Transatlantic Insight

Last week, the German Marshall Fund hosted two workshops in the Great Lakes region, one in Cleveland and one in Detroit. Both welcomed both American civic leaders from the region and civic leaders from older industrial cities in Europe to discuss the concept of regionalism, how regional identities are fostered, and how regional strategies can help promote economic development. The workshops drew on the experiences of both older industrial European cities as well as local and regional leaders to explore in depth a number of topics relating to these themes. I attended the Detroit workshop and thought somebody might be interested in my very brief recap:

Torino Mayor Valentino Castellani disarmed our crowd with a simple statement: “I have nothing to teach. You can’t teach the change.” Instead, he told his story of turnaround accomplished through cooperation and bold leadership.

It goes like this: Castellani took office in 1993 when manufacturing was at the low point of a three-decade decline, his single-industry town had an unemployment rate in the teens, and the revolving door of political leadership had just finished spinning. (Sound familiar, Rust Belt?)

Over two terms, Castellani spearheaded a turnaround strategy that entailed bottom-up governance, reorienting regional transit along a central corridor, adaptive reuse of industrial properties, neighborhood regeneration and an Olympics bid. A few tactics grabbed my attention: (continue reading here)

Thoughts on how we make use of this story? How do we put it to use in metro Detroit? I'm interested in specific ideas and any new questions that should be considered.

There's a great, in-depth article about the workshop in the week's Model D. Read on.