Doomed Detroit: from the “Motor City” to a ghost town. Detroit is like an American nightmare that comes to life (USA) Detroit population
Do you want to buy a house in the States for just a couple of dollars and see with your own eyes real sets from Hollywood horror films? - Come to Detroit! But it’s better not to: the once richest industrial city is slowly turning into ruins, where drug trafficking and crime flourish. Today there are more than 33 thousand abandoned buildings in Detroit - empty skyscrapers, shopping centers, factories, schools and hospitals - in general, a quarter of the city should be bulldozed right now. How did it happen that the unlucky “Western Paris” came to this?
Birth
Detroit (Detroit, from the French "detroit" - "strait") is located in the northern United States, in the state of Michigan. It was founded on July 24, 1701 by the Frenchman Antoine Lome as a Canadian trading post for fur trading with the Indians. However, in 1796 the region was ceded to the United States. Like a Phoenix, Detroit rose from the ashes of the 1805 fire that destroyed much of the city. However, empires are not held together by logs and bricks: its advantageous location on the waterway of the Great Lakes system made Detroit a major transport hub. The restored city remained the capital of Michigan until the mid-19th century. The city's economy at this time relied entirely on the successful shipbuilding industry.
Heyday
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Detroit experienced a “golden age”: luxurious buildings and mansions with architectural delights were built, and Washington Boulevard was brightly illuminated by Edison light bulbs. For this, the city was nicknamed the “Paris of the West” - and it was here that Henry Ford created his own car model and founded the Ford Motor Company in 1904. Durant (General Motors), the Dodge brothers, Packard (Hewlett-Packard) and Chrysler were inspired by his example - their factories turned Detroit into a real automobile capital of the world.
Rapid economic growth in the first half of the 20th century required a large number of workers, so black people from the southern states, as well as Europe, came to Detroit to work. The city has a large number of private cars, as well as a network of highways and transport interchanges.
At the same time, an advertising campaign was promoted, the purpose of which was to portray public transport as unprestigious, as “transportation for the poor.” When you have your own car, there is no longer any point in living close to work: earn money in the city, live in a green suburb! At that time, no one suspected that the relocation of engineers and skilled workers outside the city limits would mark the beginning of today’s desolation...
And when there are too many cars, an old “broken” horse can be used for household needs. So, in the 50s, river bank erosion became a real environmental problem in Detroit - and it was creatively replaced with another environmental problem, strengthening the shoreline with old “wheelbarrows”. This “cart” is still there - rusty and green-covered piles of cars still poison the water with paint and oil. But who in the middle of the last century could have known that a few decades later many areas of the city would also look like garbage dumps?
Beginning of the End
What was the government's goal in ridiculing public transport? Of course, it all came down to economic benefit: people should buy more. But they did not foresee that the movement of the wealthiest part of the population from the center of Detroit would deprive the entire service sector of work: bank workers, hospital workers, store owners.
Having collected the bare necessities, they rushed after a source of income, leaving in the city only low-paid African-American workers living on benefits for the unemployed and homeless.
Poverty and lack of prospects pushed people “abandoned” in the center into criminal gangs, and Detroit quickly gained notoriety as one of the darkest and most dangerous cities in the United States.
But the troubles of “Western Paris” did not end there: in 1973, the oil crisis struck, bankrupting American automakers: their cars were not only expensive, but also consumed a lot of gasoline.
At the same time, economical Japanese brands entered the market confidently, and it became impossible to compete with them. Employees of closing factories lost their jobs and went wherever they could.
Today
The population of Detroit and its suburbs has decreased by 2.5 times: if in the early 1950s 1.8 million people lived here, today there are barely 700 thousand. The city itself in some places looks like pictures of the ruins of a human civilization enslaved by aliens from the science fiction film “Battlefield Earth”.
Buildings with broken glass and trees sprouting from their walls are strangely intertwined with streets brightly lit by the windows of expensive stores and ghetto neighborhoods covered in graffiti.
The sparsely populated center of Detroit, no matter what, remains a collection of cultural and sports centers, as well as architectural monuments of the past century, and continues to attract tourists.
In addition, Detroit continues to be home to the headquarters of major automakers and will house a limited number of workers. Numerous Arab immigrants also found refuge here.
All recent authorities have not given up attempts to revive the city and have approved the construction of several casinos: they did not strengthen Detroit’s economy, but at least slightly revived local leisure.
But the local ruins are of interest to Hollywood directors - they are willing to pay for such realistic and unforgettable settings for anti-utopian films, horror films, scenes of disasters and crimes.
In addition, abandoned houses serve as a real art space for Detroit's most restless artists. One of them - a certain Heidelberg - turned an entire block into eerie installations, decorating walls, fences, lawns and pillars with a variety of rubbish: plush toys, discarded mixers, shoes... Tourists, by the way, found Heidelberg's works to be a good and, most importantly, free attraction.
