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I am looking for a book or article that lists factors that caused the decline of Detroit. Does anyone know of this type of list?
I am also looking for books or articles that discuss strategies to redevelop or renew Detroit.
Anybody have any good ones to recommend?
Thanks
Did you search the archives? We've had threads on this before.
John Gallagher's "Reimagining Detroit" is pretty good in terms of ways to reinvent the city.
Zev Chafets: Devil's Night: And Other True Tales of Detroit; Ren Farley's website, Detroit1701.com; My own, Open Letter to Detroit and America published in my novel, The Zaddik, a Story of James and Paul, [[Amazon.com/Kindle). The answer is not a simple one and is not amenable to a simple listing of factors. Start with the federal policy subsidizing the national highway system, the building of the freeways in Detroit, the rise of suburbia, the fulfillment of the American Dream, Hudson's sowing the seeds of its own demise through regional shopping malls. Then you can start in on the really difficult issues such as race, politics, busing and Coleman Young. But you really need to start with Clarence Darrow's summation in the trial of Henry Sweet, but I digress. A simple list, no. A complicated list with tons for footnotes, qualifiers, explanations, and analysis, not really. Check out Ren Farley's site and go from there. Good luck, I am still trying to figure that one out.
Absolutely the best book on the modern history of Detroit is Thomas Sugrue's The Origins of the Urban Cisis: Race and Inequality in Post-War Detroit. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand how we get here. Available in paperback, published 1996 by Princeton University Press. Sugrue often comments on Detroit--he recently rebutted a racist attack by Gingrich. Google him and read a while. Very good stuff.
Here are the previous topics:
http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/...tml?1153107744
I would add a little caution in recommending "Devil's Night" for someone who is truly trying to understand what happened to Detroit. It's well written and filled with colorful anecdotes and descriptions of metro Detroit and its residents, both big shots and everyday Joes.
But it isn't heavy on analysis, and in fact it falls into the trap of blaming Coleman Young for much of Detroit's plight. Whatever your opinion of Young, the guy didn't take office for a good 20 years after Detroit began to decline. The book does contain a very revealing interview with Brooks Patterson, then the Oakland County Prosecutor, who is very brutal when talking about how much he dislikes Detroit. Patterson's feelings say a lot about the quality of leadership in suburban Detroit in the early 1990s.
I second Woodward Cousin's vote for "Origins of the Urban Crisis." Sugrue totally destroys the argument that Young is responsible for what's wrong with Detroit.
Thanks, I think I asked a similar question here a few years ago, but it is an ongoing quest to figure it out
do a search for "Shrinking Cities." a variety of essays from a few years ago address many of the symptoms and some of the from-the-ground-up cures being advanced by egg heads, socialists and hipster post-post compost moderns.
What CAY was not, and Brooks Patterson is now, is what Detroit needed. A figure that could have taken Detroit's destiny, and changed it. Then and now, that's what Detroit needed/needs. CAY came the closest to being that transformational figure. He had the power, and the connections, but he couldn't let his past go and find a way to really lead Detroit [[with a capital "D") into the future.Quote:
Originally Posted by Carey
We are still waiting for that figure. It will happen.