Image 1 (Left), Image 2 (Right)
Large Photos (Hadidi), Inset (Detroit News)
international modern style themes, they were created by the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. (Goodspeed) They are a series of low-rise condominiums (image 1) surrounded by residential towers (image 2) opened in 1964. Where Lafayette Park stands now was once a thriving African American cultural center for the Detroit area. The Black Bottom originally had hundreds of businesses, clubs, restaurants, churches, and amenities that disappeared with the old neighborhood. (Ernecq) Detroit’s relationship with the socioeconomic impacts and effects of urban renewal are represented by relocation, dispersal and insurrection of its residents. Once residents were evicted, or their homes sold under eminent domain, they generally ended up in other slums or in the suburbs. The residents that stayed in the city “... helped spread blight to other areas of the city as slum residents were displaced.” (Widner 51) Most of the displaced residents could only afford living in other slums, and this intensified the housing issues in other slums as their populations began to rise beyond their capacity. (Ernecq) This situation was further fueled by the fact that in the late 1950s there was a severe housing shortage in Detroit’s black community. Resentment and tension began to build between Detroit’s black and immigrant populations as they were competing with each other directly in the housing market. (Goodspeed) Matters worsenedwhen black and immigrant residents’ insurrected against their government and police powers, torching a large amount of the city and rioting against the establishment for days. Successfully having created further fuel for white flight to the suburbs, the uprisings left the city “blacker, older, and poorer” throughout 1970s and 1980s. (Walters 67) Current day Detroit residents have a growing issue to face. Geographically, they reside in a city originally stretched out to fill the needs of 2 million residents, but they are only 750,000 people as of 2010. (census) Detroit currently maintains “100,000 parcels, private and public are vacant,” and only 38% of Detroiters work inside of city lines. (Davey 2) Economically, the entire former industrialized city of Detroit, developed similarly to other industrial cities that “developed so that not only their physical environment, but their institutional and civic attitudes as well were oriented almost totally toward the industries that had supported them in the past.” (Widner 54) This reliance on an industry that no longer exists in a powerful capacity has left Detroit crippled to deal with its own fate. Detroit no longer has the support of Alicia Pisani | 29