How Detroit’s Story Inspires Leaders from Other Cities

Last year, we welcomed 150 leaders from the Denver Downtown Partnership as part of their Leadership Exchange trip, our largest exchange group yet. The group, made up of business, nonprofit, and government leaders, came to understand how Detroit is approaching community development, economic growth, and public space.

These exchanges highlight an important reality: every city faces similar challenges, from equitable development to housing and economic opportunity. Detroit’s experience stands out because many of these challenges have been more visible and more extreme, pushing communities to develop creative, community-driven solutions. Today, cities across the country are increasingly looking to Detroit for insight and inspiration.

For the Denver delegation, City Institute designed a Detroit in Context Learning Journey, exploring neighborhoods across the city while highlighting:

• Art and music as economic drivers
• Investment without displacement and community-centered redevelopment
• Public spaces and public–private partnerships

Participants heard directly from the business owners, nonprofit leaders, and city officials shaping Detroit’s neighborhoods today.

The experience left a lasting impression.

“Bringing 150 business, nonprofit, and government leaders from Denver to Detroit with City Institute was a transformative experience. While every city faces challenges around equity and growth, seeing how Detroit has addressed these issues at a larger scale shifted our perspective. City Institute helped us understand the city’s history, resilience, and innovation—not just as lessons for Detroit, but as insights other cities can learn from. We left inspired, better equipped, and reminded of the power of cities learning from one another.”
— Sarah Fritzinger

Itinerary Stops

Avenue of Fashion / Black Business District
A historic commercial corridor and hub for Black-owned businesses, representing Detroit’s legacy of entrepreneurship and cultural identity. The stop included conversations with local leaders and business owners shaping the district’s continued growth at Good Cakes and Bakes.

Live6 Corridor  -  Live6 Alliance
A neighborhood revitalization effort along Livernois Avenue focused on supporting local businesses, stabilizing housing, and ensuring development benefits longtime residents. 

Clark Park Coalition – Southwest Detroit
A vibrant public space serving as a central gathering place for Southwest Detroit, demonstrating the impact of community stewardship and partnerships in maintaining accessible, active public spaces. 

East Warren Corridor - E. Warren Development Corp
An emerging neighborhood corridor shaped by local investment and entrepreneurship, including projects like Morningside Café and the Public Market initiative. 

The Shepherd Arts Center
A reimagined historic church turned arts and cultural space, highlighting the role of adaptive reuse and public art in neighborhood revitalization. 

Belle Isle- Belle Isle Conservancy
A nationally recognized public park and key asset in Detroit’s park system, illustrating the importance of public space investment and stewardship. 

Eastern Market (Drive-By)
One of the largest historic public markets in the country, serving as a hub for food, small businesses, and entrepreneurship in Detroit.

Detroit Riverwalk (Drive-By)
An award-winning public space along the Detroit River, demonstrating successful public-private partnerships and investment in accessible waterfront development.

Oakland Avenue Urban Farm
A community-based urban agriculture project in Detroit’s North End focused on food sovereignty, land stewardship, and economic opportunity.

La Joya Gardens Housing Development
A community-driven affordable housing development in Southwest Detroit led by the Southwest Detroit Business Association, showcasing inclusive development and neighborhood investment.

What is a Learning Journey?

At City Institute, our focus is on offering in-depth full-day and multi-day custom experiences called Learning Journeys. These experiences focus on Detroit as a classroom, including site visits, panel discussions, and case studies to share best practices and provide a deeper understanding of Detroit.

It’s a new term for many, so I wanted to not just define it but give you a real-life example of one. 

Recently, we worked with Reimagining the Civic Commons on a 3-day Learning Journey for 36 leaders from 12 different cities, including Philadelphia, Memphis, Miami, Charlotte, Akron, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Chicago, Macon, Lexington, San Jose, and Detroit. 

City Institute created the entire itinerary based on our knowledge of the city, relationships with community leaders, and the parameters of the client. Our team handled all logistics, including booking the speakers and setting up food/beverage from local small businesses, and our President, Jeanette Pierce, led the group throughout and provided context between speakers and stops.

