Week 8 – Motor City
Hi everyone and welcome back!
Sorry for the late blog post but for this week I want to touch on a different Midwestern city that is East of Chicago, Detroit.
Once known as the Motor City of America and the “Middle Class Haven” but Detroit would later declare itself bankrupt in July of 2013. There were many causes to Detroit’s decline, but first I want to quickly focus on its prime. I’m going to summarize my findings after reading several articles by John Tommasi, an Economics professor at Bentley University who writes about Detroit frequently.
He first talked about how the city once had about 2 million residents and once was the fifth largest city in America, but once General Motors was left bankrupt unemployment rates skyrocketed. Though General Motors led Detroit to become a major city it also led to its demise, but it was not the only force at play.
The building boom of the 1960’s, which shaped Detroit’s architectural landscape, led to many communities becoming displaced as downtown was developing. A phenomenon known as “White Flight” also took place which meant the White residents moved out of the city and into the suburbs leaving behind a largely African American population in the city. This would later lead to the Detroit Riots of 1967.
I know that there was a lot to take in about Detroit, even though there is still much to be said and elaborated on, but it is a great example how cities can be failed by their government.
I also wanted to talk about Detroit because of its geographical relation to Chicago. These two cities are so vastly different for a couple reasons which I will touch on. The first is the size of each city, Chicago is a very large city in both geography and population with a population of 2.7 million people (making it the third largest in America) while Detroit has a population of 630,000 but as I mentioned earlier it was once the fifth largest city in America before urban sprawl had really begun. And the second reason why these cities are both so different is the industries they are home to. Again like I mentioned above Detroit for the longest time was known as the “Motor City” of America as it was home to Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. But, Chicago is home to multiple different industries like finance, tech, and manufacturing which has allowed the City of Chicago to attract so many different communities and demographics because of the opportunities in so many careers.
Thanks for reading this week’s blog! And let me know if you have any special requests for the next post!
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