A look at the story of the rise and fall of what was once one of Americas largest cities and where it goes from here... Images are used under fair use. Info Courtesy: Wikipedia
The political expression of the "Get me my money" culture. A series of elected mayors and officials running on the platform of what is owed to them and their constituents. Meanwhile, the same people going out of their way to antagonize the builders and business class, thinking the money will remain in place. Pro Tip , wealth and money is fluid and can quickly relocate families and resources.
@@subline_funtime no, the federal constitution prohibits the federal government from defaulting on it's debts and most states have clauses in their own constitution prohibiting defaulting on theirs. really only municipalities can declare bankruptcy
As a lifelong Detroiter born in 1955, I'd say your report is very accurate. I've seen this city go from rich to poor more than once as went the auto industry until most of the plants closed for good and now a comeback is going to be a long slow process.
@@mrgunshot33 ye what country, macedonia?, Serbia?, Bulgaria? I know you said not on the beaches but im not sure if u mean that the country has no beach or if u dont live near the beach
It was named by the French, upon surveying the area. Detroit simply means "The Straits", an area where the river is very narrow. In an interesting quirk of geography, Canadians drive north to go Detroit, and Detroiters drive south to go to Windsor (only now, because of COVID, you must be an essential employee to cross over).
Years ago, when my husband and I traveled outside of Michigan, we dreamt of living somewhere else. Visiting Chicago, Washington D.C., Cincinnati, Miami, even Cleveland, was exciting and different. Then the unthinkable happened. We experienced job loss, and had to start looking elsewhere in 2004. Our parents were aging, and we didn’t want to move. But it became clear we had to leave. We landed in Atlanta, thinking it would be temporary. We rented a new house, began exploring our new “hometown”, and started missing Detroit. We didn’t know what we had until we had to leave. Our parents visited and told us we made the right decision. After 7 years, the country was recovering from the recession, and houses were inching up in value again. We felt we had to jump before we couldn’t afford anything again. We took our time and found a beautiful home we could afford, and settled in. Our folks are gone now. No reason for us to travel back to Detroit twice a year anymore. We love our new home, but it’s not Detroit. We still miss it. We’d go back to our tiny home in Ferndale if we could, but now Ferndale is suddenly unaffordable. We’ll be back someday, but it will be in some cemetery instead. Appreciate what you have while you have it.
Thank you for saying this...was born in Crittendon Hospital,my dad came from Ala.and had income drywalling...I moved S.W.Mi.,but Detroit is home,and my heart breaks for the loss of income for people,and the abandoned homes and businesses.😢😢😢
@@freddiejimenez7995 Kentucky has the poorest counties in the country, and that state is ran by Republicans.
3 года назад
It's funny when people put the blame squarely on Democrats. So much other shit contributed to Detroit's decline than a bunch of useless politicians, regardless of party affiliation.
The same thing is happening in West Virginia. A city or area that depends solely on one industry is bound to fail no matter how high the highs are. I do hope Detroit can get back on it's feet, it has so many great buildings and a rich if uncomfortable history.
@@scottjohnstontheii9287 imagine holding such horrifically racist views, especially after the last 12 months. You're clearly a terrible person. Please do better.
I lived in Detroit for a couple of years 76 to 79. Auto industry was still hanging on then. There was also significant heroin addiction rampant throughout the city. There was a documentary in the 90s about the fall of said auto industry. One of subjects covered was how many workers came to work frequently , completely high on something, to the point of making mistakes on the line.
This makes me wanna cry. It's the fires but also the fact that we've been down for so long. Barry Gordy left to make movies and everyone leaves us in body and mind.
@Andrew: I visited downtown Detroit last year and it was great. Go in the summer. The parks have flowers, the boats are on the river, people are walking around. I visited during the day and took the Blue Line bus and felt safe. I haven't been there at night, as I am older and don't drive at night. There is a lot of building and new stores and things happening.
In India, land is so precious that abandonment seems unimaginable. We will always find another use. Its true when you have too much of something, you don't value it.
