How Bad Are Things In Detroit?

Detroit's reputation was bad in the 1970s when I was growing up but now it is absolutely abysmal. Photographs such as this one of the decaying United Artists Theatre spring to mind for many when they hear someone say Detroit.





Indeed, there's a whole book of such photos called The Ruins of Detroit by French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. Looking at their pictures you'd think Detroit has already seen the zombie apocalypse. If you've been reading about the city the past few years, you've no doubt seen at least one of their snaps. The abandoned and dilapidated Central Station is now a symbol for the whole of Detroit it seems these days. There was even a meme going around the Detroit had no grocery stores (which I think I repeated) but that is simply a myth.

Of course empty buildings don't tell the whole story. There are still many nice neighborhoods in Detroit as well as grocery stores. NPR had a story about real estate investors looking to build luxury apartments and rehab homes for rent. And then there was the Chrysler commercial with Eminem which acknowledged that the city has been to hell and back but lauds it for the "hard work, conviction, know-how that runs deep".

But the people of Detroit have a lot of work to do and there's getting to be less and less of them by the day. The census says that the city lost a quarter of its population in the last 10 years. From a peak of nearly 2 million in the 1950s, it is now down to 713,777. Some of the statistics that Kevin Boyle digs up are startling.

Officially Detroit’s unemployment rate is 20 percent, but local officials fear that it might actually be twice as high. About 35 percent of the city’s residents live below the poverty line, almost 50 percent of its children, 110,000 all together. By seventh grade 60 percent of kids in the public school system are reading below grade level, while the high school dropout rate hovers around 67 percent. On average ten percent of teenagers attempt suicide each year. More than half the children tested in their schools had some degree of lead poisoning. Thirty-eight percent of toddlers are under-immunized. Forty percent of expected mothers receive inadequate pre-natal care. So it’s hardly surprising that Detroit’s infant mortality rate is barely better than Gaza’s.

Boyle also notes that Governor Rick Snyder is looking to cut state aid to the city by $70 million dollars in addition to other austerity measures.

It's going to take a lot more than a car commercial with a douchebag like Eminem to revitalize Detroit's image. Folks there have a long row to hoe. Best of luck on what will no doubt be a process that takes a generation or two.