The new Detroit's fatal flaw

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: July 23, 2017 at 11:12:23 AM EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] The new Detroit's fatal flaw
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> The new Detroit’s fatal flaw
> By Heather Ann Thompson
> Jul 23 2017
> <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/07/23/the-new-detroits-fatal-flaw/>
>
> Fifty years ago today, on July 23, 1967, Detroit exploded. On that day black city residents took to the streets — 
> sick to the bone of the housing and job discrimination that contradicted promises of real reform, tired of the 
> poverty that persisted despite overall prosperity in the city, angry that schools remained subpar for black children, 
> and utterly done with the police brutality that seemed never to be censured or stopped.
>
> Detroit changed a great deal after those fires of urban protest finally were extinguished.
>
> After the uprising, disaffected Detroiters, both black and white, mobilized to elect a new mayor, a black mayor, in 
> the hope that he would address the city’s glaring injustices. But Coleman Young’s election spurred a major exodus of 
> the city’s more racially conservative white residents and many of its businesses. As a result, Detroit’s tax base 
> took a massive hit, and Young was left with few resources to deal with the city’s deepening challenges.
>
> Indeed, by the early 1980s, Detroit could barely scrape together two nickels for job training or education. But like 
> in every other city in America in this period, if one wanted to wage a more aggressive war on crime or drugs, there 
> was always federal and state funding to be had.
>
> And so Young took the money where he could get it.
>
> As the drug war in Detroit escalated, the city became a wasteland. In time, even those who had committed themselves 
> to staying in the city decided to leave for the suburbs. And a staggering number of Detroiters who couldn’t afford to 
> flee ended up either dead or locked up. That city officials chose to criminalize the drug economy and drug addiction 
> rather than to address their root causes, and it cost the city dearly.
>
> Now, however, it seems that the Motor City has shed its reputation as the poster child for America’s worst urban 
> problems and become “America’s comeback city.” Infusions of private investment capital into the downtown area have 
> spurred the growth of new restaurants, condominiums, stadiums and retail establishments. Not only has Detroit secured 
> a $150 million commitment from JPMorgan Chase, but there has been a massive expenditure of development dollars from 
> companies such as Quicken Loans and Ilitch Holdings.
>
> Mass foreclosures, deepening blight, deteriorating buildings and declining schools have given way to a coffee 
> bar/coin laundry complex, the bustling North Corktownand the newly opened El Moore — once a rotting and dilapidated 
> old house that has been converted into a $300-a-night hotel with swanky residences described as “green,” 
> “sustainable” and “eco-friendly.”
>
> And these new apartments, business and coffee shops are filled with white people. Some live in the city, and others 
> come via the newly built light rail — the so-called Q Line (christened such after Quicken Loan mogul Dan Gilbert paid 
> $5 million for naming rights).
>
> Detroit may bear all the right signs of becoming America’s “New Brooklyn.” But its long-term fate depends on whether 
> those who are now trying to rebuild this city heed the lessons of history — namely, those embedded in the Detroit 
> Rebellion of 1967 — or if they will they ignore them completely in favor of the immediate buck and some short-term 
> dazzle and hype.
>
> ***
>
> Way back in July of 1967, just before that infamous evening when Detroit went up in flames, city boosters had been 
> feeling pretty optimistic about the Motor City’s future. Detroit, then the nation’s fifth-largest city, was a 
> metropolis that epitomized all that postwar America had to offer. Home to the Big Three automakers, it boasted 
> higher-paying jobs for working people than many other cities. The Federal Housing Administration helped its residents 
> enjoy unusually high rates of home ownership. Charismatic leaders — from the forward-thinking liberal mayor Jerome 
> Cavanagh to the union icon Walter Reuther to ambitious entrepreneurs like the junior Henry Ford — all worked together 
> to keep the wheels of the Motor City turning smoothly and unceasingly toward a more prosperous future.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: <http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/>



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