The Automobile Capital Of The World

By this time Detroit had become the epicenter of the American automobile. Detroit’s grand boulevards, were now lost in this ever expanding industrial Mecca. Detroit was home to some of America’s biggest names in automotives, including Walter Chrysler, The Dodge Brothers, and the outspoken Henry Ford. Workers in these factories often earned more in wages than many unskilled labor positions around the country. As news of the high-wage jobs in the up-and-coming motor city made its way around the country, migrants began to flood the city in hopes of a better life. Overcrowding among blacks and the have-nots of society was a harsh reality in Detroit’s inner city ghetto, which went by the name of Black Bottom. Several families would cram into single family flats, often grateful to even have a place to stay. Many made due without luxuries like running water, and disease ran rampant along the dirty over-crowded streets. This migration was not often welcomed among white Detroiters. A message of “One Hundred Percent Americanism” was being spread and upheld by the Ku Klux Klan, and Negroes were not Americans. Many white Detroiters, whether they were with the KKK or not, felt that segregation was the way it should be. They feared that if blacks were to breach the color line into white neighborhoods then property values would plummet, real estate agents would not show the houses and the neighborhood would be ultimately

Requiem for Detroit? is a historical documentary, released in 2010 and directed by Julien Temple, about the decline and collapse of Detroit, one of America’s largest cities. It chronicles Detroit’s journey through its success in the automobile industry all the way through its urban decay and industrial collapse to the present day. As the film draws a close, Temple also suggests some ways forward for Detroit. He presents possibilities and clearly shows which he thinks is most likely through his use of interviews with subjects and visual representations of these offered opinions. The intended reading that Temple offers viewers is a complex one, with many anti-consumerist and anti-corporate ideas and leanings. Despite the ‘doom-laden’ feel of much of the text, Temple paints optimism for the potential for a progressive and productive future for Detroit. Throughout the documentary he clearly expresses this intended reading through effective use of motifs, shown by visual and sound techniques, music and interviews with both privileged and non-privileged characters.

The most significant factor that catapulted Detroit, Michigan to becoming a prosperous city in America was the mass production of the automobile in the early 20th century. Three companies encompassed the auto industry in America and they were Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. Consequently, the three companies were referred to as the “Big Three.” The “Big Three” established their headquarters, and assemble plants in the Detroit area. David Littman, Senior Vice President & chief Economist, Comerica Bank (retired) stated, “what really built the city of Detroit were the thing of substance of a market system entrepreneurship and incentive…come to

Politicians, journalists, financial analysts and other purveyors of banality have been looking at cars as if a convertible were a business. Fire the MBAs and hire a poet. The fate of Detroit isn’t a matter of financial crisis, foreign competition, corporate greed, union intransigence, energy costs or measuring the shoe size of the footprints in the carbon. It’s a tragic romance—unleashed passions,

Majority of the people that started working in the plants came from the south. These people were looking for work and the state of Michigan provided that for them, with no education needed to start working. This provided the men to take care his whole family. The job provided benefits, great pay, day care, and offer to pay for the schooling if interested while working for the car industry. More and more people started to move and settle in Michigan. When the country was going through its toughest time dealing with the recession people were laid off. People weren’t buying cars at that time because no one could afford it. When people have low income and the air that they breathe is polluted you might have some issues with the economy. With pollution and poverty running so high nothing will get solved but the problem could get worst if it is not prevented and halted. As the economy has gotten worse, the pollution got worse as

Detroit, Michigan grew up around the automobile industry. At its peak, Detroit was the fifth-largest city in the United States, becoming the home to over 1.8 million people by 1950 (Davey, Monica 2013). The prolific population was due greatly to the success of the auto industry in the city. At that time, Detroit was flying high, its name coined “The Motor City” (americaslibrary.gov), and automobiles greatly impacted commercialization. From transporting goods to hastening production, to selling parts, to manufacturing and selling new automobiles, the auto industry completely transformed Detroit. Things seemed

