So Detroit- what went wrong?

[last1standing]

18. I think there are a lot of correct answers in this thread that need to be combined.

I've lived in Metro-Detroit my entire life, 45 years now, and I've seen Detroit go from a city of over a million to the little over 500,000 living there today. As such, I think I can at least give a shallow answer to what went wrong.

First, Detroit's initial boom relied on one industry, automotive manufacturing. While much of the actual assembly line work was done in suburbs like Dearborn, Pontiac, and Hamtramck, the Big Three ruled the city for many years and used this influence to keep out any real alternative industry that could possibly usurp their place. They also forced out mass transit in their push to show Detroit as the model city for automobiles, hence "Motor City." As the Big Three became more complacent and the Reagan insane trade deals with Japan allowed more foreign cars into the US market (as well as allowing them to dump steel below cost), the jobs started to dry up.

Of course, the loss of jobs and tax revenue in the city meant less influence which was used by out-state legislators to cut funding for services such as schools, police, medical care, etc..., which is another reason Detroit has failed. There has always been an antagonistic relationship between Metro-Detroit and the rest of the state, and even though a majority lives in areas directly influenced by the city the majority of legislators come from districts that are either considered "out-state" or from republican havens such as Oakland County or the Grosse Pointes. These legislators have always had the knife in for Detroit and use it at every opportunity. Much of this hatred stems from "white-flight" which occurred in the late 60's through the 70's which led to Detroit having a population that is currently 90% African-American. I was just a kid during this time but I still remember the rampant racism where I lived. Black jokes were considered polite conversation and rarely objected to and this racism still lives on in the congressional halls of Lansing.

With declining funds for education, the population became less and less educated. Modern companies do not want to relocate to an area where the work force must be taught the very basics like how to read or add and subtract. Even when the schools did have massive budgets, the corrupt school board used the funds for personal gain. I wish I could say it was a few bad apples but it wasn't. The corruption was spread throughout the entire board with very few exceptions. Almost none of the money the schools received went to educating children.

And the corruption wasn't limited to the school board. Coleman Young started out as a decent mayor with a grand vision, unfortunately by the time he finally retired, his legacy was one of nepotism, fraud, race-baiting, and downright theft. I remember when he died, they found he had invested heavily in South African krugerrands during Aparthied - at the same time he was advocating the boycott. We did get a very good mayor, Dennis Archer, but he only stayed on for two terms before the infamous Kwame Kilpatrick was elected. Kilpatrick wanted to be the first 'gansta' mayor and that was probably his only successful venture before finally being convicted and sent to prison. His only accomplishment was in managing to take credit for the deals Archer had set up before leaving office. Now we have Dave Bing who has never had a chance to be a good, or bad, mayor because the funds aren't there to work with.

Racism, corruption, an uneducated population, and a single-industry economy that went south are the major reasons Detroit has declined through the years, not the unions. As has always been the case, the unions helped turn Detroit into one of the best places to live for many years by establishing wages, work hours and worker safety rules that created the middle class in America. Labor costs have never been the major detriment to building cost effective cars. The problem has always been a lack of innovation, short term profits over long term strategy, and ever increasing executive pay.

I hope this helped.