What does a community owe a government if its social contract has not been honoured? Around 2010 the then Mayor of Detroit proposed withdrawing from round 40% of the city; no services, no regular policing and no maintenance of streets – lighting, pavements, drains etc. If people live in these abandoned areas what do they owe the government in terms of tax or acquiescence to their ‘authority’? – for those in gangs, the govt. must be little more than just another gang.
Detroit is an extraordinary example of the disposable nature of US society; the first and perhaps only total manufacture society. Currently emerging from the depths of depression as the largest civic bankruptcy in history a combination of grass roots activism that sits outside the normal political economy. It is a model born of the anti capitalist movement and has seen many moving from the East Coast to take advantage of almost free housing.
The abandonment of the city has become iconic and the richness of the cultural response woven into global culture. The car plants closed, the alleged white flight and govt incompetence leading to bankruptcy left the city to the bare resources of the betrayed and deserted.
Techno literally took over the abandoned car plants and rave culture started as this amazing documentary
Detroit Techno – The Creation of Techno Music (HighTechSoul) – 2006 from Culturaelectronica.TV on Vimeo.
For more background here are some links below
Superb photos of ‘ruin porn’
Click to see more
Great blog by Detroit resident http://nighttraintodetroit.com/about-2/
Plus these
http://www.meetup.com/Detroit-Drunken-Historical-Society/