This is not just Detroit, it is virtually every US major city, and even some minor ones.
The city where I was born, Bridgeport, Connecticut is in similar straits. While it’s peak population was only some 130,000, Bridgeport could proudly boast of all the problems of a major ghetto.
This once proud city is now a sewer.
Some clueless locals - like everywhere - have been saying that “Bridgeport is coming back...” They have been saying this since the 1970’s, and some suckers always come along and try to invest there, but they soon lose everything.
Bridgeport, Connecticut was once a mighty powerhouse of a Northeast industrial manufacturing center...
- Bridgeport Brass
- Bridgeport Machines
- Carpenter Steel
- Acme United (Acme Shear)
- Remington Arms
- Singer
- Textron Lycoming
- AVCO
- Sikorsky
- Raybestos
...all gone.
Bridgeport was also the home of P.T. Barnum and his circus.
Connecticut Magazine scored Bridgeport in 2003 as the lowest of 17 major cities within the state in terms of education, crime, and economic condition.
I worked as draftsman for a machine tool industry leader in ballscrew manufacturing between ‘78 and ‘81. Not only was the plant full of Bridgeport and other New England-based machine tool brands, we were making ballscrew assemblies for many of their new products. The market for American-made machine tool products began to disappear soon after I jumped over to work as a nomadic “jobbie” in the automotive industry. Plant robotics were the latest big thing at that time. Looking back on it, we seem to have failed to capitalize on it without sacrificing our own machine tool industry.
Bridgeport was destroyed by Wile E. Coyote’s successful product liability suit against Acme — when the jurors saw those tapes, they gave him billions.