Visionary Zeal in Detroit

Greece's Constantinos A. Doxiadis is an oracle among planners. As proprietor of the multidisciplinary science of human settlements he calls Ekistics, he foresees the gradual evolution of "Ecumenopolis"--a world city formed by overlapping megalopolises. If present trends continue, he says, the world city will be a ghastly, inhuman place. Determined to head off such a bleak future, Doxiadis is trying to shape the growth of today's cities. He has just completed a fiveyear, $3,000,000 study of the 23,059-sq. mi. "Urban Detroit Area," sponsored by the Detroit Edison Co.

Packed with statistics--income changes within the region, population shifts, growth patterns--the study offers a framework for logical action. It is already yielding some benefits. Detroit Edison will place its power transmission lines down utility corridors proposed by the planner. Michigan's highway department will henceforth leave room on the center strip of new expressways for alternate forms of future transit.

Five-Point Remedy. For all that, Doxiadis is convinced that the region's problems demand still bolder action. He is especially worried about the steady flight of middle-class people from Detroit to the suburbs. "They are moving out at a rate of two yards a day, including weekends," he says. As a result, the center city is withering and the outer city is sprawling formlessly over Michigan's pleasant countryside. To order the growth by the year 2000, Doxiadis recommends a five-point program:

P: Downtown Detroit should be rebuilt.

P: To refocus Detroit's expansion, a new "twin" city should be created near Port Huron, 50 miles northeast of Detroit.

P:Ten smaller satellite cities, half of them new, should encircle the twins.

P:A new high-speed, automated transit system should connect all these cities.

P: Green belts and recreational areas, now woefully lacking, must be provided.

The Power of Fear. Unfortunately, this ambitious blueprint stands little chance of being followed. For one thing, Doxiadis predicts that Detroit will grow northward toward the St. Lawrence Seaway; at present, the Seaway is not attracting any surge of industry and the city is expanding faster in every other direction. To make matters worse, the 1,112 local governments in the Detroit region, jealous of their autonomy, have steadfastly refused to work together and show no signs of changing in the future.

Most important, the plan does not recognize the extent to which fear determines day-to-day decisions in the crime-ridden Detroit area. City dwellers, fearing for their safety and property, seek refuge in the suburbs. Suburbanites, afraid to shop downtown, create a demand for more outlying shopping centers, which erode Detroit's appeal even more. What the area's citizens seemingly do not fear is precisely what Doxiadis fears most: continued suburban sprawl.

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