Peak Detroit & Feral Housing

(1940's data point is interpolated.)

February 9, 1942
Time: Battle of Detroit

Something is happening that Adolf Hitler does not yet understand—a new re-enactment of the old American miracle of wheels and machinery, but on a new scale. This time it is a miracle of war production, and its miracle-worker is the automobile industry.

Even the American people do not appreciate the miracle, because it is too big for the eye to see in an hour, a day or a month. It is, in fact, too big to be described. It can only be understood by taking a sample.

May 11, 1942
Art: 75,000 Tanks, 414,000 Houses

Worst housing shortage is at Detroit. With Ford's Willow Run bomber plant nearly ready for 70,000 workers, there are virtually no houses near the plant and it is almost impossible to rent a house in Detroit, 25 miles away. Now plans are afoot for 45,000 new dwellings in the Detroit area but pipe for water lines is still lacking. And by year's end Detroit must house 190,000 more war workers.

That was then. This is now.

January 9, 2006
As GM Goes, So Goes the Country. Still Valid?

If it's still true that the country mirrors GM, we're having our collective asses handed to us on plates in the form of Toyota wheel covers. To most, that seems OK. Is it?

July 23, 2009
Feral Houses

This is just a handful of the photos I have of such places. I have dozens more (the lighting conditions were fairly similar in this selection taken over the course of three summers). Among the abandoned houses of Detroit, the lucky ones aren't burned completely or bulldozed, but allowed to be consumed by the foliage once meant to beautify them. This is something that has obviously been fascinating me lately. We might see ghosts of lives lived well within these walls, sentimentalize the structures and feel sad that they have been allowed to go wild. . .

Mere words cannot do the photos within the link justice.

Source Data:
History Detroit - Statistics - Pre-1701 - present