Detroit Before the Great Migration

[task0778]

Detroit before American elites opened up Asian markets and crushed their own industrial base....?

You think the blacks fucked up detroit? They are just living in the ruins of what white elites left.

Not true. Detroit was turning to shit long before the Asians started producing better cars at a lower price. There are a number of factors that led to the decline of Detroit as a major city, and governance was maybe the biggest reason.

... the Progressive Movement that pursued local government reform throughout the nation had perhaps its greatest achievement in Detroit. In 1918, a new city charter was established that led to the reorganization of local government to have Council members elected city-wide, instead of by wards. This governance system has been in place ever since, but is slated to end with the establishment of a new charter in 2013 that will now elect council members from seven districts and two at-large spots.

This has been a double-edged sword for Detroit. While it may have kept a lid on some of the possible corruption that could have happened, it likely created greater distance between residents and city government. I believe this led to two significant impacts. First, it allowed the influence of the auto industry to travel unfettered within local government through the first two-thirds of the 20th century, without the countervailing influence of local residents. Second, without representation and support, neighborhoods were unable to mature in Detroit as they had in other major cities. They never had champions at the local government level, as elected officials had to view the city in its entirety and abstractly, and not represent and develop a unique part of the city.

I don't think there's any doubt that corruption did run rampant in Detroit for a very long time. And they had other problems, like suburbanization (white flight) starting in the 1950s and racial tensions in the 60s and thereafter but other big cities did too and they survived better than Detroit did. So IMHO it wasn't just the blacks that fucked up Detroit, it was just about everybody that was involved at least to some extent.

 

[Juicin]

Not true. Detroit was turning to shit long before the Asians started producing better cars at a lower price. There are a number of factors that led to the decline of Detroit as a major city, and governance was maybe the biggest reason.

... the Progressive Movement that pursued local government reform throughout the nation had perhaps its greatest achievement in Detroit. In 1918, a new city charter was established that led to the reorganization of local government to have Council members elected city-wide, instead of by wards. This governance system has been in place ever since, but is slated to end with the establishment of a new charter in 2013 that will now elect council members from seven districts and two at-large spots.

This has been a double-edged sword for Detroit. While it may have kept a lid on some of the possible corruption that could have happened, it likely created greater distance between residents and city government. I believe this led to two significant impacts. First, it allowed the influence of the auto industry to travel unfettered within local government through the first two-thirds of the 20th century, without the countervailing influence of local residents. Second, without representation and support, neighborhoods were unable to mature in Detroit as they had in other major cities. They never had champions at the local government level, as elected officials had to view the city in its entirety and abstractly, and not represent and develop a unique part of the city.

I don't think there's any doubt that corruption did run rampant in Detroit for a very long time. And they had other problems, like suburbanization (white flight) starting in the 1950s and racial tensions in the 60s and thereafter but other big cities did too and they survived better than Detroit did. So IMHO it wasn't just the blacks that fucked up Detroit, it was just about everybody that was involved at least to some extent.

Detroits dominance was based on being on the cutting edge of industrial production with the assembly line.

The Japanese came up with "just in time" inventory and that ended that dominance.

Irrelevant of how terribly the city was run. It has gone to shit because American car makers have gone to shit relative to the rest of the world. I'm sure there was a lot of other fabrication going on up there that dried up too.

 

[TheParser]

Seriously.

Some really nice African Americans and nice Caucasian Americans have broached the explosive topic of whether the two groups can ever really, truly live harmoniously together.

We all know that Caucasian Americans in the South after the Civil War said "NO," so they fashioned a system of separation.

Today the commercials on TV assure us that the answer is a big YES!

As the Caucasian population continues to shrink, the question will be reframed as: Can African Americans and Hispanic Americans live harmoniously together?

 

[task0778]

Irrelevant of how terribly the city was run.

NO. There a number of factors involved that lead to the decline of Detroit long before the competition from foreign automakers entered the picture. True, the US auto companies were poorly managed and that along with the high costs of unionized labor did lead to overpriced cars that were of lesser quality than their foreign competitors. But Detroit started turning into shit long before that, and city politics and mismanagement had a lot to do with it.

 

[BS Filter]

Unions killed Detroit.

 

[Carl in Michigan]

A Google Street view history of Detroit.

youtube.com

 

[Quasar44]

In 1970s, Detroit even had 90 murders in 1 month
90