It hasn’t for decades. Its profligacy has finally caught up with it.
5 thoughts on “The Broken City Of Detroit”
The problem was a long time in the making. When you have a city of that size losing so much population the only thing I can compare it to in terms of urban impact is a natural disaster. They should have started tearing down ruined abandoned houses a long time ago. They probably need to rethink their administrative district subdivision. I bet a lot of people are living in isolated islands in the middle of ruined buildings. Those should be separately governed instead of considered to be part of the same whole.
In comments to the linked article someone states that Rover Group (a.k.a. British Leyland, AKA Austin Rover, et al) went under because the government wasn’t prepared to shield it as Italy did Fiat.
Nope. It went under because of grossly inefficient manufacturing; even when machinery was installed that would have improved productivity, the unions wouldn’t let it. It went under because of spineless management that wasn’t prepared to face up to the unions to make the company more efficient. It went under because the government (the owner of the company) wasn’t prepared to back up the management even if they had.
But perhaps most of all, it went under because it made cars with utterly appalling quality control, that would have been junk anyway even if they were made perfectly.
A secondary problem was lack of attention to the dealer network. Main dealers that didn’t give a damn, overcharged, charged for work not done and took ridiculous lengths of time to get parts not in stock. Such as the case I overheard, of someone who had a car still in warranty that was out of action for the sake of a 50p part weighing maybe a couple of ounces, that was going to take a week to arrive from the parts depot 10 miles away. When this man’s friend had a Nissan that needed a new engine – airlifted from Japan in 48 hours.
GM went under because it made junk cars. Simple.
I owned a 1980s Rover for a while. It would blow its head gasket every 10,000km or so due to a design fault in the cooling system.
I sold it ASAP and bought a Fiat. It rusted, but at least the mechanical parts didn’t break.
The problem with Detroit has always been its government. They drove away business (starting with the automakers) via higher taxes, regulations, and abject endemic corruption.
The underlying cause is the voters. They simply will not see the connection between the regime they kept in place for decades and the results.
I bitterly oppose any sort of help for this self-inflicted disaster, with one exception; dis-incorporate the city and fire every management-level and above city employee and official, and also take away Detroit’s ability to self-govern. Then, and only then, would it have a hope of turning around. Until that point, might as well let it all rot and starve; any bailout will be just throwing money down the toilet that the city made itself into.
Has Hitler found out about Detroit’s bankruptcy yet? Well, it would be appropriate to satirize that city with a flick named “Downfall”…
Somehow, Detroit’s dire straits has this story rumbling in my head.
The problem was a long time in the making. When you have a city of that size losing so much population the only thing I can compare it to in terms of urban impact is a natural disaster. They should have started tearing down ruined abandoned houses a long time ago. They probably need to rethink their administrative district subdivision. I bet a lot of people are living in isolated islands in the middle of ruined buildings. Those should be separately governed instead of considered to be part of the same whole.
In comments to the linked article someone states that Rover Group (a.k.a. British Leyland, AKA Austin Rover, et al) went under because the government wasn’t prepared to shield it as Italy did Fiat.
Nope. It went under because of grossly inefficient manufacturing; even when machinery was installed that would have improved productivity, the unions wouldn’t let it. It went under because of spineless management that wasn’t prepared to face up to the unions to make the company more efficient. It went under because the government (the owner of the company) wasn’t prepared to back up the management even if they had.
But perhaps most of all, it went under because it made cars with utterly appalling quality control, that would have been junk anyway even if they were made perfectly.
A secondary problem was lack of attention to the dealer network. Main dealers that didn’t give a damn, overcharged, charged for work not done and took ridiculous lengths of time to get parts not in stock. Such as the case I overheard, of someone who had a car still in warranty that was out of action for the sake of a 50p part weighing maybe a couple of ounces, that was going to take a week to arrive from the parts depot 10 miles away. When this man’s friend had a Nissan that needed a new engine – airlifted from Japan in 48 hours.
GM went under because it made junk cars. Simple.
I owned a 1980s Rover for a while. It would blow its head gasket every 10,000km or so due to a design fault in the cooling system.
I sold it ASAP and bought a Fiat. It rusted, but at least the mechanical parts didn’t break.
The problem with Detroit has always been its government. They drove away business (starting with the automakers) via higher taxes, regulations, and abject endemic corruption.
The underlying cause is the voters. They simply will not see the connection between the regime they kept in place for decades and the results.
I bitterly oppose any sort of help for this self-inflicted disaster, with one exception; dis-incorporate the city and fire every management-level and above city employee and official, and also take away Detroit’s ability to self-govern. Then, and only then, would it have a hope of turning around. Until that point, might as well let it all rot and starve; any bailout will be just throwing money down the toilet that the city made itself into.
Has Hitler found out about Detroit’s bankruptcy yet? Well, it would be appropriate to satirize that city with a flick named “Downfall”…
Somehow, Detroit’s dire straits has this story rumbling in my head.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_of_the_House_of_Usher