What killed Detroit?

[sehender1]

I came across a piece by conservative blogger David Frum [[former White House speechwriter and coiner of the phrase, "axis of evil") about Detroit, at NewMajority.com.

Frum gave me permission to reprint it at FreepOpinion.com, and I've blogged about it here:

http://www.freep.com/article/2009080...lled-Detroit?-

Frum's piece is a fascinating recount of our history, and then a taken on what went wrong and, finally, how we might fix things. I couldn't stop reading it..

[iheartthed]

Condescending portrayal of black migrants aside*, I thought it was a fairly good, thought provoking review of what went wrong in Detroit.

*Why are white migrants referred to as "working class" while the black migrants are portrayed almost as parasitic? -- "Like Chicago, Detroit attracted hundreds of thousands of black migrants between 1915 and 1960, mostly very unskilled, hoping to gain well-paying employment in factories and warehouses.
Their arrival jeopardized the ambitions of the white working class to raise its wages through unionization."

[Todd_Scott]

I did not find it very insightful or informed. I'm not surprised his former boss hired him.

"The second factor in Detroit’s decline is the city’s defiant rejection of education and the arts." Really? Because he doesn't think the DIA is as good as some other museums is a sign that Detroit rejects the art? And our huge theatre district... how does that show our rejection?

[hudkina]

The reason is that the author of the article is a conservative [[[[[[[[[ known primarily for being a speechwriter for Bush and "famous" for coining the phrase "axis of evil".

[sehender1]

I thought his observations about our cultural amenities was pretty dismissive, too.
But I also know that other folks who live in other cities often have the same reaction when they visit here.

[6nois]

It's an interesting piece and I have to say I fully support the end idea that for a city preservation is absolutely essential to a renewed future. Some of the history I think is a bit one sided I think there is more than enough blame to go around for what has happened to Detroit. And in many cases solid grit and determination among neighbors has been what has held many an enclave together in the city. But overall it was a very interesting read, and was way better than I expected it to be.

[bailey]

I did not find it very insightful or informed. I'm not surprised his former boss hired him.

"The second factor in Detroit’s decline is the city’s defiant rejection of education and the arts." Really? Because he doesn't think the DIA is as good as some other museums is a sign that Detroit rejects the art? And our huge theatre district... how does that show our rejection?

Well, who primarily supports the DIA? Detroiters or suburbanites?

And can we please stop with the Detroit has a huge theater district crap? I love the claim that we are second to Broadway...lovely. Let's look at how ridiculous that claim is. We have 12 Theaters of over 500 seats...apparently that is the qualifier. "Broadway" has 40 and that isnt even counting "off broadway" venues.

So, tonight I'd like to go to a show in Detroit's 'second only to New York' Theatre district....what's playing? Fox has Jamie Fox... Masonic? Dark. City Theater? Some comedy jam. Opera house? closed for the season...see ya in october. Oh, I can go get hammered at the Filmore and the 93.1 riverfest concert.. Fisher nothing, but--..ooooh CATS IN 2010 sign me up!! Music Hall? Jazz cafe stuff [[which is kinda cool....you should go). Gem or Centtury? nothing. All I want to do is see Avenue Q...shouldnt I be able to do that in the 'second largest theater district in the country"?

Lets see about NYC ---- 31 different shows on and off Broadway tonight at 730 or 8. Weekends? add the matinees.

We have a few big theaters...yes. We rate a mid week stop on the national tour of most acts. Okay. A "theater district" "second only to Broadway"? no.

[gnome]

Interesting read, his observation about not having enough gays is nothing new. That hack Richard Florida has been preaching the code phrase, "Creative Class" for years. The issue isn't homosexuality in particular, but the lack of a gay friendly culture in general. Even a cursory understanding of Detroit's gay scene reveals a deeply subterranean environment. A quick glance at Supergay's web site shows how the whole city is on the DL with enclaves spread in tiny pockets around the city.

