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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMotor City Revived as Detroit Withers to Motown Shadow
By Jeff Green and Keith Naughton - Mar 25, 2013
Sheila Cockrel remembers one early sign of Detroits decline: The retailer J.L. Hudsons turned off the lights on floor after empty floor as shoppers abandoned the worlds tallest department store for new suburban malls.
Thats nobodys fault, thats what happens in culture, said the former Detroit councilwoman who now teaches history at the citys Wayne State University (26128MF). You have these larger economic forces in play.
Detroit so dominated U.S. car making in the 20th Century that the citys name became synonymous with the U.S. auto industry, like Hollywood with movie making. Now one Detroit is rising from the ashes, while the other is crumbling to dust. The U.S. automakers are surging, while Detroit is in such distress that its being taken over by the state of Michigan today.
General Motors Co. (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F) and Chrysler Group LLC have seen rising revenue and profit in the wake of wrenching bankruptcies and restructurings, earning a combined $13.5 billion last year. Detroit is running a $375 million deficit, with 36 percent of its residents living in poverty and a murder rate at the highest level since the Reagan Administration.
Theyre linked in history and in name only, said Scott Martelle, author of Detroit: A Biography and a former Detroit News reporter who now lives in Irvine, California. There are, what, two car factories left in the city?
Six Decades
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-25/motor-city-revived-as-detroit-withers-to-motown-shadow.html
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)is offered as one reason for the demise of American cities!
Live by the car, die by the car?
Viva_La_Revolution
(28,791 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)You'd have to go back decades to see major auto assembly plants in Detroit's city limits...They've always been spread out elsewhere in the state...
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)Buick was in Flint when GM bought it.
Pontiacs are made in Pontiac.
Oldsmobiles were made in Oldsmobile, Michigan.
Ok, I made up part of that.