Prospects
In the second half of the 20th century, all of America considered what was happening in Detroit funny - and repeatedly ridiculed the city that had fallen to its knees. But today the joke has lost its edge: the same story is happening in dozens of other post-industrial cities and towns throughout the States. But what does this mean? Consumerism policies and an unecological approach to production have already reached an absolute dead end - and only thanks to this, a gradual transition to “green thinking” is being observed throughout the world. Fate gives lemon only so that we can make lemonade out of it.
TUT.BY correspondents have already been to Detroit, once the capital of American engineering, which is now going through hard times. We talked about how they saw this city in the “Great Journey of TUT.BY”. Alisa Ksenevich writes about a different Detroit - to which she wants to move for a “settled life.” Because he is amazing, Alice thinks. And that's why.
I wanted to go to Detroit for a long time and passionately, fascinated by the dark, mysterious, syrupy aesthetics of the films “Only Lovers Left Alive”, “Lost River”, the work of documentarian Michael Moore and musician Jack White, as well as the catchy song from the latest album Red Hot Chili Peppers. The whole trip seemed to me like a blind date - there were a lot of images and expectations in my head, but what was there in reality? However, I had instant chemistry with Detroit. This had already happened once - with New York, and I believed that no other city could knock out this wedge. But, getting to know Detroit and its residents, looking at the details, I became more and more convinced of my desire to move here after I said goodbye to my tumultuous youth in New York and wanted a settled, family life. Detroit is amazing! And let me tell you why.
Elusive beauty
There is a genre in the art of photography that in the United States is called “ruin porn,” where photographers specifically travel to Detroit and other cities with signs of desolation and take poignant photographs of abandoned buildings.
I tend to notice beauty where others see ugliness. One of the main properties of beauty is elusiveness. People grow old, buildings fall into ruin, gardens become overgrown with wild grass, and an effort must be made to look at them and feel their history.
You don’t need to make an effort to admire the beauty of San Francisco or the beaches of Los Angeles. But they don’t stick in my heart either, at least for me.
I would say about Detroit in the words of Rainbow Rowvel (author of Eleanor and Park): “She was never beautiful. She was like art, and art doesn't have to be beautiful. It should make you feel something."
The abandoned colonial houses of Detroit (the city was founded in 1710) have the kind of beauty I love—complex, tragic, but still majestic.
I set aside a day for the “porn ruins” of Detroit, although they certainly deserve more. I rarely came across people on my way, cars stopped a couple of times - the drivers sympathetically asked if everything was okay with me, if I was lost and if I needed help.
As I explored the inside of the houses, I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching me or that I was on the set of a thriller. Ringing silence, dust, some kind of rubbish crunches underfoot, the midday sun breaks through the curtains (how long have they been hanging on these windows? 30-40 years?)... Things are scattered on the floor: colorful rags, mattresses, wall clocks, a sewing machine, liquid for rinsing the mouth, a book with children's rhymes... The kitchen cabinet is frozen in the position of the falling Leaning Tower of Pisa, inside there are two intact porcelain plates with flowers.
I climb to the second floor along the stairs springing under my feet. The house smells musty, the meat chandeliers have been ripped out of the ceilings. The bathroom still has a cracked mirror and a partially collapsed mosaic. In the children's room there is a beautifully made chest of drawers, they don't make them like that anymore, and on the table next to it lies a Bible. Thick, expensively bound with gold embossing, dusted with dust. What happened to the family who lived here? Where did they settle? How would you feel if you returned to your once beautiful and rich home?
Digesting the surging emotions (horror, sadness, admiration), I walked towards the house where I was staying during my stay in Detroit. I couldn’t wait to discuss my impressions with his owner.
“I’m learning to love Detroit the way a parent learns to love an adopted child.”
We were not familiar with Tate Austen. When, from the many options on airbnb, I chose a room in an old mansion in the historic district of Detroit, I could not even imagine that its owner would be a native Petersburger and that we had a mutual friend - sculptor and film festival director Rosa Valado, who rented out a room to me in New York. Even the interiors of both houses are similar: antique furniture, elegant dishes, attention to detail. Tatiana (Tate) Osten has lived in the USA for 26 years, 18 of them in New York, 8 in Detroit. A ballet critic, a graduate of the Moscow Literary Institute and the Leningrad Theater Institute, she has been involved in the field of art all her life. In New York, she and her husband had their own gallery. In 2009, when the American economy hit rock bottom, the couple moved to Detroit.
“We saw a program on TV that talked about the economic decline of Detroit, about the terrible condition of the most beautiful houses built before the sixties of the last century,” says Tatyana. “We immediately wanted to go there and see everything with our own eyes.” At that time, Detroit was truly a “ghost town.” There were almost no cars on the roads and no people on the streets. There was no city lighting in many areas. The beautiful multi-story buildings in the city center were abandoned and empty. If you wanted, you could climb onto the roof of such a building and fry kebabs there, which many did. Looking at these buildings, I felt that they were like orphans looking for a loving family that would restore them and bring them back to life.
