The 'D' Detroit in the new millennium : contemplating a post-post-modern city

Abstract

"The Motor City." "Motown." "The Automotive Capital of the World." The connection between Detroit and the American automobile industry is indisputable. Perhaps no other city in the world is as connected with a single industry as Detroit. For seventy years Detroit enjoyed the prosperity that the booming auto industry created. Between 1900 and 1950 the Detroit population swelled from 285,700 to nearly two million. By 2000 that number had fallen to less than a million. The failure of Detroit to sustain its industry and its population in the last fifty years has created a modern shrinking city. The gradual decline has created a ghost town of sorts, with much of its building stock deserted and awaiting demolition. Crime plagues the city; poverty and illiteracy are common. Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, the "Big Three," as they are known, are each facing desperate times. Their future is unclear. What is becoming apparent however is the demise of the production industry itself. The prospect of Detroit as an automobile producer in the future is not likely. The city will have to redefine itself in the era of Globalization. The Motor City is no more. The emerging nickname is the "D." What does the future hold for the "D?"