The City Where the 'American Dream' Has Turned into a Nightmare

The bankruptcy of Detroit has long been on the horizon. The demise of the Motor City reflects the decline of heavy industry. The collapse is, however, a chance for a new beginning.

Broken windowpanes, bricked up or boarded over windows, derelict houses, rampant weeds, front yards full of trash and rusting appliances, vacant warehouses and factories spray-painted with graffiti and murals. Some of the slogans reveal black humor: “Zombie land” succinctly describes the urban desert on both sides of Woodward Avenue, Detroit’s main artery.

People looking for a post-apocalyptic backdrop for a film will find no shortage of possibilities in the Motor City. In fact, more and more Hollywood film crews are coming to the once vibrant metropolis on the great lakes of the Midwest, the heart of the car industry – to the city which has long since degenerated into a metaphor for the rust belt of the U.S.

The bankruptcy of Detroit has been inevitable for a while and the fact that it is only just happening now is perhaps the most surprising thing about it. Even a crisis manager appointed by the governor soon has to go along with the inevitable. The decline of heavy industry, gang violence, corrupt mayors and a bloated, incompetent city council have caused more than half of the population to leave in the past four decades.

The blues sing about “Motown,” and it is particularly symbolic that the record label of the same name which shaped the soul of the sixties, moved to the West Coast at the start of the 1970s along with all its stars, from Smokey Robinson and Diana Ross to the Jackson clan. All that was left was Michigan Central Station, the godforsaken, closed cathedral-like train station and the Art Deco skyscrapers that bear witness to the splendor of a city where the first cars rolled off the assembly line at the beginning of the last century.

Right up to the late 1960s until the outbreak of race riots, Detroit exuded the harmony of progress and industrial revolution, written about by writers such as Jeffrey Eugenides (“Middlesex”). Henry Ford laid the foundations for the country to become an economic superpower; the car industry’s “Big Three” attracted legions of workers and African Americans from the southern states. For years the saying was “what’s good for GM [General Motors] is good for the U.S.” Detroit symbolized the promises of the American Dream, the dream of the middle class: a car, a house with a front garden and the expectation of sending the children to college. This is precisely the area where the creed of the nation has turned into its opposite, into a nightmare.

Nothing could be more mistaken than to proclaim the slow decline of the U.S. empire about which the doomsayers have been murmuring. Certainly, the United States has seen better days, and they have been seen in a better light. Things are not going very well at the moment for the “big brother” on the other side of the Atlantic. Edward Snowden’s revelations about global interception activities have thoroughly embarrassed Barack Obama and his government, and the way they have dealt with Snowden has exposed their posturing and sense of omnipotence and damaged the rule of law at the same time. And now there is the biggest bankruptcy of a major U.S. city in history.

Insolvency American-style implies the chance for a new beginning. Detroit experienced a miraculous comeback recently when Washington pumped $80 billion into the ailing car industry. With this drastic cure, GM and Chrysler shrank to a healthy size and are now fit for global competition. For the city itself the signs are less favorable, certainly, as the state cannot step in again with billions in aid.

This is the bitter truth. Detroit must reinvent itself; it must turn into a slimmer version of itself, potentially as a city of creative people who realize their dreams in cheap lofts, a trend which is already becoming apparent. Therein lies an opportunity to rise up from the ruins. The Americans are expert crisis managers, especially when it comes to the details. As optimists they do not let themselves get dragged down or feel sorry for themselves, but roll their sleeves up: it is in their DNA, as it were.