Just like the rest of Detroit's features, everything is spread around. You want to see some boobies? 8 mile, Michigan Ave., downtown, you can drive all over to find your favorite cup size. Casinos? Clustered in a central area so as to walk from one to another? Nope. Factories? Nope. Nice neighborhoods? Again you'll have to drive from Indian village to Berry, to Palmer Woods. Theater? Orchestra Hall, Music Hall, The Fox, ... can't walk between them, each one an island to itself.

These are zoning crimes that we continue to commit time and again. Augustus Woodward's Enfant interpretation was in place for about a week, then we changed our minds. It is a systemic pillar-to-post mind-set that we can't seem to shake. Just look at the People Mover and how its route snakes around like epileptic dervish. Coleman built it with a stop on the side of Cobo Hall only to expand the Hall 3 years later and forcing the architects to build around the damn thing.

Show up to a NAIS press preview when some big wig is premiering their newest model and right in the middle of the presentation Mr. Wig is shouting over train noise. Reporters from the world over look up and collectively think who would build a train track inside a convention hall. Madness.

What killed Detroit? ADHD.

DPW should replace fluoride with Ritalin just to keep us on task.

[Meddle]

Coleman Young had a big hand in it. Very devisive. Drove a major wedge between the city and the 'burbs. Created an air of hate and dissent.



Detroit has a theatre district?

[EastsideAl]

I normally abhor David Frum, and pretty much everything he stands for, but I have to say that some of this commentary is spot on. Especially when he talks about preservation of our city's history and built urban fabric. It's strange to me that one of the few things that recent African-American city administrations seem to have carried over from their white predecessors is a very outmoded mid-20th century view of how to deal with the past - i.e., tear it down and replace it with something new, even if that new thing is something clearly inferior, like a parking lot or yet another soon-to-be-empty strip mall. Or, since the old thing, any old thing, is useless anyway and will be torn down eventually, expend no resources trying to preserve it and just leave it there to rot and be pillaged.

Frum is also right about the nasty racial divide that holds this area back so badly, but his discussion of it seems way off the mark to me. He makes it sound like black people moved here specifically to steal the jobs of good, hard working, virtuous white people, or to get them some welfare, instead of coming here for exactly the same reason as white people - in an attempt to improve their lot in life. Also, like far too many white right-wing commentators, he essentially holds whites blameless for what happened when they got here. And act as if decades of outright discrimination in public treatment, employment, housing, public accommodation, law enforcement, lending, and so many other things didn't happen, or as if it was perpetrated by someone other than whites. And also to act like it shouldn't have been expected, like it was a surprise, that this pervasive, and often vicious, discrimination would cause a certain amount of anger, resentment, suspicion, and an opposite reaction to separate on the part of those subjected to it.

I also think he's more than a little off the mark when he talks about education and the arts. Perhaps because he doesn't fully understand our history. For instance, he sees the DIA in its present state and doesn't grasp the depth of its collections [[at least as good as Cleveland's). The arts, theater, and certainly education, once had a seriuos foothold here, but like so many other things the economic decline, the population decline, the racial divide, and the drain of money and the monied classes from the city have taken their toll.

The Detroit Public Schools were for many decades a model for the entire country as to how to educate masses of children from working class backgrounds. And what's now Wayne State, and was once Wayne University [[and part of the Detroit Public Schools) was very much a part of that story. Detroit stood second only to New York and its City University system in providing higher education to the children of manual workers. Much of the middle and upper middle class in this area, and indeed throughout the country, are products or the children and grandchildren of the products of that system. In fact, it could be, and has been, argued that the success of that system created some of the basis for its downfall, as the children of workers became educated and wealthier, and either moved out of the working class city to its suburbs or left the area altogether.

[RickBeall]

The world views Detroit as a ghetto caving in on itself. In general, I think we do too.

[jerrytimes]

The world views Detroit as a ghetto caving in on itself. In general, I think we do too.

We will until Detroit starts doing something to improve itself. It did a little during the Archer era, but has gone back to it's old ways.

[MotownSpartan]

very interesting read, thanks for posting.

[texorama]

Did enjoy the conservative Irish Catholic who blamed the city's problems on "not enough gays."

