More on Detroit

TNC again:

I blogged about this while I was reporting, but given that Detroit story is now up, I wanted to give another shout out to two books which really helped me find my way. The first is Thomas Sugrue's The Origins Of The Urban Crisis. If you have any interest in the history of cities, this book is required reading. Someone asked the other day why I consider the term "White Flight" erroneous. I noted that the phrasetends to conjure images of scared and bigoted whites fleeing the encroaching onyx horde.

The truth is both more elegant and more monstrous. Sugrue shows that "White Flight" began long before blacks  began moving in significant numbers into white neighborhoods. It's been some time, but I want to say the outmigration, in Detroit, began as early as the 1940s--a period that most people conveniently consider a golden age. Moreover, Origins (along with Kenneth Jackson's stellar Crabgrass Frontier) shows that the outmigration didn't simply result from rank and individual color prejudice, but from something more systemic--racist federal, state and local public policy. The FHA, conspiring to devalue property as soon as one black family moved in, block busting realtors, and urban renewal advocates effectively colluded to create white flight. My point here is that "White Flight" wasn't a product of pure capitalism, market forces and culture. It was the result of social engineering. The terms "White Flight" evinces an ignorance of the policies which shaped the future of Detroit and cities around the country. 

The problems with center sities have been a long time in the making.  Fixing them will also take a long time, and there will be many pitfalls along the way.