Detroit, dead city. detroit ghost town in usa
“This is not the first time this has happened in history. The corpses of other great cities are buried in the deserts and razed to the ground by the Asian jungle. Some fell so long ago that not even their names remain. But for those who lived there, the destruction seemed no more likely and possible than the dying of a gigantic modern city seems to me ... "
John Wyndham. Day of the Triffids
Detroit is a city born and ruined by cars. Why the richest auto empire, one of the most prestigious US cities of the last century, breathes more and more slowly, more and more turning into the Atlantis of our days - read on AiF.ru.
Former Detroit railroad depot. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Detroit - the automobile capital of America, the metallic clanging of which literally stands in the ears after reading the book "Wheels" by Arthur Haley, the site of the international January auto show that sets the tone for the whole year, the birthplace of the white-skinned rapper Eminem - is officially declared bankrupt.
Literally 50 years ago, the city was almost the most prestigious in the United States, with industry ahead of all other American cities. Entire communities of immigrants flocked there in search of work, a better life, and the American dream. It was in Detroit that the famous Henry Ford assembled his first car and set up the first factory for the production of cars, using the conveyor assembly for the first time in the world. It was there, in Detroit, that a personal car became a familiar and everyday thing in family life - long before a similar event in any other city.
Abandoned houses in Detroit. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Detroit, 2013
Detroit is a city that still has everything: houses, shops, cars, trees, bus stops. But there is no future .
The windows of once-posh hotels and theaters are boarded up, and formerly gilded stucco is covered with dust and cobwebs. In the center of the cottage village of that same one-story America, Ilf and Petrov are cheap burnt houses, painted with graffiti from the inside. Huge buildings, which rise like ocean liners among the fields, try to recall the former greatness of the city, but through the broken windows you can see through the empty office space. And there is no future in sight.
Today it is better not to walk the streets of Detroit alone. And it is almost impossible to meet a passerby at 4-5 pm.
Photo: AiF / Irina Zverkova
Even on the central streets there are enough houses, the first floors of which are sheathed with wooden shields and sheets of iron, so that the entrances do not turn into dens and fires do not occur. On the surviving shop windows, the inscriptions Sale and For Rent are barely readable, washed away by rains and grayed with dust. Apparently, the last owners tried to somehow keep the business afloat.
Unlike European cities, where the entire center is at the mercy of tourists, in Detroit it is very difficult to buy any souvenir, and even a bottle of water. There are almost no shops, and if they are, then you don’t really want to go into them - there is usually a bunch of gloomy people at the entrance ...
This is how the former kingdom of cars looks and breathes today. What happened to the powerful auto empire?
Prosperous Detroit in 1931. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Detroit, 1910s
The heyday of the city came at the beginning of the 20th century. It was at this time that the economic boom in the automotive industry occurred. Following Henry Ford, General Motors and Chrysler corporations opened their factories in Detroit. Thus, the largest automobile enterprises, the "big three": Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, were concentrated in the city.
Intersection of Michigan and Griswold Streets, 1920 Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
In the 1930s, with the advent of labor unions, Detroit became the scene of a struggle between the auto workers union and employers. In the 1940s, one of America's first highways, the M-8, passed through the city, and the economic boom of World War II earned Detroit the nickname "the arsenal of democracy." The rapid economic growth of the first half of the 20th century was accompanied by an influx of population from the southern states (mostly blacks) and Europe. Although discrimination in employment (and it was quite strong) eased, there were still problems, and this resulted in a race riot of 1943, as a result of which 34 people were killed, of which 25 were African Americans.
In the 1950s, Detroit was one of the main centers of engineering in the United States, and at that time promoted a program of cheap and affordable cars at the state level. The city experienced a boom in its development - it literally prospered, becoming one of the richest cities in North America. Since the mid-1920s, with the development of the auto industry, a large number of private cars have appeared in the city. Detroit was one of the first cities to build a network of highways and interchanges. On the other hand, the public transport system did not develop. On the contrary, automobile corporations lobbied for the elimination of tram and trolleybus lines. At the same time, a campaign was going on, the purchase of a personal car was advertised, and public transport was presented as unprestigious and uncomfortable, like "transport for the poor." Such a transfer of residents to personal vehicles contributed to the movement of the population from the center of Detroit to its suburbs.
General Motors headquarters in Detroit. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Detroit, 1950s
This marked the beginning of the decline of Detroit. More and more skilled workers sold their homes and left to live outside the city in the fresh air, even while remaining in their previous jobs.
Along with the relocation of engineers and workers, the city began a campaign to repopulate downtown with African Americans. They were allowed to work in a successful city in good firms (a kind of manifestation of American democracy). The emergence of such neighbors further stimulated the outflow of the middle class and the elite to the suburbs.
It should be noted that residents of the suburbs of Detroit paid a completely different tax - at the place of residence. As a result of budget cuts, the city began to decline. Jobs were cut, shopkeepers, bankers, doctors moved to where there are solvent buyers.
Photo: www.globallookpress.com
In Detroit itself, meanwhile, there were more and more poor people (mostly African Americans) - they simply did not have money to move out of town.
