Detroit Demolition-Developers Dictating Education?

[Starry Messenger]

This week Detroit began its targeted demolitions in its city. What is the connection to education you ask? That's what I'm trying to find out too. Because there is one.

This blurb from Model D media, which is apparently a Detroit-centric astroturf site for redevelopers, recently published this quiet little blurb:

http://www.modeldmedia.com/devnews/uli032310.aspx

Urban Land Institute to unveil surplus school properties to developers on March 24
Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Urban Land Institute Detroit District Council, in partnership with SEMCOG and the Michigan Suburbs Alliance, is hosting its first annual Metro Marketplace at Oakland University from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday March 24. The program is extensive, but two highlights include a keynote address from Chris Ronayne, president of University Circle, Inc. -- Cleveland's fastest growing employment center -- and an hour-and-a-half of deal making that will enable municipalities, schools and nonprofits to showcase available properties to investors and developers. Detroit Public Schools' surplus sites will be unveiled at this time in the hopes of attracting serious inquiries.

The schedule kicks off at 7:30 a.m. with registration and breakfast and Ronayne will speak at 8:30 a.m. From 9-9:40 a.m. there will be a panel discussion regarding the public sector, with participants from Wayne State University; the cities of Warren, Romulus and Detroit; the University Cultural Center Association; and SEMCOG. A private sector panel discussion will follow, with representatives from for-profit developers of various sizes. The third and final panel discussion is on finance and will include bankers, foundation representatives and land bank interests.

The event takes place at The Oakland Center in Rochester and costs $40 for ULI members and members of the public sector, $75 for non-members from the private sector; or $20 for students. More information and registration at http://detroit.uli.org.

I poked around on the site, and found another blurb:


http://www.modeldmedia.com/inthenews/nextamericancity033010.aspx

From Next American City: Understanding Detroit, with a little help from Whitman

Most media outlets are quick to point out Detroit's weaknesses. Don't get us wrong, there is more than a few things wrong with our beloved city, but there are also a few things right. And Detroit is a lot stronger than some give it credit for. Not just in people, and the strength of its residents, but also in it's housing stock... yes, housing stock. Next American City cites some data compiled right here in Detroit about the strength of the city's houses and what that could mean in terms of growth.

Excerpt from Next American City:

Detroit is exposed, and it's not the weed-wrecked, shriveled city I expected. The city shows muscle beneath a film of high unemployment, failing industry, and vacancies. A recently published report by the Detroit Data Collaborative reveals the real condition of the city's residential areas, finding that there is more to this market than a 35 percent vacancy rate. The report, a joint effort of the Detroit Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Response, Data Driven Detroit, Community Legal Resources, Living Cities, and the Edward Ginsberg Center at the University of Michigan, found that occupied housing in Detroit is well-maintained and thriving in spite of the overwhelming percent of vacancies. 93 percent of occupied housing in Detroit is in good condition, 7 percent is in fair condition, and a mere 1 percent is in poor condition.

Living Cities sounded kind of Orwellian, so I went to the link and found some interesting things there. For one Carol Goss is on their Board of Directors. http://www.livingcities.org/about/board/?id=21

Do you remember Carol Goss? She's the CEO of the Skillman Foundation who is directly involved in the take over of the Detroit School with Robert Bobb and the rest of the merry crew of "Excellent Schools Detroit".

http://www.freep.com/article/20100311/COL33/3110406/Excellent-Schools-plan-a-chance-for-all-to-step-up

Posted: March 11, 2010
Excellent Schools plan a chance for all to step up

BY STEPHEN HENDERSON
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Carol Goss, CEO of the Skillman Foundation, deserves a heap of credit for putting this effort together, for pulling DPS emergency financial manager Robert Bobb together with charter and independent school operators like Doug Ross and Clark Durant, parent advocates such as Sharlonda Buckman and members of the non-profit community.

