Root Causes of Detroit’s Decline Should Not Go Ignored Recently Detroit, under orders from a state-appointed emergency manager, became the largest U.S. city to go bankrupt. This stirred predictable media speculation about why the city, which at 1.8 million was once America’s 5th-largest, declined in the first place. Much of the coverage simply listed Detroit’s longtime problems rather than explaining their causes. For example a Huffington Post article asserted that it was because of “racial strife,” the loss of “good-paying [sic] assembly line jobs,” and a population who fled “to pursue new dreams in the suburbs.” Detroit’s Bankruptcy Reflects a History of Racism This is black history month. It is also the month that the Emergency Manager who took political power and control from the mostly African American residents of Detroit has presented his plan to bring the city out of the bankruptcy he steered it into. This is black history in the making, and I hope the nation will pay attention to who wins and who loses from the Emergency Manager’s plan. Black people are by far the largest racial or ethnic population in Detroit, which has the highest percentage of black residents of any American city with a population over 100,000.
U.S. trade policies proved disastrous for Detroit, Flint Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and I have differences of opinion on many issues. In no area are our differences stronger than trade policy. In 1960, Detroit was the richest city in America and General Motors was our largest private employer paying union workers a living wage with affordable health care and a secure retirement. Today, Wal-Mart is our largest private employer paying nonunion workers starvation wages with little or no benefits and selling products made in China.
Whites moving to Detroit, city that epitomized white flight DETROIT — Whites are moving back to the American city that came to epitomize white flight, even as blacks continue to leave for the suburbs and the city’s overall population shrinks. Detroit is the latest major city to see an influx of whites who may not find the suburbs as alluring as their parents and grandparents did in the last half of the 20th century. Unlike New York, San Francisco and many other cities that have seen the demographic shift, though, it is cheap housing and incentive programs that are partly fueling the regrowth of the Motor City’s white population. “For any individual who wants to build a company or contribute to the city, Detroit is the perfect place to be,” said Bruce Katz, co-director of the Global Cities Initiative at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. “You can come to Detroit and you can really make a difference.”
White Flight Is Reversing in Detroit, Overturning a 60-Year Trend Detroit is essentially the poster-city for population flux and demographic shifts. In 1950, the city’s total population neared 2 million people, 84 percent of whom were white. If you flash forward 60 years later to 2010 though, the city’s total population tapered off at 711,299 total residents, 84 percent of whom were black. The phenomenon of “white flight” that characterized Detroit for the better part of a century seems to be reversing course to some extent; however, as Census data recently reported by the Detroit News contends, the city’s white population grew by 8,000 people in 2014. According to that Census data, last year is marked by the largest influx of white people Detroit has seen since 1950. Even with 8,000 new white people living in Detroit, the city’s total white population is only up 2.5 percentage points from 2010, and currently amounts to a total of 10.2 percent of the city’s collective demographic.
The Downfall Dictionary: Charles E. Bowles: another mayoral Klandidate Source: freep.com Hampered in large part by the sensational murder trial of David Curtis Stephenson and the widespread exposure of corruption in the Indiana government that followed, the Ku Klux Klan had lost much of its influence by 1929. Charles E. Bowles, a former Klan candidate for mayor of Detroit, won the office that year without any tangible support from the organization. Within seven months of beginning his term, however, Bowles had been kicked out of city hall. State prepares to collect city income taxes for Detroit Detroiters and people who work in the city will be able to pay their individual city income taxes electronically starting with the next tax season after the state Treasury Department begins processing the city’s income tax collections in January, officials said today. The state is taking over Detroit income tax collection as part of the city’s post-bankruptcy efforts to improve its bottom line, and the Treasury Department will begin processing the taxes in January. The move will make it easier to file taxes while also boosting compliance, likely resulting in increased revenue for the city, the officials said. “Taxpayers deserve an easy and convenient filing process and the ability to e-file directly with the state will do just that,” Detroit Chief Financial Officer John Hill said in a news release.
How the poor stay that way Policy-making is the way we send messages about priorities in our system of government. What's important and what's not. Who's first in line for the fruits of democracy and who's last. So if you're poor, and particularly if you're among the working poor, people who earn paychecks too meager to sustain a family, much less get ahead, what message do you imagine you're being sent by the people of Michigan and their representatives these days? From where I sit, it looks a lot like this: Drop dead.
Investors see farms as way to grow Detroit - latimes Reporting from Detroit — On the city's east side, where auto workers once assembled cars by the millions, nature is taking back the land. Cottonwood trees grow through the collapsed roofs of homes stripped clean for scrap metal. Wild grasses carpet the rusty shells of empty factories, now home to pheasants and wild turkeys. This green veil is proof of how far this city has fallen from its industrial heyday and, to a small group of investors, a clear sign. Stuff Black People Don't Like - SBPDL: How Did it Come to This? WaPo Sheds Tears Over the Inevitable Collapse of Detroit It is the opinion of SBPDL that the coming collapse of Detroit represents a watershed moment in American history. A mere 100 years ago, Detroit was nearly 100 percent white. Beyond the horizon, these white citizens envisioned a magnificent city, with opulent buildings, grand theaters for entertainment and a thriving economy that would be the envy of the world. If you build it, they will come. From the southern United States flowed "The Great Migration," as Black people saw that same horizon and realized they could never build an infrastructure for a city near the grandeur of Detroit.
Anatomy of Detroit’s Decline - Interactive Feature Mayor Coleman A. Young of Detroit at an event in 1980. Richard Sheinwald/Associated Press Whites moving into Detroit, blacks moving out as city shrinks overall - Crain's Detroit Business White people are moving back to Detroit, the American city that came to epitomize white flight, even as black people continue to leave for the suburbs and the city's overall population shrinks. Detroit is the latest major city to see an influx of whites who may not find the suburbs as alluring as their parents and grandparents did in the last half of the 20th century. Unlike New York, San Francisco and many other cities that have seen the demographic shift, though, it's cheap housing and incentive programs that are partly fueling the regrowth of the Motor City's white population. "For any individual who wants to build a company or contribute to the city, Detroit is the perfect place to be," said Bruce Katz, co-director of the Global Cities Initiative at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution.
Detroit just filed for bankruptcy. Here’s how it got there. By Brad Plumer By Brad Plumer July 18, 2013 On Thursday, the city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy — the largest city in the United States ever to do so. (Carlos Osorio/AP) To get a better sense of just how Detroit got into such dire financial straits, it's worth browsing through this May report on the city's finances and this "Proposal for Creditors" from June. Detroit's emergency manager Kevyn Orr laid out all the problems and economic headwinds facing the city.
Whose Neighborhood Is It? Photo On June 25, 1974, suburban residents of Detroit won their four-year battle to overturn court-ordered busing of black city students across county lines into their schools. In a key 5-4 Supreme Court decision, Milliken v. Bradley, Chief Justice Warren Burger declared that 41 white suburban governments had not committed “significant violations” of the Constitution. Burger wrote: