Is Revitalized Detroit Worth the Effort?

Detroit: Mocked City

by:  David Greany

Detroit is a landscape littered with abandoned and dilapidated buildings which have little chance of attracting future tenants. These empty shells stand in a city that has been bleeding residents since the early 1950’s. Detroit has been in a perpetual state of decline for the past five decades, and little has been done to reverse the direction. This fact is represented perfectly in the politics of the city, where the same corrupt officials are elected regularly, even as reports of their less than admirable practices are broadcasted by local and national reporters. It blows my mind that former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was somehow elected to a second term despite numerous articles and television reports about his misuse of city funds. He was even named by Time magazine as one of America’s three worst big city mayors in April 2005. Apparently, as long as you avoid burning down the Manoogian Mansion – the official residence of the city mayor – you can be re-elected.  

…the same corrupt officials are elected regularly…

I have to assume Detroit voters have some sort of an “us against the world” mentality. They feel that any time someone points out a flaw with their fair city it is a malicious attempt to make them look bad instead of a way to develop positive change and progress.  That is the only explanation I have for the recent Detroit Zoo debacle: Looking for ways to trim the budget, the city considered shutting the doors of one of Michigan’s most beloved landmarks instead of accepting an offer from wealthy suburb Oakland County to take over operations.  Situations like this make me believe that saving Detroit may be a lost cause until Detroit voting public changes its attitude.

I do not believe Detroit will ever again be an iconic city of two million.  Too many jobs have been lost. However, Detroit has the opportunity to accept its fate, adapt, and become a revitalized smaller city. Motown is never going to be Chi-Town, but it can learn from what has happened in the Steel City in recent years. Pittsburgh’s reliance on the declining steel industry in the 20th century is very similar to Detroit’s dependence manufacturing jobs in the automotive sector. Like Detroit, Pittsburgh lost half its population over a fifty year span, but since surviving Y2K, it has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts that is mostly due to the diversification of its economy. The auto industry will always be a part of Detroit in some capacity, but the city will only pull out of its current slide if it attracts talented people to the area with new jobs in growing industries.

With several prestigious universities just a short drive away, southeast Michigan has a built-in supply of educated young people. Many college graduates who would jump at a chance to stay in Michigan are forced to flee to another state because there are no jobs in their hometown. The key to fixing Detroit was put articulately by former President Bill Clinton during his run for office in 1992: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

…Detroit is worth saving…

At this point, only drastic steps could revitalize Detroit. After eating at Lafayette Coney Island twice in 36 hours (American Coney Island can burn to the ground in a chili fire as far as I’m concerned), I have come to the conclusion that Detroit is worth saving. As a newly unemployed marketing major, I know the city needs to revamp its image if it has any hope of attracting new investment to the banks of the Detroit River. That solution starts with the local government, which needs to make a commitment to change.  This will never happen if the voters of Detroit don’t demand it.  Detroit has a lot to offer: Faygo Rock & Rye – the best walleye fishing in the world – Mustangs, and deep American history. Detroit was once the engine for the world. These are things worth fighting for. On a personal note, I think we’d all be better off if the Lions stopped squashing everyone’s spirit for seventeen weeks each year. I would be happy if we could even fix that.

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Rethinking Detroit

by: David Azad Merian

Of all the cities in Michigan, Detroit is the most debated, and most of the 3 million citizens who live in metropolitan Detroit have an opinion about the city. Perhaps it is because Detroit was their home. Perhaps it is because people of the suburbs desire an urban center, a rallying point, a unified locus for the surrounding population – much like Manhattan or downtown Los Angeles.

Detroit once flourished from the boom of industry; the city is now experiencing extreme plight. Unemployment officially stands at 27 percent, and underemployment or unofficial unemployment may be as high as 50 percent according to Mike Wilkinson of the Detroit News. Additionally, there are 80,000 vacant homes in Detroit. Yet problems plaguing the city are not limited to its boundaries; Detroit’s ailments perpetually and drastically affect the region.

