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via the Internet 9 Dec 2011 <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42220834/ns/us_news-life/t/census-detroits-population-plummets-percent/#.TuJti3NU2ot>.

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Will It Work This Time?

"Perhaps the most shocking aspect of Detroit's tragic decline is that it has occurred within one of the richest regions in the United States. With a population of 4,200,000-almost half of Michigan-metropolitan Detroit compares favorably in wealth to any metropolitan region in the nation. In 1983, of the 33 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, only Washington, D.C., and Houston, Texas, had significantly higher average household incomes than Detroit's metropolitan area. The average income in Washington, D.C.'s metropolitan area was $38,629; in Houston it was $36,390. Metropolitan Detroit had an average household income of $33,241, and this figure was deceptively low since it included the average household income within the city of Detroit: $21,556...Even more revealing of the wealth surrounding the city is the data on property values which are usually assessed at half of the market price. Detroit's valuation dropped from $4,937,375,000 in 1960 to $4,271,216,000 in 1980. Within the same period, Oakland County's valuation rose from $1,351,984,00 to $10,431,731,000; Macomb County's rose from $641,591,000 to $5,443,984,000; and Wayne County's figure climbed from $2,645,862,000 to $4,137,465,000."

-Detroit: City of Race and Class Violence,1989, B.J. Widick (238)

This blog has attempted to capture not only what Detroit must overcome in revitalization efforts, but also we attempt to flesh out exactly what revitalization means. Is it bringing a business into the city and hence more than 3,000 jobs, but still having one of the highest poverty rates in the country? Since the 1960s, Detroit has been host to a plethora of revitalization efforts including: from 1967 until 1977 New Detroit social programs, which focused on every social issue discussed in this blog and more, spent more than $28 million in the city (Woodford 183); 24,000 homes in Metro Detroit were eliminated by a 1970s effort to create 200 miles of freeway (Woodford 164); when the Renaissance Center opened in 1977 “[it] destroyed as much business as it created; three downtown hotels closed and several office buildings were left with vacancies;” and the start up of the People Mover in 1987 “was supposed to attract 15,000 passengers daily...but it was averaging on only 10,000 riders a day” (Widick 247). So when we are talking about Detroit’s revitalization, we are not talking about something that started this year, as national media may portray. So given the almost 50 years of consistent revitalization attempts and continuing declining population and high poverty rates, two points: the revitalization of Detroit is not an overnight effort and more needs to happen than has been.

Trickle down economic development initiatives have not been the only revitalization efforts. Before the 1967 Race Riots, the Detroit Community Action Program sought to: “develop programs which [would] assist people in becoming self-sufficient and socially responsible citizens, generate participation in community life and the problems of others and build into the lives of the impoverished the skills and aspirations necessary for useful and rewarding lives” (Georgakas 239). Now if you live in Detroit and want to contribute positively to the community you can join ARISE Detroit! ARISE stands for Activating Resources and Inspiring Service and Empowerment. The mission of ARISE Detroit!, as stated on the organization’s website, is to “launch a new wave of volunteerism for the many worth while programs and activities that are struggling with the issues that trouble our community - illiteracy, high school dropout rates, crime and youth violence, drug abuse, domestic abuse, neighborhood blight and unemployment.” Detroiters do their part!

Detroit’s revitalization should be presented soberly, but with hope. Hinging the possible success of the city on some new talent, new business, new transportation project and on the success of a sports team oversimplifies the obstacles facing Detroit. After examining Detroit’s past, we can see that the ups and downs of Detroit cannot be traced to one source, but instead to a complex interaction of socio-economic factors. Thus their is not ONE solution to Detroit’s woes. Instead, Detroit should continue to engage in many solutions to revive the city. While the national media loves to tell the oversimplified tale as to how Detroit will rejuvenate, Detroiters have it right. According to their passions, they each are taking a piece of the dynamic story of Detroit and hoping to make an impact for the better. They know there is no quick fix.

The Last 20 Years: A Mixed Message

In the 1990s, as with the nation, Detroit experienced economic growth. The auto industry “experienced seven straight years of unprecedented growth, with North American vehicle production reaching 17,615,611 units in 1999” (Woodford 246). In 1997, the state of Michigan’s unemployment rate was 3.9 percent about an entire percentage point lower the the national rate (Woodford 237). Meanwhile in Detroit, exciting development was occurring!

