Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
The BBC has run a lengthy article on the decline of Detroit (my hometown), and for me, it's just so *sad.* I was a little boy when the oil crisis hit, starting the Big 3 on the inexorable path to obscurity, so I'd never known a time when Detroit was the Silicon Valley of its day, just as I've never known what it means to respect a President in the pre-Watergate sense.
The dot-com bubble's burst in 2000-2001 was a shocking blow, but recovery here has been steady and relatively swift. Detroit has been limping and wheezing in a slow torturous death for decades, and one wonders what that does to a population that's already disillusioned, disaffected, without promise or hope.
While I'm not surprised that my family didn't see it coming (hindsight being what it is), but what does amaze me is how vehemently they argued against my leaving the area, and lobbied for me to return in 2003.
This could be Silicon Valley in 40 years or less.
The dot-com bubble's burst in 2000-2001 was a shocking blow, but recovery here has been steady and relatively swift. Detroit has been limping and wheezing in a slow torturous death for decades, and one wonders what that does to a population that's already disillusioned, disaffected, without promise or hope.
While I'm not surprised that my family didn't see it coming (hindsight being what it is), but what does amaze me is how vehemently they argued against my leaving the area, and lobbied for me to return in 2003.
This could be Silicon Valley in 40 years or less.
Labels: article, bbc, decline, detroit, michigan, news, urban
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