From Chicago to Détroit, success and failure of globalization ?
Chicago is a liberal city on every aspect : customs, economical, open to the world, like most major cities in the US or most major cities in the world, at least the western world.
Chicago is in a way where America was born. The city didn’t exist in 1830, like the major part of United States which had been independent for only 50 years. The city grew with hundreds thousands of immigrants from outside and inside the US without any preexisting colonial influence from European kingdoms. Built from scratch by people coming from all over Europe and America, the city had to invent its own culture, later called American culture.
Its economical culture might have influenced national economical culture. Chicago was a starting point to the Frontier, to the rush gold, to the western conquest that shaped American spirit for generations. Crossroads of railways for a century, this way of thinking, undertaking and trading spread west, east and south to all the US.
Chicago, as a whole, is a very wealthy city. It has lots of very poor neighborhoods but the city influence spread out worldwide. It didn’t suffered from globalization but benefited from it. That might be the starting point to understand the ditch between pro-Trump rural and depressed lands and metropolis in the Midwest.
83% of Chicagoans voted Hilary Clinton, 12,5% only for Donald Trump. Not a neighborhood voted mostly for Trump unlike almost all outside Chicago Illinois counties and nearby states.
As a matter of fact, Chicago’s youth seems closer to very liberal Bernie Sanders (may I dare call him the “Trump” of Democrats). Another similarity with many other big cities in the United States. I personally met with a third-party supporter but his score in Chicago is not higher than nation average, except in some suburbs.
So, here comes the end of Chicago, the first stage of this trip.
As Europeans, we usually know America through the movies and series made by Hollywood we watched on TV or on our computers. Every four years, we also have a European-centered, sometimes stereotyped, perspective on the US Presidential elections. Obamania there, Trump bashing here. But United States are much more. USA can’t be summed up in some sterilized movies or European filtered media coverage. 325 millions people, 9,8 millions square-km, 51 states are not that simple to understand.
Conservative Texas is not liberal Hollywood, innovative San Francisco is not old Alabama, global New York metropolis is not virgin Montana landscapes. And Detroit is not Chicago. That is why I wanted to explore in depth one of part of this huge country. To explore the beauty of the federal organisation. I chose Midwest where I had never been before, where Trump had a lot of votes, which has a world known city. One of the heart of America, its history, its economy, its population.
Here is Detroit. Coming from Chicago to Detroit is like going from a Hilton Hotel to a motel. Detroit was built by and for cars. The city got to the top, spread and declined. Large parts of the city are ghost towns. When people have not yet left, they often live in houses falling into ruins. This is the America who struggle to keep a decent life.
These two next weeks are all about getting to know more about Detroit past prosperity, decline and rebirth.
To be continued…