Among them, due to poverty and unemployment, crime flourished, so Detroit quickly gained notoriety as one of the most "black" and dangerous cities in the United States. At this time, racial segregation was abolished in the United States, as a result, African Americans increasingly clashed with whites, and this led to interracial conflict. The climax came in 1967, when in July the confrontations culminated in one of the most violent five-day riots in US history known as the 12th Street Riot.
In 1973, the oil crisis broke out. It led to the bankruptcy of many American automakers, whose cars, voracious and expensive, could no longer compete with economical European and Japanese cars. One factory after another began to close, people lost their jobs and left Detroit. The population of the city within its administrative boundaries decreased by 2.5 times: from 1.8 million in the early 1950s to 700 thousand by 2012. It should be noted, however, that these figures also include people who moved to working-class suburbs where housing is cheaper and safer.
Streets of Detroit at night. Photo: AiF / Irina Zverkova
Detroit, 2013
Over the past decades, the state and federal authorities have not abandoned their attempts to revive the city, especially its central part. One of the last initiatives of the 2000s was the creation and construction of several casinos, which still failed to strengthen the economy of Detroit. In December 2012, the city budget deficit was $30 million.
Today, Detroit is the city with the highest crime rate and the lowest level of education. And the highest real estate taxes in the US. Taxes that hundreds of thousands of city residents have not paid. And from poverty, and because it was easier to buy your house for a few dollars after the arrest of real estate.
Photo: www.globallookpress.com
By 2013, the most active left the city, leaving dependents. There are 4 people of working age for every 6 retirees in Detroit.
If in the last century 70% of the population was white, now 84% of the inhabitants are African Americans. Alas, they are not very educated: only 7% of schoolchildren, according to American studies, can read and count fluently. As a result, Detroit has the highest crime rate in the US, with the highest number of homicides, with the majority (70%) drug-related.
People are just running away. From the kingdom of cars.
Half of the world's population lives in cities, which occupy about 1% of the surface of our planet - these figures are familiar to many, but not as much is said about the reduction of cities as it should be. The frighteningly beautiful photographs of abandoned Detroit - once the fourth largest city in the US - have even sparked a new kind of tourism: watching the dying city. The theory and practice tried to figure out why this is happening.
Failed Cities
It is customary to start articles on urban studies with tragic figures - half of the population (59%) of the Earth lives in cities that occupy about 1% of the surface of our planet. 50 new people come to cities every day, which means that each city will need 50 new jobs, beds, lunches, dinners. Against the backdrop of 50 additional dinners, a small reduction in the neighboring city where some of these people came from does not look so frightening. In general, there is not as much talk about the reduction of cities as it should be. Common sense dictates that as some cities gain population, others lose it. In the globalization race, just like in life - someone wins, the rest lose.
What do we know about the losers? We know that there are far fewer so-called "boom cities" than their unfortunate counterparts. More than 370 cities with populations exceeding 100,000 have lost over 10% of their population in the last 50 years. A quarter of empty cities are located in the US, mostly in the Middle East.
What time is doing to American cities
Detroit has lost the most, with the population down 61.4% since the 1950s. A thriving metropolis has turned into a ghost town, entire neighborhoods are empty, businesses are now abandoned. The story is well-known and sad: a prosperous, but generally rather ordinary American town, against the backdrop of the automobile boom of the 20s, is experiencing its heyday and is completely rebuilt by the thirties - on such a scale that the number of skyscrapers competes with New York and New Orleans. The decline is as fast as the rise - back in the 1960s, the city gives the impression of a generally favorable city with barely noticeable signs of future financial troubles, and already in the 1970s the city was almost empty.
What caused these changes? Traditionally, the collapse of the auto industry is blamed. At the beginning of the century, Detroit attracted hundreds of thousands of migrants by providing them with jobs. Then there was the war, then the war ended, technology moved on, there was a transition to automated production, and the demand for unskilled labor decreased. Thousands and thousands of workers were left out of work. Industrial development and the associated job cuts took place against the backdrop of acute conflicts between whites and blacks. Detroit was a dangerous city to live in, which could not help but contribute to the outflow of the population. Another factor was the total focus on industrial culture - there was neither a major university nor an art gallery in the city. Here it is worth mentioning the lack of cultural continuity. Because of Detroit's endless redevelopment, the preservation of historic buildings was not even thought of: residential areas were cleared to build parking lots, architectural monuments were demolished for offices, and if any buildings were preserved, it was only because there were not enough funds for demolition.
All abandoned cities are similar to each other, and all prosperous ones are beautiful in their own way. Like Detroit once, these were successful cities with developed infrastructure, which the population left for one reason or another. And if these cities used to generate income, now they represent a serious economic problem.
The more people leave, the more expensive it becomes to live for those who remain. The main reasons for this are related to urban infrastructure: despite the fact that the population has declined, it has remained unchanged. The simple math follows from this: the infrastructure has remained the same, therefore, the cost of it has remained the same, but the population has decreased, which means that the per capita expenditure has increased. The next consideration is related to population density: the more populated his city, the denser the population, the cheaper various municipal services (roughly speaking, the length of the water pipe is reduced). Cities are thinning out, populations are spreading out, water pipes are lengthening. Housing becomes more expensive, which becomes another reason to leave the city.
