As a philosopher and political activist who has lived on the eastside of Detroit for more than 60 years, I believe the citywide discussion of the possible sale of over 1500 publicly-held parcels of land in my neighborhood offers us a rare opportunity to think anew about what kind of city we need to create for the 21st Century.

One of the most important things to bear in mind is that global warming from industrial production has become increasingly threatening to all life on this planet. So we cannot afford attempts to restore Henry Ford’s Detroit. Instead we must recognize that we are living in the midst of a profound shift in how people live, a shift as great as that from a hunting and gathering society to an agricultural one 11,000 years ago and from an agricultural to an industrial one 3-400 years ago.