Metropolitics

Demystifying Urban Agriculture in Detroit

Flaminia Paddeu — 2017-12-14T05:30:00Z

Urban agriculture projects in North American shrinking cities have been the subject of much media attention in recent years. Taking the example of Detroit as her starting point, Flaminia Paddeu asks what the real benefits of this practice are for the residents of cities in decline.
---- Series: Shrinking Cities The French documentary Demain, showcasing a world tour of ecological alternatives and viewed by more than a million people to date, depicts the city of Detroit as a Mecca of

- From the Field / deindustrialization, Rust Belt, Baltimore, urban agriculture, agriculture, farming, Detroit, Philadelphia, vacant lots, urban decay, shrinking cities, urban decline, Cleveland, smart shrinkage, urban shrinkage, degrowth, shrinkage, wasteland, revegetation, ecological transition, socio-ecological transition

Urban Decline Is Not Natural

Jason Hackworth — 2017-04-11T05:00:00Z

Is urban decline inevitable for cities affected by deindustrialization? While many scholars espouse the idea that it is a normal part of a place's economic life cycle, Jason Hackworth argues that urban decline is not natural, but rather produced, typically by factors that have little to do with economics and everything to do with social and political—and often racial—conflict.
---- Series: Shrinking Cities The fate of formerly industrial cities in the Global North—places like Detroit,

- Essays / racism, Rust Belt, Montreal, race, Detroit, urban decay, shrinking cities, urban decline, social conflict, Global North, Liverpool, Leipzig, Belfast, Duluth, Cleveland, Buffalo

The Ongoing Housing Crisis and the Rust Belt Revolt for the GOP

Elora Lee Raymond — 2017-01-13T06:10:00Z

In response to a tense post-election moment in the US, the Metropolitics editorial committee has initiated Rapid-Response Peer Review, with a commitment to quickly reviewing and publishing articles that examine organizing and activism around crucial urban issues. Our second call was for papers related to housing policy. Here, Elora Raymond deploys unique research on the location of underwater mortgages to suggest that housing, not jobs, may hold the key to reigniting progressive politics in the

- From the Field / housing, Rust Belt, crisis, housing crisis, Donald Trump, negative equity, underwater mortgage, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan

When Cities Fail, Babies Die

Monica J. Casper — 2016-02-02T06:00:00Z

Detroit, Michigan is often identified as the worst city in the United States, with excessive poverty, racism, and social disorder. The city also faces high infant and maternal mortality rates. Monica Casper explores interconnections among these issues.
Motor City
Detroit, Michigan, has been in the news in recent years as a city in horrific decline, a post-apocalyptic hub of industrial collapse, white flight, acute poverty, and municipal malfeasance. Once the nation's economic engine with

- Essays / racism, Rust Belt, United States, poverty, race, Detroit, neoliberalism, biopolitics, necropolitics, infant mortality, Make Your Day, maternal mortality, urban decay, ruin porn

Detroit: Origins of the Urban Crisis Revisited

Andrew Newman — 2014-11-24T05:50:00Z

The recent reprint of Sugrue's classic history of Detroit's urban crisis highlights the roots of the city's present situation. Andrew Newman discusses how racialized policies and animosities dating back to the industrialization period are relevant to today's urban conflicts, introducing new themes of environmental justice and the dilemma of African-American political institutionalization.
The last decade has seen a flood of writing, film, photography, and research on Detroit, and with the

- Reviews / environment, Rust Belt, crisis, finance, race, Detroit

New Orleans as a Rust Belt City?

Robert J. S. Ross — 2011-07-06T05:00:00Z

New Orleans needs to recover not only from the 2005 catastrophic flooding of Katrina, but also from a much more enduring situation of post-industrial poverty, which, Robert Ross argues, places New Orleans alongside Detroit, Newark and others as a Rust Belt City.
---- Series: New Orleans: The Post-Katrina Years As policy-makers and planners think about the future of New Orleans one hopes they would seek to overcome the poverty that was New Orleans' condition before the flood – rather than to

- Debates / New Orleans, Katrina, deindustrialization, Rust Belt