Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Well, that's not going to help Detroit...
Sadly, the news for Detroit isn't getting much better. It has the second-worst violent crime rate in the country, and would be the worst but for it's neighbor, Flint, which came in first.
Meanwhile, I was shocked on a recent visit to see that people have managed to put graffiti on the highway signs posted over I-94, as shown above. How in the heck did they get up there???
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I'm heading up to Detroit in a few weeks. It is always bittersweet to return. I enjoy seeing family and friends (including your parents) but the vibrancy of this once bustling city can only be found in small pockets and that makes me sad.
How could the city that gave us the Model-T assembly line efficiency which helped create our great middle class (and gave me my legendary Redwing hockey heroes - I was enjoying reading their autographs from a late 60's game program with 'Gordie' on the cover last evening) - a city that held its own with Chicago, Pittsburgh, etc. . . fallen into such decay?
It too saddens me as I wonder from afar. . . Mark, what happened ?
It too saddens me as I wonder from afar. . . Mark, what happened ?
It was WW2 and everyone was focused on Detroit. When Detroit's industrialists
failed to respond to produce " the arsenal of democracy" FDR sent in the whiz kids. Under their guidance airplanes, tanks, armored cars, and everything else that the war effort needed was built in Detroit and environs. Women joined the workforce, new production methods and materials were developed. Detroiters rolled up their sleeves and went to work.
After the war , with the US undamaged and geared up, Detroit led the nation into a prosperous period. The middle class took off. After high school a worker had, with strong union support, the opportunity for a lifetime job with good wages, healthcare and a guaranteed pension. Workers could afford a good single family home, college educations for their kids and often a summer cottage.
Then corporations got greedy and returned to their prewar ways. Arrogance led to shoddy decisions. Unions overreached and Detroit lost its edge. The oil embargo doomed the giant car makers. They made dreadful small cars. At the same time City government jobs started to replace manufacturing jobs. The decline had started.Those who could, left the city.
Detroit had not created an entrepreneurial society. We had the first large malls out in the burbs where the people had gone. Great wealth was created but not put back into the City. Loans were not available for small businesses in the inner city. Racism was rampant. Redlining of properties and discriminating hiring practices created the 8 Mile Road barrier between city and suburbs.
Black leaders continued the corrupt and incompetent city management that the corporate and government managers had in place.
That is how we got here, Christine Charles.
Detroit is at a crossroads.
Unfortunately it is at a time when only bad ideas are coming forth. Detroit will go into bankruptcy this summer and will likely be so weakened by the process that the partial recovery will be stopped.
The State of Michigan will be severely affected.
There are solutions, but the current political situation in Michigan is not the same as it was in the 1940's. Many good people will be hurt.
Christine, when you are in Detroit, please look us up.
failed to respond to produce " the arsenal of democracy" FDR sent in the whiz kids. Under their guidance airplanes, tanks, armored cars, and everything else that the war effort needed was built in Detroit and environs. Women joined the workforce, new production methods and materials were developed. Detroiters rolled up their sleeves and went to work.
After the war , with the US undamaged and geared up, Detroit led the nation into a prosperous period. The middle class took off. After high school a worker had, with strong union support, the opportunity for a lifetime job with good wages, healthcare and a guaranteed pension. Workers could afford a good single family home, college educations for their kids and often a summer cottage.
Then corporations got greedy and returned to their prewar ways. Arrogance led to shoddy decisions. Unions overreached and Detroit lost its edge. The oil embargo doomed the giant car makers. They made dreadful small cars. At the same time City government jobs started to replace manufacturing jobs. The decline had started.Those who could, left the city.
Detroit had not created an entrepreneurial society. We had the first large malls out in the burbs where the people had gone. Great wealth was created but not put back into the City. Loans were not available for small businesses in the inner city. Racism was rampant. Redlining of properties and discriminating hiring practices created the 8 Mile Road barrier between city and suburbs.
Black leaders continued the corrupt and incompetent city management that the corporate and government managers had in place.
That is how we got here, Christine Charles.
Detroit is at a crossroads.
Unfortunately it is at a time when only bad ideas are coming forth. Detroit will go into bankruptcy this summer and will likely be so weakened by the process that the partial recovery will be stopped.
The State of Michigan will be severely affected.
There are solutions, but the current political situation in Michigan is not the same as it was in the 1940's. Many good people will be hurt.
Christine, when you are in Detroit, please look us up.
Mr. John Osler, thanks for sharing you thoughts on Detriot. Detriot may never be the same again but hopefully there will be away to stop the bleeding.
