I’ve learned a significant amount about what Detroit’s history is like, and how the city declined economically, but I haven’t heard much about how it’s doing now so it was interesting to see that perspective. Additionally, while I’ve heard about the significant population decline in the 1950s, I didn’t realize how large that decline was. The article discusses how it dropped from almost 2 million to under 700,000, and how 90% of industrial jobs in the city disappeared.
However, due to the tax cuts and other incentives discussed in the article, the city is coming back to life and people and businesses are starting to return. The article also mentioned how rent prices are beginning to rise again, which makes investors more likely to bring their business here. While this is a good thing, it also ties back in which the gentrification of Detroit which is part of the reason the city ended up in the place it was in the 50s. There seems to be a very fine line between economic development that benefits the people of the city, and economic development that benefits a few select people at the cost of everyone else.
So while I am grateful for the overall improvement in quality of the city of Detroit, I’m also apprehensive to believe that it’s entirely a good thing. The article also discusses Detroit’s desire to have Amazon move their headquarters to the city. While this would bring a lot of jobs, business, and revenue to the area, I’ve also heard very bad things about the conditions of working at amazon. Many of their warehouse employees are forced to walk up to 15 miles while at work, they barely have time for a bathroom break, and their wages while better than minimum wage are hardly worth the horrible conditions. Spending time in this city has made me realize that there are generally two sides to every story and it’s important to hear both.
