Isratt Alam
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Mark Crain
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Dream of Detroit / NonUM
Program: UROP
Session: Session 7 (4:40pm – 5:30pm)
Authors: Isratt Alam, Mark Crain
Abstract
Rust Belt cities have had a difficult time growing their resources with the decline of the automotive industry. The sharp decline in industrial work left many cities, including Detroit, Philadelphia, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Buffalo, with a loss of a leading resource for the cities’ economies. These complications made it difficult to sustain a stable population over the last fifty years, and an even harder transition in their economies. Finding a way to redevelop urban cities while maintaining the populations that currently reside there is an ongoing issue in such metropolitans. This research analyzes the background of “rust belt cities†and the role the automotive industry plays in the economic decline, specifically in Detroit. Looking into population reports of the cities and gathering data on the exact causes of the growth to then compare potential growth ideas for Detroit’s metropolitan area. Analysis points to different cities’ developments and their transition from relying on the automotive industry to different industries. Large companies, and universities in some cases, pour resources into adjacent cities and the overall state’s economies to provide jobs and opportunities. In comparison, Detroit has had a difficult time growing its population due to it being the automotive hub, along with more recent issues such as the 2013 bankruptcy. However, with more attention from various startups and corporations, Detroit’s downtown area has been gaining much more support and is starting to raise itself up. Understanding the various methods for the redevelopment of Detroit allows for potential ideas for protecting BIPOC communities in urban cities. This larger scope of research is much more difficult to conduct with a limited number of researchers. However, help and input from DREAM of Detroit, a nonprofit in the city of Detroit specializing in housing redevelopment, allowed a much more robust report.