A solution has not yet been found. One of the proposals - an artificial increase in population density with the destruction of excess infrastructure - seems to many to be more than a controversial decision.
Manchester and Ivanovo
Detroit has become a classic illustration of the abandoned city phenomenon and a universal material for its study. In 2002, the German Cultural Foundation launches a major project on this subject with the participation of artists, journalists, culturologists and sociologists. In addition to the automobile capital of the United States, the English Manchester and Russian Ivanovo appear on the list. The stated goal of the study was a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon, the identification of risk areas and the search for ways of salvation.
The economy and demographics of Manchester, once the "cotton capital of the world", were negatively affected by the First World War and the economic crisis that followed. Manchester's population reached 900,000 during the heyday of the industrial age, and the city lost roughly half of its inhabitants when deindustrialization began. Production somehow continued until the 50s, and in the 60s British cotton completely ceased to exist. For the next 20 years, the city was overwhelmed by total unemployment (150,000 people found themselves without jobs). The decline was felt most strongly in the city center, where no more than 1000 inhabitants remained (70-80s).
By a happy coincidence, the availability of local institutions began to attract students and talented youth, which contributed to the emergence of a well-known subculture. It is during the period of economic recession that a special musical culture, art, and architecture arise here, which, along with a reasonable business support policy, becomes one of the factors of urban revival. The population is moving into the service sector, which today employs 70% of urban residents, and unemployment is reduced from 19% in 1995 to 10% in 2001. Today, 20 years after an acute crisis, Manchester is booming. According to 2010 data, the city ranks second in popularity for business in the UK and 12th in Europe. Manchester is seen as a symbol of urban rebirth, although some experts, pointing to the continued decline in population (a loss of 9.2% from 1991 to 2001), call the city "the most rapidly developing empty city in the world".
Ivanovo often appears in various studies as the "Russian Manchester". At the beginning of the 20th century, the young city (the status was granted in 1871) becomes one of the largest industrial centers, and after the revolution it turns into the "third proletarian capital of the republic." The population of Ivanovo is growing at a tremendous pace: in 1870 - 17 thousand people, in 1917 - already 170 thousand. The city becomes the largest platform for experimental Soviet architecture. After Stalin came to power, the economic course changes, light industry recedes into the background, and the life of the city stops. An economic recession begins, the gender composition of the population changes (Ivanovo turns into a “city of brides”). Without modernization, the region loses its economic importance. They don't talk about decline - censorship.
60% of the population is forced to farm in order to feed their families, and so, ironically, in the 50s, the city realizes the urbanists' utopian dream of a garden city. During perestroika, Ivanovo is going through its hardest times: factories stop, unemployment reaches its peak (loss of 58% of jobs). In 1998, production is reduced by another 5 times (22% of the 1989 volume is produced). After the crisis of 1998, the situation begins to improve little by little, but the region remains one of the poorest in Russia - with a corresponding quality of life and demographic situation.
Venice 2030
The latest project of a group of researchers working on empty cities is Venice. Its population has halved in the last 40 years. The city's economy is powered entirely by tourism, which has tripled in numbers over the years, simplifying Venice's many faces and turning it into a Disneyland-like tourist attraction. Life on the island is getting more and more difficult - for example, in Piazza San Marco it is much easier to buy a mask than a carton of milk. Real estate prices are rising, and 2,500 residents leave the city every year. The population is aging. By 2030, Venice may be completely empty.
The causes of the crisis are associated with the movement of infrastructure outside the city and the subsequent shift in the center of urban life. In 1966, one of the largest floods happened, 16,000 people lost their roof over their heads. The number of major floods continues to rise. The influx of tourists has led to the fact that most of the city's real estate is turned into hotels or bought up by foreigners. Here it is appropriate to raise the question of the right to the city, so popular today - is Venice a city for tourists or for its inhabitants?
According to the prosperous UK alone, there are more than 3,000 cities in the world that could potentially become empty. People with financial resources, in-demand specialties and relevant personal qualities tend to leave places that are difficult to live in. What causes cities to decline? There are many reasons, the consequences of some are immediate, others manifest themselves after a long time. In general, speaking about what leads to the depopulation of cities, two historical factors can be distinguished: deindustrialization and the greater dynamics of life outside the abandoned city.
TUT.BY correspondents have already been to Detroit, once the capital of American engineering, which is now going through hard times. We talked about how they saw this city in the "Great Journey TUT.BY". Alisa Ksenevich writes about another Detroit - where you want to move to for a “settled life”. Because he's amazing, says Alice. And that's why.
I wanted to go to Detroit for a long time and passionately, fascinated by the dark, mysterious, viscous, like syrup, aesthetics of the films Only Lovers Left Alive, Lost River, the work of documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and musician Jack White, as well as the groovy song from the latest Red Hot album Chili peppers. The whole trip seemed to me like a blind date - there are a lot of images in my head, expectations, but what is there in reality? However, with Detroit, I had instant chemistry. This happened once before - with New York, and I believed that no other city could knock out this wedge. But as I got to know Detroit and its people, looking at the details, I became more and more convinced of the desire to move here after I say goodbye to a turbulent youth in New York and want a settled, family life. Detroit is amazing! And let me tell you why.
elusive beauty
There is a genre in the art of photography, which in the United States is called “porn ruins,” when photographers specifically travel to Detroit and other cities with signs of desolation and take poignant pictures of abandoned buildings.