Seven years ago, real estate prices in Detroit were incredibly low. You could buy a house for 7-10-15 thousand dollars. Tatyana and her husband began buying and restoring historic brick houses built in the colonial style and looking for new owners for them. However, the main reason and purpose of their stay in Detroit was to create a museum where we could promote forms of contemporary art that are based on light: photography, video, projections, laser, neon, three-dimensional technologies and so on. They purchased an abandoned bank building, restored it and began holding exhibitions, the first of which was called “Time and Place”. The Kunsthalle Detroit museum existed until 2014. Its activities had to be suspended because it was unable to obtain financial support from local authorities and foundations.
Now, 7 years later, home prices in Detroit have increased 10 times, which still makes them affordable compared to similar housing prices in other states. Abandoned warehouses in downtown (the business and most developed area of the city) are being converted into trendy, comfortable lofts. Cars are cheap. The food is wonderful. A lot of young people under the age of 30 are moving to Detroit who want to do business and start families here.
“I have a love-hate relationship with this city,” Tatyana admits. “I hate Detroit because it cut me off from the cultural and social life I enjoyed living in Manhattan.” On the other hand, I overcame my fear of the unknown. Being a ballet critic and poet by vocation and education, I learned to understand electrical wiring, plumbing systems, roof repairs - no manicure can withstand this. In New York, I was (and still am) an educated consumer, part of an appreciative audience, a social butterfly.
In Detroit, I became part of the force that is changing the face of the city, one of its trustees. I changed buildings, events, even some people's lives. I'm learning to love Detroit the way a parent probably learns to love an adopted child. I miss the theater and my hyperactivity in New York, but here there is an opportunity to do something that would be impossible in other cities. In eight years, Detroit has been transformed the way other cities are transformed in several decades! Being part of this story, observing the process from the inside and actively participating in it is an extraordinary feeling. I have a friend here, a 94-year-old black woman. She remembers Detroit from 1926. So, she says, “People come and go, but if they stay, they stick to Detroit.”
Remnants of luxury
On the second day, I had planned a long walk in the company of native Detroiter Damon Gallagher. Many Americans have an attractive feature: mobility. They move relatively easily from one city (or state) to another in search of better opportunities for study, career, and starting a family. Damon lived everywhere and did whatever he did! He had a bar in New Orleans called the Flying Saucer, and his own rock band in Oakland, and now he has a small recording studio in Detroit next to an antique store.
I’m in a great mood, and I start humming one of my favorite songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Don’t you worry, baby, I’m like... Detroit, I’m crazy...” Damon frowns with disgust:
— What does Anthony Kiedis (frontman of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. - A.K.) know about Detroit in order to sing about it? He never lived here! Let him write songs about California. Who can really say something about Detroit through his work is Jack White (frontman of the White Stripes - A.K.). He grew up here, his mother worked as a cleaner at the Masonic Temple. He saved this temple when it was going to be closed for debts and put up for sale at auction.
Now this is interesting! I ask Damon to take me to the temple - the largest Masonic temple in the world.
The building, needless to say, is majestic and occupies the entire block. 14 floors, about 1000 rooms. The best musicians in the world perform within its walls (Nick Cave, The Who, Rolling Stones, etc.), and immersive performances take place (a currently fashionable format that involves spectators wandering around the floors and rooms in which theatrical performances take place).
In 2013, Jack White anonymously donated $142,000 to the temple—the amount the Detroit Masonic Temple owes to the state in unpaid taxes. In gratitude for this broad gesture, the Masonic Society renamed the temple's cathedral theater the Jack White Theater. This is how, in fact, the identity of the mysterious philanthropist was revealed.
This isn't the first time Jack White has helped his hometown. In 2009, the musician donated $170,000 to renovate the baseball field in the park where he played catch as a child.
10 years ago, Dan Gilbert, the head of the largest American home loan company, Quicken loans, moved headquarters to Detroit, and with it 7,000 young professionals. He purchased and renovated more than a hundred buildings, allowing his employees to live in the buildings while paying subsidized rent for the first year. Ten thousand more specialists came for the first batch, which became a catalyst for the development of small businesses and the restaurant industry. After almost half a century of decay and oblivion, the city began to come to life and develop rapidly.
Downtown is another beautiful building, more reminiscent of a cathedral than a commercial center - the Fisher House. The building was built in 1928 by the brilliant American architect Alexander Kahn. When we walked inside, my jaw literally dropped. Marble, granite, bronze, vaulted painted ceilings, mosaics, amazing Art Deco lamps and chandeliers. Everything is real, from those times, in excellent condition. In my opinion, it was sacrilege to open a coffee shop within these walls with a plastic counter, cheap coffee and donuts. However, it is there. I wanted to close my eyes and imagine myself here in the 1920s, when Detroit was at the peak of its power and two million people were scurrying back and forth, as New Yorkers scurry back and forth now.
The building of the former railway station, built in 1914, left a sad impression. In those years it was the highest station in the world and served more than 4,000 passengers per day. After the war, many Americans switched to private vehicles, which reduced the volume of passengers to a critical level, and it was more profitable for the station owners to sell the building than to continue to maintain it. However, it was not possible to find buyers - no one wanted to buy it even for a third of the cost of its construction. In 1967, the shops, restaurants and most of the waiting area in the station building were closed. In 1988, the station itself stopped working. Floods, fires, and vandal raids disfigured the pearl of architecture.