Detroit in the nineties was filled with promising projects. In 1993, Fox Theater--featured in the Chrysler ad-- reopened after restoration (Woodford 228). The Detroit Opera House renovation was also completed in the nineties, 1996. Additionally, in 1997 (Woodford 241), the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History opened and still claims on their website the honor as “world’s largest institution dedicated to the African American experience.” Further illustrating the cultural boom time, the Detroit Historical Museum was able to increase the amount of money their fundraising efforts so that by 1997 their budget was only comprised of 57 percent of public funds as opposed to the 85 percent in 1992 (Woodford 241). The prosperity of the era is reflected in the success of the institutions of the humanities.

Cultural enterprises were not alone in nineties development. Businesses were also moving into and developing within the city center. As previously stated, the auto industry was in a period of growth. For $73 million, GM purchased its space in the Renaissance Center in 1996 (Woodford 248) and moved into the location in 1999 (Woodford 246)--notice the building labeled GM in the background. In addition to the auto industry’s contributions, new businesses were setting up shop in Detroit. In 1992, the Greektown staple, Athenum Suite Hotel and Conference Center, checked in its first guest (Woodford 242). In 1999, Compuware Corporation announced the decision to move downtown, which would include the renovation of a building, and promised both to fill the void left when the J.L. Hudson Building was demolished in 1998 and “ten thousand jobs [to be] brought back to the city” (Woodford 250). Detroit was also starting to recognize the effects of the recent 1988 special referendum which allowed for gambling casinos in the city. MGM Grand celebrated its opening in 1999, with MotorCity Casino Hotel’s opening to follow shortly (Woodford 246). To cap off the decade, the Lions announced on November 16, 1999 that they would move back into the city center after 25 years of playing in Pontiac (Woodford 246).

But, even among the excitement and prosperity of the nineties, people were still moving from the city. During the building development just described, Detroit “lost over 6,000 acres of residential land to other uses, representing 15% of total residential space” (Grengs 349). While the development of the 90s created some what are now Detroit favorites, less housing was available in the exciting areas. However, the wealth, development and population decline of the nineties also made so that the 2000 census showed that the number of people living in high-poverty neighborhoods had dropped by 74 percent since the 1990s in Detroit. This decrease was the highest in comparison with every other metropolitan region in the nation (Grengs 248).

The renovations of the nineties continued into the early Naughts with projects such as the Detroit Opera House embarking on a “$10 million restoration” and the Detroit Historical Museum receiving grants that would allow an increase in exhibit space in the Detroit Science Museum (Woodford 241). And although there was less concentrated-poverty, Detroit “was the most impoverished large city in the nation in 2003, with more than one in three residents living below the federal poverty line,” a stark contrast with the development of the time (Grengs 348).

The recent history of Detroit is the epitome of alternating excitement and disappointment. Tiger’s played their first game in Comerica Park on April 11, 2000. The Lions moved into Ford Field for the 2002 season. If you ignore the 25 percent population decrease that happened between 2000 and 2010 and that in 2003 from January through November 6 “more people were killed in Detroit --3,313-- than have died among U.S. forces in 10 years of fighting in Afghanistan,” (“Living”) Detroit was having an okay time. Then, in the summer of 2007, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick “lied under oath... at a police whistle-blower trial that [had] cost the city more than $9 million” (Schmitt). On March 24, 2008, The Detroit Free Press reported “Kwame Malik Kilpatrick, once heralded as the bright future of the city that reared him, instead became the first sitting Detroit mayor to face criminal charges --eight felony counts, the fallout from a text message scandal” (Ashenfelter). Just recently, December 9, 2011, the Detroit Free Press released the story “Ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is Hiding his Assets, Wayne County Prosecutor Says” that asserts Kilpatrick is hiding “assets and living large in Texas” prompting “Wayne County Prosector Kym Worthy [to ask that] the amount [of restitution Kilpatrick is paying the city monthly be] increased from $160 to $1,000,” given that Kilpatrick’s cable bill is $314.98 a month (Baldas).

