Foundations 19 – Infrastructure Space

Stephen Henderson

ture crumbled, whole neighborhoods imploded. Stephen Hen- derson: “The first mile of paved road in the United States was on Woodward Avenue in Detroit. Today there is no city in this country with roads in such poor condition as in Detroit. There is simply no money for maintenance. Half of the 88,000 street lights are out. It has become dark in the city. A metaphoric darkness! Now the question is: How can we make the future brighter?” The city was declared bankrupt in 2013 and placed under state management. Many small steps have been taken since then to reinstate normalcy; investments are now being made everywhere. Detroit is considered a worldwide textbook example of how a city can be rehabilitated. The key is not only the state’s emergency rescue measures but especially the personal commitment of the residents of Detroit, people like Stephen Henderson. He bought the dilapidated house he had grown up in and turned it into a writ- er’s residence and literary center. The people who have suffered through the decline show resiliency and are now taking part in the reconstruction of the city’s infrastructure.

Stephen Henderson is Editorial Page Editor for the Detroit Free Press. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for his unflinching examination of Detroit’s financial collapse that gave readers a sobering overview of the past and a hopeful road map for recovery. He is also winner of the 2014 National Association of Black Journalists Journalist of the Year Award. A Detroit native, he is a graduate of the University of Michigan. He has been a reporter, editorial writer, and editor for the Free Press, the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Chicago Tribune, and the Baltimore Sun. Before returning to Detroit in 2007, he spent four years covering the US Supreme Court for the Knight Ridder (now McClatchy) Washington bureau.

Infrastructure serves the people. But sometimes it’s the other way around.

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