The response from the attendees was overwhelmingly positive. One leader from Philadelphia said, “ This experience was exciting and thought-provoking. Our host had a passion for the city and a pristine knowledge of Detroit’s history, developments (past and present), and current community projects.”

The Agenda: 

Day One:

• Breakfast from Narrow Way Cafe 

  Speaker: 
  Anika Goss, Detroit Future City 

• Detroit in Context Bus Tour led by Jeanette Pierce

  Discussion Points Include:
  + History of Detroit, including contextual history and racist policies that shaped where we are today.
  + Discussion of Detroit’s challenges, including population loss and blight.
  + Overview of some of Detroit’s innovative and impactful projects and small businesses.

• Tour Fitzgerald neighborhood with Live6 Alliance Team, Kresge Foundation, and Community Residents

  Speakers:
  Dr. Geneva, Anna Thompson, and Effie Alofje-Carrof Live6 Alliance
  Alexa Bush of Kresge Foundation
  Rico Razo if City of Detroit and Bridging Neighborhoods
  Darnetta Banks and Stephanie Harbin who are Fitzgerald Residents

Lunch at Detroit Pizza Bar 

Speakers:
Mike Smith of Invest Detroit
George N’Namdi of N’Namdi Center and Tylonn Sawyer Development
Akunna, the Developer and Owner of Detroit Pizza Bar

• Tour Avenue of Fashion 

  Speakers:
  April Anderson of Good Cakes and Bakes
  Kim Tandy of the City of Detroit 

• Taste the Diaspora Dinner at Marygrove

  Speakers:
  Chef Jermond Booze of TDD
  Chef Phil Jones of Farmacy Foods
  Racheal Allen of Marygrove Conservancy
  Wendy Jackson of the Kresge Foundation

Day Two

Breakfast at the Midway

Speaker: 
JJ Velez the Director of Public Space and Rocket Community Fund

Discussion Points Include:
An engaging conversation about intentionality in Downtown Public Spaces.

Eastside Public Space and Green Infrastructure Tour

Speaker: 
Donna Givens of Eastside Community Network and Tour of The Stoudamire

Highlights:
Manistique Street Projects, Detroit Abloom, Community Tree House Center, Freedom Freedom, and AB Ford Park

• Lunch at Chroma

  Speakers:
  Pamela Hillard of Vanguard CDC
  Calvin Johnson of the City of Detroit

• North End Tour 

  Speakers:
  Malik Yakini of Detroit People’s Food Co-Op
  Jerry Hebronof Oakland Avenue Urban Farm

  Highlights:
  BLCK Out Murals project
  Dessert at MJ’s Ice Cream

• Dinner at Bakailikon 

Saturday

Walking / Biking Day

• Bike the RiverWalk and Dequindre Cut

• Breakfast at Dequindre Cut Freightyard

  Speaker:
  Ryan Michael Dinkgrave of Eastern Market Partnership

• Tour of Eastern Market and Dequindre Cut

•  RiverWalk Tour 

  Speakers:
  Mark Wallace & Rachel Frierson of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy

• Lunch from Smokey G’s and Debrief Workshop at Valade Park

City Institute officially launches focusing on a deeper understanding of Detroit and sharing lessons learned with other cities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Dally Sacko

March 18 , 2022           Dally@featherstonemoments.com

          (313) 826-4315

City Institute officially launches focusing on a deeper understanding of Detroit 

and sharing lessons learned with other cities 

Building off the experience of  taking 150,000 people on Detroit tours

Detroit, MI - Since 2006, Detroit Experience Factory (DXF) has provided immersive storytelling to educate locals and visitors about Detroit’s people, places and projects. DXF has taken  150,000 people on experiential tours of Detroit since launching, but the recent uprisings and the pandemic have highlighted, the need for a deeper understanding of Detroit, and all cities, focusing on how cities got to where they are today and how they can work towards becoming thriving and equitable places in the future.To that end, DXF will be sunsetting at the end of April and City Institute  step in to take the work of experiential storytelling to the next level.   