While Kilpatrick enjoys HBO, Detroit is on track to be bankrupt by April. The state is reviewing the city’s finances to see if an emergency financial manager will take over the city’s budget. Seeking to avoid the loss in autonomy, Mayor Bing “submitted a $103 million savings plan for the current physical year to [Governor] Snyder’s office” (Williams “Detroit Mayor”). In 2009, an emergency financial manager was assigned to the Detroit School District. After cutting more than 1,000 jobs and closing more than a dozen schools as of March 2011 (Altman), the district reported its “first budget surplus in four years” in December 2011 (Williams “Detroit Schools”). Kilpatrick, the reverse Robin Hood, stealing from the poor and giving to himself.

Despite Detroit’s troubles, businesses still are continuing to locate in the downtown. In 2009, Dan Gilbert, founder and owner of Quicken Loans, moved his business from the suburbs into the center of Detroit. Gilbert’s business decision alone brought more than 3,000 into Detroit (“So Cheap”). The Economist article “So Cheap, There’s Hope; The Parable of Detroit,” points out that:

Considering the fact that the city of Detroit is 83 [percent] black (and a further 7 [percent] Hispanic), you see an awful lot of white faces around TechTown, and for that matter at Quicken Loans. This leads the main criticism that can be levelled at the new Detroit: that it focuses on downtown and midtown; that it is benefiting people who, often enough, live not in the city but the suburbs; and that the bulk of Detroit’s inhabitants are being overlooked. All of these are very hard to deny.

So despite efforts by Quicken Loans and other job creators, as of this school year, Detroit school’s have a high enough percentage of children who qualify for free meals that every child in entire school system will now “receive free breakfast, lunch and snack” as part of the Hungry-Free Kids Act (Battaglia). And so, again, the thrill of development is tempered by the reality of Detroiters’ experiences.

1980s Timeline

• "...auto industry went from a loss of 4.2 billion dollars in 1980 to the fabulous 8.9 billion dollars in 1984." (Widick 245)
• 1983: "...the city had 97,000 single-parent households, about 75 percent of them black." (Widick 238)
• "For three nights in 1984-which included Halloween and the preceding night, Devil's Night- the city was plagued by 810 fires." (Widick 234)
• 1984: "An important factor that contributed to Michigan's high unemployment rate was the policy of the auto industry during its recovery to impose compulsory over-time - ten-hour days and six-day weeks- rather than rehire its unemployed. The UAW estimated that the equivalent of 95,000 jobs were 'lost' in 1984 due to overtime. The policy also created tensions between the employed and unemployed autoworkers. For the 200,000 employed autoworkers in Michigan the Detroit metropolitan area it was a period of unprecedented prosperity: those who already earned on average of $28,900 a year brought home an additional $5,000 to $10,000 in overtime pay." (Widick 245)
• "In 1985, 237 youths were wounded and 31 died from gunfire." (Widick 232)
• "In 1985, due to massive efforts by police and fire fighters, Devil's Night fires were reduced to 479." (Widick 234)
• "...in 1985 blacks in metropolitan Detroit had the highest jobless rate-28.9 percent- among those living in the nation's 30 largest metropolitan areas. For black youths 16 to 19 years of age, the unemployment rate was 60 percent. Within Detroit itself the rates were higher because of the high concentration of black population." (Widick 234)
• 1985: "...Detroit schools were more segregated in 1985 than they were in the previous 25 years. Only three of its 22 high schools had a mixed student population; the majority of students were black." (Widick 248)
• "Perhaps the saddest commentary on the state of education in Detroit was the report that one out of every four high school graduates from the class of 1985 did not pass a proficiency exam which tested minimum reading, writing and math skills." (Widick 249)
• "Observing Detroit in 1985 and 1986 gave one an inescapable sense of deja vu. The extravagant publicity surrounding plans to rebuild the city was reminiscent of 1968 when the Renaissance Center was touted as the city's hope. Once again the Renaissance Center became the centerpiece of a downtown revitalization plan and was expanded to include two twenty-one story office towers to supplement the original four 39-story office towers and the 70-story hotel. The center, which had to be reorganized in 1983 after losing 103 million dollars in three years, remaind in the red in 1985 and 1986." (Widick 246)
• "...'Detroiters have armed themselves so extensively that by one estimate there are 400,000 more guns in the city than there are people,' the Wall Street Journal Reported in 1986." (Widick 232)
• 1986: "...by the end of the year 343 youths under the age of 16 had been shot, 43 of them fatally." (Widick 232)
• "To keep the city under control in 1986 Mayor Young mobilized 5,600 police and city employees and another 5,000 citizen volunteers to patrol the city. The mayor also imposed a dawn-to-dusk curfew on youths 17 years of age and under. Even with the city nearly in a state of siege, 343 arson-related fires were reported on Devil's Night, and 494 youths were held for violating curfew." (Widick 234)
• 1986: "At $115,000 a year, Young earned more than the governor of Michigan and became the highest paid chief executive in the nation's ten largest cities." (Widick 240)
• December 1986: "In this vitriolic political climate, Mayor Young, with misgivings, retreated and signed in December 1986 an ordinance that imposed a 30-day jail sentence and $100 fine for a first offense of carrying a concealed firearm without a permit. Second offenders would get 60 days plus the fine, and repeaters beyond that would get 90 days plus the fine for each offense." (Widick 233)
• December 1986 “"One of the most ambitious projects designed to draw people downtown was the construction of the 'People Mover,' a 2.9 mile overhead rail system connecting various points in the downtown enclave of buildings and hotels. It was supposed to attract 15,000 passengers daily, but in early 1987 it was averaging only 10,000 riders a day. Financed by federal, state, and local government money, the project cost over 210 million dollars including a 72 million dollar cost overrun." (Widick 247)
• 1987: "...nearly half of the [police] force was black." (Widick 241)
• 1987- on the Chrysler Bailout: Chrysler bailout further: "The losers were the cast-off autoworkers and the 20,000 white-collar employees eliminated at Chrysler...These kinds of permanent cutbacks help to explain why in 1987 40 percent of the city's residents lived below the poverty line and about 25 percent of Detroiters were unemployed." (Widick 245)
• 1987: "The Big Three posted a $9.1 billion net profit, and that did not include the increase in cash reserves. However, the gains have not been shared by the thousands of white- and blue-collar workers whose jobs have been eliminated in recent years." (Widick 254)

