Detroit, America’s great comeback city. On May 5th 2013 that slogan was chosen to be the new slogan representing Detroit in a nationally-focused advertising campaign that started last July. Why is Detroit making a comeback and where from? The era of mass production emerged in Detroit in the early twentieth century when Henry Ford’s Dearborn plant opened in 1913. Much of the subsequent development was tied up with the automobile industry. The city’s social geographies were reflective of the strongly racialised organization of labour within the industry. The racial segregation of the city was compounded by the suburbanisation of the city that took many of the city’s wealthier white residents to new settlements beyond the city limits. This left predominantly black residents to occupy the progressively degrading inner city suburbs. The combination of a narrow economic base rooted heavily in automobile manufacture and stark racial division between the inner city and the suburbs has underpinned the current crisis facing the city. However, the abandonment of such large areas of its inner city has opened up opportunities for artists and entrepreneurial urban agriculture projects to make productive use of these spaces (Barrett and Hall, 2012). If one would look into the history of Detroit, it would be inevitable to ignore Detroit as an icon for the modern world. Yet, Detroit has now become a symbol of the curse of the modern world’s metropoles. The inner city of Detroit is shrinking, while the suburbs keep growing.
City shrinkage, also known as urban shrinkage, has become a huge problem all over the world. Especially in the United States of America the consequences of city shrinkage are becoming more and more visible. Not only are the shri...
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...enges of Globalization, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Mitchell, C.J.A. (2004). Making Sense of Counterurbanisation, Journal of Rural Studies. Elsevier.
Pallagst, K., Aber, J., Audirac, I., Cunningham-Sabot, E., Fol, S., Martinez-Fernandez, … Wiechmann, T. (2009). The Future of Shrinking Cities: Problems, Patterns and Strategies of Urban Transformation in a Global Context. Center for Global Metropolitan Studies.
Pallagst, K,. Martinez-Fernandez, C. & Wiechmann T. (2013). Shrinking Cities: International Perspectives and Policy Implications. New York: Routledge.
Power A., Plöger, J. & Winkler A. (2010). Phoenix Cities: the Fall and Rise of Great Industrial Cities. Bristol: The Policy Press.
Schlappa, H. & Neill, W.J. V. (2013). From Crisis to Choice: Re-imagining the Future in Shrinking Cities. Saint-Denis: URBACT.
In the book The Great Inversion, author Alan Ehrenhalt reveals the changes that are happing in urban and suburban areas. Alan Ehrenhalt the former editor of Governing Magazine leads us to acknowledge that there is a shift in urban and suburban areas. This revelation comes as the poorer, diverse, city dwellers opt for the cookie cutter, shanty towns at the periphery of American cities known as the suburbs. In similar fashion the suburbanites, whom are socioeconomic advantaged, are looking to migrate into the concrete jungles, of America, to live an urban lifestyle. Also, there is a comparison drawn that recognizes the similarities of cities and their newer, more affluent, residents, and those cities of Europe a century ago and their residents. In essence this book is about the demographic shifts in Urban and Suburban areas and how these changes are occurring.
The rise of Detroit first began in the early 1900’s when Henry Ford was in his shed working on his “horseless carriage”. At that time he was thought to be the crazy next-door neighbor, but as he perfected his machine he quickly became one of the most famous and influential men in the world. Ford was powerful, however, the power of the people proved to be stronger and more effective. After years of working long hours in terrible conditions with little pay, the autoworkers formed the UAW in 1935. Six years later, they were able to win a contract with the Ford Motor Company, however their success didn’t come easy.
growth, in reaction to the many undesirable features of urban sprawl (Ye 301). Smart growth
If you live in or near Detroit you know the recession, which began roughly around December of 2007 still seems to exist. Detroit with its auto manufacturing background was hit very hard during the economic downturn of our country. What you may not know however is how city planners intend to breathe new life into what many consider a dying city. To the people who see us as a dying city, you have no vision. Urban renewal will bring renewed glory by preserving buildings that have cultural heritage, providing small business opportunities and rebuilding neighborhood communities.
Segrue, Thomas J. The Origins of the Urban Crisis. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press, 1996.