City Institute is a team of data-driven storytellers and community connectors, led by DXF Founder and lifelong Detroiter, Jeanette Pierce, that provides a deeper understanding of Detroit and shares lessons learned with other communities through lively, engaging learning experiences. City Institute provides private virtual and in-person tours, learning journeys, city experience consulting and speaking engagements that are thoughtfully researched, focusing on providing historical context and sharing community stories often missing from traditional textbooks or overlooked by most media outlets.  These tours and experiences include conversations with residents, local entrepreneurs and community leaders in neighborhoods around the city.

“DXF will always be part of our DNA, but as Detroit has grown and evolved, so have we. ,” says Jeanette Pierce, founder of City Institute. “City Institute will not only go deeper and provide more context than DXF but it will also expand beyond Detroit to help other cities tell their story.”  

As part of City Institute’s plans to introduce City Institute officially, she has lined up the following:

• On April 21, 2022, the City Institute will host a Detroit Innovation & Inspiration Learning Journey  which includes guest speakers  Regina Ann Campbell- Build Institute, Joe Rashid - E. Warren Development Corp., Roula David - Spot Lite Detroit,  Dan Carmody - Eastern Market Partnership, Lolita Haley - University Commons/Avenue of Fashion, Kim Tandy - City of Detroit 

•  This immersive  experience will help both longtime residents and newcomers understand how Detroit’s history shaped where we are today, connect with what’s happening now and be inspired to be a part of building an equitable and thriving Detroit.

Other upcoming City Institute tours  aimed at  informing civic engagement in Detroit and cities across the region include: 

• Redlining Racism and Segregation Virtual Tour  -Thursday, 04/21 , 6:00 pm

• Heart of the Art in Southwest led by artist Elton Monroy Durand - April 23rd - 1pm

• Detroit Music Tour with Detroit Sound Conservancy - April 30th - 1pm

• Regional Cities Series with walking tours of Pontiac, Berkley and Dearborn. The first tours of their kind.

“When more people are informed and engaged in shaping a place’s future,  there is a much better chance of that city becoming an equitable and thriving place for all”, says founder Jeanette Pierce. 

For more information, visit Thecityinstitute.com

One early client summed up City Institute’s work this way: City Institute’s ability to combine observations of current conditions, historical facts, and recent statistics with powerful anecdotes and individual stories of Detroiters was extremely valuable in helping us begin to understand the complexity and dynamism of the city of Detroit. 

Locally, City Institute provides a deeper understanding of Detroit so its residents and stakeholders can be better equipped to shape an equitable and thriving city.Globally, City Institute shares lessons learned from Detroit to inspire individuals, organizations and communities to innovate for a better future for all.

Detroit is Not That Big

Many years ago (2009) a viral infographic was created that showed Boston, Manhattan, and San Francisco could physically fit inside the map of Detroit...and people were shocked! I heard comments like, “Wow! That’s why Detroit looks so empty!” and “There’s too much land to possibly be able to make any progress!” and “Detroit must be one of the largest cities in the country in terms of square miles.” Spoiler alert: None of those statements are true. 

I was also shocked by the graphic , but as a data nerd, I needed more information to fully understand just how huge we were. Were we the #1 largest city in the U.S.? 4th? 8th? Well, it turns out we’re...64th. Yes, Detroit is the 64th largest city in terms of square miles of land in the United States at 138.7 square miles. This was confusing since the whole point of the infographic was to show that we were such a big land mass, but it turns out we really aren’t! So I kept digging into the data and here’s what I found out: 

Infographic from original article.

First, Boston and San Francisco are outliers as they are actually some of the smallest major cities in the U.S. Second, Manhattan is only one borough of New York City, which is more than double the size of Detroit at 300 square miles of land! (Small aside: I use the square miles of land and not the entire city since many cities have bodies of  water, which shouldn’t count if we are talking population density. While in Detroit, that’s only about 2 miles of water, New York has 168 square miles of water for a total area of 468 square miles!) 