[urbanophile]

One quibble I have is his focus on urban renewal. Lots of cities obliterated historic buildings with urban renewal, freeways, etc. That's not unique to Detroit.

Also, by 1960 the problems were already evident. Sources as diverse as Jane Jacobs and Time Magazine noted the problems.

[jtf1972]

To everyone who continues to blame Coleman A. Young...

It is easier to point the finger at a man who spent 20 years attempting to keep the city afloat than to examine the root of the problems and those who are to blame. Mayor Young is a much more convenient target than our parents and grandparents who abandoned the city they claimed to love.

[Meddle]

To everyone who continues to blame Coleman A. Young...

It is easier to point the finger at a man who spent 20 years attempting to keep the city afloat ...

By punching hundreds of holes in the hull while trying to build his own personal kingdom?

[EMG]

To everyone who continues to blame Coleman A. Young...

It is easier to point the finger at a man who spent 20 years attempting to keep the city afloat than to examine the root of the problems and those who are to blame. Mayor Young is a much more convenient target than our parents and grandparents who abandoned the city they claimed to love.

They abandoned it because Coleman Young decimated any power the police force previously had to maintain law and order, leading to increased crime, leading to decreased safety and lower property values.

Of course, not all the blame goes to Coleman. The cross district school busing issue which came to a head shortly before that had a lot to do with the mass exodus as well. Nonetheless, the election of John Nichols and the maintenance of a strong police force minus the internal corruption that was the hallmark of the Young administration could have slowed down the decline considerably.

[iheartthed]

They abandoned it because Coleman Young decimated any power the police force previously had to maintain law and order, leading to increased crime, leading to decreased safety and lower property values.

Of course, not all the blame goes to Coleman. The cross district school busing issue which came to a head shortly before that had a lot to do with the mass exodus as well. Nonetheless, the election of John Nichols and the maintenance of a strong police force minus the internal corruption that was the hallmark of the Young administration could have slowed down the decline considerably.

Detroit was losing tens of thousands of residents per year long before Coleman Young became mayor.

[EMG]

Yes, the 1967 riots had a lot to do with that. But the rate accelerated exponentially after '74.

[ziggyselbin]

I would take issue as well with his rather cavalier views of Wayne State and education[[higher)_ no mention of UDM a fine institution. And WSU has educated countless Michiganians that have stayed and made the area better.

And the DIA is certainly on par with most other big city institutes. It is a matter of opinion what one prefers. The same applies to the DSO; the recordings on mercury living presence with Paul Paray are highly prized as well as those done later with Dorati at the United artists theater.

Coleman Young gets a bad rap. Detroit should be so lucky to have a mayor these days like Mayor young. I question whether many of you are old enough to remember young or just aping what you have been told.

[Patrick]

What a salad-tosser. Nothing like seeing some Ivy league grad taking a cheap shot at Wayne State. F#$k him.

[EMG]

Coleman Young gets a bad rap. Detroit should be so lucky to have a mayor these days like Mayor young. I question whether many of you are old enough to remember young or just aping what you have been told.

No aping here. I lived through it and saw what my parents lost in property value during the Young era. They were forced to cut their losses and run as the neighborhood I lived in went from a place where it was actually safe to walk the streets at night to a place where it became common to hear gunshots from a drug house down the block. When I bought my first house I made sure to buy in an area with a strong and responsive police force where criminals still go to jail no matter what their race - Grosse Pointe Woods. After both my grandparents and my parents lost out in Detroit, I wound up being the first in the family to actually make money on real estate.

[Meddle]

I personally saw Coleman execute the city for his own personal gain.

Did you forget about his custom built armored limosine? His personal police force?

[EMG]

The same applies to the DSO; the recordings on mercury living presence with Paul Paray are highly prized as well as those done later with Dorati at the United artists theater.

Amen! I am also a classical music fan and have some great recordings by the DSO with Dorati, including one of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture which as far as I am concerned is the standard by which all others shall be judged - and I've yet to hear one which comes to a more rousing ending.

And I have also yet to find a performance of the Nutcracker ballet which I've liked as much as the Detroit ones I used to see in the 80's.