You built us, you’ve moved us, and you’ve shaped us, sometimes down but never out. Take strength in us, your people. Stay up Detroit. Don’t let ‘em say you aint beautiful.

　

The Downward Spiral of the D

In 1950 Detroit was the greatest manufacturing city in all of the United States. Also in 1950 the state of Michigan was one of eight states that made up 36% of the United States Gross National Product. The United States, Michigan, and the city of Detroit were booming with a vast amount of industries. The city of Detroit was, and still is, one of America’s greatest cities. Behind the shadow that is cast upon the city are beautiful people, architecture, and a large metropolis that we already know has a vast amount of potential. In a city where the population has been close to cut in half since 1950, many questions are being asked. How could this happen, was there a significant event that caused this, and is there things we can do as a general public that would help fix or repair this problem?

One of the things I continually am asking myself is why this is happening and how we as a state or as the city itself can fix it. Some of the reasons that I think are playing a role in the situation are poverty, and unemployment. Both of these you can tie back to the off shoring of a large amount of manufacturing jobs. There are many factors that tie into the off shoring of jobs. Not just in Detroit or Michigan but all over the United States companies are moving their factories and jobs overseas. A lot of people think this is due to labor cost. This is completely false. In Andrew Liveris’ book, Make It in America the Case for Re-Inventing the Economy, he states that when it comes to productivity when you take a US worker and a worker from overseas the US worker is cheaper labor (Liveris 19-22).  Many countries are offering companies lower tax rates and some places will even pay for the companies building processes. It is becoming more and more financially appealing. In this day in age any amount of money you can save, you as an individual or a business, are going to try and save. Every business wants to survive and the United States is not providing the appealing factors like other countries are. It is no wonder that these large corporations are moving off shore.

When jobs are being cut or being sent off shore there are many things that happen after that. People go on unemployment, lose their transportation, housing and ultimately some are even losing their lives. People need to work to survive. People are leaving the city of Detroit at a rate that is unreal. The population decline is growing at an exponential rate. Detroit’s economy is accustomed to the economic cycles of the auto industry. As most of us know the domestic auto industry is primarily headquartered in Detroit. New vehicle production, sales, and jobs related to the automotive industry account for one out of every ten jobs in the United States. The rise in the industry using robotic technologies has created a large amount of job loss. Another factor that could play into families and people leaving the city is the high crime and the better opportunity that is offered in metro Detroit. The education is primarily better in metro Detroit in places like Bloomfield, Farmington, Rochester, and other metro cities. The schools are top notch and there is a lower rate of crime. Although crime in Detroit has dropped significantly since the 1970’s, the violent crime rate is still one of the highest in the country. Crime can significantly push people out of an area, especially when they are trying to raise a family. In any large city you can throw in the issue of race differences. In Detroit these issues have been around for sometime and have been thrown into the mix as to why the population is declining.

Some people think that Detroit’s decline began with the ’67 riots. The ’67 riots caused “white flights” from the city (Keko). The population decline began a full decade earlier. In the fifties, the government created the interstate highway system. Highways made America mobile and people left the cities for the suburbs. People left Detroit for greener pastures and took their money with them (Keko). The Interstate Highway Act of 1956 created modern America and provided the hole in the dyke that led to Detroit’s depopulation and decline. Detroit lobbied hard for a highway system to promote car ownership. Americans could only go so far without roads. The new system would open up the country. Americans could travel anywhere in their automobiles. This new freedom would mean more profits for the auto industry. Consumers would feel the need to purchase vehicles as status symbols and for the freedom of mobility the highways created (Keko). The riots of ’67 surely could have accelerated the process of the depopulation but it is certainly not the main reason. The racial issues that came along with the riots to this day can be said to have an effect. The riots pitted the white population against the black population. Due to the fact that there was a highway system already in place when the riots took place the whites began to flee the city.

Mayor Dave Bing has a unique way of approaching Detroit’s overhaul. Like the auto industry, Mayor Bing is trying to prepare the residents of Detroit for a new reality. In a personal interview with Mayor Dave Bing, Mr. Bing stated, “This reality is something that doesn’t always sit too well with those people who live in Detroit. The reality is that like the auto industry, the city of Detroit will have to get smaller before it gets bigger again.” Mayor Bing has some great ideas for the city and if they work they could take the idea of the city becoming smaller essentially to become larger again into a reality. When talking to Mayor Bing I learned that he wants to shut down certain parts of the city that are rundown and have a very small number or no one living in them at all. This shut down would mean many things that would include; not plowing those roads, not running trash collectors and any city services to those areas. These areas would essentially become be dead zones. The people who are left in these neighborhoods would be moved to other areas of the city where there are large numbers of people currently living. Essentially you would have large open areas within the city; these are sometimes referred to as brown fields. Many people joke that you will have farm fields within the city limits of Detroit. In my interview with Mayor Bing when he was explaining this to me I did not know what to think of this idea. I do not know if this would be a good idea because you would have a great increase of crime, pollution, and drug activity in those areas due to the fact that they will no longer be monitored law enforcement or other city officials.

Detroit’s demise did not begin with racial issues in the aftermath of a riot. It did not even begin with economic stagnation or the shipping of jobs overseas. It did not begin with deals that went bad between the union and the Big 3. It did not begin because people wanted their own freedom and their own homes on their own plots of land. The Interstate Highway system gave us Modern America. All of these have played a large role into the decline of America’s largest manufacturing city. It also opened a box which began the decline of what once was America’s largest manufacturing city. To re-build the city we need to realize that behind the shadow that is cast upon the city are those beautiful people, the gorgeous architecture, and the large metropolis that we already know has a vast amount of potential. To do this we need people who are willing to change the city as well. When you do not have people that hope for the future it is hard to work for the future. We need people to instill the passion within them that will turn the city of Detroit into what it was in 1950. I personally hope to be one of thousands who are the future of one of the greatest cities in the United States.