the challenge were simple:
A submission doesn’t have to be entered by a person or organization residing in a Knight community, but the suggested project must benefit at least one of the Knight communities.
The project should focus on one or all of the three drivers of city success:
- Opportunity: ideas that grow economic potential and demolish divides
- Engagement: ideas that foster relationships between citizens and create civic involvement
- Talent: ideas that bring the best and the brightest to the cities
The Knight Foundation will announce the winners, who will share the $5 million grant, this spring.
Though all of the Knight communities were represented in the final round, Detroit had the largest number of finalists; of the 126 entries selected, 25 of them came from Detroit organizations and individuals.
The full list of Detroit finalists is as follows:
- Beautify Our Block by ARISE Detroit! (Submitted by Luther Keith): Creating a jobs-focused, sustainable rapid response team to fight blight and clean up neighborhoods to improve the quality of life in the city.
- The Boggs School Community Dreamscape by the Boggs Educational Center (Submitted by Shoshanna Utchenik): Repurposing the outdoor space of the Boggs school into a “dreamscape” where people can meet, learn from nature, explore art installations and recharge.
- Border Talks (Submitted by Graig Donnelly): Creating a physical space to foster engagement between diverse residents of Detroit and its neighbor Grosse Pointe Park, who are separated by barricades and closed streets.
- Brand Camp Pop-Up: School Branding Businesses in Detroit Neighborhoods by Brand Camp University (Submitted by Hajj Flemings): Assisting startups and entrepreneurs in underserved neighborhoods with branding their companies and ideas through a multi-day training and mentoring program that helps them tell their stories and establish a digital presence.
- Brick + Beam Detroit: Let’s Get Rehabbing! by Michigan Historic Preservation Network (Submitted by Emilie Evans): Rehabilitating Detroit architecture by providing training, social events and forums for people across skill levels to work together to improve their city.
- Bus Riders Need to Be Engaged Too (Submitted by Jacob Rayford Jr.): Engaging the city’s bus riders by providing information agents on public transit who can answer questions about the city and relay concerns.
- The Buzz by Detroit Future City (Submitted by Erin Kelly): Pairing barbers with landscape contractors to transform overgrown vacant lots through facilitated design workshops that teach mowing and pattern-making techniques.
- The Chain Link Kit (Submitted by Claire Nelson): Creating a how-to guide to transform the ubiquitous and unsightly fence into galleries, gardens and grids while promoting community connections.
- Detroit Civic Engagement Traveling Road Show by Community Development Advocates of Detroit (Submitted by Sarida Scott): Engaging residents in the future of the city through a series of workshops and community dinners throughout Detroit.
- Detroit Homecoming by Crain’s Detroit Business (Submitted by Eric Cedo): Engaging residents — past and present — with a new digital community designed to keep Detroit expats in touch with the city even after they have moved away.
- Growing Communities With Strong Funding Roots by Funding Roots (Submitted by Renette Gordon): Using crowdfunding to attract capital to rebuild Detroit, create jobs, engage residents and boost opportunity for new businesses.
- Information Supergreenway by Detroit RiverFront Conservancy (Submitted by Jan Shimshock): Providing continuous public WiFi along Detroit’s RiverWalk, Dequindre Cut and Eastern Market to break down digital divides, connect neighborhoods and support area entrepreneurs.
- Middlecott Sketchbasttle Experiment (Submitted by Brook Banham): Opening the creative process by expanding a public design competition in Detroit, dubbed “a fight club for design,” that makes the design process a spectator sport.
- Neighborhood Exchange Program by Detroit Experience Factory (Submitted by Jeanette Pierce): Introducing residents to new communities through a series of events that will transport them from one neighborhood to another where they can connect with new people and learn about neighborhood assets, challenges and successes.
- NOW WHAT!!!! by Neighbors Building Brightmoor (Submitted by Riet Schumack): Making the neighborhood business district in Brightmoor more vibrant through a competition that pairs local businesses with residents to transform vacant spaces using creative design solutions.
- Project Groundtruth by Detroit Future City (Submitted by Dara O’Byrne): Improving quality of life for Detroit residents by transforming vacant lots and blighted properties that surround multifamily developments into green, open spaces.
- ProsperU$Det Innovation Stations in Your Neighborhood by Southwest Economic Solutions (Submitted by Hector Hernandez): Creating neighborhood “opportunity kiosks” where entrepreneurs would pitch ideas to residents who would vote on proposals to receive small loans, subsidized rent and entrepreneurial training.
- Shark Tank for Small Developers/Builders by Kim Architecture + Design with Strong Towns (Submitted by R. John Anderson): Training a new generation of local developers and builders to manage smaller scale city projects that take less time and fewer resources than traditional models.
- Social Water Financing (Submitted by Rachel Cardone): Testing and delivering community-based financing for household and neighborhood water services that promote recycling and reduce water use, such as harvesting rainwater, establishing rain gardens and retrofitting housing with hyperefficient toilets.
- SWOT City Shine by TechTown Detroit (Submitted by Marlo Staples): Engaging the community in designing solar lighting that identifies the city’s unique commercial corridors while overcoming its challenges with maintaining lighting infrastructure.
- Uber Local Food System House by Detroit City Planning Commission (Submitted by Kathryn Underwood): Repurposing vacant and abandoned houses to provide year-round indoor sites for growing vegetables for the local community.
- The Urban Consulate (Submitted by Claire Nelson): Promoting cross-city cultural exchange by setting up a network of “consulates” for American cities, instead of foreign countries, that offer events and an entree into local culture.
- Think Tanker by MODCaR c/o the Bureau of Emergent Urbanity (Submitted by Anya Sirota): Bringing attention to the power of design and the manufacturing economy through Think Tanker, a barge with design studios, exhibition space and maker facilities that will host international designers on the Detroit River.
- Why Would Anyone Want to Live in Detroit by LIVE Detroit (Submitted by Rachel Perschetz): Attracting and keeping talent in Detroit by creating a one-stop shop for information about neighborhoods and living in the city.
- Windows Into Detroit Communities (Submitted by Alex B. Hill, Meg Heeres and Maya Stovall): Bringing residents from diverse communities together in an artistic event where they participate in and listen to discussions that happen across mock borderlines while discovering their differences and commonalities.
The ideas proposed are creative and insightful, but the public will have to wait until the spring to learn who will win. Even if Detroit applicants walk away empty-handed, the ideas are well worth discussing. Change is a long process, but keeping some unique ideas on the table may help speed events along.