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Comparative Analysis of Urban Decay and Renewal in the Cities of Detroit and Pittsburgh, Postwar to Present: an Introductory Survey

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Comparative Analysis of Urban Decay and Renewal in the Cities of Detroit and Pittsburgh, Postwar to Present: an Introductory Survey COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF URBAN DECAY AND RENEWAL IN THE CITIES OF DETROIT AND PITTSBURGH, POSTWAR TO PRESENT: AN INTRODUCTORY SURVEY A thesis submitted to The Honors Program at UDM in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Graduation with Honors by Alexander M. Tolksdorf May 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES iv LIST OF TABLES vi PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii CH. 1: INTRODUCTION 1 CH. 2: DENSITY, POPULATION, AND SIZE 7 CH. 3: TRADITIONAL ROOTS OF URBAN DECAY 29 CH. 4: MANIFESTATIONS OF URBAN DECAY 55 CH. 5: ANALYSIS OF THE COMPARISION 77 APPENDIX A: POPULATION DENSITY OF DETROIT 105 APPENDIX B: CRIME DATA TABLES 112 BIBLIOGRAPHY 117 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2-1 10 The population of Detroit and Pittsburgh, 1900-2010 Figure 2-2 11 The population of Detroit, 1950-2010 Figure 2-3 11 The population of Pittsburgh, 1950-2010 Figure 2-4 18 The densities of Detroit and Pittsburgh, 1900-2010 Figure 2-5 18 Comparing Detroit to three other cities Figure 2-6 24 Dashboard Summary of the Detroit Residential Parcel Summary Figure 2-7 25 Housing Vacancy Rates in Detroit Figure 4-1 67 Murder & Non-negligent Homicide Rates in Detroit & Pittsburgh, 1985-2010 Figure 4-2 68 Violent Crime Rates in Detroit & Pittsburgh, 1985-2010 Figure 4-3 68 Property Crime Rates in Detroit & Pittsburgh, 1985-2010 Figure 5-1 81 Accounts & Contracts Receivable – General Fund, City of Detroit, 2005-2012 Figure 5-2 82 General Fund Balance, City of Detroit, 2005-2012 Figure 5-3 82 General Fund Balance, City of Pittsburgh, 2005-2011 Figure 5-4 83 Cash & Cash Equivalents in the General Fund, 2002-2011 Figure A1-1 106 Detroit Population Density in 1950 iv Figure A1-2 107 Detroit Population Density in 1960 Figure A1-3 108 Detroit Population Density in 1970 Figure A1-4 109 Detroit Population Density in 1980 Figure A1-5 110 Detroit Population Density in 1990 Figure A1-6 111 Detroit Population Density in 2000 v LIST OF TABLES Table 2-1 8 The population of Detroit and Pittsburgh, 1900-2010 Table 2-2 10 The population rank of Detroit and Pittsburgh, 1900-2010 Table 2-3 16 The land area (in square miles) of Detroit and Pittsburgh, 1900-2010 Table 3-1 53 Number of manufacturing establishments for select years Table 4-1 65 Crime in Detroit & Pittsburgh, 1985-2010 Table 5-1 80 Selected Financial Statistics for the Cities of Detroit and Pittsburgh, 2010 and 2011 Table 5-2 85 Selected City Council Financial Data Appendix B 112 Crime Data Tables - Pittsburgh & Detroit vi PREFACE This thesis was written under the graduation requirement of the Honors Program at the University of Detroit Mercy and with the guidance of the thesis committee consisting of Dr. Robert Hutchinson, Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Detroit Mercy, Mrs. Phyllis Peters-Look, former Director of Professional Standards, Deloitte & Touche, and Dr. George Galster, Distinguished Professor of Urban Studies & Planning, Wayne State University. The thesis report represents the results of comparing and analyzing the social and economic circumstances of Detroit and Pittsburgh over the last seventy years in the effort to demonstrate that Detroit might be comparable to Pittsburgh, thus opening the possibility for Detroit to model urban redevelopment programs after Pittsburgh, which has been generally known for success in that area. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to my thesis committee members, my family, and my friends, whose encouragement, advice, and guidance made this undertaking possible. I would also like to thank the library staff of the University of Detroit Mercy and Wayne State University, who assisted me in finding “hard-to-find” publications and reports, and did not cease in attempting to locate certain pieces of data, even when it seemed near impossible. Dedicated to the citizens of and the Cities of Detroit and Pittsburgh: Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus (We hope for better things; It shall rise from the ashes) Benigno Numine (By the favor of Heaven) vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Throughout the years, a multitude of names described the City of Detroit; the Arsenal of Democracy, the City of Champions, the Paris of the West, and of course, the Motor City. Mayor David Bing described Detroit as “…a city of great faith and resolve” in his State of the City Speech in 2011. Detroit gave rise to the mass-produced automobile, beginning when Henry Ford built his first automobile in a rented workshop on Mack Avenue. The same industry would make Detroit an industrial and union powerhouse and trendsetter as early