I tend to see beauty where others see ugliness. One of the main properties of beauty is elusiveness. People are aging, buildings are falling apart, gardens are overgrown with wild grass, and an effort must be made to peer into them and feel their history.
There is no need to make an effort to admire the beauty of San Francisco or the beaches of Los Angeles. But they do not sink into the heart, at least to me.
I would say about Detroit in the words of Rainbow Rovvel (author of Eleanor and Park): “She was never beautiful. She was like art, and art doesn't have to be beautiful. It should make you feel something."
The abandoned colonial houses of Detroit (the city was founded in 1710) are beautiful in the beauty that I love - complex, tragic, but still majestic.
I spent a day on the "porn ruins" of Detroit, although they certainly deserve more. I rarely met people on my way, cars stopped a couple of times - the drivers sympathetically asked if everything was all right with me, if I got lost and if I needed help.
When I explored the houses from the inside, I couldn't help feeling that someone was watching me or that I was on the set of a thriller. Ringing silence, dust, some rubbish crunches underfoot, the midday sun breaks through the curtains (how long have they hung on these windows? 30-40 years?) ... Things are scattered on the floor: multi-colored rags, mattresses, wall clocks, a sewing machine, liquid mouthwash, a book with children's rhymes... The kitchen cabinet is frozen in the position of the falling Leaning Tower of Pisa, inside there are two whole porcelain plates with flowers.
I go up to the second floor along the stairs that spring under my feet. The house smells musty, the chandeliers with meat are torn from the ceilings. The bathroom has a cracked mirror and a partially collapsed mosaic. In the children's room there is a beautiful chest of drawers, they don't make them anymore, and there is a Bible on the table next to it. Thick, expensively bound with gold stamping, powdered with dust. What happened to the family that lived here? Where did they settle? How would you feel when you return to your once beautiful and rich home?
Digesting the surging emotions (horror, sadness, admiration), I walked towards the house where I stopped during my stay in Detroit. I was eager to discuss my impressions with his mistress.
"I'm learning to love Detroit the way a parent learns to love an adopted child"
We didn't know Tate Austen. When I chose a room in an old mansion in the historic district of Detroit from the many options on airbnb, I could not even imagine that its owner would be a native Petersburger and that we had a mutual friend, sculptor and film festival director Rosa Valado, who rented me a room in New York. Even the interiors of both houses are similar: antique furniture, elegant crockery, attention to detail. Tatyana (Tate) Austen has been living in the USA for 26 years, 18 of them in New York, 8 in Detroit. A ballet critic, a graduate of the Moscow Literary Institute and the Leningrad Theater Institute, she has been involved in the arts all her life. In New York, she and her husband had their own gallery. In 2009, when the American economy hit rock bottom, the couple moved to Detroit.
“We saw a program on TV that talked about the economic decline of Detroit, about the terrible state of the most beautiful houses built before the sixties of the last century,” says Tatyana. We immediately wanted to go there and see everything with our own eyes. At the time, Detroit was truly a "ghost town." There were almost no cars on the roads, no people on the streets. City lighting was absent in many areas. The beautiful high-rise buildings in the city center were abandoned and empty. If desired, it was possible to climb onto the roof of such a building and fry kebabs there, which many did. Looking at these buildings, I had the feeling that they are like orphans, looking for a loving family that will restore them and bring them back to life.
Seven years ago, real estate prices in Detroit were unbelievably low. You could buy a house for 7-10-15 thousand dollars. Tatyana and her husband began to buy and restore historic brick houses built in the colonial style, looking for new owners for them. However, the main reason and purpose of their stay in Detroit was to create a museum where we could promote the types of modern art based on light: photography, video, projections, laser, neon, three-dimensional technologies and so on. They purchased an abandoned bank building, restored it and began to hold exhibitions, the first of which was called Time and Place. The Kunsthalle Detroit Museum lasted until 2014. Its activities had to be suspended, as it was not possible to obtain financial support from local authorities and foundations.
Now, 7 years later, home prices in Detroit have increased 10 times, which still makes them affordable compared to similar housing prices in other states. Abandoned warehouses downtown (business, the most comfortable area of the city) are being converted into trendy, comfortable lofts. Cars are cheap. The food is wonderful. Many young people under the age of 30 are moving to Detroit who want to do business and raise families here.
“I have a love-hate relationship with this city,” Tatyana admits. “I hate Detroit because it cut me off from the cultural and social life I enjoyed living in Manhattan. On the other hand, I overcame the fear of the unknown. Being by vocation and education a ballet critic and a poet, she learned to understand electrical wiring, plumbing systems, roof repairs - not a single manicure can withstand this. In New York, I was (and still am) an educated consumer, part of an appreciative audience, a social butterfly.
