Detropia

Detropia – A documentary by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Im not sure where to start with this entry. Maybe being sick for 3 weeks straight has something to do with having unclear thoughts. If you havent received your flu shot, I highly recommend it. And please, dont cough on people. Do the right thing and stay at home with your germs. Lets just say, when I finally went to visit the doctor, he was ready to pronounce me dead. Instead, I made it out alive with a diagnosis of a lung infection, a stomach infection and an ear infection.  Thank God for anti-biotics. I love my drugs!

Ok, enough about me. So Detropia…what is it about? Well, you guessed it – Detroit. No, it is not about the Detroit Lions trying to get to the Super Bowl. This documentary was about economic development. Part of me didnt want to judge the people of Detroit but part of me couldnt help it. Though the film did a great job in depicting the plights of Detroit’s economy and the loss of car manufacturing jobs to overseas developing countries, I couldnt help but wonder, didnt they see this coming? Seriously, its all about economics. The classic case of putting all your eggs in one basket. The first thing I learned as a finance major in college is diversify, diversify, diversify. It’s true. You never want to put all your money in one stock. So, why did Detroit put all their resources into the auto industry? Having worked in the economic development realm for about 5 years now (2.5 yrs in my early twenties and 2.5 years now), Ive come to learn that  in order for a true urban city to survive economic downturns, you need small businesses. When I mean small businesses, its businesses that have no more than 10-20 employees and makes less than $1.0 million/year. That’s truly a small business. Not that big box stores isnt good either. But a city cannot survive on only big box stores that employs 2000-3000 people. Because once those large businesses leave, then that creates a large percentage of loss jobs. A city cannot sustain such losses at one single time. However, if one small business shuts down, only 20 jobs are lost. Not that painful compared to 2000 jobs. By creating more small businesses what you are essentially doing is diversifying your city’s industry and spreading the labor pool to have all different kinds of skillsets.

Detropia shows exactly why Detroit went from a flourishing city to now a dead city. A city that has less than 730,000 people, shutting down their public schools, bull-dozing 100’s of empty houses and a city completely in debt and nearly bankrupt. Or is it already bankrupt? This documentary displays those people who depended on the auto industry and when that industry left, so did their livelihood. Although they reminisce of the past when they made good money and lived a middle income lifestyle, they know times have changed. Yet, they are stuck and they dont know what to do about it. There is no leadership to bring this past into the future. This film was actually very depressing and scary. Because what if that was me? It makes me wonder if this could ever happen to me. What if one day society no longer sees me as valuable human capital? That my skills are outdated and I no longer can compete in the labor pool. Then what will I do to survive? As I approach my 40’s, it terrifies me to know that one day I will no longer be useful to society. Isnt that the case now? You see these Directors of large companies get laid-off at 50 years old and you expect them to get back into the labor pool and compete with all these young people who you can hire at 1/3 of the cost. I know, these older Directors have more experience. But still, does that guarantee that companies’ want them? After watching Detropia, I realized that to be part of the labor pool you have to be constantly learning and upgrading yourself. You cant stand still and think your skills will last forever. That’s what happen to the people in Detroit. They only knew the auto industry. They didnt know anything else outside of the auto industry. Now they are considered obsolete labor. What will they do  for new opportunity?

Ok enough depressing notes. This documentary wasnt the best Ive seen. I felt it didnt go deeper into the issues about the politics in Detroit and the corruption. It only touched the surface of the problems Detroit currently faces. I would like to have seen more interviews of different people to give a better perspective of what is really happening. For example, I know that Quicken Loans is based in Detroit. The owner of Quicken Loans, Dan Gilbert, is a strong believer in rebuilding the city. He refuses to move his company elsewhere. I would love to hear about what he’s doing in Detroit and what kind of impact he is making or is he making things worse. Or even about the Skillman Foundation that only makes grants to mainly schools in Detroit. The documentary fails to bring in other stakeholders of the Detroit community to make a more impactful outlook of Detroit. I just felt this documentary was very one-sided and subjective only to the point of views of the directors. Of course, isnt that true of all documentaries…do we remember that dude named Michael Moore?

This Asian American Fob gives this film only 3 thumbs up: