Bruce Katz: Despite Bankruptcy, Detroit Has Special Assets to Build On

Bruce Katz says Detroit, despite its bankruptcy filing, has assets and advantages to work from and can, like Pittsburgh and Akron, find its niche in the new economy.

Detroit is the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy, a move that has caused many observers to wonder about the health of American cities in general, and to criticize the underlying reasons for Detroit’s circumstances in particular.

Katz, vice president and director of the Metropolitan Policy Program and co-author with Jennifer Bradley of The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities and Metros Are Fixing Our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy, appeared with host Judy Woodruff and a panel on PBS NewsHour last night to address questions about Detroit and American cities. He sees Detroit as a special case in terms of the city’s size and radical population loss, but also similar to other cities:

… as what we’re seeing is the emergence of a network of corporations and civic leaders, philanthropies and universities that are really coming together to build on the special assets and advantages that the city has in its downtown primarily and its midtown.

Watch the interview:

Read the entire interview transcript and listen to audio at pbs.org »