as 1914 (when Henry Ford announced an unprecedented wage of $5 per day). The Renaissance City would host the first Van Gogh painting in the United States in the Detroit Institute of Arts. So prominent was the city that the Detroit Institute of Arts was run as more of a city department than a separate museum at one point in time. The city itself bought masterpieces to adorn the gallery walls in the museum. Detroit was the site of the first highways in the United States and a center of culture, giving birth to the influential R&B style of music known as Motown and modern techno, and influencing music genres as diverse as rock and roll to hip-hop. Yet, Detroit for decades has been mired in a myriad of urban problems, corruption, and poor management that on January 9, 2012, earned Detroit the unfortunate award of second worst run city in the United States of America from “The Bottom Line” on MSNBC. The “award” criteria included the fact that “[of] the 100 largest cities, Detroit has the highest home vacancy rate, the highest unemployment rate, the highest poverty rate, the worst violent crime rate and the lowest median household income” (Sauter, Stockdale, and Allen). Unfortunately, bleak evidence of this assessment can be found 1 2 driving through some of the once vital and thriving communities of the city. This author has deep roots in the City of Detroit. Much of my immediate and extended family emigrated directly from Europe to the various neighborhoods of Detroit and Hamtramck. My father was born and raised in Detroit, and lived for many years on the East Side near City Airport on Elgin Avenue and Blackmoor Street. Likewise, my mother was born and raised in Hamtramck on McDougall. A great aunt lived on Newbern Street. Another great-great uncle lived on Moran Street. Countless friends and co-workers lived in these neighborhoods. Little remains of some of these neighborhoods immediately to the north of Hamtramck: the decayed remnants of Newbern and Moran can be seen driving east on McNichols from the University of Detroit Mercy to Buddy’s Pizza at Conant. The tightly packed bungalows and two-family homes on Elgin Avenue were numerous; today, roughly ten remain standing, clustered primarily near Van Dyke Avenue. The remainder of the two blocks of Elgin that stretch from Van Dyke to French Road bordering city airport are empty and nature has begun the process of forming what is sometimes called “the urban prairie:” the sidewalks are all but gone, and the street has narrowed on account of the encroaching growth. In what was a bustling neighborhood filled with the sounds of a thriving community, only the wind can be heard blowing across the neighborhood, impeded only by the trees that once stood on the lawns of homes on adjacent streets, along with the occasional siren. Looking from north to south on Elgin, one can see the parallel east-west streets, something that would have been impossible during my father’s time. 3 The goal of this undertaking is to explore the possibility that amongst the older cities of America, Detroit is not alone in its current plight. More specifically, this thesis seeks to explore and examine the assertions that the situation of post-war Detroit with regards to urban decay and renewal is comparable to the situation of post-war Pittsburgh, and that, as a result, current and past efforts within Pittsburgh can be applied to renewal efforts and social problems within Detroit as an effective system of solutions. Pittsburgh was selected for this thesis for several primary reasons. Firstly, on January 6, 2011, Detroit 2010 (an initiative of WXYZ) ran an article entitled “Learning from Pittsburgh.” The article suggested that Detroit could learn a few lessons on revitalization from Pittsburgh, an “amazing” revitalization that involved economic diversification aided by local universities and one that already attracted the interest of city leadership. Thus, the first reason is to analyze and test the assertion that the two cities are comparable from a local media outlet; how similar is Pittsburgh to Detroit? The second reason is that Pittsburgh provides an effective benchmark in comparing the two cities. That is to say, the story of Pittsburgh post-1980s revitalization is well-known, studied, and generally accepted as a success, which is beneficial to the comparison. Lastly, the third reason for utilizing Pittsburgh in this thesis is that both cities have the same context and the same roots. Both cities are industrial, Rust Belt cities with their origins in a single, large industry. Both have or are struggling with post-industrial changes in their economies. Therefore, the cities are more similar in their economic context than say, a city in the Sun Belt. 4 The thesis intends to provide detailed analysis of a number of the primary sources, features, and symptoms of urban decay within both cities to determine the status of the claim that both cities are comparable in their respective urban decay and social situations.
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