I live about 20 mins from Detroit, i really am starting to see improvement. A new skyscraper is being constructed, a massive high tech jail, plans for a soccer stadium and Detroit’s own soccer team. Also the city finally got out of bankruptcy in 2018 so yay! Maybe we will see some change. ( also crime rate has been slowly declining since 2017 )
I think Detroit was just stigmatized. I actually surprise and love the downtown Detroit vibes. I feel safe and they are working hard to build back Detroit. The abandoned place is cool, and lots can be studies, such as economics, discrimination, city planning or simply discover the old American dream. I think it is a hidden gem if you love history.
Somehow, I find myself cheering for Detroit's rise from the ashes after seeing this video. Although I never paid much attention before, it would be great to see this city rise up again. And as long as there are people who will not forget her, she will not be a "forgotten place" for long. ;-)
I'm rooting for Detroit too. I want Detroit to rise up and prosper again. There is no reason why it shouldn't happen. What saddens me are individuals who want Detroit to be "reclaimed by nature", for Detroit to disappear altogether. It also saddens me when racist individuals come here explicit to vent their anti-Black anger.
@@77Treasurehunter77 Boston frequently votes Democrat. It went from having a record 151 murders annually, to having 35-50 per year. It's one of the most desired cities in America to live in. You would never mistaken Boston for Detroit.
In 2022, Detroit is the comeback city and it's River Walk has been named the nation's finest two years in a row. The Michigan Central was purchased by Ford Motor Company in 2017 and is currently being restored as the centerpiece of Ford's Corktown campus for development of autonomous vehicles. As longtime Detroiters, we are gladly watching the progress, and with the NFL draft convention coming in 2024, the world will see it too!
@@ScoobyDooIsDead they won’t hear logic. there’s deadass someone in this thread named “unarmed blackman” trying to say black people caused Detroit’s fall lol 🤦🏻♂️
The same thing could happen to a city like Houston, if the oil and gas energy industry were to suddenly disappear. I'm a progressive liberal that lives in Houston, but I have no good solution for what to do for my city if we reduce or completely get rid of the oil industry by going green. I used to live in Detroit as a real young kid, but I grew up in Houston, so I have a connection to both cities.
"I'm a progressive liberal that lives in Houston" Keep voting for the people who made Detroit the hellish wasteland that it is. Houston is not far down the list I promise you that.
By 2050 we might have one of the first abandoned modern metropolis, though it could be pretty cool, imagine all skyscrapers filling up with nature and all with Ruins
Detroit is a good example of unions pushing too hard. I'm all for unions, but they need to be realistic or companies will just move to another country.
I wonder what will happen to states like California who push too much taxes. I mean that can be easily fixed but could there be a point where it was too late like detroit with unions? I live in Minnesota. Particularly in an industrial area where jobs are booming. My state has the highest tax rate in the Midwest but we have lower tax rates on corporations and or tax breaks for a certain amount of time. Which I believe is the way to go.
I went to the NAIAS in 2008, and then again in 2012. It was AMAZING to see how the downtown was evacuated of business in those 4 years. The hotel I stayed in in 2008 was just an empty building in 2012. And about 1/3 of the hotels closed in that time. Insane. Insanely sad...
So sad - my Dad worked for GM and we spent a LOT of time in Detroit. I looked forward to going there whenever he had a business trip. Heartbreaking to see how far it's fallen.
Detroit actually can become a great city again, just need a shift in economic focus. Plenty of land unused, it almost looks like a blank canvas that needs to be (re)filled. If the city really wanted to prosper once again, they could somehow attract tech companies and make it a new tech hub in America
Even if Michigan is a right to work State since 2012, Unionism would likely return with great force to Michigan with any sign of the return of economic prosperity. I don't believe that Elon would ever build a Gigafactory in a State with such strong tradition of unionism.
Elon Musk won't build in Detroit. Even if Detroit becomes extra business friendly, Musk won't go there. Austin, TX (where Tesla is building a factor) has a highly educated population (UT Austin is there), it's been growing rapidly for other reasons. Musk didn't think to have a Tesla facility in Ann Arbor (where Univ. of Michigan is located). He won't choose Detroit. If Detroit is to come back, it has to be local talent making the first move.
Another major factor were the extremely fierce riots of 1967 that sealed Detroit’s fate. After those riots often known as the rebellion, Detroit went into rapid free fall and several poor neighborhoods scarred by those riots never recovered. Middle class flight skyrocketed right after the Detroit riots of 67.