In Detroit, I became part of the force that is changing the face of the city, one of its trustees. I have changed buildings, events, even some people's lives. I'm learning to love Detroit the way a parent probably learns to love an adopted child. I miss the theater, my hyperactivity in New York, but there is an opportunity to do something here that would not be possible in other cities. In eight years, Detroit has changed the way other cities change in a few decades! To be a part of this story, to observe the process from the inside and actively participate in it is an extraordinary feeling. I have a friend here, a black woman, 94 years old. She remembers Detroit from 1926. Now, she says, "People come and go, but if they stay, they stick with Detroit."
Remains of luxury
On the second day, I had a long walk planned with Detroit native Damon Gallagher. Many Americans are distinguished by such an attractive feature as mobility. They move relatively easily from one city (or state) to another in search of better opportunities for study, career, and family. Where only Damon did not live and what he did not do! He had a bar in New Orleans called the Flying Saucer, and a rock band in Oakland, and now he has a small recording studio in Detroit next to an antique store.
My mood is great, and I start humming one of my favorite songs from the Red Hot Chili Peppers: "Don" t you worry, baby, I'm like ... Detroit, I'm crazy ... "Damon frowns in disgust:
— What does Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman — A.K.) know about Detroit to sing about? He never lived here! Let him compose songs about California. Who can really say something about Detroit through his work is Jack White (White Stripes frontman. - A.K.). He grew up here, his mother worked as a cleaner in the Masonic temple. He saved this temple when it was about to be closed for debt and put up for sale at auction.
But this is already interesting! I ask Damon to take me to the temple - the largest Masonic temple in the world.
The building, to be sure, is majestic, it occupies the entire block. 14 floors, about 1000 rooms. The best musicians of the world (Nick Cave, The Who, Rolling Stones, etc.) perform within its walls, immersive performances are held (a fashionable format today, which involves the wandering of the audience through the floors and rooms in which the theatrical action takes place).
In 2013, Jack White anonymously donated $142,000 to the temple, the amount the Detroit Masonic Temple Society owes the state in unpaid taxes. In gratitude for this grand gesture, the Masonic Society renamed the Cathedral Theater of the Temple the Jack White Theater. So, in fact, the identity of the mysterious philanthropist was revealed.
This is not the first time Jack White has helped his hometown. In 2009, the musician donated $170,000 to renovate a baseball field in the park where he played ball as a child.
10 years ago, Dan Gilbert, head of Quicken loans, America's largest home loan company, moved its headquarters to Detroit, and with it 7,000 young professionals. He purchased and refurbished over a hundred buildings, allowing his employees to live in those buildings, paying subsidized rent for the first year. Ten thousand more specialists came for the first batch, which became a catalyst for the development of small business, the restaurant industry. After almost half a century of decay and oblivion, the city began to revive and develop rapidly.
In the downtown area there is another beautiful building that looks more like a cathedral than a commercial center - the Fisher House. The building was built in 1928 by the brilliant American architect Alexander Kahn. When we went inside, my jaw literally dropped. Marble, granite, bronze, painted vaulted ceilings, mosaics, marvelous Art Deco lamps and chandeliers. All present, from that time, in excellent condition. In my opinion, it was sacrilege to open a coffee shop with a plastic counter, cheap coffee and donuts within these walls. However, she is there. I wanted to close my eyes and imagine myself here in the 1920s, when Detroit was at the height of its power and two million people were scurrying back and forth, as New Yorkers are now scurrying back and forth.
The building of the former railway station, built in 1914, left a sad impression. In those years, it was the highest station in the world and served more than 4,000 passengers a day. After the war, many Americans switched to private vehicles, which reduced the volume of passengers to a critical level, and it was more profitable for the owners of the station to sell the building than to continue to maintain it. Nevertheless, it was not possible to find buyers - no one wanted to buy it even for a third of the cost of its construction. In 1967, shops, restaurants and most of the waiting room were closed in the station building. In 1988, the station itself stopped working. Floods, fires, vandal raids disfigured the pearl of architecture.
In 2009, the city government decided to demolish the building. A week later, a Detroit resident with a telling surname Christmas (Christmas - English) challenged this decision in court, citing national law, in particular the 1966 act on the preservation of architectural objects of historical significance. A person with a strong civic position, who dares to go against the authorities, deserves admiration in itself. The fact that he won this trial can be regarded as a miracle. For me, this is another reason to love America.
How much is a quarter now?
The outskirts of Detroit are reminiscent of the Minsk Shabans until we run into a fence, artistically smeared with paint and pasted over with pieces of mirrors of various sizes. Behind the fence is a house, decorated from top to bottom with the same mirror mosaic. The owner of the house is an artist and the owner of the largest collection of beads in the world. We did not manage to see the collection, as the owner was not at home.
The heat and humidity are taking their toll. In the shop where we go to buy water, I am surprised to see bulletproof glass separating the seller and customers. I saw such counters only in a few points of sale of alcohol in disadvantaged areas of New York.
“They don’t even sell alcohol here!” I wonder.
“Life in Detroit has become safer, but still not to the extent that it can do without armed robberies,” Damon replies. — The city has a high unemployment rate. Here, even pizza is not delivered after 10 pm - the delivery men fear for their lives.
Before the start of the 2000s, there were no major food chains in Detroit. The glory of the most criminal city was entrenched in the city in 1967, when during the riots on the streets of the city 43 people died, 1200 were injured, 2500 shops and 488 private houses were burned and destroyed.