In 2009, the city board decided to demolish the building. A week later, a Detroit resident with the telling surname Christmas challenged the decision in court, citing national legislation, in particular the 1966 act on the preservation of architectural objects of historical significance. A person with a strong civic position who dares to go against the authorities deserves admiration in itself. The fact that he won this trial can be regarded as a miracle. For me, this is another reason to love America.
How much is the quarter today?
The outskirts of Detroit are reminiscent of Minsk Shabans until we come to a fence, artistically splattered with paint and pasted over with pieces of mirrors of various sizes. Behind the fence is a house, decorated from top to bottom with the same mirror mosaic. The owner of the house is an artist and owner of the largest collection of beads in the world. We were not able to view the collection because the owner was not at home.
The heat and humidity are taking their toll. In the store where we go to buy water, I am surprised to notice bulletproof glass separating the seller and customers. I saw such counters only in a few points of sale of alcohol in disadvantaged areas of New York.
“They don’t even sell alcohol here!” - I’m surprised.
“Life in Detroit has become safer, but still not to such an extent that there are no armed robberies,” Damon answers. — The city has a high unemployment rate. Here they don’t even deliver pizza after 10 pm - delivery workers fear for their lives.
Until the early 2000s, there was not a single large food chain in Detroit. The city's reputation as the most criminal city was cemented in 1967, when during mass riots on the city streets, 43 people were killed, 1,200 were injured, 2,500 shops and 488 private houses were burned and destroyed.
It all started with a police raid on the Blind Pig bar, where they illegally sold alcohol and organized gambling. When law enforcement officers arrived, the bar was crowded: 82 African Americans were celebrating the return of friends from the Vietnam War. The police arrested everyone indiscriminately. Passersby gathered on the street began to be outraged by the lawlessness and throw bottles at the cops. The conflict gave rise to mass unrest - about 10 thousand people took to the streets and began to smash and rob shops, churches, and private homes. At that time in Detroit, the black unemployment rate was twice the white unemployment rate. Outbreaks of violence, robberies, and looting rocked the city for five days. Fires were burning in the buildings. It was possible to pacify the raging crowd only with the involvement of military divisions.
About thirty thousand families left Detroit, ceasing to pay property taxes. Electricity was cut off in deserted areas, roads were overgrown with weeds, and wild animals began to visit them. Even now you can find pheasants in the city, and there is always something running around in the bushes.
Detroit's beautiful and diverse churches were destroyed by vandals. It got to the point that local punks amused themselves by burning the church on the eve of Halloween, thus celebrating the “devil’s night.” Many American children play pranks on this night: knocking over trash cans, hanging toilet paper on trees, but the children of Detroit have taken it to a new level.
Some of the houses were preserved in a condition that was quite attractive to buyers, and found new owners through auctions. So, five years ago, Damon’s friend bought an entire block - 8 houses in a row - for 50 thousand dollars. His dream was to place his friends and relatives in these houses. He sold the houses to those who decided to take a gamble with a minimal markup. The rest he repaired and sold for a good profit.
“We don’t need this gentrification of yours”
In the evening I go to the bar where the unknown White Stripes once played. The establishment is no different from those that flourish in New York - a stylish, ironic interior, a bartender with a pronounced sense of self-esteem, the kind that hipsters love to hang out in. A guy named Stan starts talking to me. A young teacher teaching Spanish and English in a high school. He grew up in a “white” suburb of Detroit, in his free time he plays in a rock band with a name that, when I heard it, I laughed for a long time, but never dared to tell Stan that this “meaningless set of letters” that the guys called themselves out of principle so that to be different from everyone, in Russian has a very specific (and rather slippery!) meaning.
Stan and I talk for two hours about music and Detroit, and later we are joined by his friend Etienne, a chemical scientist who came to Detroit six years ago from France. Etienne is also in a band with a slippery name - he plays the trombone.
“To tell the truth, we don’t like that Detroit is becoming fashionable,” the guys say. - Rich hipsters come here, buy up real estate, these coffee shops with vegan pastries and coffee for $7 a cup have appeared... The Detroit area could accommodate San Francisco, Boston, Manhattan, and there would still be room left. And 740 thousand people live here. We know each other by sight. Six years ago there was a feeling that this city was ours, we knew all its features and cool places. And now business comes here, competition, this whole “renaissance” is happening, about which the New York Times has been writing super-optimistic articles for five years now. But with all this improvement and the rise of the real estate market, the face of Detroit is changing, the composition of its residents, living here is no longer as cheap as it used to be - rental prices have doubled over the past three years!
By the way, about prices. In a restaurant with excellent service and excellent cuisine, the price of any cocktail is $2. Second course - 3 dollars. I peered at the menu for a long time, not believing my eyes. Maybe this is some kind of special promotion? Maybe a typo? It was psychologically difficult to accept the fact that chicken curry, for which I pay $14 in New York, costs five times less here. Some kind of parallel reality, by God.
