What this book does is illustrate just how cities like Detroit got into the wretched shape they are in -- and provide a clear guide for how to fix them. Most of us probably think that race had a lot to do with it. Well, we know that racial tensions are still alive and well in this country, as much so in the Detroit area as anywhere else.
But as Rusk shows in this brilliant little book, that’s not the biggest reason for Detroit’s decline. Detroit’s problem is that it isn’t elastic. Rusk, a former mayor of Albuquerque, has a simple mantra: Elastic cities grow and prosper; inelastic cities decline.
You may be a little confused, if you, like me, think of elastic primarily in terms of comfortable clothing. Well, there is a similarity; elasticity means the ability to expand without snapping
Elastic cities are those which are able to expand their borders, as the city grows. Los Angeles, for example, has steadily expanded to include virtually every clump of adjacent territory.
Other cities did this too. As a young reporter, I wrote about how Toledo annexed surrounding townships, using city water as both a carrot and a stick. But Detroit cannot expand.
The Motor City hasn’t been able to add a single parcel of land since 1927. That’s because it was surrounded by county lines and already incorporated cities. This wasn’t a problem till the 1950s.
Then the crowded city - it had two million people at its peak -- started to empty out into the surrounding suburbs, something made much more possible by cheap gas and the coming of the freeways.
Race had nothing to do with it at first; the first few hundred thousand who left were looking for more space and cheaper land.
Businesses started moving too. Eventually, a vicious circle began. To keep services up, Detroit had to increase the taxes on those who remained. That made more leave, so the city increased taxes still more on those … you get the picture.
Then came the riot of ‘67 and the election of Coleman Young in 74, and yes, that accelerated white flight, and the central city‘s decline. But that again wasn’t the real problem. It was, and is, that Detroit is now a three-county area with four million people. But the city can only govern the poorest 850,000 at its core.
What‘s needed it for all of us to recognize reality, as they have in Indianapolis. Yes, if there were a greater Detroit, I would have to pay more taxes. And yes, the mayor might not always be black.
But we would all be better off. Winston Churchill once said, “At the end of the day, the American people will do the right thing -- after they have exhausted all other alternatives.”
My guess is that we are getting pretty close to exhaustion.
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