It all started with a police raid on the Blind Pig bar, where alcohol was sold illegally and gambling was organized. At the time of the arrival of law enforcement officers, the bar was crowded: 82 African Americans were celebrating the return of friends from the Vietnam War. The police arrested everyone indiscriminately. Passers-by who had gathered on the street began to resent the lawlessness and threw bottles at the cops. The conflict gave rise to riots - about 10 thousand people took to the streets and began to smash and rob shops, churches, private homes. At that point in Detroit, the black unemployment rate was twice the white unemployment rate. Outbreaks of violence, robbery, looting shook the city for five days. The buildings were on fire. It was possible to pacify the raging crowd only with the involvement of military divisions.
About thirty thousand families left Detroit, ceasing to pay property taxes. Electricity was cut off in the deserted areas, roads were overgrown with weeds, wild animals began to visit there. Even now, pheasants can be found in the city, and something is constantly running around in the bushes.
The beautiful and varied churches of Detroit were destroyed by vandals. It got to the point that the local punks entertained themselves by burning the church on the eve of Halloween, thus celebrating the "night of the devil." On this night, many American children are naughty: overturning garbage cans, hanging toilet paper on trees, but the children of Detroit have reached a new level.
Some of the houses have been preserved in a state attractive enough for buyers, and have found new owners through auctions. So, five years ago, Damon's friend bought an entire block - 8 houses in a row - for 50 thousand dollars. His dream was to settle his friends and relatives in these houses. For those who decided on an adventure, he sold houses at a minimal mark-up. The rest was repaired and sold at a good profit.
“We don’t need this gentrification of yours”
In the evening I go to a bar where the unknown White Stripes used to play. The establishment is no different from those that thrive in New York - a stylish, ironic interior, a bartender with a pronounced sense of dignity, in which hipsters like to hang out. A guy named Stan is talking to me. A young teacher who teaches Spanish and English in a high school. Grew up in a "white" suburb of Detroit, in his spare time plays in a rock band with a name that I laughed at for a long time, but did not dare to tell Stan that this "meaningless set of letters" that the guys called themselves out of principle, in order to differ from everyone, in Russian it has a very definite (and rather slippery!) meaning.
Stan and I talk for two hours about music and Detroit, and later we are joined by his friend Etienne, a chemical scientist who came to Detroit six years ago from France. Etienne is also in a group with a slippery name - he plays the trombone.
“To tell you the truth, we don’t like Detroit getting trendy,” the guys say. “Rich hipsters are coming here, buying real estate, these coffee shops with vegan pastries and coffee for $ 7 a cup have appeared ... Detroit territory could accommodate San Francisco, Boston, Manhattan, and there would still be room left. And 740 thousand people live here. We know each other by sight. Six years ago there was a feeling that this city is ours, we know all its chips, cool places. And now business is coming here, competition, this whole “renaissance” is happening, about which the New York Times has been writing super-optimistic articles for five years now. But with all this improvement and the rise of the real estate market, the face of Detroit is changing, the composition of its inhabitants, living here is no longer as cheap as it used to be - rental prices have doubled over the past three years!
By the way, about prices. In a restaurant with excellent service quality and excellent cuisine, the price of any cocktail is $2. The second course is $3. I looked at the menu for a long time, not believing my eyes. Maybe it's some kind of special promotion? Maybe a typo? It was psychologically difficult to accept the fact that chicken curry, which I pay $14 for in New York, costs five times less here. Some kind of parallel reality, by golly.
A young teacher, earning less than three thousand a month, lives alone in a two-room apartment in the city center, paying $550 in rent. He has enough money left for food, clothing and entertainment. Stan's band doesn't even rehearse in a garage, but in a former eyeglass factory. To rent this space, the guys are collectively paying $100 a month! No wonder so many creative people—artists, musicians—are moving from New York to Detroit. Thanks to this new blood, Detroit has a great music scene and simply gorgeous murals.
I understand well the desire of Stan and Etienne to leave everything as it is. The same renaissance is now going through Bushwick, the area where I live. Two years ago, it was a bedroom, artistic Brooklyn neighborhood with affordable rental prices and one grocery store ten blocks away. There were few places for leisure, but they were cool - with parties for their own, an eccentric and strange crowd, bars where everyone could read poetry and give concerts to everyone who was not lazy. As a result of all this musical-artistic movement, Bushwick became fashionable. A Michelin-starred restaurant has opened here. Tourists began to come here. Like mushrooms after rain, hotels and apartment complexes with concierges have grown. I don't know if I can afford Bushwick in two years. In any case, it will no longer be the unique, charming in its underdevelopment and freedom of expression area that I fell in love with.
I ask Stan what he likes and dislikes most about Detroit.