And that is the irony of Detroit. A beacon of a better life for african american from the slave period (it was a main route for the underground railroad) through to the 1960s with the industrial jobs it offered, but it was also highly segregated in terms of housing and neighbourhoods. Tensions rose and exploded in 1967, and the aftermath of that was white flight accelerated leaving Detroit itself underpopulated, poor and left to rot.
That's a common myth. The uprising was a RESULT of white flight, not the cause of it. White flight started in the 1950s with the construction of the freeway system. This left a majority black population with a majority white power structure which is obviously the recipe of tension.
The 1967 riots took out my hometown in NJ. Newark saw five solid days and nights of looting, shootings and arson. 26 people killed. Newark never came back from it. Many areas are dangerous. What a great city it was.
@@lindsaycole8409 Black migration busted Detroit. There’s no other way to look at how else one of those most prosperous boom cities in the history of the world crumbled so quickly.
@@ralzvy sucker born every minute..casino owners know that. Patrons usually live lives of risky behavior anyways. Will be blessed with help from God and government but still risk it all. Even race like hell to get to the casino because time's a wasting!
Lesson learned for a city or a town when growing and prospering is that you should never rely on a single industry because then if the industry grows beyond the certain area the lack of diverse industry and business will lead your people to leave the municipality due to lack of that same industry diversity and business progression. Cities like Detroit and Chicago are learning this the hard way. We might even never see this cities exist again in the near future because of such impactful effect
Do you think Detroit became the center of the auto industry because someone in city government decided to rely on the auto industry? When the auto industry started to develop, Detroit was about a 10th of it's current size. The early auto plants were located in the city because the railroads junctions were there. A belt of manufacturing already wrapped around the city on the railroad lines, the car companies moved in and then later the city seized enormous amounts of land from outlying communities. The auto companies moved out because they needed new plants and couldn't find land in Detroit, nobody came in to replace them because Detroit was not a good place to do business anymore.
The author of this narrative paints an overly simplistic view of what happened to Detroit by pointing to the auto industry first. To be clear, the auto industry does very well in Detroit despite the competition for market share. It's just that nearly every plant since WWII save for a few have been built in the suburbs or in other places. Many suppliers and their workers function in Southfield, Troy, Dearborn and Auburn Hills. Disinvestment began in the 1950s as newer homes were being built on larger parcels of land. They stayed out of Detroit mainly due to high taxes and crime. Interviews from restaurant owners as early as 1963 documented complaints that everyone was moving out to the suburbs and not staying in the city and frequenting the restaurants. That was 4 years before the riots. The auto industry thrived well into the 1970s with little foreign completion until the mid seventies, when Toyota and Honda entered the market while residents fled to the suburbs in record numbers more than any other city. The devastation from the 1967 riots was felt more in Detroit than in Watts, Newark or Chicago where rioting also occurred in the 1960s. Detroit also did not have much density to support rapid transit which contributed to the exodus, dismantling their street car lines in 1956. There was little support from City government for the small business community as well, as mayor Young scoffed at their pleas for help.
I was at the microcenter about a week ago. Microcenter… a store that pulls in millions per day and has items in excess of $30,000.00. Directly across the street is a fast food joint abandoned for more than a year. Directly to the left is a mall that is half caved in and sectioned off, some stores survive there. Directly to the right is a hotel that had every window and door on the first floor covered in bars and bullet proof glass. I never felt safe. I felt like the city was one commotion away from guns blazing. Driving was basically unenforced and people did whatever they wanted behind the wheel. I didn’t see a single cop. It was a harrowing experience. I’m not “well to do”, I fought like hell for over a decade to get out of the bottom tax bracket. Being in Detroit made me feel rich. And rich people get eaten alive there.
there has never been a microcenter in the city of detroit. The closest one is in madison heights nearly 30 miles from downtown detroit. Madison heights is really not that dangerous of a place tbh
There’s actually a solution being talked about to fix the rust belt that involves moving some government agencies to different rust belt cities in the hope that businesses from California or New York where the cities are overcrowded will move to these rust belts cities that already have the infrastructure for a large population.
My grandparents and parents used to tell us how beautiful these homes used to be. Now You can't drive in some areas without being saddened. Some areas still hold to their former beauty because of the residents. It's so strange to occasionally see one beautifly maintained home on a bock of overgrown, boarded up, burned up homes.
