In which Detroit suburb did Gary Bergman live? Not a Ghost Town: An Alternative View of Detroit
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 hapless “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. appeared in the city a large number of personal cars, as well as a network of highways and transport interchanges.
At the same time it was advancing advertising campaign, whose task was to make public transport 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, erosion of the river bank became real environmental problem Detroit - and it was creatively replaced with another environmental problem, strengthening the coastline 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, trees sprouting from the walls, in a strange way intertwined with streets, brightly lit 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.
You want to see a dying American metropolis with abandoned skyscrapers, garbage, burnt-out cars on the streets, crowds of homeless people and the most high level murders in the USA? Then hurry up, because Detroit is not going to die at all. Moreover, in a few years there will be no trace left of the established image of the “American nightmare”. The US authorities made a key decision to save the largest city in Michigan and once the capital of the automotive industry, investing tens of billions of dollars in its resuscitation and the effect is already becoming noticeable. Another thing is that simply pouring huge amounts of money into a bankrupt city without eliminating the causes that led to the economic and social catastrophe is, in my opinion, a bad decision. After all, the problems began in the 60-70s of the last century, when the automobile giants Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, dissatisfied with increased taxes and plus as a result of the overproduction crisis, began to leave Detroit, moving factories to other cities in the country and abroad. Meanwhile, almost the entire population of the metropolis either worked at car factories or was indirectly connected with it. In the eighties, the crisis reached its peak when unemployment in Detroit reached 50% of the working population, after which the city plunged into darkness.
I stayed near the Detroit airport, where hotels, unlike the center, are very expensive. My three-star hotel cost $40 per day, which is practically nothing for the USA. Let me remind you that with all my savings, in New York I barely found an option for 120 per day and I was glad that at least that was the case. Do you know what these guys are doing in the photo below? This is a special machine for pumping water out of puddles and cleaning city sewers -
The only inconvenience of living near the airport is, firstly, the noise of planes taking off (but this does not scare me, after all, I served in the Israeli army for three years at a military airfield), and secondly, it is transport. America is a country of motorists and public transport here is bad, and in relatively small cities it’s a problem. There is no transportation at all to Detroit from my hotel, but luckily there is a free shuttle to the airport, where I catch a bus into the city. This is the third day in a row I’ve been riding this way and I always end up being the only passenger at the stop -
The bus runs from the airport to Detroit every half hour and costs $2. Naturally, they don’t give out change. There is no place for people to change money. But, as I said above, there are also few people willing to use the bus, so no one cares about your change. On the other hand, the driver doesn’t even look at how much money you put in the box. Yesterday I only put in one dollar, not two. Nobody cares.
These buses will take you to the center of Detroit in about 30-40 minutes. The main thing is to take care of your back. What does the back have to do with it, you ask? The roads in Detroit are quite broken, but the bus rushes without avoiding potholes and cracks. I can’t even type on my phone; I can’t hit the letters with my finger because of the shaking.
So, let's take a deep breath and get off the bus in the criminal capital of the United States. What do we see around? Crowds of bloodthirsty killers, pickpockets, drug dealers - they are all waiting for the naive tourist. Kidding. Nobody cares about you. This does not mean that there is no crime and that everything that is written in the newspapers is not true. Everything is consistent, as is the fact that, calculated per 1000 residents, there are exactly 10 times more murders here than, for example, in New York, including crime-ridden Harlem and Queens. You just need to understand that 95% of crime does not affect us in any way, these are internal fights between criminal clans and drug-related gangs. We, as tourists, only run the risk of running into a spontaneous, opportunistic attack from a random hooligan or homeless person, and these chances are relatively small. Of course, the chances of getting into trouble will increase if you walk after dark, or climb into abandoned houses where homeless people probably live. You can also be bitten by stray dogs that you meet in the ruins of factories. Otherwise, take the usual precautions: do not carry valuables or documents with you, look around on deserted streets (and avoid deserted streets), do not withdraw money from street ATMs, do not flash an expensive camera, do not show that you are not local. And everything will be fine.