1970s Timeline

• "By 1970, there were 250,000 written grievances at GM alone, or one for every two workers." (Georgakas 33)
• "...Local 160 of the GM Technical Center, representing 4000 mainly white skilled workers with the highest-paying jobs, was among the most militant locals in the UAW. Its members dropped nails, narled traffic, and formed car barricades during the 1970 GM strike." (Georgakas 39)
• "...but in 1970 some 750,000 auto workers had produced a little over eight million vehicles." (Georgakas 101)
• "Detroit had always been known as a violent city, but by 1970 the situation was clearly out of hand. There were over 23,000 reported robberies, which meant that a least one out of every sixty-five Detroiters had been a victim. An army of drug addicts lived in the remains of 15,000 inner-city houses abandoned for an urban-renewal program which never materialized. Over a million guns were in the hands of hte population, and union officials estimated that half the workers came to the plants armed with one weapon or another." (Georgakas 202)
• "On April 7, 1970, the Detroit Board of Education voluntarily adopted a plan to effect a more balanced distribution of black and white students in twelve of the city's twenty-one high schools. This so-called April 7 Plan was to take effect over a three-year period. The plan was designed to reduce segregation in a school system that was then 63.6 percent black...The state legislature, responding to powerful public pressure, passed legislation that was signed by governor as PA 48 on July 7, 1970, which in effect nullified the plan. The following month the board members who had supported the plan were recalled, the governor appointed four new board members, and the April 7 Plan was rescinded." (Woodford 229)
• January 1971: "...the atmosphere of permissiveness regarding police misconduct and the growing chaos in the streets had prepared the way for a new police unit called STRESS (Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets). This unit was a secret, elit esection of Detroit undercover assault squads...[and was] estimated to have no more than 100 men. The favorite STRESS method was the 'decoy' operation in which one police officer acted as a potential victim in some area where crime was likely to occur. As the decoy was attacked, other STRESS officers moved in for the arrest." (Georgakas 202)
• April-August, 1971 : "Eleven deaths occurred between April and August of 1971, and all but one of the victims were black." (Georgakas 205)
• Sept 23, 1971: "...more than 5000 people were mobilized by th State of Emergency Committee to demand the abolition of STRESS" (Georgakas 205)
• "On April 6, 1971, the NAACP suit went to trial in U.S. District Court before Judge Stephen J. Roth. After extensive hearings, Judge Roth ruled, on September 21, 1971, that Detroit schools were indeed segregated and they had been deliberately segregated over a long period of time." (Woodford 229)
• "...in June 1972, Roth settled on a plan for the busing of students between Detroit and fifty-three suburban school districts across the tri-county area. The plan involved about 780,000 children. At the time of this ruling Detroit schools were 65 percent black, the suburban schools less than 10 percent black...The ruling was appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which in December 1972 affirmed Roth's ruling of segregation in Detroit's schools as well as his conclusion that the desegregation remedy must not be confined to only the city of Detroit." (Woodford 229)
• March 9, 1972- Rochester Street Massacre: "...three black STRESS officers observed a man later identified as a Wayne County sheriff's deputy walk into a building at 3210 Rochester with what appeared to be a gun. The STRESS squad called other police and entered the apartment with guns blazing. Wayne County Sheriff's Deputy Henry Henderson was killed, and three other deputies were seriously wounded. According to subsequent court testimony, all the deputies might have been killed if Patrolman Richard Herold had not arrived on the scene and put a stop to the carnage...Exactly what transpired at Rochester Street was never made clear." (Georgakas 204)
• March 26, 1972 "... a rally of over 2000 people at the University of Detroit stadium in support of a petition campaign to abolish STRESS and a lawsuit against Mayor Gribbs, Commissioner Nichols, and Prosecutor Cahalan...The petition campaign was to gain over 40,000 signatures." (Georgakas 205)
• "'For the first time in the history of the UAW, the union mobilized to keep a plant open.' - Bill Bonds, WXYZ-TV News, speaking of events at the Mack stamping plant, August 16, 1973.” (Georgakas 227)
