Detroit Continues to Face Poverty-Related Challenges

Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Pioneer Journal

A friend of mine once said to me, “thirty miles outside of any city, you’re back in the middle ages.”

By this he meant that cities were the anchors of culture and progress. But, in the United States, this may not necessarily be true any longer.

Right up against the Canadian border, across the Detroit River from Windsor, lies a “dying” American city, Detroit. It has become so destitute that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder recently appointed an emergency financial manager for the city.

Detroit’s prosperity in the 20^th century was linked to the American automobile industry. The “Big Three” – Chrysler, Ford and General Motors – made it the centre of car manufacturing. It was “Motor City.”

But all that changed in the 1960s, as German, Japanese and Korean companies began to challenge the established auto companies. As their market share dropped and workforces shrunk, and as many of their plants moved to places with cheaper labour, so too did Detroit’s fortunes decline. By 2008 GM and Chrysler had gone bankrupt.

The decline of the auto industry has seen the city lose population. Between 2000 and 2010, Detroit’s population fell by 25 per cent, and it dropped in size from the country’s 10^th largest city to 18th. From a total of 1.8 million people in 1950, it shrank to 713,000 people.

The July 1967 race riot, finally quelled by National Guard and Army troops, also precipitated a mass exodus. Casualties included 43 dead, 467 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed in looting and arson. Tens of thousands left the city in ensuing years.

As plants and people moved, the property taxes and income taxes they had supplied went with them. The city could no longer afford even basic services without going deeply into debt.

Detroit is now running a $375 million deficit, and its long-term debt is $14 billion. Median household income in the city is $26,098, and the median income for a family is $31,011; 36 per cent of its residents live in poverty.

Urban decay is a major problem. The city has some 90,000 abandoned or vacant homes, many completely vandalized and beyond repair. Others have been turned into drug dens. Crime is rampant.

As downtown stores and businesses shut down, even the city’s centre began to look like a ghost town. Some people have even suggested demolishing entire neighbourhoods and turning the space into parkland.

Today, as journalist Charlie LeDuff, author of the book Detroit: An American Autopsy, remarked, the city is “an archaeological ruin.” He told the New York Times he was past finding the city “frightening anymore. It was empty and forlorn and pathetic.”

Detroit has seen a major demographic shift. In 1910, fewer than 6,000 Blacks called the city home; by 1930 more than 120,000 Blacks lived in Detroit. Thousands of African-Americans had come to Detroit from the South for jobs.

In 1950, Detroit had 1.5 million white residents. By 2010, that had fallen to 75,585. The Black population grew to 590,226 from 300,506 during that time. The city is now about 83 per cent African-American. And unlike in the past, jobs are few and not well paid.

But this isn't the whole story. Most of the whites who left Detroit proper (Wayne County) moved to nearby suburbs. Surrounding the city are five predominantly white counties, making the population of the metro area 4.2 million. These towns now have the amenities Detroit lacks.

Oakland County (75 per cent white) is home to a variety of cities, villages and townships. These communities range from blue-collar, inner-ring suburbs like Ferndale and Hazel Park, to wealthy places such as Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, and Franklin.

The white-collar cities of Southfield, Farmington Hills and Auburn Hills are home to many large companies. The median income for a household in the county is $61,907, and the median income for a family is $75,540.

Grosse Pointe, partly in Macomb County, and home to auto company executives, comprises five upscale individual communities.

Ann Arbor in Washtenaw County, 56 kilometres west of Detroit, is a college town, home of the renowned University of Michigan.

With its 43,000 students, it shapes Ann Arbor’s economy. It employs about 30,000 workers, including about 12,000 in the medical center. Other employers are drawn to the area by the university's research and development money.

And of course there are numerous bars, restaurants, bicycle shops, and other businesses catering to the student population. When Michigan’s Big Ten football team, the Wolverines, play on a Saturday afternoon, 114,000 spectators fill the gigantic Michigan Stadium.

Health services are another major component of the city’s economy; numerous medical offices, laboratories, and associated companies are located in the city. High tech companies have been locating in the area since the 1930s.

There is also a wealth of cultural activity, with museums, theatres, art and film festivals, and bookstores (the Borders chain began in Ann Arbor).

We lived in Ann Arbor for two years in the 1980s, when my spouse Patricia was finishing her PhD at the university. There was no need to go to Detroit – Ann Arbor, like the other cities beyond Wayne County, had everything one could ask for.