The remarkable thing about Detroit is that it is the only major city in the entire country that has not experienced a renaissance. Even Cleveland, once termed the "mistake on the lake," is seeing its downtown rebound. If you're in the area, go down to the Flats in the evening. Everything you'd ever want to do or see is there. It thrives. So why has Detroit not seen a similar turnaround? The simple answer is race.
If there is one man who should have a statue erected in his honor for having done more to create the pile of ruins that is Detroit today, it is former Mayor Coleman Young. Mayor Young fought his way to power in a time when white people were in charge of the city, and he proceeded to correct the problems Detroit had - the same problems every other city had at the time - with racist hiring practices, racist police tactics, racist housing practices, racist political parties, a racist power structure, etc. Coleman Young was successful at transforming the city and driving out those who stood in the way of black equality and opportunity.
The problem was that Coleman Young was every bit the racist himself. It was no secret that he was intensely suspicious of, and held deep animus toward white people. He is famous locally for having made the comment to whites in the area that they should stay "north of 8 mile," Eight Mile Road being the northern boundary between Detroit and several predominantly white suburbs. Non-black residents obliged him. They fled. With them went their stores, their factories, their small businesses, their churches, their investments, their capital. The population of Detroit has plummeted and the city's economy has suffered grievously since.
Not that the residents of the city seem to care. The preponderance of the citizens of Detroit are black and they'd apparently like to keep it that way. I read (another) piece of evidence of this today in The Washington Times in an article entitled, "Detroit's Plan For 'African Town' Stirs Racial Tensions." It says in part:
The Detroit City Council, in defiance of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, likely will move forward with plans to create an "African Town" in the tradition of Chinatowns and Little Italys nationwide, even though the issue has turned into a racially divisive economic-development proposal. In July, the council resolved to build up a section of the city devoted to African and black American literature, cuisine and art, which Mr. Kilpatrick endorsed. He vetoed the resolution, however, when it became clear that the council's plan would allow only black businessmen and investors to use the $38 million earmarked for the project.To his credit, the current Mayor termed the project to be "both racist and unconstitutional." But the city council overrode his veto. "'The resolutions speak to a real and critical issue that cannot be ignored — the economic disenfranchisement of African-Americans, who represent 80 percent of Detroit's populace,' said council member Kenneth V. Cockrel Jr. on his Web site." In the year 2004. The city of Detroit is fighting an enemy that fled the battlefield forty years ago.
So Mayor Young lives - in spirit if not in flesh. When I left the area in 2001, there was not one movie theater in the entire city (with a population at the time of nearly 1 million people; tiny Wytheville near me has a cinema complex as well as the old Millwald Theater downtown). Residents of the city had to go to the suburbs to do most of their shopping after nearly every downtown store - including some that were legendary - had closed their doors long ago. Thinking about starting a new business in the city? Try to find some serious investment capital.
And the city council still talks about African-American disenfranchisement. In a city where African-Americans hold the only franchise. A city in ruins. God help them.