I got off the bus in front of the former Detroit Central Station, which was abandoned in 1988 when Amtrak stopped serving the bankrupt city. The building stood abandoned for exactly 30 years and gradually deteriorated until last year it was bought by the Ford Corporation and just these days they opened the facility to everyone and free of charge. In a matter of days, on the car company’s website, where they opened a registration for those wishing to visit the building, About 20 thousand people signed up, see Mlive News. The fact is that next week the building will be closed for restoration until 2022 and then company offices will move into it. Now is our last chance to look inside, take advantage of those who are traveling around America now. I think this information will be of interest to blogger and traveler Sasha Belenky macos , which at these moments is moving somewhere in this direction, but from Canada. He has an excellent series of reports about Detroit and you can compare how terrible the city was 4 years ago when he came here: . Already, most of the places he climbed cannot be reached. They are either destroyed or repaired. And in another year or two you will not even see what I will show you in this article.
At first I stood in line, but after standing for half an hour I didn’t move an inch. Okay, there are enough photos of this building on Google, I won’t waste time standing in lines.
In old photographs of Detroit (well, like old ones, from five years ago, for example), this building stands shabby and scary in the middle of an intersection. Now it is being repaired -
On the question of dangerous places. It is not recommended to walk through such a crossing above the highway. Here you can really be robbed and not only will you have nowhere to run, but there will be no one to help you. But I have no choice, there is no other way to the object I need -
It's not worth going here either -
Suddenly, a mosque is in the middle of a wasteland. Detroit is home to the largest Arab community in the United States, immigrants from Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Based official statistics, there are 300 thousand of them here, which is slightly less than 10% of the population of greater Detroit, that is, with its suburbs.
Almost all abandoned buildings are surrounded by fences and many of them are private property. The fact that the owners left their house does not give us the right to consider the house garbage dump, or even just a place to visit. No, you can get in, but from a legal point of view, it makes no difference whether you got into an apartment with a family living there, or where the family has moved out from. So be careful, because you can run into not only homeless people, but also the police.
How much do you think this car is selling for? Yes, it is ancient, about forty years old. Now, you can't see it in the photo, but it only costs $300. Pay and collect. I don’t know how far this unit will go, but it’s a fact.
Do you know what a homeless person does? You'll never guess. He dries things. There is a sewer hatch with hot steam coming out of it; the city is blowing out sewerage. All over the city, homeless people have blocked the hatches with their rags and, sitting next to them, surrender to nirvana -
Grandma for one day for everyone. Doesn't remind you of anything? This is historical garbage, the era of the collapse of Detroit in the 70-80s, when people began to lose their jobs and degenerate.
Of course, there is a sense of decline in everything. You will only find such damaged asphalt like in Detroit in St. Louis, where the situation is reminiscent of Detroit, but I’ll tell you about that separately.
By the way, a real Masonic lodge. Do you think I'm joking?
Here's the proof for you -
A chic historical building that is open to visits, but you must register in advance.
Abandoned hotel -
And one more hotel. What are we talking about, what hotels, what tourists? The city stood in ruins for almost 40 years...
And yet, as I said above, not everything is so bad. There are still few new buildings here, but the old ones are being actively restored -
This skyscraper built in the 1930s, on the left, stood abandoned a few years ago, and now it is being renovated -
And another "dead" hotel -
The very center of the city and again desolation -
I wanted to climb onto the roof of this building on the right, using the external ladder, but when I approached I noticed that the fire escape had rotted and fallen off -
Please note that work is actively underway -
Just five years ago, this beautiful central avenue in Detroit looked like something out of a horror movie about a zombie apocalypse. And now it’s quite civilized, they even set up chess, like in Yerevan near the Moscow cinema -
There are still very few people, yet the city has lost 70% of its inhabitants...
