Final Thoughts on Detroit

I'm writing this in Chicago airport: I was freakishly bumped to an earlier flight (vs my rubbish experience leaving Cincinnati) so I've got a couple of hours to kill.  I thought I'd jot down my final thoughts on Detroit - it's a place of contradictions and variety and I'm sure that I barely scratched the surface.  But hopefully I'm seen a bit more than just the 'usual' downtown areas.  (I don't know when I'll get a chance to post this so some of the timings might be off!). 

 

I went downtown for the morning the other day - mainly to post some stuff home (both from where I massively overpacked but also from things I've been given or bought along the way.  Top tip to scholars doing this trip in future years is to take less stuff that you think you'll need).  I took the opportuninty to wander around the city centre area.  As per my previouspost the overwhelming impression is one of emptiness - it's clean and feels safe and has all the infrastructure (roads, buildings etc) of a much larger and busier city than it is now but there's simply no-one around!

I stumbled across one of Detroit's 'Urban Gardens' - this one was sponsored by Compuware, one of the local employers and I spoke with the people seconded from the company to staff the garden.  One of them was a long term resident and told me that 15-20 years ago it was even quieter than now - he could have laid down in the road beside us for 15 minutes and nothing would have happened - no-one would be there to either tell him to get up or in his words, "no-one would even be around to try to take my wallet". 

They also filled me in about a couple of names that have consistently come up in coversation - Matty Moroun and Phil Cooley.  The former is a local landowner (he owns Michigan Central Station and also the bridge and tunnel over to Canada - more on him later) and the latter a local businessman and self-promoter.  Both divide opinions, shall we say...  I ate dinner that night at one of Cooley's restaurants - Slows BBQ.  The food was ok, not as great as I'd been led to believe but the place was totally packed to he's obviously doing something right. 

Talking of food, and being a huge Man vs Food fan I couldn't go to Detroit without sampling the delights of a Coney Hot Dog - some info on the backstory here.  I plumped for what's supposed to be the more 'authentic' of the two rival restaurants and can confirm that it was qutie an experience - the mixture of mince, chilli, hotdog and raw onions will stay with me for quite some time...  I shied away from one of Adam's volume challenges on this ocassion - another chance will present itself I'm sure. 

I was due that afternoon back at the offices of the UFCW where their Secretary-Treasurer had promised me that he would show me the political offices of the local Democratic Party.  For a political nerd like me this was obviously very exciting, not least because I'd be able to look at lots of maps of different Congressional Districts...  The office was very much like all the Labour Party committee rooms I've been in: slightly messy, lots of junk-food, assorted literature and posters along with a hardcore of activists phone-banking and stuffing envelopes.  Probably the best part of the visit, apart from the collecting of much literature and bumper stickers (yes, I've got one for you Rory!) was when my host, Rick, took me on a short drive to some of the local neighbourhoods. 

I'd already learned that Detroit's not all decay and disorder and there are some pretty acceptable places but where Rick took me was totally unexpected.  Firstly for Nottingham readers the district of the City rejoices in the name of 'Sherwood Forest' and especially for Jane and Brian if they're reading this it is usually just know as 'Sherwood' and is one of the more desirable places to live in the City.  Some things are the same the world over, eh...

As you can see from the photo below the properties in this neighbourhood are pretty desirable - 5+ bedrooms and lots of big gardens.  Rick told me that places here would typically sell for $150,000 - and an equivalent place outside the stigma of the city's boundaries (but less than a mile away geographically) would be around $400,000!  (This compares with the place I was staying where a three bedroom Victorian semi-detached would set you back about $30,000...). 

I picked up in the campaign office an attack leaflet critisising 'Mad Moron' (sic).  Although it wasn't explained, I assume this was directed at Matt Moroun (as above).  As well as consistently delaying redevelopment proposals for the Michigan Central Station Mr Moran is also the monopoly owner of the bridge and tunnel to and from Canada and also of all the Duty Free Shopping concessions.  When I was given a sample ballot (it's 4 pages) for the upcoming November election I was surprised to see a Referendum (called a 'Proposal' here) essentially designed to make it much more difficult for an additional international crossing to be created.  When I was in the UFCW offices I got the team to explain this.  Essentially it looks like Mr Moran has used his considerable personal wealth to get onto the ballot (and hopes to pass) a proposal to protect his monopoly on the international crossing business.  The fact that the Canadian government would have paid the costs of a proposed new bridge and it would bring additional revenue and business through Detroit doesn't seem to be a factor in his thinking.  An interesting local political dynamic. 

