Paul Draus, PhD on Detroit and Other Depopulated Cities

Paul Draus, PhD, social policy expert working in the Dept. of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, shared his thoughts on depopulated cities.

“I am always fascinated by the layers of history, flows of money and products of labor that are visible in the structure of cities, and sometimes these are more starkly evident in places that have been neglected.  It makes us appreciate how much effort it takes just to keep a city liveable”, he says.

What attracted you to the topic of urban decay? Which aspects of it do you find the most surprising?

I have been interested in the problem of the de-populated city since my days working in New York City and Chicago in the area of tuberculosis control. These sections of the city that had the most abandonment often had the highest rates of disease, which seemed contradictory, given assumptions about the relationship between tuberculosis and overcrowding. What was occurring was that the loss of housing combined with employment loss was isolating poorer populations in areas of the city where they interacted intensely with each other, but were cut off from spaces of affluence and opportunity. Once introduced into these tight networks and constricted environments, tuberculosis took root and spread.

What are the criteria which determine that a city is decaying?

I think the most significant criteria are simply population loss, disinvestment and abandonment. If significant resources flow in from the outside, this can stem the bleeding and slow or even reverse the process. However, if the underlying causes are not addressed, these processes can become self-perpetuating.   Over time, this gives a city a ghostly feel, as though it were emptied by war or disease.

There are many abandoned or decaying cities in the world. In your opinion, what is their future? Can the ruins be all that remains?

I think that it entirely depends on the decisions made by those societies where such cities are located, as well as unpredictable factors such as environment or climate change and consumer or technological trends. I don’t mean that climate change itself is unpredictable—it is almost certainly happening—but its precise consequences in terms of human settlement are difficult to foresee. I predict that the populations of our cities in Michigan will eventually rebound simply because we have abundant water and a climate that will remain habitable as the earth’s temperatures rise. But that could be a long time from now.

How is it possible to revive a ‘dead’ city?

I think that the phrase “dead city” is a contradiction. Cities are like forests—they may be depleted in terms of resources and diversity, but as long as there is a cluster of trees clinging to a rock, the soul of the forest persists. Cities by definition are alive and always evolving, even if they may change in size. Detroit still has more than 600,000 people living in it, which makes it larger than Vilnius. We must remember that decay is a form of life, and it is sometimes quite vibrant and resilient life at that.

Why do you think people stay in cities which are not fully functional, such as Detroit?

People often stay in places simply because they are familiar, and this is just as true in cities like Detroit as it is in suburbs, villages, or thriving cities. But for some people there are also no better options, given the limited resources at their disposal. Many people in Detroit are poor, and the options for housing outside of Detroit may be out of their reach in terms of either finances or transportation.   Also, there is a long history of racial segregation in the US, and this is especially pronounced in Detroit. Most residents of Detroit are African American, or “black”, and most residents of the surrounding suburbs are European-American, or “white.” Those moving out of majority-black Detroit into the majority-white suburbs may face real and perceived discrimination and resistance.

You have visited Kaunas city in Lithuania. More and more people, youths in particular, leave this city and emigrate abroad. Could it be possible, in your opinion, for Kaunas to experience urban decay because of this?

My sense is that many cities in Central and Eastern Europe may be facing similar problems to Detroit because of continued outmigration of educated youth, the expanding needs of an aging population, and declining tax revenues. However, the issue of racial division is not present in these cities as it is in the US, though class division may increase with the adoption of neoliberal policies, and this may be reflected in a more segregated landscape. It seems that central governments in the EU are committed to the preservation of their historic cities, and they may provide assistance to offset declines in local resources, while in the US aid to cities has declined steeply over the last several decades.

Which countries suffer the most from urban blight?

Countries with aging industrial infrastructure all seem to have this problem to some degree, and that includes the countries of the EU as well as cities in Latin America. However, what is called “blight” may look very different in different countries and may have very different causes.   Sometimes the depopulation of a city can occur because of sudden economic or political changes, such as the decline of the ports in Valparaiso, Chile after the Panama Canal opened in 1914.

Is there a decayed city or a ghost town you are most fascinated by? Why?

I am continually fascinated by Detroit, but I am also interested in the other aging cities of the US “rustbelt”—places like Buffalo, New York, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio. I used to live in Dayton, Ohio, which shares many of the same problems as Detroit, but doesn’t get the same attention because it is much smaller. New Orleans, Louisiana; Newark, New Jersey; and Oakland, California are other “sister cities” of Detroit. Though geographically distant, they share many issues such as racial segregation, concentrated poverty and disinvestment. However, there are also sections of booming cities that resemble Detroit—in Chicago, New York, and even San Francisco, there are pockets of what is sometimes called “underdevelopment” that exhibit blight, disinvestment and abandonment, though some of these housing markets are so valuable that this is becoming more rare, and the more pressing issue is gentrification of central cities and the displacement of poor populations to outlying areas. I am always fascinated by the layers of history, flows of money and products of labor that are visible in the structure of cities, and sometimes these are more starkly evident in places that have been neglected. It makes us appreciate how much effort it takes just to keep a city liveable.

