Blue Paper: Lessons for Detroit from Medellin, Colombia

Erb Institute Report No. 142 / Blue paper

Lessons for Detroit from Medellín

Lessons for Detroit from Medellín, Colombia

Optimism and Innovation in the World’s Former Murder Capital

By Steve Davidson

Medellín’s Unidad Deportiva de Belén with the city’s surrounding mountains in the distance

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Erb Institute Report No. 142 / Blue paper

Embarking on an Inspired Journey

Medellín’s Unidad Deportiva de Belén with the city’s surrounding mountains in the distance

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ntering my final year as a graduate student at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, I resolved to embark on my first solo trip of consequence. A month’s deliberation led me to Medellín, at 2.5 million people Colombia’s second-largest city. Everyone — even Medellín natives! — asked me why I chose the home of Pablo Escobar, the notorious drug lord whose rise to prominence during the 1980s spurred citywide gang warfare that in 1991 produced 6,349 homicides, representing 433 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.1,2 In fact, I’ve been drawn to case studies in urban revitalization for the past 10 years. Having organized and led rebuilding efforts in post-Katrina New Orleans as an undergraduate, and more recently having evaluated Detroit-based social impact ventures as a member of the University of Michigan’s student-run Social Venture Fund, I’ve learned how frustratingly challenging it can be for cities to refocus and rebuild amidst chaos, even despite the sincerest of intentions. (Many of my classmates can attest to my skepticism about the prospects for Detroit’s timely turnaround).

According to a friend’s firsthand testaments, Medellín has dramatically transformed itself from the world’s murder capital to its most innovative city, designated “Innovative City of the Year” in 2012 by Citibank, the Wall Street Journal and the Urban Land Institute.3 Also in 2012, Medellín shared the Sustainable Transport Award with San Francisco and decreased its homicide rate to just 12 percent of its 1991 figure.4,5 The story is nothing short of remarkable.

About the Author Steve Davidson is a graduate student at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, where he is simultaneously earning an MBA at the Ross School of Business and an MS at the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Prior to joining the Erb Institute, he built and managed innovative consumer-facing technology at Goldman Sachs and the nonprofit Times Square Alliance. Through leadership roles on Michigan’s Social Venture Fund, he has evaluated and closed investments in innovative socially and environmentally responsible startups. He will join McKinsey & Company in New York City after graduation.

All photos in this publication were taken by the author.

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Lessons for Detroit from Medellín

Exploring Medellín’s Path to Recovery

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learned the secret to Medellín’s rapid revival soon after arriving: the city’s famously friendly inhabitants possess an indomitable spirit forged in the depths of terror during Escobar’s reign. Having escaped a nightmarish upbringing, the paisas — Colombians native to the region containing Medellín — are a warm people who appreciate each day as if it might be their last. The perpetual, sun-filled 75-degree days don’t hurt, either.

Regional governmental officials have demonstrated this fortitude on a grand scale while orchestrating the turnaround. A Sustainable Cities Collective article highlights how Sergio Fajardo, who was elected mayor in 2003, provided a sense of dignity to the city’s poorest citizens by “literally [building] bridges (and trams) that connected poor neighborhoods to areas of economic vitality.”6 In fact, the city’s creation of integrated public transportation infrastructure served as its keystone project, supporting future efforts to restore dignity and hope for all citizens, regardless of background and income level. Holger Dalkmann, board member of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, called sustainable transport one of Medellín’s “key levers to drive change.”7 After eagerly taking to the streets to experience the two main transportation public works, additional research uncovered their enormous scale and impact:

Metro – the city’s public transit arteries

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edellín took a major step forward with its introduction of 25 metro stations in 1995. The two main lines, which run north to south and west to east, now contain 27 stations that serve more than half a million riders per day. In my experience, they’re generally safe (guarded by police) and often elevated (above ground), providing spectacular views of the city and the surrounding mountains.

The benefits are astounding. The Metro enables people to more quickly, cheaply and reliably travel to and from work or school without inhaling the plumes of thick, black smoke that spew constantly from the ubiquitous city buses. A Climate Progress article Metro train arriving at Estación Estadio quantified Medellín’s annual CO2 reduction of 175,000 tons and annual respiratory health cost savings of $1.5 billion.8 Meanwhile, the Metro has strengthened economic activity within the downtown core and introduced commerce within historically disconnected poor neighborhoods.

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Erb Institute Report No. 142 / Blue paper

Exploring Medellín’s Path to Recovery Metro – the city’s public transit arteries continued Medellín expresses its immense pride for the Metro through its meticulous upkeep of the trains and stations — as I observed, they’re kept in immaculate condition by employees who roam the stations in search of areas to clean. In fact, when my friend briefly rested his foot on a stone seat at one of the stations, he was quickly reprimanded by two police officers who valued its upkeep over his comfort.

