[Kosh]

Wow, a look at the rise and fall of Detroit. Man I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that place, what a mess.

[Bobboau]

if we had anyway to watch this there might be more responses.

[Kosh]

Here, at the bottom.


Here's a pic of someplace in Detroit to get people curious:

[Bobboau]

kinda looks like east st.louis.

[Kosh]

It's probably worse. Highest high school dropout rate in the country, one of the highest unemployment, one of the highest murder rates, lowest average housing price, high illiteracy (for a city in a developed country), massive numbers of abandoned homes and buildings (shrinking population). Hard to believe 50 years ago it was a very affluent city, one of america's jewels in the proverbial crown.

[TESLA]

Here, at the bottom.


Here's a pic of someplace in Detroit to get people curious:

Bombed during the iraq war?   

Well thats just a massive social upheaval waiting to explode!

[mister J]

the entire documentary is available in its entirety, in one single part and in divided parts on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7DA697984F1DB2B7&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&v=ReqG6qbx_c0 - movie in 8 parts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OpXhd7iau8 - whole movie

interesting docu. You can shoot a horror film in those large empty buildings. creepy 

[Kosh]

interesting docu. You can shoot a horror film in those large empty buildings. creepy 

They are real life horror movies.

Spoiler:

What kind of annoyed me was when that old woman close to the end said something like "this is the future", and all I could think was "if this is the future of the US then I'm glad I'm not there anymore...." Definately a WTF moment.

[Flipside]

It needs to be borne in mind that this is also a lesson on focussing an entire area on a single industry, Detroit bears a great deal of resemblence to 'Ghost Towns' that were dotted all over the US after the Gold Rush, different scale, but very similar cause.

[Bobboau]

just watched the whole thing, yeah, it's just like East St.Louis, it's just larger scale.

so Detroit was a one trick ponny and the people in charge of that trick were arrogant and lost to a superior product, the entire industry collapsed and the town went with it. everyone with any degree of wealth or skill fled you were left with a huge population of poor unskilled uneducated people who started eating the ruins of what there city once was. but the reason they are so quick to cannibalize their city is because they didn't feel like it was there city, they felt it was a prison and they were just trying to survive. The end of it made me feel good it looked like a bunch of people learning that they are the only people that can help themselves. there's no jobs so what they do is they restart everything, they start growing there own food. the fate of that town and community is in the hands of the people who built it up, propping it up only retards this understanding in the people. they look like they are starting to take ownership of there town, Detroit is a ****hole, it has been for a few decades now, it'll be interesting to see how it develops in the future.

[Blue Lion]

This happened all the time to coal towns and gold mine towns and steel towns, just never on this scale. The city will be rebuilt eventually.

[Snail]

Do you think deindustrialisation of this scale could happen in China?

[Flipside]

Depends on both the market and the marketting. Dubai is facing a shaky period because it has based its economy so heavily on...well.. the economy, nature proves that diversity is the key to survival, and I don't think industry follows all too different a set of rules.

[Blue Lion]

Do you think deindustrialisation of this scale could happen in China?

Could it? Sure. Will it? Doubtful. I'm sure there are towns in China that simply stopped being useful and packed up, but I doubt they would be at the scale Detroit was.

[Bobboau]

well it could happen anywhere if you have a city that is wholly devoted to one industry and that industry tanks that town is going to tank with it, so any mining towns for instance, unless they use their money to diversify, are just a ghost town waiting to happen.

[Mongoose]

Do you think deindustrialisation of this scale could happen in China?

Could it? Sure. Will it? Doubtful. I'm sure there are towns in China that simply stopped being useful and packed up, but I doubt they would be at the scale Detroit was.

There was actually a short story in a recent Time issue that discussed a massive new Chinese housing project that hadn't experienced anywhere near the original anticipated demand.  There were pictures of whole blocks of shiny new houses sitting there completely empty, and a brand-new highway completely empty of cars.  It's a different root cause than what's happened to Detroit, but the result could be the same.

As for Detroit itself, there are apparently some optimistic signs.  They've hired a supposedly fantastic urban planner who's essentially figuring out how to contract the city and use its land more effectively.

[Blue Lion]

Do you think deindustrialisation of this scale could happen in China?

Could it? Sure. Will it? Doubtful. I'm sure there are towns in China that simply stopped being useful and packed up, but I doubt they would be at the scale Detroit was.

There was actually a short story in a recent Time issue that discussed a massive new Chinese housing project that hadn't experienced anywhere near the original anticipated demand.  There were pictures of whole blocks of shiny new houses sitting there completely empty, and a brand-new highway completely empty of cars.  It's a different root cause than what's happened to Detroit, but the result could be the same.

As for Detroit itself, there are apparently some optimistic signs.  They've hired a supposedly fantastic urban planner who's essentially figuring out how to contract the city and use its land more effectively.

The sad part is there are people in China who are beyond what we would consider broke and they're building new cities to sit empty. We might not be the only wasteful country after all.

[SpardaSon21]

All I can say is that's just an example of government mis-planning in action.

[Mongoose]

To be fair, that Chinese city was planned out well in advance of the economic downturn.  If conditions had stayed similar to then, it probably would have been filled in a heartbeat.

[SpardaSon21]

Did they try downscaling the project?  That's the first thing a private contractor would do if demand might not meet the new supply.