Machines running, hammers dropping, and drills drilling are the sounds of Henry Ford’s revolutionary assembly line. Henry Ford grew up in the late eighteenth century during the industrial revolution. There were no electric lights, only gas lamps and candles. Horses and trains were the only cost effective way of transportation for the public. When Henry Ford was a child, he saw a steam driven car on the road and was mesmerized. At this point, he knew he longed to become a mechanic that works on cars. At the age of sixteen, Henry Ford got a job as an apprentice machinist in Detroit at the Detroit Dry Dock Company. Three years later he returned to work on the family farm, and became adept at operating the

Kevin Boyle explained that the racial tension between the minorites and the white community did harm to Detroit's economy. Most of the immigrants were blacks from the southern states. While they were migrating into Detroit in a fast pace, housing were also getting filled up fast. The demand for more housing created and impact of how Detroit neighborhoods were being set up in order to keep up with the pace. Most neighboorhoos were seperated by race. White neighboroods were being created as weel as blacks only neighborhoods. The anglo-saxon European immigrants also created their own neighborhoods. While some blacks gained finacial wealth, they tried to move into white neighborhood since it was more secured and nicer. This came into an obstacule for the blacks. The white community tried everything to keep the blacks away from their neighborhood. They used local real estate agents to keep the blacks away. One of their strategies was charging the black community a price above value

I received the opportunity to interview one of my father's close friends and business partners, Mr. Joseph E. Hutchison Sr., for the purposes of exploring how he perceived the Detroit riots of 1697. Mr. Hutchison is an African American man, which has lived in multiple neighborhoods throughout Detroit all his life, and has raised a family in the city as well. Furthermore, Mr. Hutchison has a funeral home on Detroit's East Side, which has been thriving for more than forty-years. Moreover, he has a love for the city, no matter what condition the city is in. Pursuing this idea further, Hutchison has experienced about three race riots throughout his life, in which he

Rebenstein and Ziewaxz (2014) explain how Detroit has been rated as the world’s most miserable city. In 2012 Detroit suffered 411 homicides, which was higher than in 1974 when Detroit was designated as the murder capital of the United States (p. 340). What causes all of these horrible things to happen in a city? Can the blame be placed solely on one people group? Policemen? Politicians? Teachers? Economic decline? Determining the blame for the current plight of Detroit is a very complex question that cannot be given a simple answer. Similar to the discussion regarding who was to blame for the Detroit Riots, no one person or area can be blamed for the city’s history and current state. It is clear through the textbook readings that multiple factors

Detroit, Michigan is a city that has had racial confliction and disharmony from the embryonic

Reputations can be very deceiving.  They cause you to think a certain way about something without forming your own opinion first.  Reputations are like stereotypes: they both make you conform to other people's views about a subject without getting to know it for yourself.  The city of Detroit falls victim to having a bad reputation.  The Motor City is known as being corrupt and left for dead; it is called hopeless and dangerous by people who have never even stepped foot into the city.  Growing up thirty miles from Detroit, I consider myself a Detroiter and disagree with the city’s horrible reputation.  I believe that Detroit has been through

Riots were happening for the same issues in Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Since all these riots were occurring far away from Detroit many Detroiters thought that their city would spare the riots. Sadly, they were wrong.

Detroit is a very well-known and diverse city. “Somewhere behind its neglected, graffiti covered skyscrapers are charming reminders of a city that was once among the world’s wealthiest” (Gray). This city has been through a lot. Detroit was first founded by the French in 1701 and then used as a fur trade post. Jumping a little in the future, it has had riots and protest for equal rights among its busy streets. Detroit is also known as the Motor City. “By the mid-twentieth century one in every six working Americans was employed directly or indirectly by the automotive industry” (Sugrue). Yet after everything this city has endured Detroit is thought of as a place of fear. It has a lot of history and has a lot to offer if people would let

A thorough analysis of the external forces that shaped the global automotive industry in 2009 reveals how the rivalry between established car makers set the stage for some to successfully survive the global recession while others were forced to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A closer consideration of the impact of consolidation, demand and supply, fixed costs, product differentiation, and exit barriers on rivalry within the industry reveals how new entrants and weaker competitors were able to take advantage of environmental opportunities during the recession and gain profit shares. These considerations illustrate the critical importance of analyzing the forces that shape competition in an industry and how such an analysis serves as the