— I like that here you can make a real contribution to the musical, cultural, political life of the city. A simple example is the aquarium building on the urban island of El Bel. America's oldest aquarium, built by famed architect Albert Kahn, has been empty since the 1960s. In 2005 the building was closed. In 2012, a small group of Detroit volunteers filled the aquarium with about 1,000 fish of over 118 species. Now this symbol of the city is open to the public. I like that the people of Detroit are self-confident, but not arrogant and optimistic about life. I like that there is so much history in this city that even after living here all your life, you continue to learn something new and be surprised. I do not like the degree of corruption in power. The city needs leaders who care more about the city than their own egos and welfare. The money, which, in theory, should go to the improvement of schools, the improvement of the social sphere, flows into the pockets of millionaires who are building another sports stadium or casino. Why do we need a fourth casino? So that already not rich people become even poorer? The fact that the former director of the Detroit Central Library is in jail for embezzling public funds speaks volumes. The quality of school education in Detroit itself, to put it mildly, is lame. The good schools are in the wealthy, "white" suburbs. The police are also not particularly vigilant. People drive as they want, often drunk. My friend was once stopped by an inspector. They found weed in the car, alcohol in the blood of a friend. After which the inspector said: “The main thing is that it’s not cocaine!” and let him go without even a fine.
Detroit stirred me up, fascinated, puzzled ... I don’t even want to convince people about it, especially those who have never been there. This city is not for everyone. But maybe just for me. In short, we should find out if a group with a slippery name needs a keyboardist.
Alisa Ksenevich
Moved to New York 5 years ago. Prior to that, she worked in Belarus for 5 years as a correspondent for the Obozrevatel newspaper, wrote for Zhenskiy Zhurnal and Milavitsa.
During her life in New York, she wrote the book New York for Life, which is sold on Amazon.
TUT.BY book chapters on the portal.
It was in Detroit that my first and biggest trip around the USA began. Then I wrote a few posts, but I got too carried away abandoned which are truly mesmerizing.
2 I also had a separate report about the abandoned places of the city. Today, half of the photographs are already history, Detroit is being actively cleaned up: it is too expensive to restore buildings that have stood for a quarter of a century, and when they are abandoned, they are dangerous, there are a handful of homeless people, drug addicts and criminals.
3 Yes, there are bad neighborhoods in Detroit. As in every American city, there will definitely be a ghetto. There are several more such areas here, for obvious reasons.
4 Detroit is bankrupt, Pindos are stupid- sometimes commentators write to me. I smile reading this. After all, they were not there, but they stubbornly broadcast the same point of view, either imposed on them by the TV, or they simply work “according to the manual”, leaving comments on behalf of the bots.
- look at your favorite americka-detroit for example.
- You will ask your girlfriend to go to Detroit and tell the world how everything is fine there. As always, pendos do not see the log in their own eyes ...
- there is also the Amer city of Detroit, that's where the liberoid capitalists tried.
- Why don't you recommend to the Pindos first to pull Detroit out of bankruptcy - and then to climb into the bloodline and other places far from their places of residence?
- It’s the Americans who don’t have money to save their native Detroit, the Pindos don’t have money ...
5 On the one hand, Detroit is really an asshole. There you can buy a house with land for a thousand dollars. On the other hand, everything is changing. The gasoline crisis that broke out in the early 70s led to the fact that people stopped buying cars en masse, and it was the car factories that raised Detroit to a high level at one time.
Instead of those who left, others began to arrive. As a rule, African Americans from the southern states, who were sold land for a symbolic dollar. They were supposed to work. And they didn't. The crisis has grown, plus the change in the contingent of residents have done their job, Detroit began to turn into a ghost town.
6 Except it all peaked in the eighties. And a lot has changed since then. In the 80s, New York looked different. Over time, things got better. As the "big three" automobile corporations returned to profits, the city began to change as well.
7 Detroit is like a layer cake: a very decent Downtown, an abandoned Midtown, a decent residential outskirts that are interspersed with ghettos. Mixed, but not mixed.
8 There has been no influx of people here for a long time, the city is notorious. If he brings him to Detroit - for work, for a good position and with appropriate housing. But many are trying to get out of here. In America, a good job is everything. The only way to get out of the damn ghetto. When a miracle happens, people arrange a garage sale: there is no point in clinging to things and carrying useless belongings with you.
9 The flea market I went to was a flea market, not a garage sale.
10 Do you want the secret to the success of a prosperous area or city in America? Why is one block occupied by expensive villas, and immediately across the intersection - fences, bars and ghettos? It's all about taxes, they almost always stay where they are received. Where a lot of people have good salaries and pay high taxes, better schools, better infrastructure, better life. Where people sit on benefits and do not pay taxes - devastation and decay. I think it's primarily because of this tax differentiation that the whole of America looks so different. What, the US government doesn't have enough money for new buses? Enough, but the city is in charge of purchasing transport. Up to the point that everyone chooses which police or medical cars to buy.
11 And now I'll show you the center of the city. Most of these photos didn't make it into my 2012 posts.
12 See how abandoned and decaying Detroit looks like, a burp of American democracy!
13 Downtown Detroit was one of the richest in America. The city was actively built up and developed in the thirties, during and after the Great Depression.
15 I wonder what the state-haters will write in response to these photos?
16 Skyscrapers here are not high, 30-40 floors, built in the "Chicago" style.
17 It's very beautiful inside.
18 There are also abandoned, completely empty skyscrapers, but it was not possible to get there.
19 Nothing town, if you look closely.
21 Lots of amazing “historic” buildings. All of them were also built in the middle of the last century.
22 They don't build like that anymore. Many abandoned houses were demolished, and multi-storey parking lots were built in their place.
