Today, the world community is very concerned about the state of the former automobile capital of the world - the city of Detroit. This interest is not accidental, because the recently thriving metropolis is currently continuing to emerge from the economic crisis.
On the banks of the Detroit River - the city will be
Detroit was founded on July 24, 1701. The city is located on the Detroit River, northern USA, Michigan, near the border with Canada. Until the 19th century, the location of Detroit was the property of the British Empire, later it was transferred to the ownership of the United States. Traveling along the river, on a French research vessel, Catholic priest Louis Hennepin discovered that the north coast of Detroit was good enough for settlement, which he hastened to report later.
And now, already authorized by the French authorities, Antoine Lome and a group of 51 people landed and founded Fort Detroit. In 1760 Detroit was surrendered to the British, thereby becoming the property of the English colony. Detroit became an American city only in 1796.
The heyday of the city of Detroit. How it was
The twentieth century has become a golden age for the city! Detroit is turning into a major auto industry center. The beginning of its heyday falls on the years of World War II. Then the military-industrial conglomerate was created, which included such giants as Ford, General Motors, Chrysler. Before the merger of five tank-building plants in the USSR into a single enterprise "Tankograd", the American tank-building enterprise, located in Detroit, was at that time the largest in the world. In parallel, the development of the civil auto industry proceeded. The city is gaining fame as the "automobile capital of the world". 1950 marked the beginning of a new company. At the state level, a program of cheap and publicly available cars is being promoted. If they knew then what all this would lead to, they would hardly have decided to lobby for this program. But while the city was experiencing an economic boom, it rapidly developed and grew. The moment has come when Detroit is declared one of the richest cities not only in America, but also in the world.
The largest automobile plants "Ford", "General Motors", "Chrysler" are concentrated in it. The companies' policy was to produce as many cars as possible. Aggressive advertising on every corner raised interest in private vehicles, highlighting its benefits. At the same time, public transport is being discredited. Now it is not prestigious to use it. This kind of travel meant being poor, not successful. The acquisition of personal cars led, in turn, to the fact that people began to leave to live in the suburbs, selling their real estate in the city and massively purchasing private houses. Housing prices plummeted in downtown Detroit. Only those who could not afford it remained in the city. They were factory workers, small employees, the unemployed and emigrants, who were mostly black.
The fight for survival is lost
The second half of the century becomes a real struggle for survival for Detroit, in which the city is losing. The sharp decline in the volume of military orders in connection with the end of major military conflicts (in the Indochina region), and then the oil crisis that followed in 1975 and the energy crisis in 1979 sounded a death march for the city's industry. Large corporations have moved their manufacturing centers to China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. Now the Asia-Pacific region has begun to produce cheap cars and saturate the entire world car market with them. Detroit is in economic collapse. Factories are closing, residents are rapidly leaving it, having lost their jobs, in the hope of finding a more suitable city for living. Whole microdistricts become ghostly areas, broken glass in the windows of houses gapes with loneliness and emptiness, nature steps on buildings, trees grow in the middle of the once beautiful architectural structures. The influx of black emigrants, which began in 1950, has reached a critical level. The center and outskirts of the city were rapidly filled with African Americans. Because of unemployment and total poverty, crime began to develop. Already no one remembers the city with a dizzying career. Detroit is now gaining a notoriety as one of the most dangerous cities in the United States to live in. Drug addiction and prostitution are flourishing. Racial segregation leads to clashes among "white" and "black" populations. 1967 was one of the most shameful periods in US history. He is remembered for the July brutal clash between the white population of the city and the blacks. This period is known as the "Unrest on 12th Street". But this all happened long before the crisis. The time of total decline of the once richest city began precisely in 1973. The population dropped from 1.8 million in 1950 to 700 thousand by 2012. Detroit is the most destroyed city in the United States today. It is rightfully called a ghost town. Residential areas are numerous ghettos with their own rules and laws. The further from the city center, the more dangerous the situation becomes. The outskirts are teeming with gangs, groups of rappers, drug trafficking and prostitution are flourishing. Detroit is awash with Arab expatriates. Buildings are set on fire, following the local population's Day of the Devil.
In the past decade, the US government has been trying to revive the city. Several large casinos were built in 2000. The authorities hoped to boost interest in him. But expectations did not come true, the city budget could not equalize the economic situation. Detroit's debt to the state treasury amounted to more than $ 20 billion. In this regard, the city authorities had to declare the city of Detroit bankrupt, this happened in 2013.
Ghost town today
Detroit's new mayor, Mike Duggan, addressed residents with a speech in 2014, in which he promised to change the economic state of the city for the better, to improve the operation of enterprises. Due to this, he planned to increase the number of jobs and asked city residents not to leave the city. The center was put in order. The mayor took the initiative to give the abandoned buildings so that the residents themselves put them in order and could use them as hostels for tourists. It was decided to demolish the buildings that were not subject to restoration, since the problematic "bros" became breeding grounds for infection - homeless people settled there. In the center of the city, it was allowed to set up flower gardens and greenhouses, as well as to plant fruit trees. And maybe these are not the most significant measures to restore the economic state of Detroit, but already something. After all, it is necessary to put things in order in the city, at least in order to be able to live there, and if anyone succeeds in creating their own small business, then this is only a big plus for the city.
Detroit today is different. He is recovering. Yes, the poor neighborhoods have not gone anywhere, but they are in every other American city. There are still a lot of abandoned buildings, but they are slowly being disposed of. Here devastation and decay coexist with expensive villas, and this is also an American lifestyle. Success depends on having a job. And poor neighborhoods, where they live only on unemployment benefits, are the norm for modern America. The city of Detroit cannot be categorically called a "ghost town." Today it is no worse and no better than the same cities, with a similar fate, scattered all over the world. Detroit's younger generation knows about its former greatness from history, but they live in this city today, and perhaps with their participation, the city will finally stop being called a ghost. The outflow of the population will stop, and people will come here not as tourists, but with intentions to stay here forever.
It is important to note! Despite the fact that at one time the city's automobile industry fell into decay, today the headquarters of General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, and Dearborn are still located here. This suggests that there is hope to revive the glory of the legendary "automotive capital of the world." The giants have not left, which means everything will work out!