On my last day in Detroit I planned a quick visit to the Henry Ford complex out in Dearborn.  This comprises of several museums and exhibitions but the main focus for me was the Rouge Factory Tour - a chance to go round the actual Ford factory that's currently making the F150 Truck.  The Dearborn complex is vast - a whole town dedicated to Ford and all things car related.  It used to be much bigger and was on a significant decline until the mid-naughties when the current leader of the company, Bill Ford made a bold investment to tranform the plant into a green oriented and future facing operation - investing around $2bn in the site and its future.  The actual tour of the factory was incredible - you walk along a kind of gantry where you can see the trucks being made, production line station by production line station.  Some of the workers acknowledged our presence and gave us a little wave - some others just carried on doing the same repetitive work (as part of a 4 day, 10 hours a day work-week).  There was a real pride in the quality of the work and the combination of sophisticated robots and real people was interesting to see.  I also liked the fact that at various stations the sophisticated manufacturing process was reduced to a bloke picking up a lump of plastic and banging it into place with his fist - percussive maintenance is always a winner!

My final thoughts on Detroit: what I originally read about on my pre-trip research as a concept of 'Planned Shrinkage' came up time and time again here in even the most casual of conversations with people - "the city's too big we need to downside"; "the city needs to grow its tax base we're too big"; "we can't keep the city this size".  All of the people I met were passionate and committed advocates for the City and they all knew that it made sense to shrink and try to grow back.  This wasn't at all what I expect to find so glad to have had my assumptions challenged. 

Detroit Decay

Detroit was always one of the centrepieces of my tour of America.  Right from seeing this series of photographs in the Observer a while back I was determined to make it part of my trip.  The city's reputation is pretty well known and it's not a positive one - a google search for "is Detroit..." autocompletes to "is Detroit safe".  As I talked about in my previous post, the reality is that it's a city just like any other - and one that looks like it's on the up.  In many of the neighbourhoods I've been in I've encountered great businesses and organisations that are making a positive contribution to the area - Avalon International Breads and Astro Coffee to name just a few.  

But as great as these places are (and they are great - tasty, cheap food with a warm welcome from the staff and other customers) the overwhelming impression of the surroundings and the rest of the city is of a serious amount of urban decay.  The area where my hostel is located in known as Corktown after the high numbers of Irish immigrants that settled in the area back in the day.  Despite being somewhat brutally servered in two by the arrival of the I-75 motorway it looks like at one time it would have been a packed and probably desirable residential district being about a mile and half from downtown.  

To walk around it as I did on Sunday morning wouldn't suggest that this would ever have been the case.  Block after block is just missing - fallen into such disrepair that the buildings have had to be pulled down.  And the buildings that are remaining aren't in great shape either.  But the odd thing is that it feels totally safe.  I fully expected to be have to be a bit wary but I felt as ease.  Yes, it was Sunday mornning but even so.  I guess this is because there just wasn't anyone around - it felt a little but like those scenes in a post-apocalypic films like 28 Days Later where the landscape is familiar but all the people have been wiped out.  

But then the more you look, the more its clear that although this has happened, people are slowly struggling back.  There are a number of urban gardens being well tended in the area, the grassed over areas where houses used to be are well mown and looked after and the City is using the space to act as a nursery for a number of new trees to go towards a project to 'green' Detroit.  

I also walked out towards Michigan Central Station.  Some really interesting history of it here.  It's a building that pretty well dominates the local area and it's only as you start to look closer as you approach it you realise how derelict it really is.  

A bit like Cincinnati's railway station which I briefly went to see the other week, it's an incredible piece of engineering and design which was sadly well ahead of the demand for railway travel in the US.  There is how a well organised pressure group to try to save the station and promote ideas for its reuse - I hope they're successful!  

Sunday I also went to the historic site of the production of Henry Ford's Model T - or the T-Plex as the current owners would have it.  Owned and run by volunteers it's a really impressive set of displays over two floors including some beautifully restored original cars.  I spent a couple of hours there but could easily have been even longer.  

The surrounding area ('Michigan Junction') used to be the centre of the car manufacturing industry as it was where three trainlines all intersected so was ideal for bringing in the parts and exporting the finished products - in the years around 1900 there were up to 40 car manufacturers in the area!  Of course now it's a different story and another very quiet and somewhat desolate neighbourhood.  

Detroit

After a couple of pretty idyllic days in Ann Arbor I was both looking forward to and also slightly nervous about going to Detroit proper,  From everything I'd read and from some of the conversations I've had I had developed a mental image of the City as some kind of western-Beirut.  Of course it wasn't going to be as bad as that but it's certainly a city with some real troubles.  

