- This is a city where we talk about neighborhoods all the time.

We talk about it being a city of neighborhoods, but so many institutions and so many people don't really treat our neighborhoods quite that way.

And in many ways, I think they don't really know what that means.

I really think Life Remodeled is a kind of sterling example of how you can bring meaning to that, that this is a city of neighborhoods and that it needs to be a city of thriving neighborhoods.

So, explain the model and how it works and what you guys have been doing since 2010.

- Oh, well, well, thank you for that, and I agree.

Detroit is a city of neighborhoods, and we are at our best when our neighborhoods are thriving.

And for us, fundamentally, before I talk about the what we do, I always like to start with our why.

And that is we believe unequivocally that Detroiters have all the talent and all the ambition that they need, but many don't have access for opportunities to thrive.

- Right.

- And so our approach is ultimately about being able to remove the barriers and in many ways create bridges for those thriving opportunities.

And we do that through a comprehensive long-term model called E3M.

Sounds cool.

(Stephen laughs) But what that stands for is Economic, Educational and Environmental Mobility.

- Yeah.

- So, when we thought about, what is it going to look like for us to restore that dignity, restore hope, but also drive some very strong metrics that represent growth?

We knew, one, we had this great example of a clean blight up in neighborhoods, right?

And so we mobilized thousands of volunteers to remove blight, to remove environmental hazards, and to quite frankly bring city of suburb together, right?

In a way that's reflective of that.

So, that's part of our environmental mobility profile.

The reason I think that that is quintessentially important, as you know, we are a city that was built for 2 million people.

- Yeah.

- Now, we're hovering around 650, 665,000 right now.

I take my mother for example, on her block, you know, both to her left and across the street are empty lots.

- Yeah, yeah- - And so being able to serve and really help our neighbors and our residents be able to have a very strong aesthetic in their neighborhood is important for pride.

But we also knew that there's a lot of large vacant infrastructures that are in the neighborhood.

You know, I grew up as an Eastsider, and some of the schools that I used to walk by at the time that were open and thriving are now closed.

- Are gone, yeah.

- They're gone.

And what we found when talking with community members, when those schools closed, they really sent a dagger to the heart of the community.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Right?

And so what better way we thought than to reintegrate pride and hope than to find new purpose for those school buildings.

So, both on the west side and on the east side, we've repurposed two active school buildings that were formally vacant to what we call Opportunity Hubs.

So, people ask, well, okay, what's the Opportunity Hub?

Well, it is a place that really is about aggregating economic mobility by bringing the best and brightest nonprofits in the region together, putting 'em under one roof, and helping us work collaboratively to bring investments, resources and services to that immediate neighborhood.

And so we've been doing that on the west side since 2017, and now on the east side- - We're about to- - We're about to open this year with the old Dominican High School which used to be the Winans Academy Performing Arts.

- Right, right.

Those of us who are old enough, remember when that was Dominican.

- Yeah.

- The work that you guys do doesn't take place without the community being involved with it.

- Yeah.

- I mean, that's kind of where you start, is you go to these communities, you get people together, you talk to 'em about what's going on and what they want, and then you kinda help them build, I guess, the infrastructure to be able to move the needle.

You know, that's again, a model that lots of people talk about, but you guys seem to have been able to be effective at it.

What is it about what you're doing, I guess, that makes that work?

- You know, it's funny, I don't think that we're doing anything more than what I would want somebody to do for me if I was living in my neighborhood.

- Yeah.

- Right?

One, it's about establishing trust.

You know, Detroiters are resilient, but Detroiters have also been through a lot and there's been a lot of, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that, and then things start and don't finish, and/or projects that started that wasn't, when it was done, did not fit what its original intent was.

And so there's some lack of trust and consternation there.

And so I think recognizing that and honoring that is a big part of what we do on a continual basis.

But the other part is really to be frank, we are not the geniuses, (all laugh) the Mrs.

Jones and the Mrs.

Smiths and that have been living in their neighborhood for 50 years, the teachers who work in that community, the small business owners, the faith leaders, they know more about their neighborhood- - Yes, yes.

- Than we will ever do.

So, it makes sense for us to be able to tap into their genius, tap into their history, and it's tap into their ambitious and the visions that they have for their neighborhood's future and see how we can work alongside with them in making that vision a reality.

- Yeah, yeah.

Let's talk about this new site over on the east side and the kind of realignment of the mission around it.

What's gonna change?

- You know, it's interesting, when we first started our Durfee Innovation Society on the west side in 2017, you start something without really, you think you know what's gonna happen, but you don't really know, right?

And we've just been able to experience so many great success stories there more than we ever thought.

When we first moved over in that neighborhood in 2017, it has some of the highest crime rates in the city, now it has some of the lowest crime rates.

The house, the home value of the surrounding neighborhood has increased by 36%, right?

So, a bunch of great things.

And that made us think, you know, this is a model that can be replicated on other parts of the city.

- You can pick up and drop it someplace else.

- Yeah, and our Eastsiders were always like, "Hey, when are you guys gonna come on and do something over here?"

So, we had an opportunity to acquire the former Dominican High School and allow for the community members to name it Anchor Detroit, or ask for the community members to name it, and they named it Anchor Detroit because they want for their neighborhood to represent stability and to represent a future.

What's gonna be different, I think is the approach that we're taking to use our comprehensive model to cultivate what we call thriving class neighborhoods.

Neighborhoods that are economically resilient, neighborhoods where people can raise their children, neighborhoods where people can build wealth, reinvest in their neighborhoods, and then ultimately find a future for their neighborhoods.

And so we are really looking to scale our model by ensuring that all of the surrounding community members have a chance to really take full advantage of the resources that are in our Opportunity Hubs in a way that's gonna make them economically, educationally, and environmentally mobile.

- Yeah, yeah.

You know, I've had conversations with mayors and urban planners and all kinds of people who work on neighborhood revitalization, and they all kind of agree that, you know, the things you need for neighborhood really to thrive are, you need a school, you need a grocery store- - Food- - And you need jobs for people.

How close are we in some of the places where you're working to actually seeing that come together?

- Yeah, I mean, I think it's on a continuum.

- Yeah.

- And I think that we have to look at it that way.

When we're talking, we're not talking about neighborhoods and communities that reached the tipping point of disinvestment last year.

- Yeah, right.

- We're talking about disinvestment over decades- - Over, I mean, my lifetime really.

- You know, I was, I remember, you know, the neighborhood that I grew up in when I was young, it was highly populated, we had a dense population of working class families, many of them in the professional class, and for different reasons as I'm sure you've talked about on this show, the complexion of those neighborhoods, including the home that I grew up in, changed.

And so I think that the first thing to do is to really have a long-term view.

This is not gonna be a flash in the pan type of agenda, this is gonna be a comprehensive, we're all in on creating change in this neighborhood position.