I Got Your Requiem, Jack.

Bury Something Else

Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal featured an opinion article by William McGurn, entitled “A Requiem for Detroit.” Like numerous media stories published since recent census statistics showed a huge decline in Detroit proper, the writer shared his shock and sadness over the tragedy of a city that had as many as 1.5 million residents in the 1950s, and now has under 750,000. “A once-great American city today repels people of talent and ambition,” he wrote.

He identifies – in my opinion, correctly in most cases – some of the numerous causes for the city’s decline: crime, crooked politics, expanding government, white flight, greedy unions, arrogant auto executives, lousy city services and failed government-funded redevelopment schemes. He also quoted a local source, Rev. Robert Sirico, president of the Michigan-based Action Institute, who stated:

“Detroit is a classic example of how a culture that was legendary for enterprise and innovation was slowly eroded by toxic politicization from the 1960s on. It’s been class warfare on steroids, and the inevitable result is that so many Detroiters who had the means – black and white – have fled the city.”

At the risk of sounding provincial – ah, whatever…I’ll be provincial – this and other similar recent stories are the equivalent of focusing on a grain of sand and pretending you’re discussing the entire beach.

The city of Detroit proper is just one piece of the metropolitan Detroit puzzle. Yes, Detroit “proper” lost 25% of its population in the last 10 years – a surprise to absolutely no one who lives, works or has knowledge of the area. In fact, the city’s importance has been dwindling for decades, as the majority of large companies (plus two of the three OEMs) established their headquarters in suburban locations many, many years ago. This is the thing about Detroit that outside media – and some delusional local media – don’t understand, or don’t want to understand. Media…please hear again: What we call “Detroit” IS NOT JUST DETROIT PROPER. It’s the entire metropolitan area. You can’t split it up. That doesn’t work here. And if you don’t really know all the facts, maybe you shouldn’t be writing about the subject.

Okay. Now that I got that off my chest, let’s talk facts about the area. According to the 2010 U.S. census, two of the three counties that make up the “metropolitan” area actually gained population. Oakland County gained about 1%, while Macomb County gained about 7%. Only Wayne County lost population (about 12%). Other counties surrounding these had gains: Livingston over 15%, Washtenaw over 5%, and Lapeer and Monroe between 1% and 5%. As of the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the Detroit metropolitan area is still the 11^th largest in the country.

Here’s a link to the latest county census info: http://2010.census.gov/news/pdf/cb11cn106_mi_perchange_2010map.pdf

How about the state? Michigan has sensationally been written about as the ONLY state to lose population during the last 10 years (-0.6%). Wow…what a surprise, especially given the fact that the state had such an enormous manufacturing base, and that so many manufacturing jobs – all over the country – have shifted to other areas of the globe. But let’s look at the population growth of other states as well: Ohio 1.6%, Illinois 3.3%, New York 2.1%, Pennsylvania 3.4%. Hardly earthshaking numbers, yet what does the media focus on? Right…the only one with a negative number, even if it’s less than 1%. (The state also loses a seat in the U.S. House because of this, which may be good or bad, depending on your political views).

My point? Simple. All the doom-and-gloom stories, the videos of the abandoned houses, the never-ending saga of the Detroit Public Schools…all true, but a rehash. Same stories over and over. Think other cities don’t have the same problems? They do. Chicago, for example, has some tremendous downtown areas, no question about it, but there are some real problems there as well (BTW, Chicago’s population declined by 6.6%). New York, LA? Come on.

Detroit positives? Many. Suburbs are still going strong. Great place for families, lots of places to go and things to do. And not every community is being abandoned:

http://detnews.com/article/20110322/SPECIAL05/110321001/1030/OPINION02

And Detroit proper? I overheard a couple of our designers talking the other day about some of the new “designey” retail shops (housewares, accessories, jewelry, etc.) and restaurants popping up in the Wayne State/Cass Corridor area, and a friend sent this short YouTube video on the upcoming Cobo Hall expansion/redevelopment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yljJt-Xes7g&feature=player_embedded

Seems that everybody’s ready to bury Detroit except us Detroiters. So save your Requiem, Jack. The people “stranded” here with “talent and ambition” are too busy to listen to it.