I headed off first thing on Saturday to the Eastern Market which is a Detroit institution.  I was interested to see that the majority of the customers there looked and sounded like they were relatively affluent suburban-ites rather than locals taking advantage of the incredible variety of (cheap) food that was available.  This kind of links to my earlier post today which talks about the concept of a Food Desert which may or may not exist in Detroit.  The food available look delicious and there were some great bargains to be had.  

After that I headed closer to the city centre and paid a visit to both the Detroit Institute of Arts and also the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.  The exhibits were ok if not hugely inspiring.  I liked a couple of bits in the DIA including some great murals of Detroit's industrial heritage which you can see some images of here.  

I then walked down Woodward Avenue into the city centre.  It was about 4 o'clock on a Saturday and part of where I was walking was the financial district, but the thing that struck me the most was the sheer emptiness of the place.  Of course there are the desolate and deserted housing blocks and the buildings that have been razed to the ground but more than that there was the fact that there were simply so few people around.  But other than that it was a pleasant enough city - I felt very safe and secure.  Feels odd that 30 or so years about the population would have been nearly double and presumably a much higher level of activity.  

Have been thinking about what else to do when I'm here - obviously the car manufacturing museums are on the list but also pondering the possibility of a trip either up to Lake Michigan or over to Canada. 

City of Contrasts

I've been in Cincy now for a couple of days and I've gone through a range of emotions about it.  The Monday morning (after the Oktoberfest admittedly) I was surprised at how quiet the city was - there was almost nothing going on for a Monday morning rush-hour - certainly compared with New York of course but even for a comparable UK city it was eerily still.  My earlier post covers some of what I did the rest of the day which certainly give me a different physical and social angle on the city.  I could definitely live in the Mt Adams area of the city

For yesterday I decided against my original plan of going to an outlet mall - I've already brought far too many clothes so decided I didn't really need any more - and planned on exploring more of the city.  I first went up the Carew Tower - a hidden gem if ever I saw one!  It was hard to find out how to actually get up the tower and I was somewhat sceptical of the rickety lift and handmade signs directing me up to the 49th floor.  On arrival and once I had paid the extortionate entrance fee of $2 the views from the blustery observation deck were fantastic.  An attraction that in any other city would be hugely publicised and probably be five times more expensive.  A couple of sample pictures.

 

It looks like a prosperous and thriving city which at times it certainly feels like but as you see below at other times it definitely doesn't!  There is an exhibition in the lobby of Carew Tower which gives a really interesting context to the building. The design is classic 1930s French Deco - which was trendy in the US for about 18 months.  The speed that the building was constructed at meant that it was the height of fashion for a very brief period of time.  The building has gone through a series of different uses and fortunes over the years but retains pretty much all of its charm and style - including some excellent glazed porcelain decorative arches from Rookwood Pottery - a company established in the city in the 19th Century and still trading (albeit with a number of different locations and owners over the years). 

I then decided to walk up to Findlay's Market in the north of the city.  Again a historic organisation (and a good place to get lunch) but I was also interested in seeing how the neighbourhood would change as I moved north of the city centre.  I wasn't disappointed.  From is a socially and racially mixed and fairly vibrant city centre I quickly moved into an almost exclusively Black neighbourhood and one that obviously is struggling.  Some obvious signs of decay and also something of a renaissance but at times it didn't feel like the best of places to be. 

This old pool hall has obviously seen better days...

And there are a number of 'missing' houses where there were obviously so decayed that they've had to be knocked down. 

The interesting thing is that on the wooden picket fence you can see in the photo there is a sign for the Cincinnati City Centre Development Corporation who are evidently working hard to transform the area. 

From a strict economic point-of-view of course, reducing your building and housing stock (especially when they are dilapidated) increases property values and encourages use of the neighbourhood in new ways.  The Development Corporation is based directly in this neighbourhood and surrounding their (pretty plush) offices there already seems to be some gentrification going on.  Their website here directly talks about land-banking and assembling plots for redevelopment.  Ed Glaeser talks very helpfully about this kind of regeneration activity in his book, 'Triumph of the City' and I've covered 'Planned Shrinkage' before along with my thoughts on Nottingham's own areas of urban decay.

The area I walked through (which I think is known as 'Over-The-Rhine' - Cincinnati has a large German population, dontchyaknow) could be great: some historic (and huge) buildings and great access to the city centre.  And various bodies are putting a lot of effort into trying to transform it.  I hope they're succesful. 