Suddenly, the synagogue, naturally closed. But it seems that Jews sometimes appear here, judging by the neat flowers at the entrance and the burning lights above the door -
And again, everywhere and everything is being built and restored -
But the city has yet to tackle asphalt -
And I’m going to this, at first glance, unremarkable house, right ahead -
What kind of house do you think this is and why am I going there? At first glance, there is nothing outstanding there, except for this arch on the corner, which has clearly been covered with dust for a long time.
So, it was from this building that the history of the Ford Corporation began; it was here in 1892 that Henry Ford rented a small room for a workshop and began building his first cars -
You can go inside, now there is nothing here, but again, the building was bought and they will restore it -
But you must admit that the interiors are impressive!
Like this ancient chest -
But this is all nonsense compared to what you will find there, on the floor above! There was a Detroit theater here, which operated from 1926 until 1960, when the crisis had just begun in the city. People didn't care anymore cultural events and in 1972, after standing abandoned for 12 years, the theater was turned into a nightclub with prostitutes. This is a completely different matter; all the signs of a crisis are obvious. But in 1976, the crisis brought down even signs of debauchery and the nightclub went bankrupt. Since then, the place has been abandoned for, say, 42 years. A few years ago, the former theater was turned into a parking lot -
Phew, how dusty and stuffy it is inside, let's take a walk further -
I wonder if this guy's pants are stopping him from walking? If you think that he is sick, then you are mistaken, this is fashion. In Detroit, every second such “fashionist” is found in black areas.
A small area in the center has already been put in order and here you feel like you’re in Manhattan in New York, absolutely civilized -
Not long ago they launched a monorail around the city center, and they didn’t really rack their brains about what to call this type of transport, so it’s called a “people mover,” a mover of people, literally.
On the right, by the way, is the only one in its entirety new complex, built in Detroit over the past 40 years -
Monument to the Victims of the Armenian Genocide in downtown Detroit -
It's time for me to go back to the hotel! Otherwise, I’ll still be stuck in the city after dark and humanity will lose the great figure of science and technology, Sasha Lapshin. Kidding. Here is my stop, where I spent about 40 minutes, because the buses do not follow the schedule in any way -
Finally, I’ll add a few numbers that may disappoint someone, because we grew up convinced that America is a country of fabulous money that awaits us. So, in Detroit today there are about 25% of the working population unemployed and the benefit is just over $500. It is not clear how to live on this amount in the USA. Okay, you get free lunches at the homeless canteen and discounts on electricity and water. The average salary in Detroit was $28,000 per year in 2017, with 50% of the population earning $16,000 to $18,000 per year. In 2017, 82% of Detroit's population is black and that's not good or bad, it's just a fact. Moreover, in 1950 the city was 92% white, also just statistics. Detroit ranks first in the United States in the number of murders.
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 (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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Ghost town Detroit
In 2013, the city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy. It's a high point for a once-great American city, decimated by economics and mismanagement.
However, long before the city learned of its financial insolvency, it was already in decline.
And it was once the capital of capitalism, the great “roaring furnace” at the very center of America’s rise to global power and greatness.
By the way, Stalin wanted to copy it on the banks of the Volga, but found that he could not reproduce its machine spirit.
The ghost town of Detroit used to have a spirit of frantic, unstoppable economic cruelty, ruthless, cold and majestic.
The original heart of Detroit was filled with some of the most exuberant and powerful buildings of the American mid-century: colossal, ornate theaters and cinemas, mighty hotels and department stores, all emphasizing energy, movement, optimism and strength.
Why Detroit is a ghost town
The main reason for the decline of the American city was the failure to integrate the automobile industry into the world economy.
In the 20th century, the largest automobile and tank production facilities were located there.
During World War II, Franklin Roosevelt dubbed the city the "Arsenal of Democracy" as it went from producing Cadillacs and Fords to producing 35 percent of American war production: tanks, Jeeps and B-24 bombers, which were produced by the tens of thousands.
