Detroit as Leader

Stuggle after struggle, year after year
To cut down on beer or the kids' new gear
It's a big decision in a town called Malice
-- The Jam(Motown via Woking)

One could make a good case Detroit led America through the 20th century, for one reason alone, it was the center of the automobile, and nothing transformed American society more than the automobile. You could also add in the 30's organized labor came into full bloom in Detroit, while in the 1960s Motown molded American culture, and let's not forget the Stooges documenting the beginning of the decline in the early 70s. Detroit's influence has been paramount. In the last several decades, Detroit led the US in dismantling our industrial infrastructure and the resulting depopulation. The once densely populated city now has 50,000 "surplus" parcels of land. Detroit's a strange place to drive through today, but it's not alone. It represents cities and towns across the old industrial "Rust Belt" and the Midwest.

Now, maybe Detroit's going to lead in reviving America's political economy? Former NBA star Dave Bing has taken office, he averaged 20.3 points a game which is pretty darn good, though he's going to have even better numbers to get Detroit moving. In a recent article in the WSJ, he said the most refreshing thing I've heard an American politician say in decades, he didn't know exactly what he was going to do and he was turning to the people of Detroit. The article states,

One thing Mayor Dave Bing wants every Detroiter to know about his plan to reconfigure this shrinking city: There is no plan yet. But Mr. Bing is also determined to make clear to people that the city will have to change dramatically, from how it uses land to how it attracts business and jobs.

A team of Bing advisers will fan out to hear Detroiters talk about their neighborhoods and also lay out the city's case for restructuring, but Mayor Bing himself will be the face of this effort. The point, he says, is to make sure the public is aware of the profound problems the city faces, and actively engaged in the search for solutions.

"You have to get down into the bowels of city government to understand really where your problems are," Mr. Bing said in an interview last week, "and it starts with people."

Well, that's right thinking toward a good start and in great contrast to Mr. Krugman in the NYT, who grows more shrill every day, "Do something! Anything!" This problem didn't suddenly occur overnight, nor will it be fixed overnight. Over the decades, as America put itself into its current economic predicament, you'd be hard pressed to find Mr. Krugman and others of his ilk doing anything but cheer leading the car over the cliff. I guess the "geographic advantages" Detroit enjoyed in the early and mid-20th centuries became disadvantageous by the end? Which brings up the old joke,

Q. How can you tell when a Nobel Prize winning economist doesn't know what he's talking about?

A. When his lips are moving.

It brings the house down in Detroit.