Quote:
Originally Posted by yuriandrade
Why auto industry hurts Detroit? Stuttgart, Munich, Turin, São Paulo's "ABC" are all better than the national average. Detroit could have thrived even being the auto capital.
In fact, those crazy urban declines are an US phenomenon and the "normal" would be always growing metro areas.
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The Great Depression was more of a factor the first time (1920s/30s), then regional rivalries the second time (1960s/70s). It's often assumed that the auto industry didn't want Detroit to have a subway, but this isn't entirely accurate. In the pre-war era, the auto industry was hugely in favor of Detroit getting a subway in order to transport workers to factories. In fact, almost all of Detroit's subway plans were designed to have stops at the large auto factories of the era.
The auto industry did eventually turn against street cars, which was Detroit's primary mode of transit until immediately after WW2, but they were against street cars because they wanted to sell buses to cities.