Introduction The industrial Midwest has been on a decline for the past four decades. Many companies have left Southeastern Michigan to produce goods elsewhere. When these companies moved their operations to other cities, much of the population in the region moved also. These people left to seek job opportunities in other urban areas. When industries and people leave an area, the infrastructure is often left behind. Buildings, land, and infrastructure remain vacant in Detroit +because of this exodus from the region. The framework of the region largely resembles the period before Detroit was incorporated as a city aside from the infrastructure that has been left behind. The availability of existing infrastructure coupled with the new capabilities of the Halifax Port in Nova Scotia Canada, offers Detroit the opportunity to transform the region into an international shipping hub. The Great Lakes Global Freight Gateway Project is a program that will utilize these vacant assets to create an inland port in Detroit and to promote global trade from the Midwest (GLFG3, 3:33/8:46). This essay is going to show how the Great Lakes Global Freight Gateway Project can restore economic vitality to the region and provide growth opportunities for all stakeholders. Development The United States economy has shifted from being predominately manufacturing based to being largely serviced based. In contrast, Detroit’s economy is still based on manufacturing. Manufacturing jobs have been on a steady decline for more than 40 years. Repositioning Detroit from a manufacturing only industry to a manufacturing and transcontinental shipping industry can open new revenue possibilities for stakeholders in the region. When manufacturing jobs left the reg... ... middle of paper ... ...SE Associates. Sase, J. F. (Producer). (2010). Early villages that became Detroit-part 1. [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/user/urbanecondetroit Sase, J. F. (Producer). (2011). Early villages that became Detroit-part 2. [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/user/urbanecondetroit Sase, J. F. (Producer). (2011). Detroit growth by annexation (study version). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/user/urbanecondetroit Sase, J. F. (Producer). (2010). Detroit: Economic rise, fall & rebirth. [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/user/urbanecondetroit Sase, J. F. (Producer). (2011). Halifax to Detroit. [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/user/urbanecondetroit Sase, J. F. (Producer). (2011). Great Lakes Global Freight Gateway. [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/user/urbanecondetroit
Following the American Civil War, the use of railroads for trade was booming. The Detroit, Michigan and Windsor Ontario border, separated by the Detroit River, was a center for railroads at the time with the Michigan Central and Great Western railroads operating on their respective sides of the border. In the early 20th century, the railroads used ferries to transport shipments across the river. As production and population grew, so did the shipments of goods, specifically grain. An increasing delay in the supply and demand of agricultural products was hurting the economy for both farmers and consumers. In 1909, a tunnel was constructed to transport trains under the Detroit River but the need for a bridge with mass transportation abilities was still needed. This led to the construction of the Ambassador Bridge in 1929, funded by financier Joseph Bower and engineered and constructed by the heralded Pittsburgh McClintic-Marshall Company. No one could have ever foreseen the societal and economical impact the decision to engineer a bridge would have.
...higan, they are The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. The Little River Band is full and rich in culture. Some people don’t acknowledge the Ottawa tribe here in Manistee Michigan, or really even know who they are or how they feel. I feel as though that the Ottawa tribe has a huge positive impact on Michigan’s history. Thereby, I have written this essay to discuss and reveal the culture and the day-to-day of the Ottawa tribe with observations, interviews and research.
...usan E. The Encyclopedia of Chicago, "Economic Geography." Chicago: Chicago History Museum, The Newberry Library, and Northwestern University, 2005.
Detroit: Gale, 1997. http://www.gale.com/gale/. Literature Resource Center -. Web. The Web. The Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
At the core of the boom that was the “roaring 20’s” was the automobile. The primary boom industry of the period, the automobile industry employed one of every 14 manufacturing workers and spawned a plethora of ancillary industries. Industries and companies needed to provide the materials of automobile production boomed in support of the industry. Steel, plastics, rubber and glass manufacturing ballooned to support the growth in automobile sales, which grew from 5 million in 1920 to 26 million in 1929. Oil exploration grew in response to the need for petroleum, not only for gasoline but for production of other products which had a petroleum basis. Construction of new roads, manufacturing plants, and homes were born of the markets created by the rise in availability of the automobile to the masses. And smaller but no less important ancillary businesses like gas stations, auto repair shops, upholstery shops, and even consumer stores, in more remote areas away from the major cities, were the direct result of the automobile industry and its far reaching impact and influence on the economy of the time. And the mobility that transportation would provide would spur other impacts and influences and continue to feed the boom that was the 19...
