Detroit: boom and bust

• The Steel Belt Boom

  • Detroit saw significant population growth into the 19th and 20th centuries. As the Gilded age past, a population boom took place and the city grew in area considerably also.
  • New manufacturing techniques pioneered by Henry Ford (the production line or assembly line) saw this area become a manufacturing heartland of the US. Ford and General Motors had a particularly prominent role in this development. 
• During the 20th century, millions of African-Americans migrated from the rural southern states to the urban north-east to apply for the new jobs created in the automotive industry – this was known as the ‘Great Migration’. 
• Detroit: Changing world, changing fortunes

  • An international oil crisis encouraged drivers to purchase cars with a better fuel economy. Competitors from Asia (e.g. Honda and Toyota) produced more desirable models. 
• Detroit: Changing world, changing fortunes

  • This led to a decline in sales and profits and Ford/General Motors responded by cutting jobs and shutting down less efficient production plants. 
  • High numbers of unemployed led to tax shortages for Detroit’s city authorities who, in turn, had less to invest in public services. 
• Drosscape = an urbanised region that is the waste product of defunct economic and industrial processes.
• • General Motors bought the complex in 1996 and in 2004 they invested $500million in renovating it. 
  • In 2009, General Motors filed for bankruptcy and required heavy support from the US government
  • In 2015, General Motors announced plans to renovate the complex further – particularly the lower levels and street area surrounding it aiming to attract more tourists. 
• • The mayor of Detroit backed the compulsory sale of land to enable new hi-tech car plants to be built in the city. 
  • The General Motors Hamtramck Assembly Plant was built in 1985 – this was built in an area formerly known as ‘Poletown’ (due to the high number of Polish people in the local community)
• A Revival in Detroit? 

  • Despite the seeming spiral of decline that Detroit was experiencing, the city still backed its auto industry – plants were still active but they had been constructed on the outskirts of the city (where the employees were now based). 
• A Revival in Detroit? 

  However, in 1977 Ford invested in the construction of the Renaissance Centre in downtown Detroit in the hope that an initial burst of investment would attract further investors and encourage people to move back into the city of Detroit. The Renaissance Centre was a statement of iconic modernist architecture and is a great example of re-branding and attempted ‘place-making’
• General Motors bought the complex in 1996 and in 2004 they invested $500million in renovating it. However, all of this investment wasn’t enough to keep Detroit out of decline and in 2009, General Motors filled for bankruptcy and required heavy support rom the US government.  The bailout saves 1.2 million jobs and preserved $35bn tax revenue. In 2013, the city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy – it was the highest ever level of debt seen by any US city. 
• • Since 2010, Michigan companies have announced more than $20 billion in automotive investment, creating nearly 65,000 jobs.
  • The state’s automotive industry has an economic impact of nearly $57 billion.
• • Despite this poor economic climate, Detroit still backed the auto industry.