Introducing Protocol 2012: Regional Vibrancy Mapping?

On Saturday, December 3, 2011, the Millennial Mayors Congress formally adopted its Millennial Vision for Metro Detroit. Member cities will now shift to implementing the vision. At this meeting, the Congress also voted on our next initiative, the first step towards achieving the ambitious goals laid out in the vision. In 2012, we’ll be taking on regional vibrancy mapping.

We’re almost positive you’ve never heard of “vibrancy mapping” before, and that’s because we invented it! Sort of. As a group, we decided that our collective efforts in the coming year can have the most impact by identifying and showcasing the region’s vibrant places. We believe that a strong metro Detroit will have a thriving network of local concentrations of people and things to do. In order to support regional vibrancy, however, residents must be aware of local strengths, culture and amenities, and be able to travel to these spaces.

Many communities use cultural or asset mapping to define community resources and needs, but we’re approaching mapping in a new way. We’ll seek to create these maps from the ground up, asking residents where they hang out, eat, work, travel and live. We intend to crowdsource parts of the process, using existing resources such as Google Places, Yelp and Walkscore, holding multi-community mapping forums and deploying teams of Millennials to rove the streets. By transcending traditional boundaries and focusing on real use as reported by residents, we’ll map the region’s vibrant places, highlighting both local and regional cultures.

The really exciting part of this initiative is what our cities want to do with the resulting maps. We’ll be able to point young residents and visitors to our vibrant places, but they’ll also allow us to coordinate future investments in business, transit and placemaking. (For some Michigan-based placemaking resources, check here.) We’ll use the maps to tell a regional story of a vibrant metro Detroit, shifting the narrative to areas of growth and opportunity.

Since “vibrancy mapping” is completely new, we have some questions for you: What would you like to see on these maps? What should they look like? Where should they be housed? How should we collect information? What existing efforts should we coordinate with or learn from?

Help us work towards a more vibrant, connected metro Detroit and stay updated at our Facebook and Twitter pages. Happy 2012!