There are many abandoned modern cities in the world, each with their own unique history. Some of their residents were forced to leave due to natural disasters, others did it for economic reasons. In your opinion, in which case is it easier to abandon one’s hometown?

I don’t think it is ever easy to abandon one’s home. Economic migrants may have it somewhat better because they can plan ahead, but depending on the resources available to them and the circumstances that await them at the other end, they may also endure significant uncertainty and even trauma.

What are the main lessons to be learned from the case of Detroit? Do you think there was a way its problems could have been solved and bankruptcy avoided?

There were many turning points in the history of Detroit, when different choices might have been made. Many point to the urban disturbance of 1967 as the key moment in the decline of the city, but this was as much an effect as a cause of white outmigration.   Tom Sugrue’s Origins of the Urban Crisis is the definitive text on Detroit’s decline, and he focuses on issues of racial segregation in the housing market and the federal subsidizing of suburban sprawl through home loans and highway construction. The segregation of schools is also a key piece of the puzzle—while segregation of schools within cities became illegal after a Supreme Court decision in the 1950s, another decision in the 1970s upheld the concept of “home rule”, meaning that cities were only responsible for desegregating internally.

As most suburbs were almost entirely white, this decision had the result of affirming the de facto racial segregation of the region. There was no perceived cost to wealthier suburbs as Detroit sank further and further into decay. With the continued decline of schools in the city, it became a less and less appealing place for affluent or middle class people, black or white, to reside. The reinforcing spirals of outmigration and successive declines in revenues, investment and city services, including the quality of schools, are the underlying factors which ultimately led to the bankruptcy, though some corrupt leaders and poor management decisions certainly didn’t help. Interestingly, these underlying dynamics have not been resolved by the recent bankruptcy settlement. The problem of where to find revenue still remains.

Urban population continues to grow around the world. Could this be exploited in some way to get people to return to abandoned cities?

I believe that it could, if these cities are welcoming to those populations, and if they don’t skip central cities entirely, in order to settle in suburbs.   Immigration in New York City has enabled the rebuilding of the South Bronx, which was about as decimated as Detroit when I worked there in the early 1990s.

You have written about the role of crime and drug trade in urban decay. What do you think about the War on Drugs in the U.S. – do you agree with its reforms? Is there anything you would approach differently?

The War on Drugs has been an unmitigated disaster for poor urban communities. As jobs and opportunities fled aging cities, the illicit drug trade provided an active economy open to participation for poor urban youth. However, the criminalization of this activity also cemented their status as marginal citizens and further entrenched the stigma and disadvantage of the places in which the trade was based. While there have been some shifts in policies directed at marijuana (or cannabis), these have not been embraced at the federal level, and black youth still go to prison at much higher rates for drug dealing and possession, including for marijuana. Incarceration rates have levelled off in the US, but we still have the highest rate of incarceration in the world, by far. I would advocate for more extensive programs of restorative re-entry, reduced sentences for individuals who have demonstrated their motivation for constructive community service, and the fostering of supportive environments that lessen the likelihood of recidivism while also making criminal involvement less appealing in the first place. However, we are a long way from achieving this in our policies. Our embrace of punishment was wholesale, but our approach to reintegration has always been piecemeal.

About Paul Draus

Paul Draus is a social policy expert, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Public Administration and Public Policy Programs in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

From 1992 until 2000, Dr. Draus was a public health field worker, specializing in tuberculosis control, first in New York City and then in Chicago. He earned his PhD from Loyola University Chicago in 2001, and he is the author of Consumed in the City: Observing Tuberculosis at Century’s End (Temple University Press, 2004), which was based on his dissertation research. He has published numerous articles on health behaviors and social contexts related to substance abuse in rural areas of Ohio, as well as the social networks, daily routines and income generation strategies of active heroin users and former street sex workers in the city of Detroit. His most recent research focuses on the relationship between neighborhood landscape change and marginalized populations in Detroit.

In late September 2014, he held a public lecture at VMU, “Challenges to Sustainable Development in the USA: the Case of Detroit”, which examined the legacy of 20th century American urban, industrial and housing policy as it relates to issues of poverty, unemployment, crime and substance abuse that affect the city and its suburbs today.

Photos by Paul Draus