Malequi Picazo || Fifth Year || The Reparation of America: Detroit is Only the Beginning

ARCH 251 Social and Environmental Justice - Fall 2020 Prof. Olon Dotson Malequi Picazo The Reparation of America: Detroit is Only the Beginning Detroit has faced countless problems over the past 70 years including extreme decrease in population, mass abandonment, increasing crime rates, insurmountable debt, and many others.

By examining some of the proposed solutions and responses to these issues, such as was presented by Toni Griffin with "Detroit Future City,"1 it seems likely that a response to broader issues can be offered as preventative measures to other American cities. Many cities across the country are facing similar problems as Detroit, so by reflecting on Detroit's reactions and preparing specialized responses, a variety of reparations can be applied to America's cities before they deteriorate to the severity seen in Detroit.

It is worth noting that the process of Detroit's devolution is extremely complex and took place over many decades. For the sake of resolution, this history will be simplified and consolidated at the risk of leaving out important details and events in history. In order to calculate an applicable response or set of guidelines for other American cities, it is worth asking the question, "What went wrong in Detroit?" Detroit, Michigan, at one point, was considered to be the fastest growing city in the world. As of 2012, it was considered one of the fastest shrinking cities in the world. 2 While a city may benefit from minor shrinkage, the case of Detroit has seen nothing be hardship and deterioration. As Mark Binelli so keenly identified, "Often, people incorrectly isolate the 1967 riot as the pivotal Detroit-gone-wrong movement, after which

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Toni Griffin, "A new vision for rebuilding Detroit," TED, October 2013, www.ted.com/talks/toni_griffin_a_new_vision_for_rebuilding_detroit#t-190571 2 Detropia, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (2012, Detroit, MI: Loki Films, LLC), Online.

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nothing ever went right. In fact, the auto industry had been in a serious economic slump for at least a decade prior, with tension in the black community festering for even longer and the axial shift of jobs and white residents from city proper to suburbs solidly under way." 3 In other words, Detroit's decline began over 70 years ago with what we identify now as "suburban sprawl".

When large industries, such as the car manufacturing industry, face decline, turmoil, or unsteadiness, there is a ripple effect. It seems the overall trend of the past few decades in America is outsourcing. Traditionally American companies are now moving many of their manufacturing locations out of the country. As shown in a scene of the 2012 documentary, Detropia, a live demonstration is shown of Hong Kong's BYD electric car and the Chevrolet Volt. Several minutes later in the film, a news report explains that the technology for the Volt was purchased by the Chinese company, and production would soon be shifted to Hong Kong. 4 The main reason for this common outsourcing trend has to do with capitalism.

Other countries such as Mexico, Bangladesh, and China, have minimal labor laws (if any) which allows human labor to come at an extremely cheap price - borderline slavery if the term is defined a certain way. Add this element to the competition of capitalism, which in its most basic form is a system that preys on the weak, and one suddenly has a recipe for outsourcing. The automotive industry is not alone in this trend, however. Technology, agriculture, construction materials, and even the fashion industry all face the threat of outsourcing. In the documentary, "The True Cost," the director explores how the clothing industry in developed countries relies solely on developing countries, such as Bangladesh, for the majority of its manufacturing needs. 5 Since money, greed, and the reality of capitalism drive competition, the most "innovative" or

3

Mark Binelli, Detroit City is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis (New York: Henry Holt and Company, Metropolitan Books, 2012), 3.

4 Detropia, 2012.

5 The True Cost, directed by Andrew Morgan (2015, Life Is My Movie Entertainment), Online.

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"intuitive" companies will take the plunge early on and begin outsourcing the majority of its labor to other countries before competitors even know what happened. Once most labor costs are reduced, goods and services also can quickly drop in price. In Detroit, rather than direct outsourcing, the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler in 2009 was the domino that instigated the most prominent trend of Detroit's deterioration.6 Once a large manufacturing company, such as a GM or Chrysler, no longer is functioning in an area, a void of labor is created. Thousands of jobs suddenly disappear, almost overnight.