By the 1970’s, because of several factors, Pittsburgh lost the steel industry as its primary economic source. As a result, there was a dramatic shift in Pittsburgh’s economy from one based ...
...S. Baughman, et al. Vol. 7: 1960-1969. Detroit: Gale, 2001. U.S. History in Context. Web. 17 Jan. 2014. Source.
The author applies a blend of personal experience as historical research to approach the complex and unique ‘donut effect’ the city of Detroit is facing. Safransky summarizes the hardships that the predominantly African-American population face in inner city Detroit. Citizens are forced to squat in abandoned homes where others must grow their own food in gardens because grocery stores gouge basic commodity prices. She faults current conditions back to the 1950’s, when the automotive industry began to decline. The “white flight” of white families left for the suburbs and the poorer blacks were stuck in central locations. This in turn created the ‘donut effect’, where white people amalgamated in the outer ring through the suburbs, and African-Americans
Rail in Chicago is essential to Railroads throughout the country of North America. Chicago is also the known for it’s center in the railways throughout America. In comparison to any other city in the country, Chicago offers more railroad tracks to the surrounding states. “Chicago today remains the busiest rail hub in the United States. Each day, nearly 1,300 trains pass through the region (500 freight and 760 passenger). Chicago handles one-fourth of the nation's freight rail traffic, each day handling 37,500 railcars” (About CREATE). Being the center for American freight Chicago also is known for it railyards. The railyards are gateways to the other rail tracks. It is home t...
...cars. According to Nancy Andrews, Christopher Kirkpatrick, and Eric Millikin, “Detroit went on a binge starting around 2000 to close budget holes and to build infrastructure, more than doubling debt to $8 billion by 2012.” Detroit was borrowing money to build these infrastructures that are not capable of doing other things except to build cars; therefore, when other countries cars has found out other ways to make cheap cars and to sell their cars for a cheaper price, Detroit cannot lower their cars’ prices due to their loans for building the infrastructures. However, the Bay Area will not go bankrupt because it is not in debt. In contrast, the Bay Area is gaining a revenue, which the grand total revenue is $6670.6 millions in the year of 2013. In addition, the Bay Area is planning to gain a revenue of $276.92 billions in next twenty eight years (Plan Bay Area).
The spatial isolation present in Detroit deepened anti-integration sentiment, and the resulting shift of whites out of the Rust Belt led to conditions conducive to deindustrialization. However, Sugrue notes that “[racial prejudices] are the result of the actions of federal and local governments, real estate agents, individual home buyers and sellers, and community organizations” (11). That is to say white flight is a phenomenon dependent on political climate rather than being an entirely intrinsic, prejudiced practice of whites. This is an important distinction to make, as it helps reinforce the idea that systems such as poverty and racism are exactly that—systems, and not a result of individual immorality. The same can be said for the urban crisis in Detroit: as opposed to being purely an issue of deindustrialization or poverty, Sugrue argues that the circumstances of Detroit may be in part an institutional problem. “The shape of the postwar city, I contend, is the result of political and economic decisions, of choices made and not made by various institutions, groups and
2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 166-173. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 Dec. 2013.
No technology has had a greater impact on the American life than the automobile. Where we live, how we work, and how we travel, what our landscape looks like, our environment have all been shaped by the automobile. There isn’t a better place that demonstrates the social, geographic, and political changes brought by the industry than Detroit, the motor city. Detroit was situated to be a center of the American automobile industry. All of the material that was needed to build was easily accessible to the city by the great lakes waterways and by rail. The automobile industry helped people with their everyday lives and changed the way people saw the world.
Zukin, Sharon. "Gentrification: Culture and Capital in the Urban Core." Annual Review of Sociology 13(1987): 129-147.
Susan S. Fainstein, Scott Campbell. 2003. Readings in Urban Theory. Second Edition. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.