Downtown Detroit

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Often, when people think about a downtown area, they ponder about the breathtaking views, beautiful architecture, and the attractions they can visit. Downtown Detroit has recently taken a different approach on how they can revive the entire city and rebuild its name. To understand why they are going this route, it is important to think about the history of Detroit. Although formerly known as the Capital of Michigan, Detroit still was able to maintain its substantial commercial, agriculture, and later manufacturing land. Being founded in 1701, Detroit has come a long way. For a long time, they have been known for their beautiful architecture of buildings such as: The Detroit Public Library, the Fisher Building, The Whitney, and the Fox Theatre. …show more content…

The downfall of Detroit occurred in the year of 1967 because of the “demographic and economic losses due to the downturn of the automobile industry” (Trendafilova). It started with the decaying factories, which resulted into the collapsing of the auto industry and created a record-setting unemployment rate.This led to the city’s abandoned homes, dark streets, crime, and complete recession to “the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nations history” (Vitello). The Detroit riots were an addition to this economic downfall. They sparked because of a police raid at an unlicensed bar with a crowd of primarily young African Americans. The violence that occurred that night was said to have created the largest civil disturbance of twentieth century America. The disturbance called for the Detroit police and fire departments, the Michigan State Police, the Michigan National Guard, and US Army to be involved. As a result, this was another aspect of Detroit that was destroyed. With buildings destroyed, and a sense of racism that this event brought about, called for deindustrialization of the city. Many jobs were moving to the communities on the outskirts of the city, and the reasons to stay in Detroit were

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