Metrocable – connections for the city’s poorest neighborhoods

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he Metrocable tells an even more sensational story about Medellín’s commitment to social justice. To provide all citizens with access to the city’s amenities and opportunities, officials built three lines with elevated cable cars between 2004 and 2008: together, these lines serve more than half a million residents with nearly six miles of cable.9,10 The innovative structures transport citizens between Metro stations and remote barrios that house many of the city’s poor citizens in the mountains around the city’s perimeter.

Residents in these neighborhoods have experienced broad and substantial quality-of-life Metrocable cars transporting passengers between the barrios and Metro stations improvements. The Metrocable’s integration with other Metro lines and its single-fare pricing system make it convenient and affordable to travel between the barrios and anywhere along the Metro lines. According to a United Nations Habitat study released in 2013, the Santo Domingo line reduced the length of a one-way commute to the city center by more than 90 percent — from two-plus hours by minibus to just seven minutes by Metrocable — for the 230,000 residents it reaches.11 The integrated system also has reduced monthly household transportation costs by nearly 30 percent of the national minimum wage income.12,13 In addition, residents served by the Santo Domingo line have benefited from the surrounding area’s 400-percent increase in commercial activity, as well as its 79-percent reduction in violent crime between 2003 and 2004.14 The routes also reward riders with spectacular views, as well as a public library and art installations at the summits. I’ve personally found the service to be safe and efficient.

Leveraging the public transportation infrastructure, Medellín’s public art installations and public outdoor athletic facilities have guided sustainable paths forward for all citizens.

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Lessons for Detroit from Medellín

Exploring Medellín’s Path to Recovery Public spaces and public art – inspiring hope in a hopeless place

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he city commissioned public art installations to transform outdoor plazas from crime havens into safe spaces that celebrate the region’s culture and history. These efforts have helped Medellín citizens to find inspiration in places where it was buried during the Escobar era. In particular, whereas the Plaza de Cisneros previously was filled with crime, it’s now home to an “urban forest” of 300 spires, each 78 feet tall, that illuminate at night as symbols of hope. A nearby building that formerly housed drug addiction and prostitution was converted into the city’s Department of Education headquarters, highlighting the path out of Medellín’s dark past by replacing a symbol of its destitution with a memorial to education.

Unidades Deportivas – building community through healthy living

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edellín impressively boasts 14 athletic complexes, or Unidades Deportivas (literally “sports units”), which provide free and open access to diverse, high-quality facilities. Given that the outdoor centers don’t require expensive, carbon-intensive HVAC or lighting systems, they promote sustainable, accessible wellbeing. They’re also nicer than any public athletic facilities that I’ve seen in the United States. In fact, the Unidad Deportiva de Belén, Forest of illuminating spires at the transformed Plaza de Cisneros located directly across the street from my building, contains an Olympic swimming pool; a fully equipped gym; a gravel track; soccer fields; basketball, tennis and volleyball courts; and even an archery range and dirt bike course. As with the Metro, these facilities are kept guarded and pristine to ensure that they’re both safe and inviting.

Inspired perseverance to overcome persistent obstacles

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ith these efforts, local government officials very deliberately have channeled the resiliency of Medellín’s citizens to recreate the city with a commitment to their safety, hope and opportunity.

However, the clearly unsustainable buses that spew thick, black exhaust indicate that there’s still much left to be accomplished here — and experts also acknowledge the magnitude of Medellín’s unfinished work. Alejandro Echeverri, responsible for the architecture of much of the city’s physical transformation as its Director of Urban Projects, explains that “Medellín has done some successful things, but you can never say ‘It is finished.’

The forces which caused the problems in the first place were formidable, and they still are.”15

Several facts support Echeverri’s claim. Despite Medellín’s significant progress during the past two decades, it

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Exploring Medellín’s Path to Recovery continued... still ranks among the world’s 25 most violent cities with 49 homicides per 100,000 residents.16 Ana Mercedes Gómez Martínez — the former Director of El Colombiano, Medellín’s main newspaper — contends that though modern drug lords keep a lower profile than their predecessors, “they are still involved in a complicated, continuous war.”17 Indeed, more than 300 combos (gangs) continue to terrorize the city. What’s particularly concerning is that the violence disproportionately impacts the city’s youth: more than 70 percent of Medellín’s estimated 3,800 gang members are between 11 and 17 years old.18 Medellín’s sustainable transportation efforts have paved a path out of the city’s violent past. As a Congressional Representative reported in 2011, its changes “have helped civil society to better weather and confront” the current situation.19 By both recognizing the remaining challenges and leveraging the above successes, Medellín and its citizens hope to lead another 20 years of progress.

