APA NPC26 – Detroit Rock City

Each year, my excitement for the upcoming APA National Planning Conference (NPC26) starts to build in January. That’s when registration opens, and I start planning for my time at the conference. By March, I’ve already picked…and re-picked all of the sessions I want to attend. By then, I have an itinerary, though it usually gets crushed in the first 24 hours when the sites of the host city lure me elsewhere.

This Year’s Destination: Detroit

Detroit, Motor City, the birthplace of Motown. There’s so much history and culture wrapped up in this city at the base of Michigan’s thumb. As a Mustang enthusiast, I’ve been craving to come to the home of the real American sports car (How’s that Camaro doing?). Unfortunately, the only manufacturing plant I’ll be able to tour is the Rouge Complex, where Ford trucks are assembled.

Foods are another regular draw for me. From January until I hop on the flight, I regularly gawk at hundreds of photos on Google Maps of the local eateries I want to try, trying not to drool too much over what they are serving. Detroit is famous for the Coney Dog and Detroit Style Pizza.

Then there’s Comerica Park. I’ve been a bit of a Tigers fan for a while now. So, since Comerica Park opened up in 2000, I’ve been hankering to check it out. From the massive tigers that greet you at the entrance to the unique throwback aspect of the path between the batter’s box and the pitcher’s mound, it is an intriguing ballpark.

Of course, there’s Detroit itself. A town that epitomises “resilience”. The City has been one of the hardest hit by suburban flight. A struggle that has been arguably going on for over 50 years. Looking at the aerials of the areas surrounding downtown, one can see the impact. Entire city blocks have been leveled. Eerily vacant spaces cover the landscape. These are not just a few desolate blocks, but hundreds spread across the land that surrounds the bustling core of the city. There will be a few sessions about Detroit’s plans for recovery during the conference. I’m looking forward to checking out their efforts.

NPC26 is a Two-Headed Monster of Learning

This year’s conference continues APA’s recent trend of making it a hybrid event. For those who cannot attend in person, the American Planning Association also offers online sessions a few weeks after the in-person event.

There are a few that have piqued my interest, though they might not be based on rural communities; they may have aspects that could be helpful to us on the rural side:

• New Ruralism: Town and County Collaboration in Planning
• High-Tech Tools for Small-Town Futures
• Regional Approaches to Infill Housing for Legacy Communities
• Trails: New Tool for Grant and Economic Justification
• Incremental Zoning Reform: Navigating the Political and Possible
• Save Mom-and-Pop Shops: Zoning for Microbusiness
• Public Pockets, Private Projects: Innovations in Economic Incentives
• Parchment City, Michigan – Small City, Big Brownfield!
• Why Planners Should Lead Infrastructure Project Development
• Local Programming: Redevelopment Ready Communities: Positioning Michigan Communities for Reinvestment
• Reconnecting Communities Through Highway-to-Boulevard Transformation
• Seamless: A Trail Plan to Connect Utah
• Destination Districts as Catalysts for Economic Development
• Placemaking Playbook: Economic Development Through Public-Private Partnerships

Much like last year, I’ll do a follow-up post on what went down, what I learned, and what readers might see more about in the coming months due to the conference.

I’m looking forward to NPC’26 in Detroit, the city that Henry Ford transformed into what was once the global epicenter of the automotive industry. I’m just as interested in seeing Detroit’s plans for its next transformation.

Be sure to follow Rural Resurrection on Twitter, as I’ll likely post a few times during the event.