Appendix 1: THE MULTI-RACIAL DECLINE OF CITIES IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY THE RUINS OF DETROIT Please note: This photographic essay is not meant to imply that all areas of the cities in question resemble the photographs. These pictures merely reflect regions, or suburbs, where White Flight has been the most extreme. According to the 2000 US census, 88% of Detroit's population is non-White. This percentage is even higher in the city center. Detroit qualifies as the most ruined city in the USA. In addition to massive White Flight, the non-White residents started the tradition - which has spread to other cities - of "Devil's Night". This is the habit or burning down parts of the city on the night before Halloween. A huge non-White population, combined with annual arson attacks, bankruptcy, crime and decay, have combined to make Detroit - once the USA's leading automotive industrial center - into a ruin comparable with those of the ancient civilizations - with the cause being identical: the replacement of the White population who built the city, with a new non-White population. Michigan Central Station used to be the state's main railway station. Today it is a vast multi-story ruin, with the White inhabitants having long since moved away. It stands as an eerie monument to a previous White city: now an unused wreck, possibly one of the greatest signs of the destruction of this once great city.
Above: Three views of the Taxi Stand located at the west end of the MCS building. In the bottom photograph, bays are visible where cabs would wait for paying fares. Below: The ramp adjacent to the streetcar entrance.
A large abandoned warehouse near the Michigan Central Station. THANKS TO GROVER LLOYD FOR THESE PICTURES To the Next Page of the Ruins of Detroit All material (c) copyright Ostara Publications, 1999. Re-use for commercial purposes strictly forbidden. |