Lessons for Detroit

Two struggling cities

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edellín city officials expressed their deep commitment to social justice through their development of an innovative, sustainable transportation infrastructure that bridges previously disconnected rich and poor areas.

In doing so, they visibly communicated their dedication symbolically and concretely, building a foundation for future progress.

Medellín’s recognition of public transportation as a precondition for social equity prompts consideration of Detroit, where inadequate transit service accelerated the city’s Public art in a barrio at the top of a Metrocable line decline and inhibits its progress.

Indeed, Medellín and Detroit face similar types of challenges: both are large cities with unemployment rates of more than 30 percent and the second-highest homicide rates in their respective countries.20, 21, 22 A transportation access gap confronted Medellín’s poorest citizens before the city introduced its connected Metro system, and many of Detroit’s geographical “dead zones” — which lack easy access to public transportation — overlay low-income communities that have suffered declining populations. In fact, the city isn’t walkable and serves only 60 percent of working-age residents with public transportation, despite its relatively high percentage of households without a car.

It’s unsurprising, then, that 37 percent of the unemployed Detroiters who responded to a recent Crain’s Detroit Business survey believe that the city’s inadequate public transit contributes to its high unemployment level.24 As of December 2013, Detroit’s unemployment rate of 14.6 percent was more than double the national rate.25 Another consequence of Detroit’s poor transportation system is that the residents of its economically disadvantaged African-American neighborhoods lack access to supermarkets, increasing their consumption of unhealthy food and ultimately their likelihood of suffering from health-related issues.26 Creating a sustainable world through the power of business...

Lessons for Detroit from Medellín

Lessons for Detroit An inspired path forward

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o what can Detroit learn from Medellín’s success?

If Medellín can hinge its remarkable improvements on public transportation, and if Detroit’s lack of the same contributes to its own social inequality, then clearly transportation is a critical area in which to focus the city’s future innovation and investment. If such a dramatic turnaround is possible in Medellín, given its violent history and geographic isolation, it’s undoubtedly also possible in View of the city from the top of a Metrocable line Detroit, given its rich cultural heritage, revived auto industry, and connectedness to other major cities.

To serve citizens long neglected, Detroit must not only leverage technological and business-model innovations to enable affordable access to sustainable transportation, it also must deploy bold leadership to connect the dots, marshal the resources, and create the incentives that together will support its progress. As noted in a Sustainable Cities Collective article, “Medellín’s revival is due in no small part to avant-garde political leaders who focused on the reconstruction of social, cultural, and physical infrastructures.” Sergio Fajardo and his contemporaries in Medellín exemplified the conviction, integrity and inclusiveness needed to guide Detroit into a new era: as the Detroit News recently asserted, “Strong leadership is one of the most essential pieces to the puzzle of rebuilding Detroit.”

It’s critical that this leadership embraces a nuanced view of innovation. By their very nature, justice and opportunity exist only with respect to individuals’ unique identities, needs, and concerns. Following Medellín’s example, then, we should perceive Detroit’s challenge not solely as an exercise in enabling the city’s macroscale economic recovery, but also with greater nuance — as an opportunity to reintroduce social justice and economic opportunity through micro-scale community revivals. Detroit must observe what the New York Times referred to as Medellín’s “wisdom of long-term, community-based policies of urban renewal”: what will work in Midtown might not work in Corktown or at Gratiot and Rosemary.

As artists approaching the canvas, we must think beyond broad brushstrokes: we must consider the details, the commonalities and distinctions across Detroit’s rich patchwork of neighborhoods as we apply our knowledge and passion to the city’s resurrection.

Some of my peers can elaborate on the specific sustainable transportation initiatives that are underway in Detroit. I can only hope that this story of Medellín’s turnaround will serve as inspiration for the continued optimism and determination needed to transform the Motor City — and since my visit to Medellín, I’m more optimistic than ever before.

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Lessons for Detroit from Medellín

Endnotes Federico Gutiérrez Zuluaga, “Policies, Urban Projects and Social Integration: The Medellín Case,” AARP, June 30, 2010, http://www. aarpinternational.org/File%20Library/Resources/remarks%20and%20presentations/6-10_livablecommunities_Gutierrez.pdf.

2 Luisa Sotomayor, “Medellín: The New Celebrity?”, Spatial Planning in Latin America, Aug. 26, 2013, http://planninglatinamerica.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/medellin-the-new-celebrity/.

3 “Wall Street Journal and Citi Announce Medellín Wins ‘City of the Year’ Global Competition,” Citigroup, March 1, 2013, http://www. citigroup.com/citi/news/2013/130301a.htm.

