Last week, we discussed D.C.’s quick aggregation of power and wealth in recent years and months. At the other end of the spectrum is Detroit. A combination of factors has put the Detroit Metro in its current situation; the WSJ had a few interesting pieces over the last week on the failed metropolis.
Firstly, a book review of Luke Bergmann’s Getting Ghost, a non-fiction account of life in Detroit for two young drug dealers: Dude and Rodney. From reviewer Julia Vitollo-Martin:
Mr. Bergmann offers no cheery prognosis – not even the vague possibility of a better tomorrow. His story ends grimly enough. Dude is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for killing a man and is sentenced as an adult to a minimum of 10 years in the state penitentiary. Rodney, who had been trying to turn his life around by starting a car wash, is murdered in a hail of bullets, presumably by associates in the drug trade. The girlfriends of both young men struggle on, raising children, caring for troubled relatives, trapped in their neighborhoods, perpetuating a communal downward spiral.
A Detroit Free Press reporter, Barbara Stanton, once wrote of the city’s troubles: “Instead of a single, stupendous explosion, there is a steady relentless corrosion.” “Getting Ghost” allows us to see such corrosion working its way through individual lives and, it would seem, through the very soul of a city.
While Bergmann’s book seems to paint a pretty grim picture of Detroit, Governor Granholm of Michigan is flashing a billion dollar smile. Her latest idea to ‘Save Detroit’ comes from the old film/entertainment subsidy play book.
According to the WSJ, Granholm is planning to build a $54 million film studio on the site of a shuttered auto plant in Pontiac. There are many incentives as part of the plan and apparently (according to DetNews.com) there is an animation studio going in on the site of a former casino in Detroit. The state is expecting up to 5,000 or so jobs from these efforts and a thriving film industry.
Anyone in Detroit or L.A. or Austin have thoughts on this? Is Granholm onto something? Producers, actors, directors, special effects folks – are you heading to Michigan? Can the state legislate and lead creative industries?
February 5th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Film studios? How many do we need? The movie producers will go to where it is cheapest, and then disappear overnight. What producers, directors, stars want to live in Detroit?
February 5th, 2009 at 4:36 am
This reminds me of the case of The Public in West Bromwich.
West Bromwich is part of the West Midlands conurbation, which was the centre of the UK car industry until the 1990s. It, like Detroit, has suffered massive job losses partly recovered by a growing financial and legal service sector in the city centre employing commuters from the suburbs.
West Bromwich is not a suburb. It has nothing. Lowest proportion of people without post-school qualifications in the entire country. A town centre that has all but closed down waiting for “regeneration” which is now on hold. Apart from…
The Public (Google it). It is a multi-million pound “community art scheme” in the UK and recently voted biggest waste of public money ever in a tv poll. It has a gallery of some kind, but no-one has ever seen it as it has never opened to the public, due to technical problems. Each year it has to receive giant bail outs because politicians don’t want to pull the plug and thereby admit that the money has been wasted. It is a classic example of a public policy fiasco.
But my point is that this, like the Detroit plan for a giant new film studio, is another case of seeing each place as exactly the same, partly caused by the view that the global economy is “flat” because of technology, the motor car, the aeroplane and the internet.
Managing Decline seems to be a seriously neglected area of public policy. Done by “relentless corrosion” harms the worst-off even worse as the better-connected and educated leave first. Yet, at what point do civic leaders decide to push the button for the “stupendous explosion”? That would be more efficient and egalitarian. Demolish sites en masse and park them over, plant carbon sink forests, create national parks like the Emscher Valley in Germany (again, Google that – it’s worth a look at how to successfully manage urban decline).
February 5th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Interesting that you use West Bromwich as an example. I was going to use the old MG plant at Longbridge as a positive example. They just tore most of it down and built new offices and condos there.
Part of Detroit’s problem is that the city fathers and state government have assumed that the problem will correct itself over time – sort of like the free marketeers who have until recently held sway in the U.S. government. The problem is systemic and too massive to correct itself. If the regeneracy had been managed and started back in 1970 or so, the scope of the problem would be more managable.
But as it is, the problem is too massive, would take huge amounts of cash to even remotely have a chance of success, and would necessitate huge relocations of people. I doubt anyone would pony up the money or stand for the draconian measures necessary.
February 5th, 2009 at 8:23 am
But the regeneration of Longbridge is part of a definite strategy tied into the high technology corridor connecting existing and successful institutions and businesses. The political balance of Birmingham is far more responsive and dynamic because it is not a one-party town, unlike in West Bromwich which suffers from very poor quality leadership because there’s no competition.
The “regeneration” of West Bromwich was focused around an idea, led by one charismatic individual who managed to seduce incompetent politicians bereft of their own vision and ideas beyond dustbin collection and car parking charges. The idea of community arts to kickstart regeneration is on paper at least, an attractive one – much as the idea of a film studio to kick start the regeneration of Detroit.
But in such a risky venture and with such vast sums of public money at stake, surely there needs to be a more robust strategy to spread those benefits? In the case of West Bromwich – with such a poorly qualified population isn’t it obvious that the community is going to be radically opposed to “the arts” and “culture” and that therefore part of the strategy had to be winning the hearts and minds of the population as to the benefits that community art could bring them? No – there was nothing. Just a big box plonked in a town centre with a hostile media and very little marketing – nothing more imaginative than a very poor website and a few leaflets. No crowdsourcing, no footsolders, nothing. It needed a very long lead-in period to do this, but it folded pretty much as soon as it was built due to the high costs and no income with the result that the people who could have ran that lead-in were all made redundant.
So, a film studio could work for Detroit – but only if it’s part of a radical strategy that changes the environment to attract the creative class necessary to work in the studios, start spin-off businesses, set up supply and service businesses, create the necessary buzz and convince the doubters.
February 8th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
what do you expect from the worst governor in the country?
April 16th, 2011 at 11:41 am
How to save Detroit
I was reading about Detroit. Some of its pathologies are absolutely frightening. For example, 80% of all children are born to single mothers on welfare. 94% of all children are bastards. Current unemployment rates are almost 29%. If you include those that are discouraged and no longer looking, the unemployment rate is north of 40%. The foreclosure rate is hideously high. But, the banks literally cannot give the houses away since the crime and tax rates are so high. Ironically, Detroit has high income tax and property taxes. The school system has a graduation rate of about 30%. Half the population is illiterate.
The fundamental problem of Detroit is that the city has been boiled down to those that have basically failed at life. So, the children of these failures go to school with other children in the same state. The result is that family and personal pathologies become the norm and we teach this to the next generation.
So, how do you save Detroit? The solution is really obvious. You simply have to create a “government free” zone. I would do the following:
1. No unemployment and no welfare to any resident of the city. If
you want those benefits you have to leave.
2. The only city functions that are to be maintained are road
maintenance, sewage, and the police department. These are paid
for by the state of Michigan. Yes, they may object, but it
beats the payments they are making no in terms of welfare,
unemployment, etc. The police department for only three years.
3. No taxes for anyone who lives in Detroit. I mean no state, no
city, no property taxes, no social security taxes, and no
federal income taxes.
If the residents want to send their kids to school they will have to pay for it out of their own cashflow. Without the government in their pockets they can certainly do so. After three years, the residents will have to provide their own security. In Detroit, a training program will be created in which you can carry your own weapon and you can be trained as a security guard. Businesses will have the cashflow to do this.
If you did the above, Detroit would rock. The welfare recipients, the unskilled, the unmotivated would leave. People that want to better themselves will literally re-homestead the city.