Driving Detroit: The Quest for Respect in the Motor City

As the fallout continues in the bankruptcy of the US city of Detroit, a leading researcher on the once-great motor city will speak at the University of New South Wales next week.

George Galster is Professor of Urban Affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit and the author of Driving Detroit: The Quest for Respect in the Motor City.

In the lecture, the fifth-generation Detroiter and internationally known urbanist will set out to explain how the city has come to represent both the best and worst of what cities can be, all within the span of a half century.

It comes as Detroit insists it can't afford its long-term debt of about $18 billion while the city's population and tax base shrink. The city filed for bankruptcy in July this year.

In his book of the same name, Professor Galster shows how geography, local government structure, and social forces created a housing development system that produced sprawl at the fringe and abandonment at the core.

"This system, in tandem with the region's automotive economic base, has chronically frustrated the population's quest for basic physical, social, and psychological resources," says Professor Galster.

"These frustrations, in turn, generated numerous adaptations – distrust, scapegoating, identity politics, segregation, unionization, and jurisdictional fragmentation – that collectively leave Detroit in an uncompetitive and unsustainable position."

To help the city out of its woes, Professor Galster will call on the State of Michigan to embrace a metro-regional strategy, including initiatives such as tax-base sharing and revenue sharing.

What: Utzon Lecture - Professor George GalsterWhen: Wednesday 25 September – doors open at 6.30pm and the official proceedings will commence promptly at 7pmWhere: Ritchie Theatre in The John Niland Scientia Lower Ground, UNSW Kensington CampusRSVP is essential: to register go to utzonlecture@unsw.edu.au or phone (02) 9385 4800

Media contact: Denise Knight, UNSW Media Office 02 9385 3249, d.knight@unsw.edu.au

UNSW Faculty of Built Environment's flagship public lecture series is named after renowned Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who was the mastermind of the Sydney Opera House.

George Galster is Professor of Urban Affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit and the author of 'Driving Detroit: The Quest for Respect in the Motor City'.