I live 10 minutes away from Detroit. Hop, skip and jump across the pond and there I am. Other than the city I live in, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, there is no city that I am spent more time in while living in North America than Detroit. I love Detroit, always have, always will.
The view from work has given me front row seats to witness the collapse of one of the greatest cities in the United States. Detroit was a testament to the middle class it created, it stood for the Union, it stood for the Auto Industry, it stood for the golden era of manufacturing.
When I look out at Detroit I remember the Detroit I knew, the Grand Prix (before it was moved to Belle Island), the Detroit Zoo, the Emily Gail Fun Run – Emily Gail is the brother of Barney Miller’s Max Gail, Detective Stan "Wojo" Wojciehowicz, where downtown Detroit was closed down for a 10k fun run followed by a street party, summers hanging out at Sinbad’s Marina, Metro Beach. Now I see urban blight, vast emptyiness and deafening silence. Fred and I recently stood at the Canadian side of the Detroit River watching the People Mover make its’ circuitous route, not stopping once to pick someone up, not one lone person to be seen – a wasteland.
Recently as part of the organizing committee for “Teachers for Global Awareness”, I had the privilege of hearing Kevin Tolbert, Assistant Director of the United Auto Workers, elected Democratic precinct Delegate in the 14th Congressional District speaking about the Emergency Management Law forced on a very unwilling Detroit. His answer to the question, why has Detroit gone from its glory days to the empty shell of urban waste, has stuck with me. We hear all kinds of blame assigned from municipal government corruption, to the unions, to the common stereotyping of the shiftless, lazy, uneducated African Americans and of course a good deal of blame is assigned to the liberals, leftist and the Democratic Party.
A third of its population of which half are children, live below the poverty line. Detroit’s infant mortality rate is only slightly higher than that of Occupied Palestinian Territories, yes, that’s right Gaza and the West Bank. The educational system has failed, with only 21.7 percent of students who begin high school in Detroit actually graduate. Detroit’s metropolitan area is the most segregated in America, where an almost complete African American city is surrounded by white suburbia.
Detroit is not unique in its destiny, but it is the first domino in what will be a chain reaction resultant of the deindustrialization of America. Detroit is iconic. A testimony of what is to come. Service industry will not sustain nor re-create a middle class, manufacturing did.
Detroit’s urban blight is shared by urban America. Cleveland's poverty rate is almost as high as Detroit. Memphis' infant mortality rate is worse. Milwaukee, Newark, Chicago and New York are almost as segregated. Four years after Hurricane Katrina, whole sections of New Orleans remained in ruins.
Bob Williams, President of State Budget Solutions, a non-partisan organization advocating for fundamental reform and REAL solutions to the state budget crises wrote “noted, "Detroit is not unique in the nature of its problems, but the scope of Detroit's problem is breathtaking. Detroit's unfunded long-term debt (mostly pensions and retirement benefits) is $14.9 billion. Detroit's debt to asset ratio is 33:1. To give some perspective, General Motor's debt to asset ratio was 20:1 in 2009."
Although during those years, we saw greatness in Detroit. Its’ decline is very reminiscent of Hubbert’s Peak Oil Model of 1956 in which he correctly determined when America would hit peak oil. It this model, a lag exists between discovery and production. Oil was being pumped out at a ferocious rate, but the new finds were stagnant. So it appeared to the world America was at the top of its game, the descent had already begun. Same thing with Detroit, we had fits and starts, but the underlying love affair with America’s cars had already began to end.
Does this make me give up on Detroit? I think innovative solutions exist. I believe that Detroit can once again be a leader, not this time in the auto industry, but to show a new way. The strength of Detroit lies in its people and if anyone can pull through, it is the people of the crown jewel of Michigan, Detroit.