A young teacher, earning less than three thousand a month, lives alone in a two-room apartment in the city center, paying $550 in rent. He has enough money left for food, clothing and entertainment. The band Stan plays in rehearses not even in a garage, but in a former eyewear factory. The guys collectively pay $100 a month to rent this space! It's no wonder that so many creative people - artists, musicians - are moving from New York to Detroit. Thanks to this new blood, Detroit has a great music scene and amazing murals.
I understand very well Stan and Etienne's desire to leave everything as it is. Bushwick, the area where I live, is currently experiencing the same renaissance. Two years ago, it was a bedroom, artsy Brooklyn neighborhood with affordable rents and one grocery store for ten blocks. There were few places for leisure, but they were cool - with parties for their own, eccentric and strange crowds, bars where everyone could read poetry and give concerts. As a result of all this musical and artistic movement, Bushwick became fashionable. A Michelin-starred restaurant was opened here. Tourists began to come here. Hotels and apartment complexes with concierges have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. I don't know if I'll be able to afford Bushwick in two years. In any case, this will no longer be the unique, charming area in its underdevelopment and freedom of expression that I fell in love with.
I ask Stan what he likes and dislikes most about Detroit.
— I like that here you can make a real contribution to the musical, cultural, and political life of the city. A simple example is the aquarium building on the city island of El Bel. The oldest aquarium in America, built by the famous architect Albert Kahn, has been empty since the sixties of the last century. In 2005 the building was closed. In 2012, with the help of a small group of Detroit volunteers, the aquarium was filled with fish - about 1,000 fish of more than 118 species. Now this symbol of the city is open to the public. I like that Detroiters are confident, but not arrogant, and have an optimistic outlook on life. I like that there is so much history in this city that even after living here all your life, you continue to learn something new and be surprised. I don't like the level of corruption in government. The city needs leaders who care more about the city than their own egos and welfare. Money, which in theory should go to improving schools and improving the social sphere, flows into the pockets of millionaires who are building the next sports stadium or casino. Why do we need a fourth casino? So that already not rich people become even poorer? The fact that the former director of the Detroit Central Library is in prison for embezzling public funds speaks volumes. The quality of school education in Detroit itself is, to put it mildly, poor. Good schools are in rich, white suburbs. The police are also not particularly vigilant. People drive as they please, often drunk. A friend of mine was once stopped by an inspector. They found weed in the car and alcohol in the friend’s blood. After which the inspector said: “The main thing is that it’s not cocaine!” and let him go without even fining him.
Detroit stirred me up, fascinated me, puzzled me... I don’t even want to convince people about it, especially those who have never been there. This city is not for everyone. But maybe just for me. In short, we need to find out if the group with the slippery name needs a keyboard player.
Alisa Ksenevich
Moved to New York 5 years ago. Before that, she worked as a correspondent for the Obozrevatel newspaper in Belarus for 5 years, writing for Women’s Magazine and Milavitsa.
While living in New York, she wrote the book “New York for Life,” which is sold on Amazon.
TUT.BY book chapters on the portal.
Got to Detroit. It was very interesting to look at the dying city.
Detroit was once the fourth most populous city in the United States (after New York, Los Angeles and Chicago) and the capital of a powerful automobile industry. Here were the factories of the giants Ford, Chrysler and General Motors (as well as Packard and Studebaker), which fed half of the city’s residents.
But at some point something went wrong. Several negative factors overlapped each other at once, and the city began to die.
Since the middle of the 20th century, auto giants began to experience difficulties. In 1973, the oil crisis hit the Big Three hard as their cars could not compete with fuel-efficient European and Japanese models. This blow was followed by the energy crisis of 1979, and finally the financial crisis of 2008-2009, which almost finished off the American automobile industry. Factories closed one after another, and workers and their families left the city.
Wealthy residents also left, since Detroit was not adapted to life by car. In the center of Detroit, at some point there was simply not enough space for everyone who wanted to drive a car. One of the reasons for the death of Detroit is the discrepancy between its “pre-automobile” urban planning structure and the set super goal of “Each family - a separate car.” The city of skyscrapers, no matter how hard it wants, cannot live without powerful public transport. As a result, the city center began to die, shops and cultural institutions closed because customers stopped visiting them. Rich people moved to the suburbs and abandoned the center.
In 1950, 1,850,000 people lived here. Whites began to leave Detroit back in the 60s, in particular after the black riot of 1967, when, during a series of riots and robberies, the police temporarily lost control of the city. In the 70s, the outflow intensified, and two peaks of emigration occurred in the 80s and 2000s.
There are now fewer than 700,000 people left in Detroit. In total, 1.4 million white residents left the city after World War II. Most settled in relatively prosperous suburbs, but many left the region altogether. By 2013, nearly a quarter of Detroit's population (23.1%) was unemployed, and more than a third of the city's residents (36.4%) lived below the poverty line.
