Tax Increment Financing Contrasting Effects Essay Research — страница 4

is also home to a variety of offices and a few high tech companies, and has grown into a major suburb. The third pillar and probably the most important when discussing Detroit and the suburbanization process in the metropolitan area is the racial relations factor. Detroit until 1940, consisted of far more than a majority of whites than blacks. Presently, the city is standing at roughly 80% black with in the city limits. After the second World War, Detroit was host a wave southern black migrants who came north to find work in the automobile factories in the city. Unfortunately, when the blacks came to the city the automobile industry was on the downfall and many blacks were already unemployed when they came up. These migrants flocked to the inner city and many communities directly

connected to the city of Detroit. There was a great amount of resistance from the whites living in the city, with many of them refusing to let the blacks invade their territory. Many more whites in the city fled to the suburbs as mentioned earlier to escape the inner city, which was being invaded by poor, unskilled black laborers. Resistance in the city grew more strenuous and in July of 1967, a wave a racial riots broke out in the city. Some of the worst of the riots happened in the Twelfth Street district as seen on the next page in the photo. Limmer (9) Limmer (10) Many buildings in the city were also burned or severely damaged. The riots would go down as some of the most quickest and damaging in American history. It was now apparent to everyone, if it wasn=t before, that

there is not going to be a cohesive unit of both whites and blacks. From the period from 1940-present, blacks have continued to grow in number in the city of Detroit. Here is a map analyzing the period when they came in the greatest wave, from 1940-1970 on the map of the area on the bottom of the previous page (Thomas 90). As I mentioned earlier, blacks would become the dominating race in the area at almost 80%. In the suburbs, primarily the whites moved out to them, however there were such a large amount and wide variety of blacks that some black suburbs emerged like Westland, Port Huron, and Inkster. These particular suburbs were still somewhat older parts of the metropolitan area and this table shows the distribution of blacks in some of the newer suburban communities. Limmer

(11) The fourth of the physical pillars is the overall shift in the economic activity to the suburbs, which has been caused by all of the other pillars mentioned earlier, but in general, the economic activity has followed the source of the economic activity, which is the white middle class in the suburbs. Not only have the residents moved out to the suburbs, but commercial and industrial centers have also moved out, taking advantage of the open spaces accommodating the automobile. After the residents established suburban communities, some of them emerged as suburban centers, and companies that were originally in the inner city of Detroit moved out to the suburbs. Kmart for instance is located in Troy, which is roughly 25 miles from the CBD. Troy is also home to one of the largest

shopping malls in the nation. Rows of businesses, banks, insurance companies, and hotels line Big Beaver Road, the main strip in Troy. The street is a beautiful tree lined, perfectly landscaped boulevard, full of imported automobiles cruising the General Motors world headquarters. It is obvious where the money from the areas companies are going. Twenty-five miles to the south in Detroit, many areas have been left completely empty and presently are just holes in the city landscape. Many of the incomes in the suburbs were much higher than that of the central city. Detroit for instance, had in 1983 a difference of over $11,000 in income between urban and suburban dwellers Zunz (99). The maps on the next page show how outlying communities have grown every ten years since 1940. As you

can see, by 1980 the population of many Oakland and Macomb County suburbs were increasing in population the last fifty years. Today the metropolitan area covers roughly six counties including Wayne, Washtenaw, Lapeer, Livingston, Oakland, and Monroe. Huron, Jackson, and Genesee are also outlying counties containing numerous outposts. Limmer (12) Limmer (13) The final pillar, and the only one that I would identify as psychological is an overall change in the attitudes of Americans, and that this change in attitude was represented in the way that they settled in their homes. Before industrialization, the city was characterized as having the rich in the middle of the city and the poor living on the fringes. During the middle of the 1800’s, there was a wave of change in the way