4 “2012 Winner: Medellín, Colombia,” Institute for Transportation & Development Policy: Sustainable Transport Award, Accessed Feb. 10, 2014, http://www.itdp.org/sustainable-transport-award/previous-award-recipients/medellin-colombia.

5 Luisa Sotomayor, “Medellín: The New Celebrity?”, Spatial Planning in Latin America, Aug. 26, 2013, http://planninglatinamerica.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/medellin-the-new-celebrity/.

6 “Social Infrastructure: The ‘Miracle of Medellín,” Sustainable Cities Collective, April 28, 2011, http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/ecpa-urban-planning/24382/social-infrastructure-miracle-medell-n.

7 Jorge Madrid, “Medellín’s Amazing Metro System: Colombia Uses Public Transport to Drive Societal Change,” Climate Progress, March 13, 2012, http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/03/13/443330/medellin-metro-system-colombia-public-transport.

8 Ibid.

9 “Urban Planning for City Leaders,” United Nations Habitat, 2013, http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/getElectronicVersion.aspx?nr=3385&alt=1.

10 Medellín 2018, Accessed Feb. 27, 2014, http://medellin2018.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=162&Itemid=908&lang=en.

11 “Urban Planning for City Leaders,” United Nations Habitat, 2013, http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/getElectronicVersion.aspx?nr=3385&alt=1.

12 Ibid.

13 Jacob Stringer, “Colombia’s minimum wage rises 4% despite union objections,” Colombia Reports, Jan. 2, 2013, http://colombiareports.co/colombias-minimum-wage-rises-4-despite-union-objections/.

14 Ibid.

15 Ed Vulliamy, “Medellín, Colombia: reinventing the world’s most dangerous city,” The Guardian, June 9, 2013, http://www.theguardian. com/world/2013/jun/09/medellin-colombia-worlds-most-dangerous-city.

16 Pamela Engel, “The 50 Most Violent Cities in the World,” Business Insider, Nov. 27, 2013, http://www.businessinsider.com/the-mostviolent-cities-in-the-world-2013-11?op=1.

17 Abraham F. Lowenthal, “Medellín: Front Line of Colombia’s Challenges,” Americas Quarterly, Winter 2010, http://www.americasquarterly.org/node/1310.

18 James P. McGovern, “Alternatives to Violence: Hope in Medellín,” Washington Office on Latin America, Sept. 13, 2011, http://www. wola.org/publications/alternatives_to_violence_hope_in_medellin.

19 Ibid.

20 “Detroit (city), Michigan,” United States Census Bureau, Accessed March 3, 2014, http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/26/2622000. html.

21 Ruban Selvanayagam, “Medellín, Colombia – Base of the Pyramid Housing Analysis,” Habitation for the Planet, June 6, 2013, http:// www.habitationfortheplanet.org/blog/2013/06/medellin-colombia-%E2%80%93-base-of-the-pyramid-housing-analysis/.

22 Pamela Engel, “The 50 Most Violent Cities in the World,” Business Insider, Nov. 27, 2013, http://www.businessinsider.com/the-mostviolent-cities-in-the-world-2013-11?op=1.

23 Alexander E.M. Hess and Thomas C. Frohlich, “Detroit ranks high on list of U.S. cities where residents are driving less,” Detroit Free Press, Feb. 8, 2014, http://www.freep.com/article/20140208/NEWS01/302080038/Detroit-ranks-high-on-list-of-cities-where-no-onewants-to-drive.

24 Sherri Welch, “Survey: Unemployed Detroiters not confident about finding new jobs, but not looking elsewhere,” Crain’s Detroit Business, April 26, 2013, http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20130426/NEWS/130429890/survey-unemployed-detroiters-not-confident-about-finding-new-jobs.

25 “Detroit, MI Unemployment Rate,” YCharts, Accessed Feb. 9, 2014, http://ycharts.com/indicators/detroit_mi_unemployment_rate.

26 Shannon N. Zenk, et al., “Neighborhood Racial Composition, Neighborhood Poverty, and the Spatial Accessibility of Supermarkets in Metropolitan Detroit,” American Journal of Public Health, April 2005, http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/CMSFiles/SupermarketsDetroit(2).pdf.

27 “Social Infrastructure: The ‘Miracle of Medellín’,” Sustainable Cities Collective, April 28, 2011, http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/ ecpa-urban-planning/24382/social-infrastructure-miracle-medell-n.

28 “Editorial: Leadership is key to Detroit’s revival,” Detroit News, Aug. 12, 2013, http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130812/OPINION01/308120002/1008/OPINION01/Editorial-Leadership-key-Detroit-s-revival.

29 Michael Kimmelman, “A City Rises, Along with its Hopes,” New York Times, May 18, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/arts/ design/fighting-crime-with-architecture-in-medellin-colombia.html.

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