DETROIT III.1 --------------------------------------------------- STUDIES PART 1 March 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- – Ein Initiativprojekt der Kulturstiftung des Bundes in Kooperation mit dem Projektbüro Philipp Oswalt, der Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, der Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau und der Zeitschrift archplus. Büro Philipp Oswalt, Eisenacher Str. 74, 10823 Berlin, T: +49 (0)30 81 82 19-11, F: +49 (0)30 81 82 19-12, [email protected], URL: www.shrinkingcities.com TABLE OF CONTENTS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY Doreen Mende and Philipp Oswalt 6 STATISTICAL DATA: DETROIT Jason Booza, Anke Hagemann, Kurt Metzger and Nora Müller 11 IN DETROIT TIME Curatorial Statement, Mitch Cope 13 SHRINKING CITY DETROIT Curatorial Statement, Kyong Park 16 CHRONOLOGY: DETROIT SINCE 1700 Jerry Herron 18 THE AMERICAN METROPOLIS AT CENTURY’S END: PAST AND FUTURE Robert Fishman 28 I REMEMBER DETROIT Jerry Herron 40 DETROIT John Gallagher 44 ON SOME SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF DETROIT Jason Booza and Kurt Metzger 50 THE CAPITAL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Dan Hoffman 55 MOTOR CITY Charles Waldheim 63 TROUBLE IN MOTOR CITY Joe Kerr 71 DEVIL’S NIGHT Toni Moceri 85 RACIAL DISUNITY June Manning Thomas 95 A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEGREGATION IN METRO DETROIT Celeste Headlee 99 REBUILDING DETROIT: AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE CASINO James Boggs 102 ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER: COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENTS IN URBAN COMMUNITIES Grace Lee Boggs 108 BUBBLE METROPOLIS Dan Sicko 115 INITIATIVES AND PROJECTS 119 BIBLIOGRAPHY 122 FILMOGRAPHY Antje Ehmann and Michael Baute 125 AUTHORS 127 COLOPHON APPENDIX: MAP AND PHOTOGRAPHS DETROIT REGION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ‘Big Three’--Chrysler, Ford and General Motors--created the ultimate ‘Motor City.’ It was in Detroit that the first street was surfaced with concrete, and Davison Freeway, the first city motor- way, was built here. Detroit was long able to boast unparalleled economic growth. During the 1920s, one skyscraper was built after another; department stores and palatial cinemas lined the streets. It is no wonder that the number of inhabitants rose from 285,700 to 1.85 million between 1900 and 1950. Detroit, as the powerhouse of the U.S., was not just a city. It served as a unique model for a new type of metropolis and a modern society. After 1950, the boomtown became one of the first to experience the drift of population to the edges of town. The sub-urbanization of Detroit took place against a background marked not only by the rise of the car, but also by racial tension. Between 1940 and 1960, the proportion of blacks in the population grew to one-third. The white middle-classes, full of resentment against the black lower classes, fled to the periphery. In 1998, 78% of those living in the suburbs were white, while 79% of those in the inner city were black. The sub-urbanization of Detroit did not bring a creeping reduction in density, but a dramatic one. Nowadays, one third of the entire city area lies derelict. Countless buildings have been demolished. 4,000 of those still standing are vacant and abandoned: locked, boarded and walled-up. After 1950, the gigantic factories were decentralized, partly for strategic military reasons, partly owing to the drift, especially of white people, to the suburbs. As a consequence of the oil crisis of 1973 and increasing competition from foreign manufacturers, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors suffered immense losses. Between 1970 and 1980 alone, Detroit lost 208,000 jobs. In view of its social problems, Detroit was looked upon as a hopeless case. In such a situation, vandalism can become frequent, as illustrated by the ritual Devil’s Night: year after year, on Halloween, the night of the 31st of October to the 1st of November, countless empty houses and cars are set alight in Detroit. For some years now, new investment has been flowing into the center of downtown--modestly, but steadily. Now that the social and political tension between the inner city and the metropoli- tan area has died down, Detroit can make capital, in individual cases, from its old title of ‘Motor City’--but only the downtown is experiencing a slow urban recovery. The articles collected in the present publication investigate the historical, socio-economic, urban and cultural processes affecting Detroit. The text section is introduced by a chronological outline of Detroit’s general history. The essays introduce positions showing different approaches to a city which has faced high degrees of suburbanization, segregation, and urban decline. Robert Fishman, together with a team of urban specialists, asked urban historians, social scien- tists, and working planners to rank the influences which shaped and will shape the urban devel- opment of America’s metropolises. The results show the overwhelming impact of federal pro- grams on the urban crisis affecting American cities during the past 50 years. What will influ- ence the next 50 years? The prognoses diverge between those forecasting a continuation of the urban situation, a ‘smart’ change in federal policies, and socio-demographic effects. Jerry Herron examines the 300-year history of Detroit from a distanced but participatory perspective of its history and collective memory. Herron states that Detroit’s history is based on forgetting how to remember history. The statement of Henry Ford epitomizes the phenomenon of forgetting: “History is more or less the bunk ... We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.” The journalist John Gallagher examines the ‘city’ of Detroit, where the urban landscape has been relocated to suburbia. Recent decades have seen a deep change in the meaning of the term ‘urban landscape.’ Gallagher states that in Detroit, as in no other city, the suburban landscape “with its spatial orientation, both chaotic and regimented … has become the dominant model.” During the last century, Detroit’s image changed from that of the ‘Motor City’ to that of the ‘most segregated city in America,’ in a manner exemplary for the contemporary U.S.A. Which cir- cumstances and events shaped Detroit in these years? Jason Booza and Kurt Metzger offer