Detroit—Model of Lean Urbanism

The Knight Foundation recently announced $600,000 in funding for the Project for Lean Urbanism. Between the poles of Tactical Urbanism and New Urbanism, writes Andrés Duany, Lean Urbanism “focuses on revitalizing cities by finding ways for people to participate in community-building—specifically, by enabling everyday people to get things done.”

To mark the occasion of the Knight Foundation’s funding, Duany penned an adaptation of an article he recently wrote for CNN, describing the succession of risk-oblivious, risk-aware, and risk-averse in what he describes as the traditional cycle of cities—citing examples like “Greenwich Village in the 1920s, Miami Beach in the ’80s, and Brooklyn now.”

“Detroit is now a place where risk-oblivious millennials can get things done. This is too difficult in most places because of regulations, bureaucracy that makes it impossible to bake a cookie for sale without a certified kitchen, an accessible bathroom and constant inspections.”