And this was one of the cities of the “Promised Land,” a new future to which countless black Americans sought after leaving the bigoted, segregated American South in hope of a new life.
Detroit population
Wartime expansion (1941-45) attracted 200,000 immigrants, many of them blacks from the South.
They were attracted by the high wage from new plants of General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and a number of other facilities, including the military.
During the 1950s, at the height of its influence, Detroit boasted a population of more than 2 million people with steady, well-paying jobs.
Today the city's population is approximately 700,000, and large parts of the city are abandoned and rotting.
Without money in the municipal budget for demolition, these buildings will likely remain that way.
Over time, these abandoned buildings became attractions for urban explorers and photographers trying to document and understand the fall of a great American city.
Photos of Detroit's “ghost town”
Detroit riot
Detroit was known for its thriving Ku Klux Klan and its fanatical police force.
The city experienced race riots as early as 1943, caused by the brutal segregation of hastily built and sparse public housing. 34 people died and hundreds were injured.
In 1967, a second terrible race riot occurred, which left 43 dead and almost 500 injured. Federal troops, deployed under the Insurrection Act, eventually imposed a sullen peace.
The fighting was so serious that at the height of Vietnam War thousands of soldiers were needed to restore order.
So, as thousands of black families moved to Detroit, real estate agents sought to make a profit by scaring white residents.
They then bought their homes cheaply and sold them for large profits to blacks. This cynical process was called the "block affair", a method of panicking people in all areas with warnings of a black invasion.
Meanwhile, city planners encouraged even more risk-taking. Since it was a Motor City, they did not support public transport, but built a network of highways, which resulted in long distances, which further “broken up” residential areas.
White people began to move out of the city into new suburbs with lower taxes and better schools.
Thus, inch by inch and largely thanks to whites, Detroit became a black city.
Detroit collapse
The disaster of 1967 accelerated this process. In 1974, it elected its first black mayor, Coleman Young.
He would later become infamous as the man who helped kill Detroit. His election, justly or unjustly, was the signal for a more rapid flight.
Although other sources say that Young was wrongly accused and that the destruction of Detroit began before him. Both versions have their truth.
The war in the Middle East in 1973, and the subsequent rise in oil prices, finally drags Detroit down.
From that point on, the American automobile industry lost support even among patriotic Americans and never fully regained it.
Meanwhile, the housing crisis grew and grew. There was already a stupid, government-sponsored mortgage boom, with the government lending to people who would never be able to pay off their loans: an early version of the prime-lending crisis.
The first cocaine appeared, sweeping the lethargic and homeless suburbs.
And local politicians and businessmen were confused: “We couldn’t understand that we were no longer in the top ten cities in the United States.”
The most dramatic development recent years is the idea that agriculture can revive the “ghost town.”
But even this met with contempt and opposition. The city fathers don't want to see combines and barns, not to mention pigs and chickens, in the middle of their proud and historic city.
And yet, among the abandoned houses, modest but determined efforts are being made to turn barren lands into fruitful ones.
Detroit has a lot of trash, but it also has a lot of land. A home can be purchased from the city for US$300, although each lot costs up to US$3,000 per hectare.
Some entrepreneurs explain what's next: “The city thought farm meant a big red barn with pigs and chickens. And they also thought that this would be a sign of defeat and failure. So we painted them a picture of what we had in mind: gardens, fruit plantations, hydroponic greenhouses.”
On this moment 139 square miles of vacant land. With the unemployment rate touching 50 percent, many people may be interested in moving back here.
It's impossible to say that this will happen.
Is Detroit the new Amsterdam?
Another radical scheme to resurrect a ghost town comes from Jeffrey Fieger, a Detroit lawyer who made his name defending the late Dr. Jack Kevorkian, or “Dr. Death,” the notorious local pioneer of euthanasia.
He recently said: “I can take Detroit back in five minutes. I would clean up the streets and parks. Would enforce medical marijuana laws. I would also implement new prostitution laws and I would make us the new Amsterdam. We would attract a lot of young people. We'd make Detroit a fun city. A place where you want to live, and they would live here.”