Detroit is a predominantly African American neighborhood, and unfortunately, for whatever reason, such areas are always dangerous. No White or Asian can move to such neighborhoods without facing racism or violence by the locals. This contributes to the dilapidated factor of Detroit.
Good thoughts. You are missing a major piece, which has to do with the loss of the ability to ship from and to the great lakes region through the St. Lawrence River. With the rise of super sized cargo ships, the St Lawrence River is not deep enough for these ships to use, causing car companies to relocate plants to other areas more friendly to transportation of goods. This is part of why all of the great lakes cities declined in manufacturing.
Detroit was basically the Seattle of the 20th century. It once was booming with plentiful high paying jobs with the auto industry. This is just like Seattle with jobs from Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing. Seattle too would drastically decline if Amazon/Microsoft started focusing its job growth in other locations. That said, Seattle is very homogenous and insular, and is on the desirable west coast, so even if jobs declined, the city itself wouldn’t really experience a quality of life drop like Detroit, which was populated almost DESPITE its undesirable geographical location.
You do realize like 1/4 of all US trade with Canada comes through Detroit. The highway corridor connecting Toronto/Detroit/Chicago is also the busiest highway in North America. Basically the only reason Detroit even exists today is because of its lucky location of being squeezed between Toronto and Chicago.
As a NewYorker, the rust belt was always intriguing to me, the motor cities, and watching this video made me shed a tear and I really hope these once great American cities can be revived.
University of Michigan is in Ann Arbor, about 35 miles west of Detroit. Madonna was from Rochester Hills, a rich suburb north of Detroit. Neither lay claims to being part of Detroit
There are tons of Detroit sports fans North of the border from Windsor Ontario, as Canadian neighbours we make to trip down to Detroit to see the Lions, Red Wings, Tigers and Pistons play. That hasn't been the case in the recent year for Canadians from Windsor Ontario due to Covid travel restrictions.
@Chill Will Almost every single big city in the US is run by democrats, because there's more poor people that live in big cities, and Democrats are the party that has programs that benefit the poor whereas Republican's main priority is giving the rich tax breaks and defunding programs that help the poor. They don't all end up like Detroit. You're a brainwashed moron.
My stepfather was a engineer and we moved to Detroit from Connecticut, its always been a rough city but looking at it now depresses me, I could never live there again.
Then automotive companies decided to start outsourcing their labor to other countries, and thus, causing massive unemployment and economic devastation.
@B Babbich , dude, Massachusetts is a blue state and indeed is a very wealthy place with some of the best stats for income and education in the country yet you can’t compare it to the rest of the country. It’s basically where America started and where much of the old wealth, best universities of the world and high tech industries are concentrated. Also the place has very few black people and minorities in general so it’s one white democratic SJW paradise... These people might tell you nice words about equality and how BLM etc but they will never go live or visit Detroit or Compton. They will never want the people from those places to live amongst them.
@Joseph Lomeo San Francisco is decaying? What planet are you on dude? San Francisco and California in general have been growing at a relatively high pace both economic and population wise. Cincinnati I understand but if you think California is gonna fall off soon you don’t know what you’re talking about.
@Joseph Lomeo It doesn't matter what your app is telling you. The facts don't care about your feelings on the state of the city. San Fransisco has had a positive growth rate in consumer AND merchant commerce within the last few years. Pointing the the worst parts of a city and claiming everything is like that is like pointing to the poorest parts of Alabama and declaring the whole state of Alabama is a s***hole.
I visited my sister in Detroit two years ago and loved it. The city has suffered due to the decline of the auto industry, to be sure, but it still has a lot going for it. Loved all of the historic buildings along Woodward, and was encouraged to see Wayne State University buying and renovating so many near its campus. Downtown was a lot of fun, too. People dog on Detroit because it has become almost a meme, but it is nowhere near as bad as people say.