The Market itself was a little disappointing - very quiet and not a huge range of food on offer.  I even managed to resist the Belgian waffle stall...

The walk back brought me through Washington Park and the frankly incredible Music Hall.  Again, a clear influence from the German population in its architecture. 

Just so my day wasn't all architecture and urban regeneration I popped into Nicholson's Scottish (!) pub in the afternoon - it claims to be Cincinnati's first gastro-pub: a dubious claim to fame if ever there was one!  Some reasonable beers however. 

A pretty packed day and I still had the baseball game at the Great American Ball Park to come - a report on that later today I hope. 

Queen of the Mid(West)lands

The Nottinghamians amongst people reading this will know that Nottingham is sometimes called 'The Queen of the Midlands'.  I learnt today that Cincinnati (finally cracked how to spell it!) is known as 'The Queen City'.  Tenuous nomenclature links aside, the cities are similar in population size (c. 300,000) but not a lot else - it's been a really interesting day or so exploring the city and drawing comparisons. 

I arrived late afternoon yesterday and popped out to the Oktoberfest.  I was intrigued to see what the American version of the German beerfest would look like.  It was a great show - a reasonable variety of beers, lots of food and a real family atmosphere.  The ratio of food and entertainment to beer was skewed to food rather than beer - and I'm not sure that Nottingham CAMRA would approve of Bud Light and Miller being included in a beer festival. I sampled a number of the local brews - including some from Samuel Adams, Great Lakes and Magic Hat.  As per my post here on beers, it was good to see some of the craft brewers in America getting out there and encouraging people to try their products - but the number of people still sticking to their traditional low-taste volume brews was a bit disappointing. 

Monday morning brought a slight hangover and also a meeting at Proctor & Gamble.  The buildings the company occupies really dominate the city centre as you can see in the below photo. 

I had arranged to meet FD Wilder, P&G's Vice President for Global Market Strategy and Planning.  I was a little nervous going in to visit someone so senior in such a huge organisation but FD was highly engaging and very generous with his time.  A really interesting discussion about how P&G's 'promote from within' culture both supports and can hinder their push for innovation and creative thinking plus some great details on how P&G engage with their host city.  

On the latter point FD was able to talk to me about how the company deliberately invested in downtown Cincinnati as an act of enlightened self-interest: back in the early 2000s the city was not in a great place, including some horrendous sounding riots and a significant level of white-flight to the suburbs.  This was causing recruitment problems for P&G as ambitious young graduates were not willing to move to the city.  I can confirm that just over 10 years later the city centre feels a million miles away from the events described above - I felt very safe and saw a variety of races and backgrounds mingling together. 

FD also gave me some really interesting perspective on both the Boots/Walgreens merger and also the global retail market (P&G see that there are 24m stores worldwide that sell products in categories they participate in; 6m of them they have a presence in but only c. 200,000 are part of a chain - the rest are 'mon-and-pop' independents, often in the developing world). Oh, and that Google have a model of a dinosaur at their Silicon Valley HQ - to remind everyone that works there that even the most innovative company can become obsolete if you don't guard against it. 

I came out of the offices to some welcome Midwestern sun (it had been very cold first thing) and decided to walk up from the city-centre to Mount Adams - the suburb of the city that overlooks the main city and hosts a number of artists and other creative types in some very desirable housing.  The climb was certainly a stiff one but the view was absolutely worth it, as were the couple of pints of Hop Bomber beer from Rivertown Brewery I had at the City View Tavern in Mt Adams. 

Just to be clear that I've not spent the whole time drinking, I also went over to the Cincinnati Reds stadium - the Great American Ballpark to pick up my ticket for the baseball game I'm going to see tomorrow evening.  Might have one or two pints at the game of course...

Managed Decline

So, I've been thinking some more about the response that cities might take to the particularly destructive exit of a large employer.  An extreme example of what can happen can be seen in Detroit which I'm hoping to visit on my trip.  I think I was first made aware of what was happening here via this incredible set of photos published last year in The Observer.  The memory of these images has stuck in my head every since but is only coming to the surface now.  Image 6 of that gallery of the Central Station just blows my mind - it's only just over a mile from the city centre yet lies almost totally in ruins.  

But until the other week I didn't know that the process of strategically withdrawing from a city or region has an actual sociological name and is studied as a phenomenon in itself: Planned Shrinkage.  

This kind of dramatic approach to managing adverse external economic events obviously has huge societal and individual impacts - one of things that I'd hope to understand more about on my trip.