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Why Did Detroit City Collapse

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Why Did Detroit City Collapse
Detroit had been in decline since it was rocked by race riots in 1967. Since then, there has been a real drop-off in investment and economic development in the city. Like a lot of other cities in the American northeast and Midwest, it was badly affected when factories moved south or out of the country, but was harder hit because it was a one-industry city. Most big cities have more than one industry, but Detroit's economy was completely centered on the automobile. When the Recession hit, Detroit dealt a major blow along on top of the corruption and mismanagement. Many areas of Detroit became abandoned by residents after business and companies left. Detroit’s abandoned buildings have become dangerous and a real eye sore.
Detroit and many parts
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Detroit at one time was the four largest city in 1950 with 1.8 million people. In the 2010 census, the city had fewer than 700,000 residents. Detroit has the highest unemployment rate of any major city in the nation. This is both a cause and effect of the population situation. With few jobs, so people go elsewhere. The high cost of the city’s government drivers, employers away and make other people less willing to relocate there. Other big reason us that Detroit has 18 billion in general obligation debt. A lot of the debt is due to the result of public pensions. Detroit has about 3 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. The city was buried in pension cost because it had too many public workers. Even though Detroit’s populations had cut down its public sector just kept growing. In 2011, the city had more than 12,000 employees more than other comparably sized city in the country according to The Detroit News. There was also a lot of corruption going on Former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a Democrat, was convicted in March of 24 federal felony offenses, including mail fraud, wire fraud, tax evasion, racketeering and extortion. Prosecutors said he gave out jobs to friends and family, wasted city tax dollars on fraudulent contracts and pocketed more than $1 million in illegal kickbacks. Also the crime was going up and the police had no way to respond. Much of the city’s financial …show more content…
Lenders are also responsible for the problems in Detroit. Banks gave loans to business that had a high risk of failing. Detroit should help pay for its comeback. Banks are discriminating against Detroit due to their past mistakes. A settlement with local banks could help hundreds of millions of dollars go around. Detroit business can prove that billions in lost property values and millions in property tax due to the actions of banks. Then they can use the cash for comeback programs. Detroit is so far in debt, it needs a way to restart the city’s economy, which could be done if large corporations come to Detroit and start opening factories, which can produce jobs and help the city. The best way to do this would be to take advantage of the fact that Detroit has a large number of abandoned buildings. Detroit could use this to its advantage. Detroit can drop some of the expenses that normally occur when trying to build a factory and make it less expensive than building overseas

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