The rise and fall of Highland Park, Michigan

Highland Park, Michigan is the site of some of the worst poverty and human suffering in North America. The WSWS recently reported a house fire in this small city which led to the deaths of three small children and their great aunt. When the city was founded in 1919, it was home to the flagship factory of Henry Ford and the highest average living standard in North America. In this piece the WSWS interviews Kurt Metzger, Director of the Detroit Area Community Indicators System, about the city's rise and decline.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• wsws
• Ford
• Highland
• Park
• auto
• workers
• history
• poverty
• jobs
• socialist
• web
• site

[ashonpar3]

white flight

[911toolman]

I grew up on Geneva between second and third st. White Flight is the reason this has happened to Detroit and Highland Park. We fled the area 3 years after the race riots in 1967.

[westchesterny]

@McOddz313 Realtors were/are a big part of the problem here, also; they get "incentives" in many ways for taking "nice" neighborhoods and moving in people very socialized into the new Welfare-Warfare Statist Mentality put into the U.S. after the WWII. All the people are socialized as Dependents (welfare or warfare). As they "grow their own way" of seeing the world, they reproduce themselves. They eat the creative people alive.

[marilisa616]

It looks like NOLA's 9th ward.

[BigJuan3134L]

i grow up on pilgrem nd hamiton

[clarkewi]

Brilliant analysis. Don't get mad, get even.

[daynthalife91]

this is my city



[YoungDreezee]

Education is key... Its no longer cool to be dumb... this is what you get when you have one industry and a poor education system in a large city.

[tommiegreen]

This is the city that I was raised and graduated in. And now I am Tommie Green, lol. I will do ANYTHING I can to give back to the city that made me the man that I am. It's all a matter of time. I Love You, HP, The Worst Is Over :)

[erdingtown]

as someone who grew up in detroit in its hayday, I am 69 now, it saddens me to see what has happened to detroit. I moved to europe in 1990 and live near munich with my wife. In the 50s, detroit was very middle class. no its no class. the blacks suffered the most because most of the low paying jobs moved to china. Herry ford brought prosperity to americas middle class. now we are just a 3 rd world country

[McOddz313]

Real estate developers trying to make big $ helped ruin Highland Park before white flight. They developed communities outside of the city and needed residents so they used some shady tactics to do so.