City Of Detroit Analysis

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There are cities that get by on their good looks, offer climate and scenery, views of mountains or oceans, rockbound or with palm trees. And there are cities like Detroit that have to work for a living.” Elmore Leonard. The United States is a nation of large powerful cities. Some are technology hubs, some are centers for medical research, and the some are responsible for growth and economic prosperity. Each of these metropolises has had their own impact upon the U.S., but none of them have impacted America and the rest of the world like Detroit. Without Detroit we would be looking at a very different world then are we looking at today. As almost everyone knows, Detroit was the city responsible for the automobile. One would think that the…show more content…
The founding of Ford Motor Company was the determining factor that led the economic prosperity that the city of Detroit experienced for decades. There is no doubt within my mind that Detroit as a city would not have reached a population of almost 2 million by 1950 and a regional population of about 5 million by 2000(Martelle 2012), without the founding of Ford Motor Company. The Ford Motor Company decided to pay their employees a minimum wage of 5 dollars (Watts 2005), which for the time was very high. This high minimum wage allowed Detroit to attract some of the nations best laborers. This population growth and new industry made Detroit one of the most valued cities within the United States and the world. This prosperity lasted for about six decades before the auto industry slowly started self-imploding itself towards bankruptcy. By 1940 Detroit was a city of automobiles, but that was soon to change as the Untied States had a sudden increase in demand for war machines. The production of cars within Detroit was completely stopped. By 1942 all the factories that were used for the production of cars were now being used for the production of Jeeps, B-24 Bombers, and M5 tanks (Martelle…show more content…
The city that was 1940’s Detroit was in completely different situation from the situation that the city is experiencing today. This increase of demand for the production of war machines led to a sudden increase for the demand of workers, which then in return led to a housing shortage. This housing shortage led to racial conflicts between the whites and blacks within Detroit. These conflicts escalated to a peak in June 1943, know as the “Detroit Race Riot”. This conflict cost Detroit about 2 million dollars (Martelle 2012). The riot came to stop when the United States army was called to resolve the

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