• 1973: "...that November Michigan Senator Coleman A. Young was elected the first black mayor of Detroit, defeating former city police commissioner John F. Nichols. At this time, blacks made up about half of the city's population. Young won support from more than 90 percent of black voters and about 10 percent of white voters...On January, 1974, Coleman A. Young took office as mayor of Detroit, and for the next twenty years he was to serve as the city's chief executive. He was elected mayor five consecutive times, thus coming the city's longest-serving mayor." (Woodford 218-219)
• "'I will lead a business resurgence that will produce jobs by the thousands, revitalize our downtown, and our entire city. I will move Detroit forward on a program that includes new port facilities, a stadium, rapid transit, recreational facilities, and housing.'- Coleman Young, quoted in campaign literature, Autumn 1973" (Georgakas 222)
• "Carefully picking its way through the Detroit reality, the U.S. News & World Report of December 10 was enraptured by the latest plans for building a new Detroit, plans which, like the old plans for building a new Detroit, concentrated on buildings, professional classes, and a narrow strip of waterfront. The heart of the new program was a $500 million Renaissance Center with hotels, luxury apartments, office buildings, and quality entertainment facilities to be built on the riverfront, directly to the east of Woodward Avenue." (Georgakas 238)
• "In 1973 the number of homicide victims in Detroit was triple the death toll on all sides in the civil disturbances that took place in Northern Ireland during the same year." (Georgakas 4)
• 1973: "Called the Health Research Group Study of Disease among Workers in the Auto Industry, it was based on figures compiled by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and was written by two medical doctors, Jannette Sherman and Sidney Wolfe. The report estimated 65 on-the-job deaths per day among auto workers, for a total of some 16,000 annually. Approximately half of these deaths were from heart attacks. There were also some 63,000 cases of disabling diseases and about 1,700,000 cases of lost or impaired hearing...Even these limited figures made it clear that more auto workers were killed and injured each year on the job than soldiers were killed and injured during any year of the war in Vietnam." (Georgakas 105)
• "The new contract, the election for Mayor, and the murder rate were prime coffee-break topics in the fall of 1973 when Detroit workers got an unexpected boost from black Judge Damon Keith sitting in the Federal District Court. Judge Keith ruled that Detroit Edison had been guilty of discriminating against blacks. He punished the company by ordering it to pay more than $4 million and to change its employment practices at once." (Georgakas 236)
• "The bleak Detroit winter hit with its usual cacophony of whining engines as the city ended 1973 by establishing several all time records. Homocides reached a historic peak; car production reached a historic peak; and the earnings of General Motors reached a historic peak. Workers worried about wholesale layoffs just as the prices of fuel, food, and other necessities also reached all-time peaks." (Georgakas 238)
• “Consumers worried about the shortage of gasoline quit buying large, low-mileage cars like Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles. Sales of those lines fell by over 50 percent, and Detroit automakers began to retool to produce smaller, more economical cars...During most of 1974, official unemployment in Michigan ran to more than 10 percent." (Georgakas 237)
• "Between 1970-1980 alone more than 310,000 white residents fled for the suburbs. The citys population dropped from 1,511,482 in 1970 to 1,203,339 in 1980, while the suburban population rose from 2,688,449 to 3,549,425 during this same time period. Yet the percentage of blacks living in the city during this period rose from 43.7 percent to 63 percent. Thus, by 1980, Detroit had one of the highest black population of any northern U.S. city." (Woodford 221)
• "In its search for a bigger bottom line, the auto industry moved its plants or production elsewhere-other states, other countries- and outsourced more of its work. This process wiped out over 100,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit between 1976 and 1986. For the once-dominant United Auto Workers Union, this signified a loss of 125,000 members in the area- 40 percent of its dues payers- between 1979-1985." (Gerogakas 236)