On the bright side, I think that individuals, cities, states, and the country can learn valuable lessons from what happened in Detriot. One such lesson/ reminder is "do not put all your eggs in one basket" or at least if you do have a plan in place in case there is a downturn.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the entreprenurial society. I believe that individuals, cities, states, and the country need to have an entrepreneurial mindset.
On the bright side, I think that individuals, cities, states, and the country can learn valuable lessons from what happened in Detriot. One such lesson/ reminder is "do not put all your eggs in one basket" or at least if you do have a plan in place in case there is a downturn.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the entreprenurial society. I believe that individuals, cities, states, and the country need to have an entrepreneurial mindset.
# posted by 
: 8:04 AM
: 8:04 AM
I still bleed Detroit Redwing 'Red' having grown up listening to stories of the Motor City's Wings.
One of my father's best friends, Sid Abel - also a Melville Saskatchewan lad, wore No-12 and joined the 'Redwings' as a 19-year old. When New York defeated my father's hockey team in the spring of 1942, my dad stayed with Sid during the Stanley Cup Finals - The first time a team (Toronto Maple Leafs) came back from a 3-0 deficit to claim a major championship.
Detroit was riding a 6-game winning streak and Sid promised my father they would, "paint the town!" after the 'Cup' was secured - celebrating a championship and my father's birthday on April 19. The seventh game was played in Toronto on the 18th - and the 3-1 defeat at the hands of the 'Leafs' remained a bitter memory for both.
Sid used to tell my dad, "We played hockey for money, but we would play the Toronto Maple Leafs for nothing."
When Ted Lindsay arived in '44 and Gordie Howe two years later, the famed 'Production Line' - Abel, Lindsay and Howe - was formed, named after their ability to score points and Detroit's famed auto industry / war time production lines that Mr. Osler describes so well in his first paragraph above.
It was scholarships from industrial companies (mining in our community) that paid everything for our college education - six years for me - I am forever indebted to the partnership(s) of labor and management that created our great middle class. Its decline (disappearance) continues to bring tears to my eyes.
Today, I am most proud when one of my designs is being built and many in the work force say, "Christine we love you."
Only 'together' will we pull our nation back from the precipise we appear racing towards. . .
Mr and Mrs. Osler, I will call before arriving to knock on your front door - and, one day soon I will. Thank you for the invitation to visit - it will be my honor to meet you both. . .
One of my father's best friends, Sid Abel - also a Melville Saskatchewan lad, wore No-12 and joined the 'Redwings' as a 19-year old. When New York defeated my father's hockey team in the spring of 1942, my dad stayed with Sid during the Stanley Cup Finals - The first time a team (Toronto Maple Leafs) came back from a 3-0 deficit to claim a major championship.
Detroit was riding a 6-game winning streak and Sid promised my father they would, "paint the town!" after the 'Cup' was secured - celebrating a championship and my father's birthday on April 19. The seventh game was played in Toronto on the 18th - and the 3-1 defeat at the hands of the 'Leafs' remained a bitter memory for both.
Sid used to tell my dad, "We played hockey for money, but we would play the Toronto Maple Leafs for nothing."
When Ted Lindsay arived in '44 and Gordie Howe two years later, the famed 'Production Line' - Abel, Lindsay and Howe - was formed, named after their ability to score points and Detroit's famed auto industry / war time production lines that Mr. Osler describes so well in his first paragraph above.
It was scholarships from industrial companies (mining in our community) that paid everything for our college education - six years for me - I am forever indebted to the partnership(s) of labor and management that created our great middle class. Its decline (disappearance) continues to bring tears to my eyes.
Today, I am most proud when one of my designs is being built and many in the work force say, "Christine we love you."
Only 'together' will we pull our nation back from the precipise we appear racing towards. . .
Mr and Mrs. Osler, I will call before arriving to knock on your front door - and, one day soon I will. Thank you for the invitation to visit - it will be my honor to meet you both. . .
Listened to a great story on Dick Gordon's "The Story" today all about the Diego Rivera murals at the Detroit Institute of Art. I had forgotten about them and plan to visit the museum when I am in town.
Christine-- Make sure they haven't sold them before you go down to visit. That is one of the things they are thinking of to pay off debt... selling art from the DIA.
I have seen some chunks of Diego Rivera murals at MoMA but the process described for removing them is super involved and dangerous for the piece of art itself, not to mention mind boggling exorbitant. Plus how would they take down the murals to sell them, if it were not by defacing the building that held them.
marta
marta
# posted by : 4:46 PM
: 4:46 PM
My thoughts exactly Marta. They described the process of creating the fresco (plaster applied, then painted - 4 inches at a time. The murals aren't going anywhere (soon).
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