The impact of economic growth on Detroit environmental sustainability.
Detroit has been documented as a city where urban planning failures, economic
activities shifting, migration and population decay have shaped the city
present and future. This post aims to evaluate from a different perspective the
side effects that these forces have impacted on city environmental
sustainability. Several research on Detroit sustainability matters, raise the
issue that the city has faced several environmental injustice[1]
episodes along its history. Socioeconomic analysis, define that migration flows
and economic activities have shaped the city reality nowadays and that Detroit has
passed four relevant historical periods. Hence, these periods will be evaluated
under a framework of environmental sustainability and city economic growth.
The first period occurred before the 1800`s; where native Americans
gathered and lived near the Detroit river before the french and other european
settlers came to southeast Michigan. The land was occupied by Natives in
consonance with nature and they were important collaborators with the first
European settlers as they provided the newcomers with information about the land
and the fauna in Detroit; putting in manifesto the richness of the land in this
area in terms of natural resources. [2]
The second period corresponds to the european settlements in the 18th
century, where they started to develop farming practices, becoming the state’s
primary economic activity by building ribbon farms in Native
American territory along the River. More immigrants began to settle, and
Detroit was moving into a new phase as an industrial center. [2] The city grew
significantly and the riverfront and farmland was transformed to a modern city
with a rapid influx of new industries and workers. Low-cost housing took
place around the factories so workers could walk to their jobs. These changing demographics caused significant
cultural shifts on the local level, and situated Detroit as a beautiful place
filled with potential for growth. These changes in the economic activity,
brought within, the automotive and other industries to the city; an with them, wealth,
jobs and a high demand of natural resources such as energy, water and land. [2]
The third period,
called by urbanists the “the Great Migration” occurred from the year 1920-1945.
During the 1920s, industry representatives from northern cities, including
Detroit, traveled to the south to recruit black people to work at their
factories. An estimated one million black southerners to find better jobs
between 1910-1930.
[3] White people in the
north resented the black people moving up north because they competed with them
for jobs. The population of Detroit, along with other northeastern industrial
cities, multiplied during the Great Migration as people came to work in
automobile industry jobs. In this is process, racist official housing policies
confined the newcomers to segregated neighborhoods, such as Black Bottom and
Paradise Valley in Detroit. [3] The city began to grow and with it, more waste, air
and water emissions were generated. The consumption of scarce resources such as
water and energy also raised to meet industry and citizens demand also grew. City was forced to build new infrastructure
such as roads, sanitation systems, sewage treatment facilities, etc. Heavy road
infrastructure was build to support heavy trucks and freights movement in the
industrial city neighbourhoods.
The fourth period in
Detroit, named the “Declining population” epoch from 1950 and 2000; was a tough
challenge for the city. As Detroit’s
residents gained more skills and more incomes, they moved out of the inner city
and into the more peaceful surrounding suburbs. Population dropped by
1950, and after World War II, this trend went worse and more families with car,
moved out of industrial areas. [2] Roads were making the city more accessible from the
surrounding neighborhoods. Pollution was becoming a consideration and the
proximity to factories was no longer necessary. New workers from the
south, from Mexico, and from Puerto Rico took the place of these families in
the mixed-use land neighborhoods. Anyway, this flux did not compensate the rush
of white citizens to the suburbs. In this period, in the 50s, Detroit saw
many businesses close their doors as the population changed; factories closed,
and of course jobs disappeared. The expansion
of expressways across the city destroyed hundreds of homes, generating
noise, heavy traffic and air pollution. The growth of new polluting industries
such as the wastewater treatment plant in Delray, also forced people to
move. The ones that could leave did but people who could not, stayed. [4]
Over the half-century
beginning in the 1950s, Detroit has lost nearly half of its population, most of
them white citizens. Detroit has been ranked among the 10 most segregated cities
in USA, since the mid-20th century. [2] Persistent residential segregation made it difficult
for black citizens of Detroit, move into the suburbs, aggravating discrepancies
in living standards, poverty levels and environmental pollution exposure. The
famous race riots of July, 1967, were a response to the ongoing problems of
housing and an affection in urban environmental quality faced by african american
residents. All the economic decline in the 1970s resulted in a variety of
issues: crime, race relations, migration and the changing demographics of the
city. [4]
This four periods, suggest that the city has faced a heavy environmental
abuse compounded by the failure to adapt to a changing economic landscape. With
a population of more than 700,000 people, Detroit is now the largest U.S.