Once employees lose their jobs, they and their families tend to look elsewhere for work. This sometimes leads them to move away from the city entirely. To put this into perspective, it would be useful to create a hypothetical situation. A Detroit mother of two children gets laid off after working at an auto manufacturing plant for the past twenty years. Now that her years of experience in a single specialized trade result in no income, she must make swift decisions about her family's future in Detroit. She can decide to stay in the city, move to the suburbs, or move close to a relative who lives a few hours away. When she decides that a similar job opening near her relative could be hers, she moves her family of three completely out of Detroit. When considering the ramifications of jobs disappearing, there is a multiplication factor of migration that tags along with it. In the larger scope, when thousands of jobs essentially vanish, an extreme decrease in population occurs very rapidly - practically exponentially given certain conditions.

This mass evacuation then leads to a massive amount of building abandonment. Much of this digression is displayed and discussed in the documentary, Detropia.7

6

Peter Weber, "The rise and fall of Detroit: A timeline," The Week, July 19, 2013, https://theweek.com/articles/461968/rise-fall-detroit-timeline.

7 Detropia, 2012.

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Again, to use this hypothetical family as an example, now that the three have left Detroit, their house is now vacant. Since they were one of the last families to occupy a home on their street in their neighborhood, their house soon falls to ruin. "The most basic unit of urban recovery is the vacant lot...In Detroit, the smaller house lots run around thirty by one hundred feet, hardly a great deal of land...But leave that single vacant lot to fester, and it infects the entire neighborhood."8 This analysis from John Gallagher's book, "Reimagining Detroit," explains how a metaphorical infection spreads from vacant lots. Over time, these lots can ruin an entire neighborhood. When homes and buildings suddenly become vacant, crime becomes increasingly prevalent as well. The empty buildings in the area of abandonment generally have no electricity, lighting, or inherent value, so they become targets of vandalism, arson, or city-ordered demolition. Once these houses are destroyed, other crimes increase, and people no longer feel safe. Finally, they decide to leave the area as well, causing more abandonment. This tragic cycle continues to reoccur very much unopposed. As of 2012, over 100,000 homes were abandoned in Detroit.9 In terms of the city government's responsibility, the cosmetic damage of abandoned buildings is not the only issue Detroit must address. The element of property tax dollars on those pieces of land is also a factor of loss. Once the city loses a large portion of its steady flow of revenue, the local government has to borrow money from outside sources to maintain and upkeep the city to stay in its current state for as long as possible. This fixed systemic approach, which allows for little mobility or change, eventually leads to insurmountable debt. In 2013, this debt turned into bankruptcy as deemed by Michigan's State Governor, Rick Snyder, and Detroit's

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John Gallagher, Reimagining Detroit: Opportunities for Redefining an American City (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2010), 97.

9 Detropia, 2012.

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hired restructuring specialist, Kevyn Orr. Detroit's Chapter 9 bankruptcy petition marked the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in history.10 One potential contributor to this debt is land developers. Mark Wimberley, of the Hope District in Detroit, mentioned that developers across the country, and especially in Detroit, look at the immediate bottom line by strategizing how a development can make the most money right away. He said that developers typically never acknowledge the future, causing the candle to burn at both ends.11 Essentially, these developers give a false sense of hope to the communities they promise to restore. This aspect of capitalism backfires exponentially in cities with pre-existing conditions that tease failure.

However, scavenging businessmen cannot, and should not, take the blame for Detroit's shortcomings. In his other book, titled "Revolution Detroit," John Gallagher wrote, "the weakest link in city after city is the municipal corporation, the city government. City governments today, in Detroit and elsewhere, teeter on the brink of bankruptcy or at least financial danger, their departments underfunded, understaffed, and hobbled by political dysfunction. The failure of city governments began in the years after World War II, when jobs and people began to leave for the suburbs, taking their cities' tax base with them." 12 This very rapid progression and recurring trend has essentially maimed the already struggling Detroit for the past few decades.

Sadly, not many large-scale movements have been successful in reversing the aforementioned damages of Detroit. Out of the countless proposals and master plans that have been created, presented, displayed, discussed, and criticized over the years, many fall short or

10

Weber, "The rise and fall."

Mark Wimberley, "Invincible feat. Finale "Locusts" docu-music-video Pt. 1," YouTube, January 1, 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ixL3-AdOsU 12 John Gallagher, Revolution Detroit: Strategies for Urban Reinvention (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2013), 5.

