No requiem for Detroit yet

BBC2 has just broadcast Julien Temple’s amazing film ‘Requiem for Detroit?’ Described as ‘a moving elegy for the death of the city’ you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Detroit was finished for good. Note the question mark in the title though. By going through the city’s history in such detail, the film actually reminds us that Detroit’s past is full of ups and downs, it was ever thus. This is a city of resilient, imaginative and resourceful people. Hence despite its current problems – lack of city government finance and action, dangerous abandoned buildings, ghost-neighbourhoods and, particularly appalling, the closure of 29 schools last year – the hurdles are being overcome.

The Goodwill Deconstruction (above) and Heidelberg http://www.heidelberg.org projects are just two examples of how the city is tackling its problems in a creative, community-led way in order to reinvent itself as a model city for the post-industrial world. They emphasise that the human spirit can and does survive the most extraordinary economic situations and that real lives continue long after false financial mechanisms recede and fail.

But the story of Detroit is a cautionary tale as well as an inspiring one. Here is a clear illustration of what can go badly wrong when a) cars and money are the two dictators of urban development and b) when a city’s destiny relies too heavily on one particular industry or employer. We’re learning that lesson here too in the UK but for now, put your hands up for Detroit.