Why is Detroit shrinking?

[sam]

Hello!

I am an architecture student in Innsbruck, Austria. As a part of my degree I am currently doing a study about Detroit, at which I am trying to figure out what were the main factors which contributed to its astonishing [[economic and demographic) growth [[approximately until 1950) and what are the main reasons for its unfortunate shrinking since then.


I was wondering if you could help me with a couple of useful links to researches that were made on this subject. Texts, graphs, pictures - anything would be highly appreciated.


Thank you very much in advance!


-Alexander

Detroit is really not as unusual as it might seem. Take a look at Douglas Rae's "City: Urbanism and Its End" or Kenneth Jackson's "Crab Grass Frontier." Rae is a Yale professor and served on the New Haven mayor's staff during the 90's. Jackson's book is older, but you will find similar themes. Jackson was a history professor at Columbia.

I grew up in Detroit in the 50's and 60's, and it hurts to watch it decline. The oft quoted reasons for the decline - auto industry, race, politics, sledgehammer policies from the Federal government resulting in catastrophic change as described by Jane Jacobs - may ignore much lower, and more basic trends. These big picture forces I think were covered well in the two books that I quote.

My own opinion about the city I grew up in is not so much about why it declined, but why it seems so slow to adapt to changing circumstances. Jacobs had some brilliant insights into how cities work, and how they can change and adapt naturally, and that is why she hated Robert Moses. Maybe Detroit needed a Jane Jacobs and she was not to be found.