1960s Timeline

• "In some areas, the urban renewal process proved to be highly successful. On the lower east side, for example, several high-rise luxury apartments were built, and Lafayette and Elmwood Parks--residential areas of tree-lined, spacious apartments and condominiums--lured people back to the central city... the urban renewal process in Detroit during the 1960s was long, complicated, and bureaucratic. Much of the land planeed for renewal stood vacant for long periods of time." (Woodford 169)
• "The Arab immigration pattern changed abruptly in 1966 when the federal laws were revamped to allow easier immigration of people who were relatives of American citizens. The new wave of Arab immigrants who took advantage of the change were primarily dark-skinned Muslims with little formal education. The newcomers invariably worked in heavy industry, where they got the same dangerous and arduous jobs as blacks. The Arab community in Detroit swelled to 85,000 and began to take on a dual quality." (Georgakas 76)
• "Parents' dissatisfaction continued, however, and in 1967 blacks boycotted the Detroit Public Schools to protest racism in the city's educational system." (Woodford 229)
• "Possibly the only group exploited more than blacks at Dodge Main was the recently immigrated Arabs. In 1968, they already numbered 500, and in the next six years that number would multiple fourfold." (Georgakas 37)
• "In the autumn of 1968, Wayne Statue University had almost 35,000 students." (Georgakas 53)
• "Policemen wanted to move their families out of the city too, but the city had a rule that its police must live within the city. False addresses and other ways of evading this provision became common and were winked at when they involved whites. The department also allowed an officer a one-year period of grace to find a Detroit address after being hired, and in a key ruling the department permanently exempeted 400 officers from having to comply with the rule at all. A Police Community Relations Sub-Committee staff memo of March 25, 1968, described the situation as intolerable. 'The people in the black community see this move as one allowing an occupation army to occupy the city during the day and return safely to their homes in the white suburbs at night. " (Georgakas 189)
• April 26-29, 1969- Black Economic Development Conference (BEDC) held in Detroit: "Financing for the conference was obtained through a grant from the Inter-religious Foundation for Community Organizations (IFCO), a nonprofit foundation begun in 196 by one civic foundation and nine Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish agencies. BEDC (pronounced "bed-c") was to explore various economic strategies for black people in America." (Georgakas 94)
• June 1969- Incorporation of Revolutionary Black Workers: "The League published numerous documents and position papers and had a finely drawn organizational chart, but it never functioned with the precision of a capitalist corporation or a Marxist-Leninist Party." (Georgakas 84)
• "Over fifty million dollars were immediately earmarked by some fifty Detroit firms for a massive waterfront rebuilding plan which led to the formation of a separate organization called Detroit Renaissance. Two hundred Million dollars in short-term mortgage loans were arranged for Detroit Renaissance by a group of thirty-eight banks led by the National Bank of Detroit.” (Georgakas 2-3)

Why Detroit’s Past Matters in the Revitalization Conversation

When we first started our project, we hoped to discover what historical odds are staked against Detroit’s revitalization efforts. Based on information we’d been told growing up, we understood the declining population, and hence shrinking tax-base, presents significant problems for any efforts to rejuvenate Detroit. The simplified argument we have heard on repeat is that people just need to start living in Detroit again. Recently, perhaps due to the public response to Chrysler’s 2011 Super Bowl ad, national media has given attention to all of the exciting things that are happening in the city. In July, the New York Times ran an article “Detroit Pushes Back with Young Muscles,” which likened young adults movement into Detroit to the successful revitalization of Seattle. The article, written with optimism, excitedly presents that although Detroit’s population dropped by 25 percent in the last 10 years, the city had a 59 percent increase in the college educated individuals under the age of 35 (Conlin). The NY Times goes on to detail groups like Move Detroit who actively try to encourage people to move into the city and I Am Young Detroit which both profiles noteworthy young people and acts as a guide to whats new and happening in Detroit. Like the NY Times, we too are excited by this “movement.”