In the documentary, “Cleveland: Confronting Decline in an American City” the short movie analyses the great risk confronting Cleveland as a city as result of deterioration and dilapidation of the urban core. The documentary discusses factors that are responsible for this problem and possible solutions; as this has become a phenomenon, not just in Cleveland but other major US cities. The issue of the urban decline in most cities cuts across people, commerce, and the economy in general. However, the questions of how most cities arrived at their current predicament, consequences of abandoning these concerns, and what can be done to reverse the bad situation, remain unanswered.
Urban Consolidation Factors and Fallacies in Urban Consolidation: Introduction As proponents of urban consolidation and consolidated living continue to manifest in our society, we must ensure that our acknowledgment of its benefits, and the problems of its agitator (sprawl), do not hinder our caution over its continually changing objectives. Definition Like much urban policy, the potential benefits that urban consolidation and the urban village concept seek to offer are substantially undermined by ambiguous definition. This ambiguity, as expressed through a general lack of inter-governmental and inter-professional cohesion on this policy, can best be understood in terms of individual motives (AIUSH,1991). * State Government^s participatory role in the reduction of infrastructure spending.
The city of Detroit, Michigan has always been known as the motor city for its car plants, a.k.a. “The Big Three” and Motown records, a.k.a. “Hitsville U.S.A.”. These are just some of the many things that made Detroit one of the thriving and driven cities within the United States. But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end Detroit knows this hardship all too well. Detroit a city that once flowed with economic resources now struggles to compete with other major cities economically. Detroit is now known for crime, violence, a failing school system, and corrupt political figures. These and other negative effects on the city have caused major corporations to move to Detroit’s surrounding neighboring cities. Where did the city of Detroit go wrong? Can Detroit ever recover from such a heavy deficit? And if so, where would the city begin?
Again, this section will give a working definition of the “urban question’. To fully compare the political economy and ecological perspectives a description of the “urban question” allows the reader to better understand the divergent schools of thought. For Social Science scholars, from a variety of disciplines, the “urban question” asks how space and the urban or city are related (The City Reader, 2009). The perspective that guides the ecological and the social spatial-dialect schools of thought asks the “urban question” in separate distinct terminology. Respected scholars from the ecological mode of thinking, like Burgess, Wirth and others view society and space from the rationale that geographical scope determines society (The City Reader, 2009). The “urban question” that results from the ecological paradigm sees the relationship between the city (space) as influencing the behaviors of individuals or society in the city. On the other hand...
Chaffey, J. (1994). The challenge of urbanisation. In M. Naish & S. Warn (Eds.), Core geography (pp. 138-146). London: Longman.
In Ernest W. Burgess’s “The Growth of the City: An Introduction to a Research Project,” (1925), the author delves deep into the processes that go into the construction of a modern city or urban environment. Burgess lists its following qualities: skyscrapers, the department store, the newspaper, shopping malls, etc. (p. 154). Burgess also includes social work as being part of a modern urban environment. This is supported by his construction model based on concentric circles that divided Chicago into five zones. The first was called a center loop meant for a business district. Secondly, there was an area for business and light manufacture. Third, there was a “zone for working men’s homes” (p. 156). The fourth is the residential area of high-class apartment buildings. The fifth is where suburban houses are located.
In my conclusion, I will align with sociologist Feagin and Parker suggested understanding that political and economic leaders control urban growth. Here in my country. The urban mayors, and leading business class has hijack the land allocation. “economic and political leaders work alongside each other to effect change in urban growth and decline, determining where money flows and how land use is regulated,” (Little & McGivern, 2013, p.622).
Susan S. Fainstein, Scott Campbell. 2003. Readings in Urban Theory. Second Edition. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
As previously implied, cities are currently the antithesis of even the barest sense of sustainability. To succinctly define the term “sustainability” would be to say that it represents living within one’s needs. When it comes to the city, with almost zero local sources of food or goods, one’s means is pushed and twisted to include resources originating far beyond the boundaries of the urban landscape. Those within cities paradoxically have both minimal and vast options when it comes to continuing their existence, yet this blurred reality is entirely reliant on the resources that a city can pull in with its constantly active economy.
Global cities are cities with substantial economic power, controlling the concentration and accumulation of capital and global investments. Despite this, global cities are the sites of increasing disparities in occupation and income. This is as a result of large in-migration and growing income inequality together with capacity and resource constraints, and inadequate Government policies.