The slide of Detroit

Depressing. Some of those areas look like rural Pennsylvania.

Personally, I think someone is going to make a killing on Detroit real estate eventually. Even if it's 30 years from now. Someone told me they have a crazy property tax structure though right now which isn't helping anything.
 
Serious question. Is there anything in Detroit's location, natural attributes, history that would have allowed it to become a major US city without Henry Ford and the auto industry? If Henry Ford had been born in Des Moines, Iowa would Detroit have been anything but a small/medium-size city and would be talking about the demise of the once great and powerful city of Des Moines?

I ask because looking at its population history, there was no indication prior to 1890 that the city was on a track to become one of the top 5 or 6 largest cities in the country.
 
just a wild guess but maybe its proximity to the Great Lakes and Canada made it a good location for international trade
 
Detroit was a shipping hub before it was Motor city. Supposedly, the experience with ship building, and the existing supply chain for that, was a boost to the nascent auto industry.
 
Yeah, pop open a map - gateway between Ontario & Midwest / between the 'Greater' and 'Lesser' Great Lakes would seem to be a pretty good position...
 
CSTH said:
Yeah, pop open a map - gateway between Ontario & Midwest / between the 'Greater' and 'Lesser' Great Lakes would seem to be a pretty good position...
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I realize Detroit's position along the Great Lakes, but you look at their population trends, we're talking about a city that started smaller and got much, much larger in the ensuing 50 or 60 years.

1880 - 116,340
1890 - 205,877
1910 - 465,000 (approx)
1920 - 993,678
1950 - 1.84 million

Buffalo, NY has a similar advantageous position a the border of the US Ontario and the Erie Canal - had 255,000 people in 1890 - and they never reached anywhere near the population growth and power of Detroit following the turn of the century. A similar city - (Cleveland had 261,000 people in 1890. It peaked at around 914,000 in 1950)

I guess my question is without the auto industry are we talking about a city that would have been basically on par with Buffalo, NY, rather the mega city it became in the mid-20th century?
 
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/politics-reform/essays/motor-city-story-detroit
"A restless innovator, Ford devised the modern assembly line. In 1908, the fledgling company introduced the Model T, a car whose standardized production would revolutionize the industry. Six years later, with hopes of building a stable, loyal workforce, Ford announced the five-dollar day, leading to a dramatic increase in pay for industrial workers. Word of Ford’s high wages—along with Ford’s international recruiting efforts—turned the Motor City into one of the most racially and ethnically diverse places in America. The auto magnate recruited skilled artisans from the shipyards of Scotland and England and blue-collar workers from the rural Midwest, as well as workers from Mexico and Lebanon, and African Americans from the city’s rapidly growing population of southern migrants. By 1940, Ford was one of the largest private employers of African Americans in the United States."

Detroit saw its fastest population growth decade between 1920-1930 when the auto industry exploded. So it makes sense what you're saying that without the auto industry detroit could have never ended up having 1.8 mil in the city and looked a lot more like Milwaukee or Buffalo. It's interesting to see how and why cities' populations rise and fall, especially with all the old cities of the North grew substantially from the 1890's up until the 1940's and then all lost people to the suburbs and are now losing people to the south and western "sunbelt" cities.

The original question was why geographically did detroit originate as a city and I would ask why is/was Pheonix growing so fast in recent years? It's in the desert which would be my last choice of where to start a city.
 
why is/was Pheonix growing so fast in recent years?
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Easy. It's cheap, especially when zoned capacity is not a constraint like it is here.
 
I'd pay the premium to live in an older, coastal, denser city like boston or san fran but that makes sense for some people who just want the biggest house for their dollar.
Although, I know I'd sacrafice 500 sq/ft for no 110 degree summers...
 
This Google Street View historical imagery is awesome! Curiosity got the better of me and I've just spent hours comparing cities over time. Really exciting to see a city revitalize or decline over time. Detroit has declined a lot since 2008 (looks like a post-apocalyptic suburb), Brooklyn has improved a ton (many underutilized lots built upon), and downtown Houston has improved somewhat. I'm not sure where else would I see the biggest changes.
 
I checked, lots of construction activity, but not so much streetscape improvements. NYC looks to be the winner by far.
 
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