Most recently, I visited Detroit, which was once the fourth most populous in the United States and was the nation’s full-fledged automotive hub. It was the city of Detroit that united the factories of such large companies like Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors, due to which more than half of the population lived.
What happened to the city, why it began to die out, and what sights of Detroit you need to see with your own eyes – I’ll tell you more about this.
A Bit of History
Detroit used to be considered one of the best cities in America because it had a well-established economy, permanent jobs for the population, which lived at the expense of automobile factories, which were located right there. And, it would seem, why be upset or discouraged if you live practically in the city of your dreams?
Negative Factors
But several negative factors overlapped, and no one calls Detroit any other than an abandoned city today.
The story began in 1973 when an oil crisis occurred in the country, which could not but affect the lives of ordinary citizens. More car models that were produced by factories could not compete with the new and fast Japanese cars. After that, the city faced the 1979 energy crisis, and finally, the economic crisis of 2008-2009 almost destroyed the development opportunities. At this time, factories closed, and families who no longer had anything to eat began to leave en masse.
Wealthy residents of the city also actively left it. The reason for this was the discrepancy between the number of roads and the number of cars. To put it another way, at some point the cars simply began to not fit on the roads. This was especially true for the center. The old layout became obvious, but I didn’t want to change anything.
For comparison, even 70 years ago the population of Detroit was 1,850,000 people, but today there are officially only 700,000. At a certain time, rich people left, who felt cramped in the city, and the middle class, who lost jobs and went to look for new ones. in another location. Mostly, only poor African Americans remained in place, who simply did not have enough money to move. So these people exist amid devastation and unemployment, not even having a chance to live normally, develop, strive for something high.
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The Realities of a Dead City
History does not remember such a rapid desolation of the city. A large number of workshops, apartments, and offices were simply empty, they were in an abandoned state. The remaining tenants tried to sell real estate at a very low price, but no people were willing to buy a house for such a price.
In the 1980s, African Americans even came up with entertainment. In October, on the holiday of all the dead – Halloween, they set fire to abandoned houses. On such nights, there were more than 800 fires in the abandoned city. To stop such actions, the authorities were forced to create special detachments that prevented such incidents.
If you look at a bird’s eye view of a photo of ghostly. Detroit now, it might seem that these are scenes from a modern disaster film. Looking at the Detroit landscapes is creepy, and living there is even scarier. That is why any taxi driver, before taking you on a tour of the dying city. It will say several times that at the slightest danger you need to get back into the car as soon as possible.
Today Detroit is a dead city with high crime rates, education is simply in a deplorable state, and taxes are prohibitively high. But this does not frighten its residents at all, because most of them in 2017 was not going to pay money to the state.
How The City Lives Today
As history says, more recently, Detroit, a ghost town, was planned as a prosperous village in which the population would live happily ever after. But everything happened differently, and as a result of several troubles, people left their own homes, moved to other cities in the United States, Seattle, Washington.
Today Detroit (Michigan) cannot boast of sights, since only very courageous tourists who are 18 years old decide to visit it. But I nevertheless decided to take a chance and see everything described above with my own eyes.
It is especially dangerous to go outside after the sun has set. Lighting in the city works only at 30%, and even then intermittently. And residents who were left without jobs and livelihoods are not at all opposed to profit from tourists. That’s why you need to be on the alert all the time. If you want to visit Ghost City, You just need a car for traveling in Ghost City. Car service is best for your comfortable journey in Ghost City.
Empty houses and architectural monuments are gradually being destroyed. And residents simply throw garbage on the street, which is gradually turning the city into a big dump.
The only attractions in Detroit that remain in the memory of better times are the dealerships of the auto companies. These are still in the city. Only they give hope that someday life will stabilize, and dawn will come again.
In the summer of 2013
Detroit officially declared itself bankrupt and announced that it was unable to pay off just a huge amount of debt – $ 20 billion. This becomes even greater, given that the city has no industry, development, and soon there will be no residents left. This situation has become simply overwhelming for the United States – it is the largest example of municipal bankruptcy in history.
Nowadays, only the city center can be called a residential area, where civilization has remained at least a little. Here you will find several grocery and clothing stores. But even here looting and theft thrive. So be vigilant or choose another city for your journey, such as Atlantic City.
There are multi-story buildings that were built recently. But in most of them, the doors to the upper floors are boarded up. And people live exclusively on the first tiers.
To put the city in order at least a little, about half of the buildings were recognized as an emergency. 30% of which should be demolished shortly. And work in this direction is already underway. For demolition, a huge number of different equipment is involved. And in order not to raise additional dust, when the buildings are destroyed. Special fans are installed those spray droplets of water into the air.
Finally
As you can see, Detroit can be safely called a city of contrasts in living standards and an example of rapid decline. His story is shocking and thought-provoking. For tourists, this city is not the best place to visit as it just breaks records for the crime. Homicide, and rape in America, consider a trip to Phoenix.
Despite this, there is also a place for tourism. Desperate thrill-seekers like me will always find something special, interesting, and exciting here.