So, here we are just feeling the rush, and wondering, what does Detroit have to do to make this successful? First, we wanted to get a better understanding of the movement of people in Detroit, we analyzed census data using the thematic map creation program GeoCommons. "The Washington Post of February 20, 1973, summarized the population shifts by calling Detroit a city which was getting 'blacker, older, and poorer.'" (Georgakas 189), so we wanted to see for ourselves.

These interactive maps display the trends in Detroit and Wayne County over the years of 1970 to 2000, and in some cases 2008. We used Wayne County to also see the trends surrounding the city over the years. These maps display the change in population density, proportion black, poverty level, and family income over the census tracts. You can click on a certain year, to see what Detroit looked like in that decade. We divided the data into equal quantiles, so you will want to take note of the legend at the bottom right of the page since it will change over the years. The data is shown over a current Google hybrid aerial map so you can see the population as it is distributed relative to current Detroit landmarks. You can click on a certain census tract to see the census statistics for that area of Wayne County.

WAYNE COUNTY POPULATION DENSITY 1970-2008 BY CENSUS TRACT

WAYNE COUNTY PROPORTION BLACK 1970-2000 BY CENSUS TRACT


WAYNE COUNTY FAMILY INCOME 1970-2008 BY CENSUS TRACT

WAYNE COUNTY PROPORTION POPULATION BENEATH POVERTY LEVEL 1970-2008 BY CENSUS TRACT

Having a visual narrative, we wondered what changed in Detroit from 1970 and on, what types of policy did leaders hope to have influence on these changes. And this is when we lost our high from the NY Times article. Through our research, we discovered that Detroit seems to have been in a constant state of revival attempts and policy at least since the 1967 Race Riots, or Great Rebellion. Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin in their book Detroit: I Do Mind Dying show that almost as soon as the riots were quelled two major revitalization efforts stepped up: the New Detroit Committee and black workers (Georgakas 2). The New Detroit Committee, which included Henry Ford II and Walter Reuther the President of the United Auto Workers, keyed in on developing the center of Detroit. Georgakas and Surkin referred to the efforts of the New Detroit Committee as “little more than a recycling of pre-1967 Detroit,” because they did not address substantive issues of the city. Worse, the development actually hurt workers who “found that New Detroit meant working longer and faster and paying higher taxes in exchange for diminishing city services and for wage gains more than outpaced by inflation” (Georgakas 3). Black workers responded to the circumstances alternatively by “[unleashing] a social movement of their own which soon forced a series of organizational, ideological, cultural, political, and economic confrontations with established wealth and power” (Georgakas 2). In 2011, almost 50 years later, Detroit is juggling much of the same issues and development divisions with a significantly smaller population: corridor development via the Woodward Light-Rail, the concerns of Occupy Detroit, and so on.

We hope the blog helps you, as it has helped us, appreciate the challenges of Detroit. Through our exploration, we have settled on one crucial characteristic that will make Detroit’s revitalization different than somewhere like Seattle, and that is its working class roots. Georgakas and Surkin claim that “what clearly differentiated the Detroit experience from other major social movements of the sixties and early seventies was its thoroughly working-class character,” and the revitalization of Detroit will be best served by embracing its heritage (Georgakas 5). We believe this is why Detroiters and Michiganders tear up and cheer every time they see the new Chrysler ads--Chrysler was once the “largest employer and taxpayer in the city” (Widick 242). Chrysler has allowed Detroit to claim pride in the blue collar grit that some have denied and outsiders have attacked. Maybe the lesson we can take from the marketing success of the Chrysler ad campaign is that when Detroit talks about revitalization, it should be on its own terms, engaged with its own hard history and always with the pride of Detroiters at heart.

Our blog will continue with a timeline of important events and statistics that take place in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. We will then write a narrative of the last twenty years and come to conclusions on Detroit's past urban renewal projects and reflect on the current state of renewal in Detroit.