Such a rapid outflow of residents turned Detroit into a ghost town. Many houses, offices, and industrial workshops were abandoned. Many are trying to sell their homes and other real estate at bargain prices, but there are often simply no buyers for housing and offices in a depressed city.
In the 80s, local African Americans came up with a new folk pastime - burning abandoned houses on Halloween. On another night, up to 800 fires burned in the city. To stop this process, the authorities created volunteer detachments of “Angels of the Night”, which prevented arson.
In recent years, a total of about 85 thousand abandoned properties have been identified in Detroit. In 2014, Detroit adopted a brownfield demolition program that would demolish about half of that number. If we talk about the area of the city, then approximately a quarter of it is planned to be razed to the ground.
In 2013, Detroit declared bankruptcy, unable to repay $18.5 billion in debt to creditors. In December 2014, the bankruptcy procedure was completed. Now the authorities are thinking about how to improve the situation in the city and subsequently bring back investors.
Many believe that the fate of Detroit is unique, but, firstly, in the history of the United States there have already been bankruptcies of cities (albeit not such large ones), and, secondly, Detroit is only part of the famous Rust Belt, which since 70 - years is almost entirely in decline due to a reduction in production in a number of branches of heavy industry.
I will make 3 more posts about Detroit: good Detroit, bad Detroit and a post about street art. There are a lot of photographs. In the meantime, check out the short travel notes.
01. We are approaching Detroit. 
02. On the right is Canadian Windsor, on the left is American Detroit. They are separated by the Detroit River. You can get to Canada either by bridge or by road tunnel. 
03. Lively suburbs. 
04. Canadians have wind power plants. 
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same. 
06.
07. It’s scary to fly over America, there are hundreds of kilometers of identical houses... 
08. Progress has reached the point that now you don’t need to get a ticket in the parking lot, then pay for it, and leave. Now you insert your bank card at the entrance, then you insert it at the exit. That's all. Unnecessary procedures with paper tickets are dying out. 
09. Border with Canada. 
10. Canadians have everything clean and tidy. Detroit has already been demolished by 70 percent... a terrible sight. There are only empty parking lots left. 
11. There are practically no living buildings in the center. Sometimes only the first floors are used, but more often the buildings are simply boarded up. Now very little remains, everything has been demolished. 
12. The once noisy streets of the center. 
13. 
14. Bar. 
15. Residential areas are also desolate. Most of the houses were demolished... This is what some areas look like... 
16. And some – so... 
17. Detroit continues to die, despite all the measures that are being taken to save it. 
18. School. 
19. Factory. 
20. They made a parking lot at the theater... 
21. 10 dollars - and you can park your car in the former theater... Beautiful. 
22. Scary. 
23. Don’t walk on lawns. 
24. Noah's Ark. 
25. Now they continue to demolish buildings. To prevent dust from rising during construction work, special fans are used that spray water. 
26. Since the 70s, Detroit has experienced a sharp increase in crime. 
27. Most of the crimes in the city are related to drugs, but there are also a lot of violent crimes. Detroit is considered one of the most dangerous cities in the United States; the murder rate here is on average 10 times higher than in New York. 
28. Many Americans now compare Detroit with the city of Gotham from Batman comics, although in the fictional city it was about the merging of power and crime, and the decline of Detroit occurred for socio-economic reasons. 
I’ll tell you more about Detroit soon, but for now it’s time to move on, Chicago is waiting for me!
Sponsor's Corner
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This is an unusual metropolis, a city with its own laws and rules, once a prosperous, beautiful city in the state of Michigan, and now... now it is a dying city, which declared itself bankrupt three years ago, a ghost town. . Due to the fact that you practically don’t see people on the streets, and cars are constantly parked and not driven on the roads, many houses are empty, and their windows are clogged with plywood, the feeling that you are in a metropolis completely disappears.
Was he once powerful?! Where did everyone go? Aw! Or maybe this isn't Detroit at all? Maybe a huge pavilion of one of the Hollywood film studios, where they are filming another action movie or a film about the apocalypse? But no. This is reality. And this is Detroit!
Doomed City
I can’t even imagine how such a metropolis (ranked 4th in population in the USA), the capital of the automotive industry (home to Ford, Chrysler and General Motors factories) could become bankrupt in just a couple of decades?! But the global oil crisis and production crisis hit American automobile factories (Japanese small cars replaced American cars), they began to close, firms and corporations went bankrupt, and people lost their jobs and left the city in search of a better life.
The second reason is the inability to live in cars. Downtown with its skyscrapers could not accommodate all interested motorists, and there was no normal public transport into the city. Getting to the center, and especially to work, became a problem. So residents began to leave the center: shops and offices, entertainment and cultural institutions were closed. Downtown was empty, and the city population was moving to the suburbs or somewhere else.
Sad statistics
The city, which in the mid-50s of the last century was home to 1.85 million people, ¾ of which were white, has turned into a ghost. Now about 700 thousand people live in Detroit, and 85% of them are African Americans, who began to move here, buy cheap real estate (those who are richer) or move into empty apartments. You can buy real estate in Detroit today at a ridiculous price. So, a house in the city itself costs about $8,000, some apartments are sold even for $500, and in the suburbs the price of a house is only a few hundred dollars. There was a time when those who left the city sold their apartments for $1.
