Downriver Residents Have A Choice - Seek Mixed-Use Sustainable Economic Development, Or Reindustrialize and Create More Pollution?
Recent Riverview Landfill and Trenton Waterfront Rezoning Decisions Show Citizens Increasingly Want Both Prosperity and Higher Quality of Life
Last week, our Board Members at McLouth Waterfront Alliance (MWA) were among more than 350 citizens who participated in the virtual public meeting hosted by the Wayne County Facility Inclusion Committee (WCFIC) to review the City of Riverview's proposal to expand the Riverview Land Preserve landfill. It was well worth the investment of time and effort; the outcome of the meeting was a solid victory for citizens who want to improve this region of Downriver.
If we had looked to the past, we may have believed that the WCFIC meeting would highlight a rivalry between Riverview and Trenton residents. As it turns out, residents from both communities want the same outcomes – a cleaner environment, recession-proof jobs, and properly funded municipal services.
Every Downriver community has its own unique needs. And at the end of the day, MWA knows we’re all in this together.
It’s time for public and private sector leaders, and citizens across all Downriver communities, to think regionally about how we can raise our standard of living together, through the pursuit of strategies promoting mixed-use, sustainable economic development. We need to move beyond the artificial boundary lines that carved Downriver into 18 municipal fiefdoms that seek to solve their own problems or create opportunities regardless of the impact on their neighbors or the whole region.
Our strategy for making our communities more successful and enjoyable shouldn’t be to compete against each other. Let’s not play a zero-sum game based on scarcity, where we carve a piece of limited resources for ourselves at the expense of one another; let’s instead collaborate to grow together in a culture of abundance. A rising tide raises all ships, and when your neighbor’s house is on fire, it’s only a matter of time before your house catches on fire too.
MWA understands that it can be difficult to look at our regional economic growth from such a different perspective. However, we believe one of the best opportunities to start demonstrating this mindset of abundance is to establish a comprehensive plan for the clean-up and revitalization of Downriver's post-industrial waterfront areas with mixed-use sustainable economic development, including enhanced public access to the Detroit River.
This plan must start with the McLouth Steel site and nearby areas which represent the largest immediate prospects for transformative economic redevelopment and improvement of the environment.
In the past year, Trenton, Riverview, and Grosse Ile residents confronted a range of issues, including the McLouth Steel site, Riverview landfill, Riverside Hospital, Wayne County Parkway Bridge, road maintenance, greenway biking trails, natural area restoration, and regional tourism promotion. They’ve been driving forces in several election cycles. And at the end of the day, we’re all trying to figure out what’s best for our community.
While we may disagree with our neighbors about the types of jobs and revenue generators that are most feasible, we know that they are taking the positions they have because they believe these are the only options available at this time.
Comparison is a natural inclination for communities. After all, how else would we know how to rank our status if there was no basis for comparison? But it begs the question; when we see what others are doing, do we become ashamed? Or inspired?
It seems to us that the answer should be inspired – to recognize our community's barriers and challenges, while still achieving new ways to improve through "win-win" partnerships. After seeing so many people show up at public meetings and rallies in the last year, despite the pandemic in addition to the normal responsibilities of careers, family, and general daily life that can make community activism a lower priority, it’s clear that citizens Downriver know it’s time we grow into a more environmentally and economically resilient economy.
During the height of the social unrest and conflict in the U.S. in 1968, late U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy paraphrased the great playwright George Benard Shaw in a speech stating, "Some men see things as they are, and say why. I dream of things that never were, and say why not." About a year after Senator Kennedy's remarks, the Rouge River in Detroit infamously caught fire as a result of industrial pollution.
Leaders and citizens at the time could have easily concluded that pollution was the price of progress, and accepted it. But they didn’t. They made the tough choice to seek positive environmental change without sacrificing the economy, even though it was not immediately apparent how to accomplish this goal. They embraced Senator Kennedy’s call to action by envisioning that environmental clean-up and sustainable economic development.
Downriver communities need to re-engage their strength and determination in the power of vision and proactive leadership to overcome the fear and uncertainty of those who say it’s impossible to both create jobs of the future to fully fund municipal services, and maintain a clean environment and high quality of life. Not only is it possible – in the 21st century, we must prioritize a clean and healthy environment in order to attract and retain jobs and economic resiliency.
We can certainly show up at meetings and “slam the brakes” on ineffective ideas moving forward, but MWA believes it’s far more productive to have an alternate vision. It isn’t fair to leave city governments like Trenton and Riverview high and dry when they’re trying to remain fiscally solvent. So who do we compare to? Where can we go to be inspired about what’s possible?
Cleveland provides a fantastic model. Our local resident environmental clean-up and economic development expert, Dr. John Hartig, has spoken countless times about the transformation from a river lighting on fire from pollution to now being the center of Cleveland’s “Vision for the Valley” roadmap, which designates eight miles of Cuyahoga riverfront in the heart of the city as the focal point for hundreds-of-millions of dollars of mixed-use redevelopment to create thousands of 21st-century jobs.
For comparison about what’s possible Downriver - eight miles is approximately the distance from the southern point of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge in Gibraltar to Bishop Park in Wyandotte. Directly across the river, Amherstburg, Ontario is investing heavily in its waterfront development as well. We already share a one-of-a-kind international wildlife refuge with our neighbors in Canada - Imagine sharing a "nautical" economy that connects waterfront businesses, facilities, and amenities on both sides of the border.
We know the common objections, “We’re not Cleveland. Where will the developers come from, and who is going to fund it?”
We’ll admit that we don’t have every answer right now – nobody does. But when has not knowing how to complete a journey ever stopped an inventor, adventurer, or entrepreneur from trying to make an ambitious dream become a reality?
In that regard, we believe it’s time for Downriver to begin the voyage of reinventing itself. Let’s start by capitalizing on arguably one of most valuable assets any community could ever have - our waterfront and waterways. These areas literally define the name of Downriver; yet as of today, our communities have no plan for making the most of this unique opportunity.
Like accomplishing any complex goal, it’s important we understand just what we’re trying to accomplish, otherwise, we don’t have a blueprint for how to determine which decisions will move us closer to our desired endpoint.
The funding resources and developers we’ve spoken with have a consistent message –our communities need a plan with a vision to attract investment. And with the success of the landfill expansion opposition, and the rezoning of McLouth Steel property and broader waterfront in Trenton, it’s abundantly clear that our regional vision needs to, at least in part, come from the residents up, and not solely be pushed onto the residents from the top down.
Our leaders have responded to citizens pushing hard for better outcomes. We’re confident that if citizens continue to show up and make their voices heard, leaders will continue to be responsive.
So, as citizens of Downriver, let’s keep up the momentum. Let’s keep showing up and doing the hard work it takes to accomplish positive change. It takes an entire village working together to cultivate the community, environment, and atmosphere we want to live, work, and raise our families within. We could not be prouder to say we’re residents of the big village that is collectively Downriver.
We invite all citizens to join this movement towards a cleaner environment and mixed-use, sustainable, resilient economic development along Downriver's waterfront. Together, we will ensure that Downriver's best days are yet to come.
Ryan A. Stewart - President
Stephanie Meiers - Chief Operations Officer
Brooke Stefani – Director of Programming & Events
Tracy Loger – Member
McLouth Waterfront Alliance Board of Directors
