Factors Contributing to the Downfall of the Motor City - Thesis Proposal Example

When the industry then switched to automation, most of the city’s residents lost their jobs. The industry declined further during the 1970s energy crisis and the 1980s economic recession. Intense global competition from other carmakers also contributed to the fall of Detroit’s automotive industry.

Supporting Material- (Martelle, 2012).
(15pts) Main Point #2 -Constant riots also deemed the city socially uninhabitable, with the most significant one occurring in 1967. The 1967 summer riot occurred in five days resulting in the death of forty-three people and 467 injured ones. As many as 2500 stores were looted 390 families were displaced from their homes and over 400 buildings were burned. Moreover, the city experienced $80 million losses from arson and looting, which destroyed many institutions and enterprises to the point of no return.
Supporting Material- (Poremba, 2003).

(15pts) Main Point #3 - The third major cause of Detroit’s decline is the city’s bloated taxing system, despite the notoriously poor services offered by the government in return. The city’s property tax rates are the highest in the country, where they even exceed 4% for some buildings. This has led to disinvestment in the city’s housing industry, in spite of the ridiculously cheap housing. Detroit’s houses are assessed far beyond their real worth; thus, house buyers avoid them as they leave them with inflated tabs.
Supporting Material- (LeDuff, 2013).

Supporting Material- (Poremba, 2003).
(20 Pts) Counter Arguments - However, many would argue that Detroit’s racial conflicts after World War 2 were the real reasons for its downfall. These conflicts were started off by that era’s poor government policies, which became worsened when enforced by seemingly prejudiced politicians. During the 1950s and 1960s, white mayors ordered the construction of roadways through functioning African American neighborhoods such as Black Bottom, and then housed the displaced people in dangerous government projects. This project was supposedly meant to revamp the aging communities surrounding the city, but the programs ended up fragmenting them. Thus, this renovation created a housing shortage and coupled with police brutality and discrimination, inspired the riots of 1967.

Relationship to Main Points- The city of Detroit, also nicknamed ‘the motor city,’ has gone through some major economic and demographic downfalls in recent decades. The city’s population has dropped from 1,850,000 in 1950 to 701,000 in 2013, one of the steepest declines in the history of population changes. In the year 2013, the motor city filed for bankruptcy, becoming the biggest city in US history to do so. The automobile industry, for which the city is famed, has suffered from international competition and has shifted much of the remaining production from Detroit. Several of the highest crime rates in the US now occur in Detroit, and huge portions of the city have been deserted and are in a state of extreme urban decay.

(15 pts) Conclusion/Summary- One silver lining of Detroit’s bankruptcy is its opportunity to achieve a structural overhaul. This could be achieved by channeling urban reforms from charter schools to well-defined contribution pensions and to lower taxes. These strategies have helped various other U.S. cities rise from bankruptcy in the last two decades. These reforms can revive the Motor City than they probably could anywhere else, turning it, at the very least, back into a normally functioning city, and at best into a booming economic star.






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