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Royal Oak
and Ferndale
provide proof that inner ring communities “don’t have to fade away and die . .
. but the effort to maintain these rejuvenated older communities can never
end,” says Ferndale City Manager Tom
Barwin.
I met with Barwin in his office, in part to review the minor
flap over his addressing a Royal Oak
neighborhood association – at the association’s invitation – without alerting Royal Oak officials, but
that review lasted fewer than five minutes of our hour-long conversation.
In VersagiVoice’s
report out of that neighborhood meeting, held
primarily to discuss the impact of MDOT’s plans for a northbound I-75 exit at Lincoln Avenue, I
characterized Barwin’s presentation as using the tone and vocabulary of “a
socialist visionary,” primarily because of the passion with which he delivered
his remarks. Well, even in quiet conversation – I was not “interviewing” him –
Barwin found it hard not to let his
intensity show as we covered everything from mass transit to diverse approaches
to managing a city. First, sketches of Barwin and of Ferndale.
 Barwin is 51, married to Peggy, has four boys, three of them
in college, lived for a while in Royal Oak, has
been Ferndale
city manager for seven years. He began his public service in 1981 as Executive
Administrator (now called Deputy Mayor) in the City of Warren’s
“strong mayor” government. Then to St.
Charles, which he describes as “Norman Rockwell
country.” Then, "recruited by the Engler Administration" and the
Michigan Department of Commerce, facilitated the conversion of Wurtsmith Air Force Base,
in Oscoda, from an active base to civilian ownership and control; a couple of years as city manager of Hazel Park; special project assignments in Troy; community
development in St. Clair Shores, then to Ferndale.
Ferndale?
“Fifteen years ago, Ferndale
was known for its Triple-X porno theater on Woodward (Studio North). The image of prostitution
and massage parlors on Nine Mile was such that the Elks Club boarded up its
lovely historical building. One-third of downtown storefronts were vacant."
Ferndale
"has been in the top tier of property value growth amongst Oakland County
communities over the past six years." Downtown is full, except for a couple of
vacancies "which are tied up in legal lease issues." This year,
200 new dwelling units (mostly condos, a few houses) are planned. "We have
gone from successfully fighting porno to promoting poetry in our several coffee
and tea shops over 15 years."
Ferndale’s vital statistics: 22,105 population; 9,272
residential units; 165 full-time employees; 75 miles of city roads, major and
local; council/manager form of government.
Okay, so Ferndale and Royal Oak have bounced
back. What else did Barwin have to say? Highlights:
- With
federal and state funds to cities being reduced or eliminated, “We need to
get creative, to partner up with nonprofits, with the private sector.”
- Inner
ring suburbs can best be creative when they cooperate and coordinate. A
start is the formation by 23 older suburbs of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance
(of which Royal Oak
mayor Jim Ellison is a board member). That cooperation and coordination
must involve Detroit,
to address problems as apparently unrelated* as sprawl and “concentrated
poverty.” The alliance’s website is: www.MichiganSA.org.
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- Regionalization
is required if a sustainable “agenda for change” is to be developed.
Regional cooperation would come sooner if government at the state and
county levels became less partisan or nonpartisan, as most local
governments are. “Our public leaders have failed to a degree. We engage in
too much dialogue about what divides us and not enough about what we agree
on.”
- Even
as the importance of manufacturing diminishes, it is wise to focus on the
area’s auto industry history as we work to diversify the regional economy.
“The city which put the world on wheels and perfected mass production can
implement a mass transit component. Transit-oriented development will
attract conventions, tourists, cultural events.”
- World
events, like another oil crisis, may force the development of mass
transit, because, “Since we are experiencing competition for talent – anybody
can do anything from anywhere – a transit component will help the
region attract and serve students, immigrants, big families, and the increasing
number of senior citizens who will need and want transit choices which will
allow them to fully participate in our culture and economy until their last
breath. The Big 3 are on-board,
because they are having difficulty attracting talent.”
- About
the I-75 imbroglio, Barwin asks, “How can we justify spending all that
money to widen an expressway when so many local roads need repair and
upgrading?”
On the way to closing the conversation, Barwin and I chatted
about how the “fit” between a city manager and the legislative branch of city
government (commission or council) is affected by the manager’s personality and
the city’s institutional personality (including the degree of micromanaging).
We reviewed the pluses and minuses of SOCCRA, as it changed after the Blanchard
administration and during the Engler administration. Barwin commented with sad
exasperation about Metro Detroit’s
reputation nationwide as “the poster child of dysfunctionality. "We are all in
the boat together and it is leaking. We need to change the paradigm and think,
act, and be concerned and plan on a metro basis. Detroit has many problems, but
many bear the responsibility for their creation." And he boasted that the Woodward Dream
Cruise, despite its current management/operational difficulties, is successful
and began in Ferndale.
Barwin seems to share the resentment I’ve heard from other
cities smaller than Royal Oak: “You have to
understand that Royal Oak
is not the center of the universe! They are just another neighborhood, albeit a
nice one, in the metro area and will some day be as vulnerable as some of their
sister cities if they don't step up and deal with sprawl, concentrated poverty,
and this one-dimensional autocentric transportation and lifestyle system we
have, which is totally dependent on Mideast oil."
Finally, about the “propriety” of a city manager from Ferndale speaking to a Royal Oak neighborhood association, Barwin
says he speaks once or twice every week throughout the area. The invitation to
address the neighborhood association in Royal Oak’s South End was to him another
opportunity to preach the gospel of cooperation and collaboration to solve problems
common to inner ring suburbs. Frank Versagi 13 April 2005
*
Barwin expands on this point: I think sprawl and concentrated poverty are
related. Many outer suburbs
practice what is called "exclusionary zoning." Homes must be on half
an acre and have 2,000 square feet, which in effect eliminates low to moderate
income families from moving in; therefore poverty ends up concentrated in
Detroit and some of the inner ring suburbs, which presents tremendous fiscal
pressure on the locals, city and schools, who have to deal with it.
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