municipality with risks of bankrupcity and holds several of the most polluted
zipcodes in the country [2] The city economic
realities and events reflect environmental neglecting and have made the city
unsafe. In addition, the rapid decline in
population since its heyday in the mid 20th Century, resulted also into some
78,000 vacant structures that are occupying space, generating pollution and
waste until today. [4]
The city has done
several efforts to improve environmental quality of the city and generate
wealth to its citizens. An important movement to recover the importance of
natural resources in the city occurred in 1974, when Detroit’s first
African-American mayor, Coleman Young, announced his “Farm A Lot” program, the
latest in a long line of citywide gardening programs that employed agriculture
as a means to clean up the city, help struggling Detroiters help themselves,
and reactivate abandoned land. Young
envisioned this program as a tool to enhance the land to a degree that would
attract people to buy the land and therefore increase landownership in Detroit.
Although the program was not a 100%
success, “Farm-A-Lot” has established a legacy for helping communities help
themselves. It has become a symbolic program that leverages the importance of
urban agriculture in the history of cities and of empowerment of disadvantaged
populations. [2]
The construction
and expansion of the waste water treatment plant in Delray, in the year 1980
has also marked Detroit environmental agenda. Delray is not just a neighborhood
of the city, but rather an example of environmental injustice and inefficient
land use policies, lax regulations, poor zoning laws, and narrow-minded
decision makers. [3]
The Delray community
is situated by a major expressway, a waste treatment facility, an industrial
hub (directly upwind), and abandoned industrial lots. In 2010, Delray was named
most polluted zip code in Michigan. Now the US Environmental Protection Agency
is working to reduce the environmental effects of odors and water pollution in
this district and others across the city [1]. The story of Delray is one of
investment versus divestment. The current residents struggle to either leave
the neighborhood or to improve their conditions by renovating their homes and
yards. But on the other hand, industries generate environmental infractions and
the city does not provide basic services to help clean the community or make
sure that it is safe. [3]
Policies of the city related to abandoned building demolition have also
impacted city environmental quality. According to local NGOs, they have not
taken into account the cost and management of the resulting waste and debris of
the process. Responsible bodies, have not been taken to landfill, leaving piles
of waste material scattered around Detroit. There is even a website that an
interactive map of these sites, detailing where there are materials to be
salvaged, and the types of material at each site. [5] Where many see a symptom of decline and regression, in a circular
economy perspective, demolition has to been seen as a resource, which rather
than being a wasteful way to remove the homes of people long gone, could be a
way to benefit the lives of those still living in Detroit. Waste can be
recycled and used for other purposes. [6]
Another major
environmental challenge that the Municipality of Detroit is facing, is the air
pollution problems associated to the presence of the Marathon Oil Refinery in
Southwest Detroit which, which is part of the Refineries and heavy industries
surrounding Wayne County. All these facilities are being evaluated as major
contributors to the air pollution crisis in the city; generating emissions to
the atmosphere that in some locations exceed environmental norms; and
especially in neighborhoods were black and hispanic people leave. Population is
increasingly demanding environmental justice from these activities. [7]
For decades, residents from the City of Detroit and especially nearby
downriver neighborhoods have been affected by a number of heavy industrial
operations in their communities. Although the city recently adopted an
ambitious sustainability strategy, it is challenging to save and clean the city
from decades of ecological insanity. This of course, impacts city economic
development as the municipality has to invest resources in the control and
manage of pollution across the city. In addition, citizens can not work if they
are sick or being affected by air, water or soil pollution.
Municipality should start working on assessing the real impacts of
economic growth and decay of Detroit also on environmental and health costs.
The internalization of these costs must be crucial when designing new urban and economic policies to promote city sustainability.
Bibliography.
2.
University of Michigan. (2015) ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
IN DETROIT. https://detroitenvironment.lsa.umich.edu
4.
Danielle Trauth-Jurman. (2014) Bowling Green State
University. The Story of Delray: A Case Study on Environmental and Restorative
Justice in Detroit.
5.
The Sustainable Initiatives Deconstructing Detroit
(2013). http://www.archdaily.com/419865/the-sustainable-initiatives-deconstructing-detroit
6.
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. (2011). Building
Affordable Housing in Cities after Abandonment. http://closup.umich.edu/files/closup-wp-31-deng-affordable-housing-detroit.pdf
7.
Detroit Free Press. (2015) http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/01/28/duggan-threatens-suit-over-marathon-refinery-emissions/79476424/
[1] Environmental
justice is “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people
regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the
development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws,
regulations, and policies.” [1]