*Fieger was the Democratic candidate for governor of Michigan in 1998.
Half of the Earth's population lives in cities, which occupy about 1% of the surface of our planet - these figures are familiar to many, but there is not as much talk about urban shrinkage as there should be. Eerily beautiful photographs of abandoned Detroit - once the fourth largest city in the United States - even provoked... the new kind tourism: observing a dying city. “Theories and Practices” tried to figure out why this happens.
Failed cities
It is customary to start articles on urbanism with tragic figures - half of the population (59%) of the Earth lives in cities, which occupy about 1% of the surface of our planet. 50 new people come to cities every day, which means that each city will need 50 new jobs, beds, lunches, dinners. Compared to 50 additional dinners, the slight reduction in the neighboring town where some of these people came from doesn't look so scary. In general, there is not as much talk about urban shrinkage as there should be. Common sense suggests that while some cities gain population, others lose it. In the globalization race, it is exactly like in life - someone wins, the rest lose.
What do we know about the losers? We know that there are significantly fewer so-called boom cities than their unsuccessful counterparts. More than 370 cities with populations greater than 100,000 have lost more than 10% of their population over the past 50 years. A quarter of emptying cities are located in the United States, mostly in the Middle East.
What time does to American cities
Detroit has lost the most, with a population decline of 61.4% since the 1950s. A thriving metropolis has turned into a ghost town, entire neighborhoods are empty, businesses are now abandoned. The story is well-known and sad: a prosperous, but generally quite ordinary American town, against the backdrop of the automobile boom of the 20s, is experiencing its heyday and by the thirties it is completely rebuilt - to such a scale that the number of skyscrapers competes with New York and New Orleans. The decline occurs as quickly as the prosperity - even in the 1960s the city gave the impression of a generally favorable city with barely noticeable signs of future financial troubles, and already in the 1970s the city was almost deserted.
What caused these changes? It is traditional to blame the collapse of the automobile industry. At the beginning of the century, Detroit attracted hundreds of thousands of migrants by providing them with jobs. Then there was a war, then the war ended, technology moved on, there was a shift to automated production, and the demand for unskilled labor decreased. Thousands and thousands of workers were left out of work. Industrial development and the associated job losses took place against the backdrop of intense conflicts between whites and blacks. Detroit was a dangerous city to live in, which could not but contribute to the outflow of population. Another factor was the total orientation towards industrial culture - there was neither a large university nor an art gallery in the city. It is also worth mentioning here the lack of cultural continuity. Due to the endless redevelopment of Detroit, the preservation of historic buildings was not even thought about: residential areas were cleared to build parking lots, architectural monuments were demolished for offices, and if some buildings were preserved, it was only because there were not enough funds for demolition.
All abandoned cities are similar to each other, but all prosperous cities are beautiful in their own way. Like Detroit once was, these were successful cities with developed infrastructure, which the population left for one reason or another. And if these cities used to generate income, they now represent a serious economic problem.
How more people leaves, the more expensive it becomes for those who remain to live. The main reasons for this are related to the city's infrastructure: although the population has decreased, it has remained unchanged. This follows simple mathematics: the infrastructure remains the same, therefore the costs for it remain the same, but the population has decreased, and this means that the per capita expenditure has increased. The next consideration is related to population density: the more populated a city is, the denser the population, the cheaper various municipal services are (roughly speaking, the length of the water pipe is reduced). Cities are thinning out, populations are dispersed, water pipes are lengthening. Housing prices are rising sharply, which becomes another reason to leave the city.
No solution has been found yet. One of the proposals is artificial increase population density with the destruction of redundant infrastructure - seems to many to be a more than controversial decision.
