When looking at the city of Detroit, it may not be New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, however, it is a formidable sight of gothic beauty and size that is hard to deny or overlook. The "D" was a place in times past especially during the struggle of African Americans during segregation, where one could look and find opportunity to get ahead. There was the auto industry which opened doors for African Americans to receive better salaries that could afford them a home, new car, better benefits, and maybe set aside College funds for their kids. In addition, this was the home of Motown: The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and The Temptations. Gospel greats such as Della Reese, Reverend CL Franklin: who put sermons on record and had a renown ministry before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr; he also presented a young future Grammy Award winning artist and daughter by the name of Aretha Franklin; The Winans, Clark Sisters, Rance Allen Group, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Fred Hammond, J Moss, Byron Cage, and Thomas Whitfield to name a few. Dreams could be achieved in the "D"! However, what was going on behind the scenes was not observed or looked into and continued to spread.
In 1961, Jerome Cavanagh defeated Louis C. Miriani for mayor of Detroit with the promise of giving African Americans the civil rights they deserved. Mayor Cavanagh would do this by increased government spending and government benefits in support of Detroit's black community. One way he would do this is by implementing the Model Cities program: turning a nine square mile section with 134,000 inhabitants into a Model City. The program was an element of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty. War on Poverty huh? The Model Cities initiative created a new program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD), with the intent of improving existing urban programs. Cities that received funding from this program and that are currently in trouble besides Detroit are Oakland, Newark and Camden. These are cities that have a history of violence and poverty but the Model Cities program was under the umbrella of...eh hem...War on Poverty. Really: sounds more like it created War and poverty! A new income tax and commuter tax was put on city workers to help finance the program. More than $400 million was spent on it! The government and Democratic officials were telling people where to live, build, and what businesses to open. People did not like being told what to do so the population declined. Throw in the Detroit Riots in 1967 that killed more than 40 people and left more than 5,000 homeless, then you have a whole city and economic environment unstable at best. With the Model Cities program not panning out, population leaving, and higher taxes...guess what these officials did: EXPANDED THE PROGRAM! In 1974, The Community Development Block Grant Program was created with the same model. The big 3 automakers were brought in to help fund this effort with a contribution of $488 million towards redevelopment and community improvement. What happened as a result of this expanded program, most of the upper and middle class citizens left Detroit along with some of the poor citizens.
Vacant land in Detroit is currently the size of Boston. What was once a burgeoning industrial powerhouse has turned into a house of cards that recently filed for bankruptcy. This is not about politics, however, it is about voting the same people into position over and over again who created this atmosphere for failure with programs that were doomed from the beginning. It is about putting these people in position because of a traditional belief that this party or that party will be the ones to carry our wishes forward but if you know anything, you should know that I don't believe there has been a President, Governor, Mayor, or Congressman that has done everything they promised to do: whether Democrat or Republican! For the citizens of Detroit that did not or do not understand the programs that are enforced in their community, it is up to them to find the information on those programs, study, and understand what they are carrying out in their communities. Stansberry said, "When you start taxing people at extremely progressive rates to pay for socialist "benefits"...when you start telling them which schools their children must attend...when you start giving jobs away to people based on political patronage, race, or anything other than ability...you quash human freedom, you create dependency."
I have been told by many that "Detroit will recover: they have been through similar things before. Furthermore, America will not allow them to totally fail". You think so? Well, Bear Stearns thought the same thing as did Lehman Brothers. What if America is not in a position to bring Detroit out of desolation? What if the dollar bubble burst like the dot com and real estate bubble burst? What if other cities with these similar types of programs continue to spiral downwards and our nation has to give some type of stimulus to rescue them as well? What if the stimulus bubble burst and there is no stimulus? If you continue to inflate a balloon past capacity it will eventually pop!
Detroit is The Model City not just for the program, but a model for failed programs that never were replaced with programs that actually work. Detroit is the model city for other cities to observe what happens if failed programs such as The Model City program are never replaced.
