What happened to Detroit?

Answer 1

I'll tell ya what happened in Detroit.

Specifically One Industry - One big, big reason Detroit (and in general the State of Michigan) fell was because of the fall of the auto industry. Detroit completely relied on just one industry. Compare to other cities like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, which all had multiple industries. Throughout the 1940s till the 1960s, the auto industry prospered, but from the 70s onward the American auto industry has faced stiff competition from East Asia and Europe, and the recession didn't help at all.

Race Relations and Segregation - Another big thing that killed Detroit over was segregation. During the 1960s, a way of trying to "integrate" schools was to "diversify" students of backgrounds. For example, black children from the inner city were moved to schools in the wealthy Detroit suburbs, which wasn't a bad idea itself, but the idea of moving white children to inner city schools was a bad idea. Many white families were fed up with this, and left Detroit. Detroit was completely segregated, and these racial tensions have continued ever since due to misconceptions.

Decline of US Industry - A big, big bigmisconception is that "not buying American killed Detroit". No, not necessarily. Many big companies actually themselves brought the decline. They could move to countries like China, Mexico, Brazil, or Russia (or really anywhere outside the United States) and start factories there cheaper. Companies started doing this, and Americans started losing jobs in the industrial sector beginning in the 1970s. Detroit had no gains from this.

Budget Problems - Recent budget problems have plagued Detroit, and for a very long time. The City of Detroit has not been helped by recent federal budget problems. The budget problems started coming along especially after the movement of companies to other countries.

And there. that's how Detroit died. A lack of industries to fall back on, the decline of the rust belt, and budget problems brought on by this has helped kill Detroit.