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dissolve entirely. Although some efforts have been rather successful, the scale of success pales in comparison to the city-wide issues that remain unabated.

Rather than offering yet another response or solution to Detroit's specific issues, it seems more necessary at this time to analyze the process of Detroit's rapid deterioration to then formulate smaller responses that can be offered to other cities in the country. Detroit can be used as an example from which other cities can predict how specific actions and responses will affect a current situation. Furthermore, the plans and proposed frameworks to rebuild and restore Detroit can be equally useful.

The origin of Detroit's problems, and arguably the first chronologically, was residents leaving or shifting in large numbers. Whether this trend was as Mark Binelli described it - white people leaving the city and into the suburbs - or families leaving town in search of work, this population shift was the first domino to fall in the chain of events described previously. How does a city keep its population consolidated? The simple answer is two-fold.

The first aspect refers back to the infectious tendencies that vacant lots possess. Gallagher made several proposals to correct this issue. His main concept was simply to repurpose a vacant lot as soon as possible. By mitigating the source of the potential infection, a temporary buffer is placed on the community's health. A community that comes into possession of a vacant lot can be creative and intentional with their decision to repurpose it. Rather than allowing the deterioration to occur naturally, the community can use the lot for a pocket park, a geothermal well, a community parking lot, an art exhibition, or any other number of creative ideas. 13 By repurposing vacant land, the presence of people is not as crucial or necessary. This concept has limits though.

13

John Gallagher, "Reimagining Detroit," 102-106.

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Consolidation is the second half of the solution. This controversial step was introduced in Detropia. Given their situation, the Detroiters reasonably backlashed against the mayor when he proposed consolidation. Several residents questioned, ridiculed, and voiced their concerns over what their homes and property would be used for once they moved out. Even in this instance, a careful analysis, paired with intelligent strategy, could be compared to pruning a fruit tree - short term loss that results in a streamlined, prosperous future. As suburban sprawl has been constantly criticized and rightly identified as a root issue in the devolution of an urban environment, carefully mitigating that source of urban stress can be a viable response. It should be mentioned that consolidation can be a messy process that should be enacted in waves of minor change, rather than rushed all at once.

Detroit's current conglomeration of unsustainable, struggling environments in both the city and the suburbs has caused a significant response. Outlined in a 350-page plan titled, "Detroit Future City: 2012 Detroit Strategic Framework Plan," The Detroit Works Project Long Term Planning Steering Committee listed three transformative ideas to help Detroit get back on its feet. These steps are followed by seven implementation strategies - all of which are described in significant detail. The three transformative ideas for Detroit specifically are as follows: Strategic infrastructure renewal, landscape as 21st century infrastructure, and diversified transportation for Detroit and the region. The seven implementation strategies that embody the transformative ideas are as follows: reform delivery system, create landscapes that work, reconfigure transportation, enhance communications access, improve lighting efficiency, reduce waste and increase recycling, and actively manage change. While these strategies have been

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created to aid in the revitalization of Detroit, some of these strategies can be applied to other cities.14 To preface the following propositions, an assumption must be made that the majority of cities in America could benefit from at least one of Detroit's proposed implementation strategies.

The list of proposals and redesigns to America's cities is potentially endless, and this by no means is an exhaustive list of suggestions, but the following two cities are examples of how Detroit's response to common problems may be of help. Gary, Indiana is an example of a city that has faced many of the same issues as Detroit over the years. Once Gary Works of the US Steel Corporation downsized significantly in the 1980s and '90s, Gary experienced a huge wave of unemployment followed by mass migration.15 In this example, a revitalization effort of Gary might determine that revisions need to be made to the existing corridors of the city, similar to Detroit's response. Planners working on Gary may decide to also reform the delivery of resources and increase the number of greenspaces. These implementations could aid in rebuilding the struggling areas of the city while improving and supporting those that seem to be already successful.

At the other end of the spectrum, a cluster of cities composed of Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Fort Worth, are experiencing rapid growth - mostly suburban sprawl. A compiled set of satellite images from the last twenty years show that most of Houston's growth, in particular, is occurring on the outer rim of the city.16 An increased perimeter means longer commute times for residents of suburban areas who work downtown. Additionally, if Houston

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Detroit Future City: 2012 Detroit Strategic Framework Plan (The Detroit Works Project Long Term Planning Steering Committee, December 2012), 158-171.