Goss works tirelessly behind the scenes on myriad issues, but she will need to step forward as the face that will drive this effort. In particular, Goss has to seize on the task of creating the standards and accountability commission that will do the goal setting for city schools.

This is also a challenge to Mayor Dave Bing, who until now has punted a bit on the governance question, saying he'd take control of schools if Detroiters want him to. Excellent Schools offers him a chance to jump more actively into the debate about both standards and governance.

What is Living Cities?

http://www.livingcities.org/

Basically from what I can tell it is an investment firm that specializes in low-income neighborhoods. The list of their members reads like The Usual Suspects:

Members

Our Members

* AARP Foundation
* AXA Equitable
* Bank of America
* Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
* Citi Foundation
* Deutsche Bank
* Ford Foundation
* John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
* JPMorgan Chase & Co.
* Met Life, Inc.
* Morgan Stanley
* Prudential Financial, Inc.
* Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
* Surdna Foundation
* The Annie E. Casey Foundation
* The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
* The Kresge Foundation
* The McKnight Foundation
* The Rockefeller Foundation
* W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Our Affiliate Members

* Cleveland Foundation
* The Skillman Foundation


They also have a PDF on their website http://www.livingcities.org/urbanfellows/

Bart Peterson: Transforming Urban Public Education Through Education Entrepreneurship

The forward is written by Ben Hecht, the CEO & President of Living Cities

It's fascinating in a horrible sort of way, especially if you are a teacher.

I'm sorry these are kind of large, but I wanted the text to be readable





The text is a clear attack on teachers and unions and a call for privatization. This is already kind of long, so I'll let this sink in for now.

[LooseWilly]

1. Nice catch of a privatizer's straw man.

Such an elegant example... like a snapshot portrait

He said he was going to make IPS so good he would "put the mayor's charter schools out of business." I told him that was music to my ears. The theme here is "competition." It is a word so foreign to monopolistic school districts that they can scarcely utter it. When they do it is invariably accompanied by the explanation that you cannot have true competition without a level playing field. They have a point.

And then he goes on to argue that schools are failures because of a myriad of regulations and so on that his magic charter schools don't have to adhere to. Specifically unions. And unions. And other unions... and then the nifty Apple vs. IBM false comparison.

I don't hear any districts, states, or the feds, offering stock options to teachers who succeed. Likewise, I don't recall any mention of paycuts for Wozniak or Jobs or anyone else, based on how well people scored on a standardized test of how successfully customers were able to master the operating systems of their machines... and I don't recall mention in the story of using tax payers money to pay Wozniak and Jobs while they developed an alternative to IBM.

To make the example honest, take the public funding away... but then we're not talking about charter schools, we're talking about private schools... that want public money and guaranteed "customers."

Much more awkward to discuss that, than argue with a carefully constructed strawman...

[Starry Messenger]

2. More on "Living Cities"--Ben Hecht

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-hecht/dear-mr-president_b_220747.html

Ben Hecht

CEO Living Cities
Posted: June 25, 2009 11:14 AM

Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President:

We fully support your decision to create The White House Council on Automotive Communities and Workers.

As a philanthropic collaboration of 21 of the world's largest foundations and financial institutions with a long and continuing record of investing in these hard-hit areas, Living Cities applauds the focused, inter-agency approach you are taking to revitalize these industrial cities.

...

We also urge you and the Council to build upon the numerous integrative efforts already taking root in these regions -- from the strategic repurposing of thousands of acres of vacant and under-used land for new economic development purposes and major strides in developing a green economy and workforce, to pioneering efforts to better use anchor institutions, such as universities and medical centers, to spur job creation and community development.

Strange for him to write this, since he was an invited guest at a White House event 5 days later:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-To-Highlight-Innovative-Programs-that-are-Transforming-Communities-Across-the-Nation

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 30, 2009

President Obama To Highlight Innovative Programs that are Transforming Communities Across the Nation

President Calls on Foundations, Philanthropists, and the Private Sector to Invest in Community Solutions


Today, President Obama will highlight innovative non-profits programs that are making a difference in communities across the country. Programs such as Harlem Children’s Zone, Teach for America, HopeLab, Genesys Works, and Bonnie CLAC have developed models that are demonstrating results. These programs and others like them have the potential to make progress in education, training, health care, and other areas in more communities across the country.