After exploring the data, here are some more facts that may be surprising: 

• Detroit is approximately  ¼ of Nashville, ⅓ of Los Angeles, ½ the size of New York City, and ⅔ of Chicago.

• 640,000 people  is not a small number of people: Detroit is almost exactly the same size as Atlanta but has 140,000 MORE people. 

• Even after losing more than half of its population, Detroit is ranked 9th in the United States in terms of density (people per square mile).

As I research and find out information that surprises me, I feel the need to share it with others. So for years I have been sharing this information with tour attendees, in speeches, on social media and sometimes even with strangers at the bar. Now more than a decade later, and with the help of the awesome Ton Yes! Design, I have my own infographic to share.

Here you can see some other cities and how Detroit compares both in square mileage but also in density (people per square mile).

While this data doesn’t change the fact that Detroit still has challenges related to vacant land (estimates are between 24 and 40 sq. mi.), what it does do is provide some context so people can better understand and be better equipped to work together towards the solutions. A more holistic and deeper understanding of the situation is so important because if we think the problem is too big to solve, as was alluded to by the original infographic, then some might ask why even bother trying? 

Others keep working to move Detroit forward no matter what. Detroit it is fortunate to have organizations and individuals working on innovative and equitable solutions everyday and each one of them knows the truth: that Detroit is more than data and it’s a city worth fighting for. 

Detroit in Context

Written by City Institute’s founder Jeanette Pierce, this blog answers frequently asked questions and puts things in context so that city residents, stakeholders, and visitors will have a better understanding of Detroit’s assets, history, and challenges. Check out City Institute’s services for an even deeper dive into these topics HERE.

Jeanette Pierce is a lifelong Detroit resident who loves learning and then sharing what she learns with others. She is a data nerd who loves public speaking and challenging prevailing narratives about Detroit. Learn more about her here.

Why Context is Important

Detroit more than any other city has been defined in the minds of much of the world by the headlines, the memes, and the videos they’ve seen from afar. Or by the sporting events, concerts and museums they’ve visited briefly. The world thinks they know Detroit but it’s impossible to know a place without going beyond the headlines, stereotypes, and brief encounters.

None of those things explain Detroit. None of them offer a true understanding of how Detroit got to where it is today, what’s happening now, and where it’s headed in the future.

Context is important because people, places, and projects don’t exist in a vacuum. Knowing that a young chef purchased an abandoned building and opened an award-winning restaurant is only part of the story. Why was the building abandoned in the first place? Who lives in the neighborhood the restaurant is in? How does this one story fit into the larger story of the city? Knowing the answers to these questions helps connect the dots. Helps connect the past with the present. Land-use policies with social justice issues. The story with the context. 

New and longtime residents of Detroit learn about both the historical and present businesses in East English Village.

Context isn’t only important for outsiders and newcomers. Longtime Detroit residents have the most to gain from learning more about their city. From assets like parks, events, and neighborhood businesses to the history behind the city’s challenges, both big and small. Knowing more about the past can help us understand the present and become better equipped to engage in the future. 

When more people are informed and engaged in shaping a place’s future,  there is a much better chance of that city becoming an equitable and thriving place for all. 

On this blog,  I will provide insights and put things in context as I take you around the city and throughout the decades in order to help locals and stakeholders understand how Detroit’s history shaped where we are today, connect with what’s happening now, and be inspired to take an active role in creating an equitable and thriving city in the future. 

Why City Institute

Many people who know me have told me that I should change my middle name to context because it’s such a part of who I am and what I do. It was the reason why in 2006 I co-founded a grassroots nonprofit that used tours to take locals and visitors beyond the headlines to educate them about Detroit’s history, culture, and community. That organization evolved into the Detroit Experience Factory (DXF) which uses immersive storytelling to connect locals and visitors to Detroit’s people, places, and projects. Almost 150,000 people have taken tours since 2006 to learn about Detroit’s assets, small businesses, historic neighborhoods, city planning and development policies, and innovative solutions to the challenges the city faces. Our focus was always on locals and most tour attendees actually live in Detroit and Southeastern Michigan. As a lifelong resident myself, I realized that although we can know a lot about our home from our daily life, there is always so much more to learn about where you live. The knowledge locals gain leads to a domino effect of positive impact as more people support small businesses, public institutions, community projects, and nonprofits they learned about. 