Should money be spent to revitalize Detroit? It seems hard to justify. The city is enormous – over eighty square miles. One suggestion has been to partition the city, to re-draw district lines and, in a sense, start anew. However, this argument forgoes explaining what would be done or who would be responsible for the “cut-off” sections currently inside Detroit’s city limits.

This idea suggests what is really necessary: citizens must take control. Detroit will not survive without employed people, and while the economy struggles, people suffer ever more harshly. Businesses are not built in Detroit because its poor cannot support a strong buyers’ economy.  The affluent few cannot bear the burden of employing and restructuring the whole city. They, like Detroit’s poor, are disorganized. For wealthy citizens outside Detroit, what concern should they have for the city—unless it is philanthropic or economic? Thinking solely of philanthropy and economic gain will not save Detroit, nor will the strength and prosperity of the suburbs.

Moreover, is Detroit even still a city in the traditional sense?  What reason do suburbanites have to go to Detroit, other than for sporting events or concerts? And do these isolated events really sustain the economy of Detroit? Besides these events, it seems money stays outside of Detroit. When suburban visitors actually spend in Detroit, the wealth of many only transfers into the hands of a few. Often, these few have little concern for anything but themselves.

…In Michigan, funds are lacking…

While the sentimental impulses of people say “save Detroit,” the question of “how?” hinders progress. In Michigan, funds are lacking except in the private sector, which, most often, is focused on personal gains. Perhaps this will seem a touch radical, but it would be in the best interest of the people of Detroit to storm city hall, revolt, and seize control of the city and all of the property. But then what? Farm? (Agriculture certainly isn’t the worst solution, considering many citizens of Detroit lack access to fresh and healthy food.) Some have already begun to farm abandoned properties, leaving a somewhat comical, somewhat prophetic vision of Detroit as a backwoods rural/urban cooperative. This idea, however odd, may be the most viable option for Detroit’s citizens – that is, teach the people essential skills of self-reliance: animal husbandry, agriculture, automobile repair, sewing, weaving, business, and so forth. Let the people join together in community as a model for the rest of society, which is increasingly growing more and more estranged and further and further apart.

Forgoing revolt and general seizure of property, the next most intelligent option seems to be more aid for higher education, especially in the areas of skilled trade and academics. America’s economy undoubtedly is and is becoming service-oriented. Therefore, let Detroiters join the league of servicemen and servicewomen, because, at this point, what else is there for them? Americans cannot expect high paying jobs – especially in manufacturing – without at least some education beyond high school. If America and Detroit do not “bounce back” from this Great Recession, they will have to rely on the inventiveness and intelligence of citizens to earn their bread. Through education, people can at least learn how to learn to take care of themselves. With this skill of skills, they can teach others.

…Detroit will have to rely on the inventiveness and intelligence of its citizens…

Thus, revitalizing Detroit will not come from some material band-aid – like factories, stadiums or casinos – but from a more immaterial source: education. Educating is empowering. For the downtrodden masses of Detroit, useful and helpful knowledge may be the best solution for their plight.  For the sentimental citizens just out of the reach of Detroit, giving time to educate the suffering will accomplish more than senseless pity ever could.

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Until Root Problems are Fixed, Any Revival is Worthless

By: Shelby Jackson

I’ve lived in the Detroit metropolitan area for my entire life. When my Dad was six, they build M-39, the Southfield Freeway, through his backyard. Three out of four of my Grandparents grew up in Detroit, and the forth lived the majority of his life there. We’ve worked in its auto-factories, its grocery stores, and its office buildings. We’ve watched the Red Wings at old Olympia Stadium, shopped at J.L. Hudson’s on Woodward, and picnicked on Belle Isle in the summertime. During our residence in and around Michigan’s Motor City, my family has witnessed first hand Detroit’s meteoric rise to a city of nearly 2 million residents and dramatic fall to a crumbling ghost town with a population that some estimate has dipped below 900,000.

