Detroit Case Study

• Detroit Location


  A city in the state of Michigan, USA
• • It's population fell from 1.5 million in 1970 to only 680,000 by 2015 - a huge drop of over 50%
• Quality of Life

  • The average household income was about $25,000 in 2015, half the national average and more than $60,000 lower than in Santa Clara County
  • By 2014, two-third of Detroit's residents could not afford basic needs like food and fuel and the poverty rate was 38%
  • Life expectancy in parts of Detroit is just 69 years, and less than 30% of students graduate from high school
• • In 2014 Detroit had the second highest murder rate of any US city
• Why was Detroit a once booming city?

  • It's in the rustbelt, an area of industrial decline in the northeast USA including Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago.
  • The once-powerful manufacturing region that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Midwest, famous for steel and car production. It fell into decline following automation, global shift and increased free trade. 
• Average house pricings

  • Average house prices in Detroit are about $40,000 and it is estimated that in 2015 there were 30,000 abandoned homes and 70,000 other abandoned buildings
• A spiral of decline is a hard-to-stop loss of jobs, people and tax revenues that leads to further losses and greater decline. 
• Why did millions of African Americans travel from the rural southern states to areas near Detroit in the twentieth century? As new jobs were created in the automotive industry.
• Which automotive TNCs moved into Detroit? Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.
• Why did Ford and General Motors cut jobs and shut down plants? There was increasing competition from abroad e.g. in Asia (Honda, Nissan and Toyota) so they suffered a decline in sales and profits due to international oil crises.
• By 2010 what percentage of the workforce were unemployed in Detroit? 24.8%
• How did events in Detroits history shape social and cultural geography by causing racial integration? - In 1959 the Motown record label was created in Detroit.

  - It fused predominantly 'black' soul music with predominantly 'white' pop music.

  - Company signed bands e.g. the Jackson 5.
• When did Henry ford found Ford Motor company in Detroit? 1903
• When did General Motors file for bankruptcy? In 2009 but it survived due to a government-backed reorganisation.
• What year was a financial emergency declared in the city? 2013
• What is 8 Mile Road in Detroit? This highway separated the cities predominantly African American urban core from the more white suburbs in the north of the city.
• How might the film '8 mile' starring Eminem give outsiders a feel of the character of Detroit? - May give people an understanding of what Detroit was like during its time of decline.

  - May create a somewhat negative view of Detroit.

  - May also convey false information and give a false view of what Detroit is really like.

  - Aims to provide representation of polarised lifestyle in Detroit.
• What is 'white flight'? In the second half of the twentieth century middle-class whites families moved out of the city to the suburbs.
• What enabled white middle-class families to move out of the city? They had higher incomes so could afford to commute to the city centre.
• Where did jobs relocate to due to this 'white flight'? The suburbs, which created a new socio-economic, spatial pattern.
• In recent centuries who have moved to the suburbs? African American middle-class families from the city. (Fewer in numbers than white middle-class families)
• Why is racial mixing in the suburbs of Detroit said to have been temporary? The African American families moved to older neighbourhoods that were already falling out of favour with the white middle class families.
• Why was Detroits other Berlin Wall similar to 8 mile road? It was a visible demarcation line of social divisions in Detroit
• What was the ethnic make up of the residents of the two areas separated by Detroits other Berlin Wall? - 82% of residents of the City of Detroit were African American.

  - 85% of residents of Grosse Pointe Park were white.
• What was the median household income of the two areas separated by Detroits other Berlin Wall? - $26,900 in the City of Detroit.

  - $101,000 in Grosse Pointe Park
• What are some examples of news headlines about Detroit? - Detroit to revive: one neighbourhood at a time (2003).

  - Homes still selling for $1 in Detroit (2012).

  - How Detroit became the world capital of abandoned buildings (2012).

  - Detroit in US largest-ever city bankruptcy (2013).

  - Motor City population declines 25% (2011).
• In the 1950s when the automotive industry was booming what did the population of Detroit grow to? 1.8 million
• What was the Steel Belt in Michigan? An area where established waterways and canals, roads and railroads helped connect iron ore mines with coal resources.
• why did the Steel Belt become known as the Rust Belt? Due to the economic decline of the late twentieth century.
• What did the population of Detroit fall to after the economic decline? 700,000
• What does Detroit look like now? There are many vacant abandoned buildings and lots of evidence of deindustrialisation.
• What word can be used to describe how Detroit was only focused on one industry (automotive industry): Mono-economic structure.
• What have local residents of Detroit said about the place when they lived there during the economic boom? - Positive lived experience.

  - "Remarkable place to grow up in during the 1950s-60s"

  - "the neighbourhood had a strong sense of community and was ethnically diverse."
• How does the poem 'An abandoned factory, Detroit' (1963) represent the city? - Gives a very negative representation of the city as it highlights all the negative points in Detroits history.

  - Suggests there is permanent economic deprivation.

  - May be somewhere where you wouldn't want to live.
• What percentage of mortgage applications that are denied are those of African American people? 27%
• Increased:

  • Segregation of different socio-economic groups, property damage and violent crime
  • Health issues: either because of lack of wealth, access to care or more deliberate lifestyle choices
  • Higher infant mortality and shorter longevity
  • Status competition, which drives less-affluent people into debt to keep up with a peer group practising a higher level of consumerism
• Social Consequences of InequalityReduced:

  • Trust in people with positions of power, especially police and planners
  • Social and civic participation
  • Educational attainment and training
  • Social mobility
  • Attachment to place