15 Olon Dotson, "Gary, Indiana: A Critical Geography of a Fourth World City," (Recorded lecture, Ball State University, 2017).

16 Adam Bennett, "Rice University researchers use satellite images to track Houston’s growth, flooding risk," KHOU, October 31, 2019, https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/rice-university-researchers-use-satelliteimages-to-track-houstons-growth-flooding-risk/285-f7dfedaa-11d7-43c3-b089-800dec802d19

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would be unfortunate enough to experience the loss of a major industry, just as Detroit and Gary have, a main artery of the city would be at the risk of collapsing. Then, one failure may lead to another. As a precautionary measure, Houston may be able to prevent a future issue in transportation by mimicking Detroit's steps for reconfiguring transportation systems. By reducing large commute times for inner city employees and initiating more strategically placed, public transportation lines, Houston might be able to correct its course before it is too late.

Detroit has outlined new street designs for accommodating bus lanes, bike lines, wide sidewalks for pedestrians, and even vegetation barriers to benefit all users and residents.

In summation, although many other cities could be mentioned at this time, it should be noted that Detroit is no less important than other American cities. The urban center of Detroit is home to nearly 700,000 people today, and nearly 3.5 million in the metropolitan area. However, the level of collapse, struggle, deterioration, and bankruptcy that have taken a toll on the city have had lasting, unerasable impacts. If planners, designers, architects, landscape architects, and politicians decide to work in unison towards a better, more profitable country, evaluating the history of our places, like Detroit, can offer a significant advantage as preparations and plans for the future begin to materialize. To conclude, an optimistic word from Charlie LeDuff, author, reporter, advocate, and homegrown Detroiter, can be found in his 2013 book. It reads, "My work has to do with living, breathing people and the difficult task of getting through this moment — which we will — and building a future."17

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Charlie LeDuff, "An 'Autopsy' Of Detroit Finds Resilience In A Struggling City," interview by Dave Davies, Fresh Air, NPR, February 11, 2013, audio, 26:00, https://www.npr.org/2013/02/11/171702111/an-autopsy-ofdetroit-finds-resilience-in-a-struggling-city.

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Bibliography Bennett, Adam. "Rice University researchers use satellite images to track Houston’s growth, flooding risk." KHOU, October 31, 2019. https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/rice university-researchers-use-satellite-images-to-track-houstons-growth-flooding-risk/285 f7dfedaa-11d7-43c3-b089-800dec802d19 Binelli, Mark. Detroit City is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Metropolitan Books, 2012.

Detroit Future City: 2012 Detroit Strategic Framework Plan. The Detroit Works Project Long Term Planning Steering Committee, December 2012. Print.

Dotson, Olon F. "Gary, Indiana: A Critical Geography of a Fourth World City." Ball State University. Recorded lecture, 2017.

Ewing, Heidi and Rachel Grady, dir. Detropia. 2012; Detroit, MI: Loki Films, LLC. Online.

Gallagher, John. Reimagining Detroit: Opportunities for Redefining an American City. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2010.

Gallagher, John. Revolution Detroit: Strategies for Urban Reinvention. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2013.

Griffin, Toni. "A new vision for rebuilding Detroit." TED, October 2013. www.ted.com/ talks/toni_griffin_a_new_vision_for_rebuilding_detroit#t-190571 LeDuff, Charlie. "An 'Autopsy' Of Detroit Finds Resilience In A Struggling City." Interview by Dave Davies. Fresh Air, NPR, February 11, 2013. Audio, 26:00. https://www.npr.org/2013/02/11/171702111/an-autopsy-of-detroit-finds-resilience-in-a struggling-city.

Morgan, Andrew, dir. The True Cost. 2015; Life Is My Movie Entertainment. Online.

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Weber, Peter. "The rise and fall of Detroit: A timeline." The Week, July 19, 2013. https://theweek.com/articles/461968/rise-fall-detroit-timeline.

Wimberley, Mark. "Invincible feat. Finale "Locusts" docu-music-video Pt. 1." YouTube, January 1, 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ixL3-AdOsU

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