23 Imagine, all these buildings are parking lots! And they function, there are cars.
24 General Motors headquarters. It’s interesting inside, I went to visit them and. With this building, it also turned out interesting: either it stood empty, or it was built by a car corporation, I don’t remember without Google, but I write the text without the Internet. In any case, GM moved its headquarters there specifically to support the budget of Downtown Detroit with its tax deductions. And for the city to come back to life.
25 Legendary train station, Michigan Central. This huge abandoned building is probably the most famous of all Detroit abandoned buildings. When I arrived, it was already impossible to get inside, the building was surrounded by a fence. Now, as far as I know, glass has been installed there and repairs are being made.
26 Dead houses are not treated with ceremony, even if they are beautiful. The city does not have the opportunity to maintain and restore them, often there are no owners, but such buildings are a hotbed.
27 Dark neighborhood. Quite a residential building, behind - three abandoned prajekt towers. Such "candles" were built for the socially disadvantaged segments of the population in the 40-50s. An alternative to our "Khrushchev". Then these same layers scattered throughout the city, and this is what it led to. Then, in 1972, there was also a mess like those that now periodically occur or Baltimore.
28 City center flooded with lights, Midtown immersed in darkness in the foreground.
29 When someone offers to “look at the dead Detroit with which Pindos won what they did, just give them a link to this report.
30 I even miss Detroit a little, I have fond memories of it. And I plan to return this fall, during the upcoming big trip across Canada. She's here across the river.
It will be interesting to see who turns out to be right.
American photographer Jennifer Garza-Kuen spent the winter in Detroit. A large industrial center over several decades was overgrown with ruins and lost almost all of its able-bodied population. Destroyed skyscrapers, houses lushly overgrown with greenery, pianos long out of tune - it seems that life has long left this place. But even if Detroit is dead, some of its inhabitants are still around.
In the mid-50s, Detroit competed with New York and New Orleans in terms of the number of skyscrapers, and in 1980 it was already the first in terms of unemployment, poverty and child mortality and began to bear the title of the most dangerous and disadvantaged city in the United States.
In the summer of 1967, the state police raided an illegal Detroit bar. Police clashes with visitors to the institution and bystanders escalated into riots that lasted five days. During this time, the townspeople plundered 2.5 thousand retail outlets, destroyed 400 houses, and another 500 buildings had to be demolished due to severe damage. The total damage exceeded $65 million. The riot was the starting point of Detroit's decline as thousands of small businesses decided to relocate their operations to safer locations.
At the same time, the market was gradually moving towards automated production, and the demand for physical strength began to fall sharply. Thousands of people were left without work. The oil crisis of 1973 hit car giants such as Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors hard: gasoline became more expensive, and voracious American cars could not compete with subcompact Japanese and European models.
They stopped building new housing in the city, the outflow of residents did not stop. Entire areas were left devastated. Abandoned buildings have attracted drug dealers, vandals and street criminals.
They stopped building new housing in the city, the outflow of residents did not stop.
Detroit is one of the few cities in the States that has lost almost two-thirds of its working-age population - about 1.2 million people over the past 50 years. In 2013, it became the first bankrupt city in US history with an external debt of $18.5 billion.
Detroit has become a kind of symbol and omen of the end of the American empire.
Detroit is a place that has gone through an active phase of self-erasure, transience and loss, and that feeling is built into the psyches of those who live in the city or pass through. And Detroit has become a kind of symbol and omen of the end of the American empire.
I wanted to convey the inconsistency and complexity of Detroit in my project. It is still a vibrant city, which to some extent ruined the welfare of the past.
All my work explores American mythology. I'm interested in the ideas that have transformed our culture to the point where they define who we are as individuals and as a people. Each of us was shaped by where we grew up - especially mythological places, and Detroit is exactly one of them.
For a long time, Detroit seemed to be going through a serious illness. It is not the only such city in the US, but has long been a showcase for urban decay and a household name.
In 2012, the city was on the verge of bankruptcy - several factors influenced this at once: racial segregation, the outflow of the white population, corruption, aggressive national and even international capitalism.
Many of the buildings I photographed in were long abandoned. Inside, I found many documents and personal items. At first, I just took pictures of these artifacts, but then I began to rake up heaps of dusty garbage and get certain items out of them. I became not only a photographer, but also an archivist and keeper of someone else's memory. And yet - a thief, a scavenger and an archaeologist.
The hardest part was shooting inside skyscrapers in the middle of winter: some of them have no water or electricity for a long time.
The hardest part was shooting inside skyscrapers in the middle of winter: some of them have no water or electricity for a long time. At the same time, restored hotels and shops could well be located next to such buildings. And in some places even construction crews worked, who tried to give the skyscrapers an attractive look again.
In recent years, Detroit has become a model for urban regeneration projects. He is in some way a phoenix bird, which sooner or later will be reborn from the ashes. The motto of the city after the fire of 1805 was the phrase “Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus" - "We hope for the best, and the best will rise from the ashes."
It is not the only such city in the US, but has long been a showcase for urban decay and a household name.