I live really close to Detroit and my mom was born there and while I barely cared for the city most of my life I do find it's fall really sad, it's the reason all 4 of my grandparents moved to Michigan from Pennsylvania and the south. South Detroit, Ecorse, and River Rouge all now have terrible reputations because of the abandonment, gangs, and just the general standard of the area being really low. I hope one day these cities can recover. Some cities around here like Wyandotte are thankfully doing pretty well
Windsor and Sarnia are not good cities, but other Canadian cities are doing good. London, Toronto, Mississauga, and the Greater Toronto area are well off cities. High imigration and good jobs make a city thrive.
@@EuropeanAmericanGenZ_ND My, my, much arrogance coming from a fool. You neglect to point out the neoconservative coups and invasions, or the neoliberal policies, all of which caused the immigration of which you speak. The West destabilized Latin America in much the same way its alter-ego known as the West destabilized the Middle-East. Without those things, very little immigration would have occurred--even considering the controversy behind the modern day U.S.-Mexican Border (But I digress). No one wants to leave home. If people leave home, especially under less than legal circumstances, something is terribly wrong. "Google search," eh? LMAO! The same forces that bore down on those regions are doing the same unto us now. Arguably, this has been going on since about 1980, but amidst the pandemic, it's all accelerating now. But I get it. You're an identitarian. Your strident name says it all. You are one for identity politics. Well, I don't play that game with stupid lefties. So, I am sure as hell not going to play it with some arrogant right-wing nut job who pontificates with such zeal yet manages to say absolutely nothing; that is, except maybe "muh identity," "pAn-eUr0peAn Def3nDEr!" But what do I know. I'm just some stupid, backward savage of a Mestizo. And you, I surmise (as per your identity politics) are my superior. Right? #MasterRace Is that what you're after? ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...
When I left the area in the late 00s, you could not get a pizza delivered within the city limits and there wasn't a grocery store because the crime was so bad. They were getting robbed multiple times per day.
Demographic changes are responsible for Detroit’s downfall. The same goes for the other major cities in the Midwest. Not politically correct, but true.
@@josecarranza7555 Woah, it’s not like years of oppression and being declined opportunity by the government is why so many African-American communities are in a bad shape. Not to mention the fact you’re generalizing all African-Americans as poor, is racist.
Not to pick on Detroit but most American cars had built in obsolescence. Sure that brings back customers until they find out. Iam bitter about all of the american made cars I spent my money on. Fuck general motors.
The D struggled a lot after the 60s yes. But starting on 2000 a huge comeback started and it's a very cool place now. Crime is extremely isolated to certain areas and the downtown is awesome actually! Facts matter.
Just so everyone knows, he's painting a picture of Detroit in 2013 and not 2019/2021. The central station is nearly completely remodeled and is the new hub for Ford's self driving car development. The vast majority of abandoned houses have been cleared to make way for new developments. Detroit has a dozen or so high rises/skyscrapers in the works, as well as a massive new international Bridge, several neighborhood revitalization projects all over the city, many new parks, a new avenue replacement, increasing business investment, as well as improving education and crime rates. Detroit still has several neighborhoods and areas which are nearly abandoned, but don't for a second believe that's what Detroit mostly is. Those are exceptions and not the rule. Detroit is also no longer the poorest or most violent city in the nation(still poor and violent, but again, things are steadily improving). Population decline has also nearly leveled off, and jobs and factories are coming back. Detroit died in 2013. But post-2015, the city has really come back in an amazing way. I recommend coming by and seeing for yourself and not relying on an under researched video (even in 2019 this was wrong).
Its called what happened to detroit, not detroit toursim video, i even detailed the revitalization to a degree, it wasnt a video meant to trash the city nor is it a tourism video, and I have been there several times and what I would say is its not as bad as it was but its recovery is very mild and overstated by some and its still losing population. I get mad when people trash a place in videos that is not what I did, i simply stated what happened to detroit and did not make predictions or projections to its future
@@Luca-nu2zg No, shitass. Detroit's unemployment rate is markedly lower than its poverty rate. The good jobs left, the suburbs redlined, those who could move out did so, and the cycle of poverty/infrastructure-collapse got moving. Also, Cecil Rhodes was a bastard.
The question is, why did American manufacturing move to Mexico and Canada, and why didn't Detroit find alternate things to manufacture since it already had the base and a skilled workforce? Why are airplanes built in Texas and Toyotas in Mississippi? Why are tanks built in Ohio? Why are tractors built in Illinois? Detroit could have built those.
