Speaker: John Gallagher, book author and reporter for the Detroit Free Press.

In his books John Gallagher, who has been covering urban and economic redevelopment efforts in Detroit and Michigan for the Detroit Free Press since 1987, explores the many ways that legacy cities around the world are trying to reinvent themselves, including innovative solutions to the problems of government dysfunction, vacant and abandoned land, and economic distress stemming from the loss of a traditional manufacturing economy. Drawing from examples in many cities, including Detroit, Flint, Cleveland and Philadelphia in the U.S. and Turin, Italy, Leipzig, Germany and Manchester, England abroad, John shows that urban distress is not irreversible but that cities everywhere are working at urban revolution in new and creative ways.