DETROIT, MICHIGAN, USA.
Population (yr2000) : 951,270
Est. Population, July 2004 : 900,198 (-5.4% change)
Males – 448,319 (47.1%)
Females – 502,951 (52.9%)
Median resident age: 30.9 years
Median household income: $29,526 (yr2000)
Median house value: $63,600 (year2000)
Mean travel time to work: 28.4 minutes.
What is Urbanisation?
Urbanisation is the increase in the proportion of people living in towns and cities.
What causes urbanisation?
Urbanisation occurs because people move from rural areas to urban areas.
Levels of urbanisation in 1950 and 1990
Prior to 1950 the majority of urbanisation occurred in MEDCs. Rapid urbanisation took place during the period of industrialisation that took place in Europe and North America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many people moved from rural to urban areas to get jobs in the rapidly expanding industries in many large towns and cities. Since 1950 urbanisation has slowed in most MEDCs, and now some of the biggest cities are losing population as people move away from the city to rural environments. This is known as counter-urbanisation.
Counter-urbanisation
Counter-urbanisation is the movement of people out of cities, to the surrounding areas. Since 1950 this proccess has been occurring in MEDCs. There are four main reasons for counter-urbanisation:
1. The increase in car ownership over the last 40 years means people are more mobile. This has led to an increase in commuting. Also, the growth in information technology (E-mail, faxes and video conferencing) means more people can work from home.
2. Urban areas are becoming increasing unpleasant place to live. This is the result of pollution, crime and traffic congestion.
3. More people tend to move when they retire.
4. New business parks on the edge of cities (on Greenfield sites) mean people no longer have to travel to the city centre. People now prefer to live on the outskirts of the city to be near where they work.
Urban problems in MEDCs
§ Urban areas in MEDCs have experienced a range of problems in recent years. These include:
§ Traffic problems. Car ownership and commuting means an increase in congestion and pollution.
§ Decline in industry. As older manufacturing industries have closed they have left empty, derelict buildings towards the centre of the city. Modern industries need more space so tend to locate on the edge of the city.
§ High unemployment in inner city areas (where the old industries were once located) leads to social problems.
§ Changes in shopping have also caused problems. City centre locations are no longer favoured. There has been a recent growth in out of town shopping centres, which has led to the decline of many CBDs (central business districts).
§ COUNTERURBANISATION IN DETROIT.
§ As the data from the US census statistics show, the population of Detroit is decreasing, and this is due to counter urbanisation, as the population are moving from the city into rural areas.
§ Due to various reasons, such as, an increase in car ownership, out of town shopping facilities meaning one doesn’t need to be near the CBD, and people choosing to leave the city as Detroit is known for a high crime rate, and also cities are highly polluted, and people would prefer to live in cleaner more pleasant areas.
§ THE WHITE FLIGHT
§ The white population of Detroit began to move away from the inner city after World War 1, to new suburban communities.
§ Major cities had experienced tight housing markets during the war years along with an influx of blacks seeking war work. Whites with the means to leave did so in some cases to escape the increasing racial tensions they observed on television news reports of the volatile Civil rights movement, which generated crime in inner cities between radical racists and new black residents, but in other cases simply because they were promised by real estate agents that suburban communities, with their new housing stock, roads and schools, were more desirable places to live.
§ Even those who couldn't afford to leave moved to transitional housing awaiting affordable prospects in the newer white enclaves. Most white families found in the early years that these suburban outposts were converted farmland, which lacked personality and services and conveniences of the cities they left, but were compelled to stay at the behest of their children, who would later spark the new urbanism of the 1990s.
§ Whites quickly took their tax and investment dollars and services, such as teachers, grocery stores and clothing retail, with them, abandoning the cities to the ill-equipped, poorest Americans, black and some white. With no local jobs or businesses the neighbourhoods disintegrated and ultimately turned into increasingly poverty-stricken and crime-ridden slums with failing and dilapidated public schools.