The reason is costs and profit. A lot of countries have lax labor laws compared to the US, meaning companies can mass produce without paying as much. Ever since globalization, most corporations operate overseas. Detroit has been through decades of corruption, and lack of innovation has prevented them from finding alternatives
American manufacturing output is higher than ever before, but with a lot less people working. American manufacturing is never again going to employ as many workers as it once did.
It's going to be a lot less once the building of EV autos get off the ground. Many industries will be affected due to many parts no longer required. Big changes on the way for the auto industry in North America.
However, the city is making a comeback, I hope this city regains it's dignity. I'm from Windsor Ontario and I always enjoyed visiting the downtown, it got better every year I visited
Downtown Detroit is doing fine, but it's largely dependent on tech yuppies and entertainment tourism for sports, concerts, etc. Notice how much money is put into doing stuff to downtown. People Mover/Q-Line, for example. Most Detroit residents live outside of downtown. Things are bad there and show little chance of improvement in the near future. It would take a lot more than the city government is prepared to do.
@@stevep8445 really, where did you hear that? Yeah many elderly people may be going to Florida and Phoenix is pretty popular it there are still many people moving to the Midwest.
I'm 59 , I live in Rochester MI. 25 miles north of this shit hole. The jobs went to the suburbs, the very corrupt Coleman Young/Kwame Kilpatrick ruined the rest of this mess. I am a Realtor, I worked for the banks from 2005-2012 selling these properties to investors for less than 2k! It all went back to this crap when the neighborhoods worth it were cannibalized when the rehabs the Chinese investors started were ruined. It all royally sucks!
The problem started well before the exodus of the car companies. The big problem is that the auto industry made people relatively wealthy, enough so that they could commute from farther distances and retire relatively young. At the same time, poorer people, of different ethnic and social groups, were moving into the City, trying to catch in on the wealth. With the rise of raise of poverty fighting measures following WW2, this created a disparity of established, automotive homeowners, versus low income, others. Wealthier people don't like paying taxes, they feel, are there to benefit others, or to be burdened by the poverty of others while commuting and living their privileged existence, so they were easily courted by land speculators and developers, to move into communities that existed outside of the City, where they could have more land, with fewer taxes, while avoiding poverty and congestion. The aristocrats of France and Russia did the same the 250 years ago, when they moved from their Counties, to Versailles and St Petersberg. In any case, that's what happened to Detroit
When i was little i lived in metro Detroit around 2004-2005 and I remember driving through the city from the west side to the east because my mom worked down there and i would ask her what happened to the houses. All the buildings were so pretty. Really hoping every part of detroit gets "restored" don't really know how to phrase it
White flight. yup, my parents had to take a big loss on their home and move out of New Orleans to the suburbs. Why? As working people in their fifties, they didn't want to leave but when their home was robbed 10 times in 6 years with 3 times in 5 months, , they left. My father kept that loss of culture and home to his death. In the 70 to 80's, New Orleans' tax base was devastated. Unlike Detroit, it's coming back slowly.
Detroit has a chance to break the Ponzi scheme of sprawl, to reinvent the city center into a livable space, into an economical viable space, where the vast parking spaces inside the downtown area, still shown in the video, become habitable areas in which dwellings, shops, workshops, studios, shared workspaces and many more neighborhood supported activities can make a true difference. One prerequisite is important, Detroit should really choose a supportive mass transit system for the citiy’s future and truly abandon the access of motor vehicles inside the downtown perimeter. Whether they call the mass transit streetcars, light rail or subway doesn’t really matter. Any transit in Detroit’s case is a breach with the old automobile dominance. Furthermore Detroit can make a giant leap in becoming an American city which truly transitions to sustainable, especially where rainfall and expected abundance of precipitation is to be anticipated on. Empty space, as parking lots can be transformed into areas where local retention can take place, before any drop of rain will flow into the storm drain and eventually into the Detroit river. It provides a chance for a new city ecology, improvement into sustainable topsoil management, replenishment of fresh water tables and resources, as will it provide a new look on ways to prevent soil erosion from inside a city areal. There’s a lot to win and a lot to transform from the old way we built and developed cities into a new way in which the main prerogative should be a responsible use of any city space, in that case Detroit has a true chance to become a world wide example of how cities can truly transition.
