Utopian Detroit

A show on PBS last night focused on the Detroit transportation system. It included a history of mass transportation in the city, and its demise in the 1950’s in conjunction with the explosion of the Detroit auto industry. It followed the development of commercial and residential neighborhoods along the grid of a light rail system built in the early 20th Century. It then followed the demise of those neighborhoods with the construction of the nation’s first freeway system coupled with the dismantling of the city’s streetcar system supposedly at the behest of General Motors.

The program attributed Detroit’s economic woes and racial dysfunction to lack of a mass transit system, specifically light rail. If only Detroit were to develop such a system, industry would return to the city as it would become a center for green transportation technology. Build the light rail system along Woodward Avenue, and blacks and whites would ride it holding hands; together bringing down the walls of racism.

Utopians come in all shapes and sizes, and have always played a role in American politics. But with the first Progressive administration since Jimmy Carter now in Washington, utopian schemes take on a more onerous tone as social experimentation becomes the raison d’être of an increasingly powerful and aggressive central government.

Most of the schemes are unworkable and based on hope rather than reality. While I am a big supporter of the development of rail transit systems, both within and between cities, it’s more of an issue of convenience rather than Utopian hopes and dreams. Car and air travel have become such a hassle, rail is an attractive alternative. That ought to be the motivation for these kinds of worthwhile projects. They will make getting from Point A to Point B easier and faster.

What they won’t do is have any direct effect on economic woes or social injustice. That’s not to say they won’t have an indirect effect. Any kind of mass public works project will have a stimulus effect on the economy, something the Obama administration missed in its last “stimulus” package. Generalized spending doesn’t do it. But specific construction projects…like upgrading our heavy and light rail infrastructure, or adding third lanes to I-71…or I-76 across the Pennsylvania Turnpike, will have a dramatic effect. How about a campaign to replace our aging bridges and water and sewer systems? And if the economy improves, so will the racial divide as all Americans will benefit from an improved economy.

Champagne wishes and caviar dreams are great for academics and television addicts. In real life, the result may be something less than desired. After all, the vision of an inner city freeway system coupled with broad avenues and boulevards which are the hallmark of Detroit started out as a utopian vision.

Right here in Youngstown, Ohio, turning Federal Street into a pedestrian mall 30 years ago was supposed to bring us a user friendly urban paradise. It got us a ghost town. When they put it back the way it was, it was like blood started to flow through the main arteries, and wonder of wonders, there is life in downtown again.

Utopians are dreamers. There will always be a place for dreamers in our society telling us what life would be like in the best of all worlds…in fact, they demand the best of all worlds. But none of them have ever figured out how to get it because it is impossible to get.

Rather than change the world, I would settle for any utopian idea that might get me, like I said, from Point A to Point B. That would be a significant accomplishment.