The Optimism of Detroiters

Sixty-three percent of local residents polled by The Washington Post believe that Detroit's economic fortunes will improve. Apparently, once your economy is "in ruins," American optimism kicks in and recovery meanders into sight.

On this blog, we've routinely covered three places to epitomize poverty in the US.

California is our developing world, with a booming, majority-minority population; demonstrative income inequality; a hobbled government; and an on-going political war waged by the privileged to keep their housing, jobs, schools and communities for themselves at the expense of the poor, including millions of immigrants.

New Orleans (and the oft-overlooked Gulf Coast) reflects the worst of ideological government retrenchment: decades of political neglect and disinvestment led to a seriously broken municipal infrastructure, from the toppled levies to inequitable do-or-die evacuation strategies to a failure to restore affordable housing, public schools, and skilled jobs.

And Detroit is the poster child for a bygone era, one that we've known died a long time ago. It was a company town with strong unions and good manufacturing jobs requiring only a high school education, with affordable places to live and raise a family -- for millions of whites, at least, though far fewer blacks. Now we find the majority-black city dotted with vacant lots, weighed down by deep poverty, and "boasting" the highest unemployment rate in the nation. According to residents, it no longer has a functioning economy. At all.

I wonder, reading articles like this WaPo feature, with its litany of Detroit's failings and the bleak circumstances of its residents, why we're still writing these stories.

What's to learn at this point? In this case, what can respondents' optimism tell us? With hundreds of residents leaving the city each month, do those that remain get by by believing in a better future? Is it a prerequisite to surviving there? Is it the leadership of Governor Granholm and Mayor Bing, as they spend millions on job retraining and recruit new industries to the state? Is it survey wording? Is it generalized American optimism?

Barbara Ehrenreich argues that our zeal for positive thinking, evidenced most robustly in Christian prosperity gospel, blinds us to the structural inequalities that create places like Detroit. What's worrisome to me regarding this poll is that respondents are divided on what the future holds -- some have put their faith in "green" economic development (not exactly an industry unto itself) while others see a return to auto industry dominance. Worse, there's a maddening bit from unspecified economists: "The Michigan economy...needs to diversify more in not just the auto industry and green energy but also in areas of higher education, biotech and medical, or even in areas that have yet to be discovered [emphasis added]." Governor Granholm could probably get as good direction from a Magic Eight Ball.

Detroit may be exceptionally bad off, but it is not exceptional. Many American cities are functioning with a shell of their former economy intact; many are riven by racial/ethnic conflict; many governments are starved for revenue and stymied by partisan conflict. Now we learn that all is not lost, that Detroiters are keepin' on keepin' on, no surprise to anti-poverty activists familiar with the resilience of low-income households. But in believing in a rosier future, are they blind to the city's realistic options, or fueling its eventual rebirth?

(Photo "Taking Apart Detroit" by Bob Jagendorf)