Crime capital of America
What can I say, today Detroit is the crime capital of America, a city where up to 320 murders are committed a year, 70% of which are unsolved, a city where 38% of people live below the poverty line, where robberies, assaults and violence occur daily. But it cannot be any other way: where there is poverty, there are crimes. Today, the American government is making every effort to return the city to its former appearance, bring back residents there, and improve the economy. Basically, bring life back to Detroit.
Reality
If there is any life in Detroit, then it's only in the center. In other areas of the city there may be no communications or electricity at all (there is no money to maintain services). There are practically no “living” buildings in the city center either. Basically, only the first floors are used for shops and offices. Yes, and those are for rent. Some are for sale. The rest are boarded up. If you can meet at least someone on the streets, then the gateways are empty, there are not even yard cats and dogs.
And what a man he was! Even now, the central streets of the city demonstrate all the former power of Detroit. Urban architecture of Downtown- one of the best in the USA: art deco skyscrapers, buildings with neo-Gothic spiers, postmodern buildings, wide squares and recreation areas for citizens, green park areas, fountains.
A beautiful building was built in the very center of the city. Its style (neo-baroque) with columns, spiers, chariot figures, modeling and other architectural details fit harmoniously among the city's skyscrapers.
Downtown has several high-rise towers that make up the complex Renaissance Center(Renaissance Center). It is owned by the automobile company General Motors. One of the buildings is the company headquarters. The skyscrapers house shops, banks, financial institutions, as well as cinemas and sports centers.
One of the skyscrapers is a building Marriott Hotel(Marriott Hotel) with luxurious rooms and 4 restaurants. True, today few people stay there, although the hotel is designed for 1,300 guests. By the way, today this skyscraper hotel is one of the tallest in the world.
Canada can already be seen from the embankment
As you know, Detroit is built on the river of the same name, which borders the Great Lakes, and, accordingly, Canada. Going for a walk around Detroit Riverfront(Detroit International Riverfront), you can see the shore of the neighboring state. The embankment itself is 9 km long. There are many restaurants, cafes, park areas, in general, an excellent vacation spot with beautiful views.
There is an interesting one on the embankment sculpture- a crowd of dark-skinned people who are going to escape along the river to Canada. It is noteworthy that on the other side, already in Canada, there is a similar sculpture, apparently depicting those who got there.
On the square - unusual fountain in the shape of a huge donut, and the famous arch, built in honor of the city's labor movement - Michigan Labor Legacy Landmark. A few steps away from her, back in 1963, America heard the legendary speech and phrase of Martin Luther King: "I have a dream."
In general, there are many unusual sculptures in this quarter. Very soulful - Spirit of Detroit(The Spirit of Detroit). By the way, she, like the “Manneken Pis” in Brussels, is often dressed up for various occasions and holidays, especially sporting events.
Walking a little forward you can see a huge human hand in the pyramid. This monument a true symbol of America - boxer Joe Louis, who lived with his family in Detroit for a long time and worked at the Ford Plant. It’s a shame that vandals have damaged many of the city’s attractions.
One joy for children and adults
And although few residents inhabit Detroit today, local authorities are still trying to embellish and diversify their everyday life and holidays. So, in the very center there is a wonderful (Martius Park) - an oasis of relaxation.
In the summer, a recreation area is built here - sand is poured, sun loungers, umbrellas, sandboxes, and children's swings are installed. There are cafes around where, for a low price, you can grab a cocktail or coffee and sit on a beach chair, imagining that you are by the sea.
In winter, a city skating rink is built on this site, and a Christmas tree is decorated nearby. Detroiters love this city getaway spot. Although it is also not filled with people as much as we would like.
If you look at the center of Detroit, everything looks quite decent: clean and tidy streets, trimmed lawns, flower beds, and the architecture looks organic. A typical American city of medium size, without any fuss or rush. It is even somewhat similar to some areas of New York.
But once you walk a few blocks from the center, you find yourself in a completely different city. Dangerous, criminal, with broken or boarded up windows, empty apartments, strange people walking around in the evenings, just gloomy. And all the pomp of the metropolis disappears somewhere...
Perhaps the trip to Moscow will not be the most pleasant, and the city will not be the most welcoming and attractive. But, still, at least once in your life, you need to see what can happen to a prosperous city with a strong economy and developing industry in an instant. What a pity that such a city “broke down” like a machine engine. Perhaps one day a mechanic will be found and will fix the “motor”, and all states will hear its roar and hum again. Hope dies last…
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It was in Detroit that my first and greatest journey across the USA began. Then I wrote several posts, but got too carried away abandoned, which are truly fascinating.
2 I also had a separate report about abandoned places in the city. Today, half of the photographs are already history, Detroit is being actively cleaned up: it is too expensive to restore buildings that have stood for a quarter of a century, and in an abandoned state they pose a danger; homeless people, drug addicts and criminals gather there.
