A highly selective list of recent mainstream articles about Detroit, and comments about the narratives they tell.
2009
By Daniel Okrent for TIME (beginning Assignment Detroit. Makes a connection between Detroit and New Orelans following Katrina. Ties Detroit's decline to: the failure of auto companies and unions to innovate; white racism, the 1967 riot/rebellion, and the "reign" Coleman Young. Strongly aligned with the rise and fall narrative.
2010
Dateline NBC special with Chris Hansen; 20 April 2010.
Focuses on individual stories of life and officials the city (including Glemie Beasley, Warren Evans, Robert Bobb), but does not examine many organizations or group responses. The short history in the film follows the rise and fall narrative, showing Detroit on the decline starting in 1967 and again as the automakers make large cuts in the 1980s.
See also: Detroit mayor's office responds to Dateline
2013
In 2013 Anthony Bourdain visited Detroit to film an episode of Parts Unknown. Bourdain addressed the ugly side of the city, and baldly admits to trading in "ruin porn." He visited urban prairies and the dilapidated Packard Plant illustrated how far the city had fallen from its heyday in the mid-20th century. But he remained sensitive to the impact of the city's decline on Detroiters themselves, and expressed appreciation for the local food and hardworking, tenacious citizens. "It's hard to look away from the ruin, to not find beauty in the decay. Comparisons to Angkor Wat, Machu Picchu, ancient Rome are inevitable. Magnificent structures, representing the boundless dreams of the dead, left to rot. And yet unlike Angkor and Leptis Magna, people still live here. We forget that."
The story also follows a declension narrative, tracing the city's rise as an auto capital through its time as the Arsenal of Democracy, and its history of corruption (which, Bourdain points out, has parallels in New York, Boston, Chicago). Bourdain does offer an explanation as to what went wrong, citing "The fall of the automobile industry, the shrinkage of population, flight of the middle class, drugs, and some of the most spectacularly, unapologetically rapacious, incompetent and corrupt leadership imaginable."
The Heidelberg Project, Guns & Butter, and Charlie LeDuff all make appearances in the episode.
His article is here:
The episode is viewable here. Original airdate was 10 November 2013.
