Somerset Collection owner buys former Kmart headquarters

[Detroitnerd]

DN: You forgot one of the most important steps. Detroit was "built out" and industrial facilities were crammed into functionally obsolete buildings with limited employee parking and no room for expansion.

Yes, that was a consistent rationale of industry for moving out: limited railroad frontage, small parcels, congested rail lines, little parking. Of course, one has to look at the difference between prewar and postwar factories. Prewar factories were integrated into neighborhoods. They were surrounded with bars and barber shops, social halls and stores. Behind them, bungalows, flats and apartment buildings. They didn't need parking as much then; people could walk to work. In fact, the Rouge Complex had its own streetcar stop.

But the decision to build new factories outside the city meant more to employers than just better facilities. The broad-brush zoning meant that few workers lived right near the plant. People drove in from all over. The workforce was more difficult to organize. People left in their own cars and drove back to their own communities. I wonder if this was the beginning of when workers stopped thinking of their collective well-being and became more confused politically.

People moving to the burbs wasn't a problem as they took their expenses [[in terms of school taxes) with them. It was the construction of all of those one story factory buildings along Van Dyke, Sherwood, Mound Road, and Stephenson Highway leaving empty buildings in the city. Industry pays taxes and needs little in return. People pay few taxes and need a lot in return. As an example, there is/was [[not sure) a school district in southern Macomb County called the Fitzgerald School District. The real estate of the district is mostly industrial with relatively few residents. Not sure now, but back in the 50s and 60s, Fitzgerald had "Cadillac" schools with relatively low school millage rates.

That was the model of the day, anyway. Today it seems that companies demand so much more from municipalities: Tax breaks, subsidies, etc. Take it from a person who grew up in Dearborn, I get you here.

It was industrial facilities leaving Detroit that destroyed the tax base, not a bunch of blue collar whites moving from the city to the burbs.

Yes, I see what you're getting at, but this was a huge reorganization of the way people socialize, live, work and interact. I guess I'm concerned with more than just the tax base, but how policies ranging from housing subsidies, road subsidies, military strategies and legal decisions all worked to shower the suburbs with resources and sock it to the city.

Anyway, even as businesses left the city, now they're in a position to leave our suburbs. The tax situation you describe is actually more like what Troy is facing now. Troy actually gave a huge tax break to Kelly Services last year, just so it would agree to stay. That wouldn't have happened in the old days!