What do you think of when you think of Detroit? Cars? The Motown sound? The city with the first 0-16 pro football team? While Detroit may still have a crappy football team, its association with cars and the Motown sound are largely things of the past. In fact, you would be hard pressed to name one positive thing that the city is currently noted for.
With an unemployment rate near 30% (according to economagic.com), a poverty rate of about 33% (cbsnews.com), a high school graduation rate of 37.5% (according to theloop21.com), and a murder rate over five times the national average (according to cityrating.com), Detroit seems to lead the country in misery.
Those statistics can’t even begin to portray the desperation that is evident in the neighborhoods of Detroit every day. But how did it get so bad? Wasn’t there a time when people actually wanted to live in Detroit?
Actually, there was a time when living in Detroit was something to be desired, but that all came to an end in the summer of 1967 with the Twelfth Street riot. Largely perceived as a racial issue, the riot, along with the election of Mayor Coleman A. Young in 1973 (Detroit‘s first black mayor), prompted the most obvious case of “white flight” (white residents fleeing a city or urban area for the perceived refuge of a white suburb).
Since that time, Detroit has maintained a tense “love-hate” relationship with its predominantly white suburbs. It has made many attempts to woo whites from the suburbs to spend their money in the city but has resisted any attempts from the suburbs to “interfere” in its policies or administration.
This had led to many white suburbanites disliking Detroit, and many Detroit blacks disliking white suburbanites. I am not interested in weighing in on this issue. I would only like to point out that lack of economic prospects always tends to divide along racial and/or ethnic lines.
With the collapse of the domestic auto industry, many perceive that the final stake has been driven into the heart of Detroit. What prospects do the city’s poor have? Why don’t they just leave?
While racial tension and the failure of the U.S. auto industry have contributed to putting Detroit residents in a morass of crime and poverty, what is keeping them there? Answers to this question tend to fall, fortunately or unfortunately, along racial lines with whites claiming that the blacks in Detroit keep electing corrupt city officials, and there is some truth in this (just try googling “Detroit” and “corruption” to give yourself an idea of how commonplace it is).
In turn, there is a lot of anti-black sentiment among the white suburbs. Many of the city’s blacks are rightfully distrustful of the largely white suburbs, as they fear that the whites want the city to die and the state to take over the city government (this came close to happening less than a year ago).
While racial attitudes undoubtedly play a part in the plight of Detroit’s poor, I would like instead to focus on the city’s leadership and what it has and is attempting to do for its citizens.
At large, the city has focused upon bringing in entertainment for the wealthy. A new baseball stadium, football stadium, and casinos have been constructed in the city in attempts to revitalize the downtown area. Much is made of the downtown area and how to make it attractive to suburbanites. The idea is that if the city can provide enough play areas for the wealthy, they will come and spend money, which will in turn generate revenue, create jobs, et cetera.
The current state of the city is clear evidence that the “revitalizing downtown will save the city” plan is a disastrous failure. Is that really any surprise? With little-or-no money going to revitalizing the poor neighborhoods, they have continued to languish.
Why hasn’t the city invested in its poor neighborhoods? The sad and disturbing answer is, I believe, those in power simply don’t care. The city is looking for ways to bring in money, and building things like playgrounds for its children or recreation centers for its teens and adults doesn’t bring in any money.
So with everything seemingly going against the poor of Detroit, why on earth would they stay? A better question would be is there any possible way they could leave? The values of homes in Detroit are so low, that the poor cannot even sell their homes for enough money buy a vacant lot in the suburbs, much less a house.
So we have a city government that would rather build a jai-alai arena than address the needs of the poor and an enormous and growing poor population trapped within the city. Do they have any reason whatsoever for hope?
If a solution to the problem of Detroit‘s poor is to come about, it is because all of metro Detroit, businesses, charities, and individuals make a decision that they are not going to let the poor keep suffering. They have to be willing to commit to Detroit en masse and help clean up neighborhoods, forcibly remove drug dealers, prostitutes, and thieves, mentor kids who are considering dropping out of school, provide child care and support for single-parent families, and much, much more.
Financial commitments to help the poor would be nice, but personal commitments are what is essential. As the sad state of the Detroit Public Schools shows, throwing money at a problem doesn’t solve it. The poor need people who care and are willing to sacrifice themselves for the betterment of others.
Metro Detroit does actually come together one night a year in an attempt to improve the city. On “Angel’s Night” (renamed somewhat disingenuously from “Devil’s Night” by the city), October 30, metro Detroit comes out in force to patrol the city in an effort to prevent arson and vandalism associated with that particular night. For the most part, this has been very successful, but it will take an effort like this every day of the year to turn Detroit around.
The city government has shown that it is useless. It is time for citizens of Detroit and its surrounding communities to step in and turn things around. Anything less, any vacillating or weakening in purpose, and it’s not going to get done.
Photo courtesy of Aphid00 on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aphid00/3810613730/
Photo courtesy of Diego Cupolo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/diegocupolo/3818828098/