The President will call on foundations, philanthropists, and others in the private sector to partner with the government to find and invest in these innovative, high-impact solutions. Now more than ever, we need to build cross-sector partnerships to transform our schools, improve the health of Americans, and employ more people in clean energy and other emerging industries. These community solutions will help build the new foundation for the economy and the nation.

The President also asked Melody Barnes, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, and her innovation team to search outside of Washington for the programs that can most effectively transform communities and change lives.

...

(he's in the H section, it's a long list)

Chuck Harris, Sea Change Capital Partners
Ben Hecht, Living Cities
Scott Heiferman, meetup.org
Philip Henderson, Surdna

That was last summer, now we cut to this past two weeks

http://www.pr-inside.com/living-cities-names-ten-finalists-in-r1804718.htm

Living Cities Names Ten Finalists in Unprecedented Urban Transformation Initiative

© Business Wire 2010
2010-03-30 14:22:14 -

Ten cities were chosen as finalists in Living Cities’ Integration Initiative : . The initiative will provide a package of $15 million in grants and loans to up to five winning cities to support new, bold approaches that bring together leaders from across multiple sectors to improve the lives of low-income people in significant and measurable ways.

The finalists
– Albuquerque, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, New Orleans, Newark, Twin Cities, San Antonio and San Francisco – were chosen from a pool of 19 cities that submitted 23 proposals for tackling widespread social and economic problems among their low-income residents. Each finalist is pursuing a bold approach that tackles big systems such as housing, workforce and transit to make them work for all residents. Living Cities will announce up to five winning cities from among the ten finalists in the fall.

Living Cities : —an innovative philanthropic collaborative of 22 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions—is committed to supporting approaches to transform the lives of low-income people and the communities in which they live. In launching the Integration Initiative, Living Cities hopes to encourage innovation that goes beyond narrowly defined issues and sector boundaries, and instead knits together disparate and fragmented systems.

“We are looking forward to working with cities that are ready to test solutions to not just drive urban transformation, but also to inform state and national policy change,” says Living Cities President & CEO, Ben Hecht.

That's dated March 30th, so that just happened. Next we find this, dated April 1st.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36138680/ns/us_news-life

Deadline looms to use foreclosure funds
Communities have spent less than half of $4 billion available

With a use-it-or-lose-it deadline just months away, communities have spent less than half of $4 billion available under a federal program to redevelop abandoned and foreclosed properties.

...

As of March 16, only 38 percent of the grant money had been "obligated," meaning a municipality has a formal contract at a specific address in place — say, a contract to buy a foreclosed home. Governments must commit the money to projects by September or it's gone.

...

In March, dozens of officials converged on Harvard University for a forum sponsored by Living Cities, a philanthropic collaborative of large foundations and financial institutions. The two-day session was all about how to spend NSP funds quickly.

"The problem is so much bigger than the effort we've been able to put up against it," said Ben Hecht, the CEO of Living Cities. "It's too early to tell whether the NSP program is going to fully achieve its promise because a lot of the work has just started."

So there's some urgency involved here. Was this what prompted the "sudden death" approach of the takeover of the Detroit schools? They wanted all the real estate available all at once to be able to start developing it?

[Starry Messenger]

3. Here is a link to the plans for Detroit

http://www.freep.com/article/20100404/NEWS01/4040517/1001/News/Big-plans-for-the-future-Detroit

They are demolishing several properties this week.



Here's the plan for the school closings

[Hannah Bell]

4. kr: "strategic repurposing" = theft

[flyarm]

5. K&R And I keep saying , there are no longer two parties..there is one party with one big money pot !