Rather than becoming a showplace for the transformational power of urban policy, Detroit is remarkable mostly as a burial ground for good intentions — of both Democrat and Republican presidential administrations, according to a commentary in today’s Washington Post. During the Nixon years, Detroit’s business elite laid plans for the glittering Renaissance Center retail and office complex. The Ford and Carter administrations brought the People Mover, an elevated rail loop around downtown that hardly anybody rides today. Other presidential administrations introduced enterprise zone tax breaks and empowerment zone development grants. President Obama promised to save the Motor City by saving the auto industry. Last month, Detroit became the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy, sobering evidence that decades of government and private-sector intervention were no match for decades of residential and business flight that eroded the city’s once ample tax base. Nobody has done an accounting of the money that has flowed to Detroit through the years in the name of urban renewal. But researchers note that the city has been a major recipient of federal money since the Model Cities program was launched as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. Read the full commentary.