As organizations and cities sought customized intensive engagements to learn, innovate and problem-solve, the City Institute concept was incubated inside of DXF while I created a set of services that went beyond those offered by DXF.   I’ve worked with clients such as Harvard Loeb Institute, State of Oregon, City of Akron, City of Graz, Salesforce Executive Leadership, Challenge Detroit Fellows, and Detroit Revitalization Fellows to build experiences that leveraged my knowledge and relationships to share lessons learned from Detroit and put those lessons learned into context. 

As Detroit continues to grow and evolve so do its needs. Finding clarity during the crises of 2020, I saw a need for a deeper understanding of Detroit focusing on how we got to where we are today and how we can work towards becoming a thriving and equitable city. The need to remind the world that Detroit’s people, places, and projects exist has given way to the importance of reminding the world that Detroit (and Detroiters) have always been here doing the work. The only way to equitably engage in Detroit is to understand the bigger picture - to understand Detroit in context. 

That’s why I officially launched the City Institute in 2021: to focus on providing that deeper contextual understanding to locals and stakeholders in Detroit, to connect the dots between the past & present, and to better equip people to engage in and shape Detroit’s future. 

While my heart is always in Detroit,  I realized that the lessons learned here can be shared with communities across the globe. That’s why the City Institute offers services that have even expanded beyond Detroit to help other cities learn how to tell their stories in order to attract and retain talent, engage and inspire residents, promote small businesses and build thriving and equitable communities. 

City Institute services include:

• Learning Journeys: deeper dive tours and experiences that include in-person or virtual site visits, panel discussions, and case studies to share best practices

• City Experience Consulting: helping communities craft contextual storytelling experiences and resources that connect locals and newcomers to the people, places, and projects that make each city unique

• Speaking Engagements and Workshops led by Jeanette Pierce

• Private Group Tours - understand Detroit on a deeper level whether you’ve been here a day or a lifetime. Choose from our catalog of virtual and in-person experiences or customize your itinerary to fit the needs of your group.

• Discuss Detroit - conversations with small business owners, community leaders, and Detroit residents about the work they do in the city we love.

These services will complement existing Detroit Experience Factory programming including the public programming and resources people love like in-person tours,  virtual live and streaming tours, downloadable checklists, and resources for living, working, and engaging in Detroit.

When more people are informed and engaged in shaping a place’s future,  there is a much better chance of that city becoming an equitable and thriving place for all.

GDYT Experiences Detroit

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Through the many ups and downs that Detroit and its communities have endured, the one thing that has stayed constant is the ability of Detroiters to find creative solutions to the challenges they face, discover joy in the simple things, and work together to have a positive impact on where they live.

We are excited to be partnering with Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT), Connect Detroit, and Bank of America for the first-ever GDYT Experiences Detroit Powered by Bank of America launching July-August 2021. In this engaging, interactive virtual tour series, over 5,000 Detroit youth will get to go beyond the headlines and learn about a side of Detroit that is often unknown even by its own residents. 

From unique small businesses, art galleries, specialty restaurants, and shops to world-renowned architecture and cultural institutions, historic neighborhoods, and unparalleled public spaces, Detroit is full of unique assets that make it an amazing place to call home. Through 25 one-hour-long tours covering 5 separate tour themes, this series will also highlight the amazing entrepreneurs, artists, community leaders, and inspirational youth that are having a positive impact on Detroit every day. 

Tour themes include:

• Detroit’s Finest Features

• Detroit Businesses and Entrepreneurs of Color

• Detroit’s Community-Based Organizations and Social Activists

• Detroit’s Art and Artists

• Detroit’s Young Leaders
  

After experiencing Detroit through this virtual tour series, these Detroit youth will see their city in a new light and be excited and informed about living, working, and engaging in Detroit today and in the future.