After the race riots in the 1960s, my family’s goal was to get the hell out of a city that was no longer a safe place to live. From north of Eight Mile, we’ve watched Detroit, save for a few bright spots, steadily decline. Today, I’m as connected to Detroit as one could reasonably expect from a college-aged suburbanite. I’m a huge Detroit sports fan. My Dad and I have bought season tickets for the Lions for the past ten years. I’ve been to all three Detroit Casinos. I’m applying for graduate school at Wayne State, and I can name just about every restaurant in Greektown.

It pains me to see Detroit rot from the inside. When I visit Chicago or San Francisco or even Milwaukee, I deeply wish Detroit could feel even a fraction as vibrant as those communities. I want Detroit to turn around and return to its glory days, but my eyes don’t lie. History has shown that no amount of manufactured economic, infrastructural, or entertainment stimulus will revitalize Detroit. We would be foolish to think any radical revitalization efforts in the future would be successful.

Everyone has their own theories for Detroit’s decline. I pin it on the combination of three major factors. The first is race relations. Though tensions between blacks and whites in the middle of the 20^th century were high across the United States, Detroit’s “white flight” was by far the nation’s worst racially motivated exodus. Detroit’s wealth spread to the suburbs and never returned, mainly due the second factor – corrupt, isolationist politicians. Mayors Coleman A. Young and Kwame Kilpatrick lead a political culture of radicalism, scandal, and segregation from the surrounding region which deterred investors from diversifying Detroit’s economy. Eventually, when the General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler ceased to be the Big Three, the region’s single-industry wealth finally started to evaporate. Today, the survival of Detroit isn’t so much the issue as the survival of the state of Michigan.

Along the road to Detroit’s current, sorry state, policymakers did almost everything possible to revitalize the city. Opened in 1977, the Renaissance Center was supposed to mark the beginning of Detroit’s revival. General Motors purchased the complex in 1996, investing more than $500 million in renovations. The company only survives today due to drastic action taken by the U.S. government under Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The Detroit People Mover, the light rail loop constructed in 1987 that was supposed to be the shot in the arm needed to turn downtown into a thriving commercial center, currently operates at less than 10% capacity and costs the city and state governments $12 million a year to keep open.

Many were certain that addition of two new downtown sports stadiums would finally curb Detroit’s spiraling descent. Comerica Park and Ford Field are stunning, state-of-the-art facilities that together cost the public close to $700 million. Many saw the return of the Detroit Lions from the Pontiac Silverdome to within the city limits as the first major step in amending for “white flight.” Though the stadiums have spurred modest renewal in their immediate vicinities, in the ten years since the completion of Comerica Park, Detroit has continued to decline.

In what seemed to be a last ditch effort at generating some sort economic momentum, Detroit became the largest American city to support legalized gambling in the late 1990s. Since, Detroit’s three casinos have struggled to reach expected profits. In 2009, the casinos collectively posted a decline in revenue versus 2008, a year in which Greektown Casino filed for bankruptcy. Even through vice, Detroit just can’t seem to take a turn for the better.

History has shown that Detroit’s revitalization cannot be invented. If the city can turn around, it will be due to a massive change in sentiment. Unlike cities such as Pittsburgh, New York, or New Orleans, Detroit is stymied by a culture of isolationism. Detroit doesn’t need new infrastructure, public investment, or government action. Detroit needs time to heal the problem eating away its core. Perhaps in the coming decades, the racially fueled mistrust between the city and the suburbs will finally dissipate. But, that’s only possible if individuals decide to forget the past. As long as Detroit and its suburbs remain at odds, the city will stay on the decline, and the region will continue to suffer. Until this issue is remedied, any sort of revitalization effort will be yet another costly waste.

edited by: Chris Koslowski