Manchester and Ivanovo
Detroit has become a classic illustration of the phenomenon of abandoned cities and a universal material for its study. In 2002, the German Cultural Foundation launched a major project on this topic with the participation of artists, journalists, cultural scientists and sociologists. In addition to the automotive capital of the United States, the list includes Manchester in England and Ivanovo in Russia. The stated purpose of the study was a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon, identification of risk areas and search for ways of salvation.
The economy and demographics of Manchester, once the "cotton capital of the world", were negatively affected by the first World War and the economic crisis that followed. Manchester's population reached 900,000 at the height of the industrial age, and the city lost approximately half of its residents when deindustrialization began. Production somehow continued until the 50s, and in the 60s British cotton completely ceased to exist. For the next 20 years, the city was overwhelmed by total unemployment (150,000 people found themselves without jobs). The decline was felt most strongly in the city center, where no more than 1,000 residents remained (70-80s).
By a happy coincidence, the accessibility of local institutions began to attract students and talented youth, which contributed to the emergence of a well-known subculture. It is during the period of economic recession that a special musical culture, art, and architecture emerge here, which, along with reasonable policies to support business, becomes one of the factors of urban revival. The population is moving into the service sector, where 70% of city residents are now employed, and unemployment is falling from 19% in 1995 to 10% in 2001. Today, 20 years after the acute crisis, Manchester is booming. According to 2010 data, the city is ranked second in popularity for business in the UK and 12th in Europe. Manchester is seen as a symbol of urban regeneration, although some experts, pointing to its continuing population decline (loss of 9.2% from 1991 to 2001), call the city "the most booming of the world's emptying cities."
Ivanovo is often featured in various studies as the “Russian Manchester”. At the beginning of the 20th century, the young city (status assigned in 1871) became one of the largest industrial centers, and after the revolution it turned into the “third proletarian capital of the republic.” The population of Ivanovo is growing at a tremendous pace: in 1870 - 17 thousand people, in 1917 - already 170 thousand. The city becomes the largest platform for experimental Soviet architecture. After Stalin came to power, the economic course changed, light industry recedes into the background, and the life of the city is suspended. An economic recession begins, the gender composition of the population changes (Ivanovo turns into a “city of brides”). Without modernization, the region loses its economic importance. They don’t talk about decline - censorship.
60% of the population is forced to engage agriculture to feed the family, and so, ironically, in the 50s the city realizes the utopian dream of urbanists about a garden city. During perestroika, Ivanovo experiences its most difficult times: factories shut down, unemployment reaches its peak (loss of 58% of jobs). In 1998, production was reduced another 5 times (22% of the 1989 volume was produced). After the 1998 crisis, the situation begins to improve little by little, but the region remains one of the poorest in Russia - with a corresponding quality of life and demographic situation.
Venice 2030
The latest project of a group of researchers dealing with emptying cities is Venice. Over the past 40 years, its population has decreased by half. The city's economy operates solely on tourism, whose influx has increased three times over the years, simplifying the many faces of Venice and turning it into a tourist attraction like Disneyland. Life on the island is becoming more and more difficult - for example, in San Marco Square it is much easier to buy a mask than a carton of milk. Property prices are rising and 2,500 residents are leaving the city every year. The population is aging. By 2030, Venice could be completely deserted.
The causes of the crisis are associated with the movement of infrastructure outside the city and the subsequent shift in the center of urban life. In 1966, one of the largest floods occurred, 16,000 people lost a roof over their heads. The number of major floods continues to rise. The influx of tourists has led to most of urban real estate is being turned into hotels or bought up by foreigners. Here it is appropriate to raise the question that is so popular today about the right to the city - is Venice a city for tourists or for its residents?
According to the prosperous UK alone, there are more than 3,000 cities in the world that could potentially become empty. People with financial capabilities, in-demand specialties and relevant personal qualities strive to leave places that are difficult to live in. What causes cities to decline? There are many reasons, the consequences of some are immediate, others manifest themselves after a long time. In general, speaking about what leads to the emptying of cities, two historical factors can be distinguished: deindustrialization and the greater dynamics of life outside the abandoned city.