3 Yes, there are bad areas in Detroit. Like every American city there will definitely be a ghetto. There are several more such areas here, for obvious reasons.
4 Detroit is bankrupt, the Pindos are stupid- sometimes commentators write to me. I smile reading this. After all, they weren’t there, but they stubbornly broadcast the same point of view, either imposed on them by TV, or they simply work “according to the manual,” leaving comments on behalf of bots.
- Look, dear man, at your beloved American city - Detroit, for example.
- You ask your girlfriend to go to Detroit and tell the world how wonderful everything is there. As always, pendos do not see the beam in their own eye...
- There is also the American city of Detroit - that’s where the capital liberals tried their best.
- Why don’t you recommend that the Pindos first pull Detroit out of bankruptcy - and then go to Vukrovyna and other places far from their places of residence?
- It’s the Americans who don’t have the money to save their native Detroit, the Pindos don’t have the money...
5 On the one hand, Detroit is really an ass. There you can buy a house with land for a thousand dollars. On the other hand, everything is changing. The gasoline crisis that broke out in the early 70s led to the fact that people stopped buying cars en masse, but it was the car factories that at one time raised Detroit to a high level.
Instead of the people who left, others began to arrive. As a rule, African Americans from the southern states, who were sold land for a symbolic dollar. They were supposed to work. But they didn't. The growing crisis plus a change in the population of residents took their toll, Detroit began to turn into a ghost town.
6 But all this peaked in the eighties. And since then a lot has changed. In the 80s, New York looked different. Over time, everything began to improve. When the “big three” automobile corporations returned to profit, the city began to change.
7 Detroit is like a layer cake: a very decent Downtown (city center), full of abandoned Midtown, decent residential outskirts, which are mixed with the ghetto. Stirred but not mixed.
8 There has been no influx of population here for a long time, the city has a bad reputation. If he does come to Detroit, it will be for work, for a good position and with appropriate housing. But many are trying to get out of here. In America, a good job is everything. The only way to get out of the damn ghetto. When a miracle happens, people hold a garage sale: there is no point in hanging on to things and carrying around useless belongings.
9 The flea market I went to was classified as a flea market, not a garage sale.
10 Do you want the secret to the success of a prosperous neighborhood or city in America? Why is one block occupied by expensive villas, and immediately across the intersection are fences, bars and ghettos? It's all about taxes; they almost always remain where they are received. Where many people have good salaries and pay high taxes, there are better schools, better infrastructure, better life. Where people sit on benefits and do not pay taxes - devastation and decay. I think primarily because of this tax differentiation, all of America looks so different. What, the US government doesn't have enough money for new buses? Enough is enough, but the city is in charge of purchasing transport. To the point that everyone independently chooses which police or medical cars to buy.
11 And now I will show you the city center. Most of these photos were not included in my 2012 posts.
12 Look what abandoned and decaying Detroit looks like, a belch of American democracy!
13 Downtown Detroit was one of the richest in America. The city was actively built up and developed in the thirties, during and after the Great Depression.
15 I wonder what state-haters will write in response to these photographs?
16 The skyscrapers here are not high, 30-40 floors, built in the “Chicago” style.
17 It’s very beautiful inside.
18 There are also abandoned, completely empty skyscrapers, but it was not possible to get there.
19 It’s not a big town, if you look closely.
21 Lots of stunning “historic” buildings. All of them were also built in the middle of the last century.
22 They don’t build like that anymore. Many abandoned houses were demolished, and multi-story parking lots began to be built in their place.
23 Imagine, all these buildings are parking lots! And they function, there are cars there.
24 General Motors headquarters. It's interesting inside, I went to visit them and... It was also interesting with this building: either it was empty, or it was built by an auto corporation, I don’t remember without Google, and I’m writing the text without the Internet. In any case, GM moved its headquarters there specifically in order to support the budget of Downtown Detroit through its tax contributions. And for the city to come back to life.
25 Legendary Train Station, Michigan Central. This huge abandoned building is probably the most famous of all Detroit abandoned buildings. When I arrived, it was no longer possible to get inside; the building was surrounded by a fence. Now, as far as I know, glass has been installed there and repairs are being made.
26 There is no ceremony with dead houses here, even if they are beautiful. The city does not have the ability to maintain and restore them, there are often no owners, but such buildings are a breeding ground.
27 Dreadful neighborhood. Quite a residential building, behind there are three abandoned project towers. Such “candles” were built for socially disadvantaged segments of the population in the 40s and 50s. An alternative to our “Khrushchev”. Then these same layers scattered throughout the city, and this is what it led to. Then, in ’72, there was also a mess here, like those that now periodically happen in Baltimore.
28 The city center is flooded with lights, in the foreground is Midtown, drowning in darkness.
29 When someone suggests “looking at dead Detroit, with which What have the pindos done?, just give them a link to this report.
30 I even miss Detroit a little; I have pleasant memories associated with it. And I plan to return this fall, during the upcoming big trip across Canada. She's here across the river.
It will be interesting to see who is right.
