I was born in Detroit in ‘65, since we had a family business tied in to the auto industry I grew up listening to the family talk about this very topic my whole life.
We left the city and moved to the “suburbs” (Brighton) when it became unsafe to walk to the corner store any more. Our business located down on Davison Ave. turned into Fort Apache with Constantino wire and barred windows, my father, uncle and grandfather all drove with a shotgun in the car even though it was a sure jail sentence or at least a hefty fine if they were ever pulled over.
Sometimes I think the best thing that could happen to that city now is a wind storm during a drought in August with 0% humidity and a dropped match, just let it go and start over from scratch.
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Nawlins too ???
It’s important for you younger folks to know that the Reuther brothers of UAW fame actually went to Russia in the 1930s and worked in auto factories there to study the communist system.
a quote:
At the end of the trip he wrote, “the atmosphere of freedom and security, shop meetings with their proletarian industrial democracy; all these things make an inspiring contrast to what we know as Ford wage slaves in Detroit. What we have experienced here has reeducated us along new and more practical lines.”