Detroit
Things have changed.
I recently spent a few days in Detroit, where I grew up.
The city has gone through a tremendous transformation — from a vibrant manufacturing hub to a collection of vacant and dilapidated buildings alongside new construction struggling to become relevant once again.
When I lived there, the population reached 1.8 million. Today, there are around 620,000. The city went bankrupt in 2013, causing retired city workers to lose healthcare and get big reductions in the pensions they had been promised. Giant swaths of the city lost the basics that we all take for granted — in many areas there was no fire, police, or ambulance service. Mayor Mike Duggan said, “Nobody in Chicago ever called their sister to say, ‘My streetlights went on!’ You don’t celebrate that in a vibrant city.” (Detroit Takes On Problems That Were Once Beyond Reach, July 16, 2023, NYTimes)
I was on a nostalgia tour, looking at houses where we once lived, and where my parents grew up. What I saw was devastating. The block where my grandfather’s house was located used to have 16 houses on it, but was now reduced to four. The rest are now vacant lots. The area where my Mom grew up is full of houses that are falling down and streets in disrepair. Since the bankruptcy, over 24,000 houses have been demolished. Restaurants that I knew and loved are gone, and whole neighborhoods have been left to rot.
The entire trip brought out lots of memories and emotions. I found myself getting sad, angry, and proud, all within a single hour. It’s shocking to recognize just how fragile even a great city can be, and just how destructive humans can be. I remember my Dad being unable to go to work downtown because of the riots in 1968, and seeing the fires burning rows of houses and businesses on TV. Then the auto companies all struggled to compete with Japan and then other manufacturers worldwide, and this once-proud city went into a decades-long slide.
Like any story, there is another side. Detroit is trying to make a comeback. Alongside the huge potholes in the roadways, new buildings are being constructed, and parks are being developed. We visited the Detroit Institute of Art, one of the finest museums in the country, with works by Diego Rivera, Henry Moore, and Vincent Van Gogh. Then we went to Ford Motor Company’s modern River Rouge plant, where they build all their F-150 pickup trucks, and where 6,000 people are employed. There were signs of life. And entrepreneurs are moving into the city for its inexpensive real estate.
It feels to me like an opportunity — a chance for a Phoenix to rise from the ashes. I hope so. It was a nice place to grow up.
