Downtown Detroit
With all the layoffs happening in Washington, D.C., a town that relies on federal jobs, Michael Schaffer writes a column in Politico titled: ‘Are We Detroit Now?’: Trump’s Cuts Panic Washington.
He writes:
The prospect of mass federal layoffs — and financial cutoffs that have already displaced hundreds of contractors — has introduced an altogether novel element to a city built on government stability: economic paranoia.
For generations, the staid predictability of federal paychecks and government contracts has defined Washington life even for the many folks who don’t work for Uncle Sam. Now there’s a sudden awareness that those payments may not be so predictable. It’s a bewildering, vertiginous feeling: an industry town when the industry starts to wobble.
As one person on my block put it to me: “Are we Detroit now?”
The Detroit reference obviously refers to the days when the city relied overwhelmingly on jobs at the auto plants, many of which vanished over the many years.
Still, many Detroiters resent the reference, with some outsiders assuming that the city has made no adjustments to the loss of auto jobs and is in the dumps.
Truth is, the city's growth downtown, Midtown and in Corktown has been unmatched in decades.
And yes, many Detroiters are tired of being an ongoing stereotype for all that is wrong with urban cities.
