When the chemical factories shuttered, leaving the Love Canal disaster and environmental degradation behind, the iconic city of Niagara Falls tried to find ways to recover. To stem massive population loss and “brain drain,” the city is offering housing incentives for college graduates, but some locals wonder why these new residents get extra support when the locals have been living with rising crime and declining economic prospects for decades. We examined both sides of the debate by speaking to Niagara Falls’ Mayor Paul Dyster, a strong proponent of the housing incentives, and Councilman Sam Fruscione, a strong opponent. We also interviewed Ken Lambert, a recent college graduate participating in the housing incentives program.

Like countless other New Orleans residents, Avia Morris saw her life turned upside down by Hurricane Katrina. A single mother, Avia struggled to recapture the life she had before the catastrophe. After living in Atlanta for 11 years in a Section 8 housing program, the Morris family decided that if the city of New Orleans could rebuild, their family could as well. The Welcome Home Program in New Orleans gave Avia much-needed work and housing opportunities. Most significantly, they led her to Columbia Parc, a state-of-the-art housing development that has revitalized one of the poorest and most dangerous communities in New Orleans. Avia is now working as an assistant teacher at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School and as a security guard. She and her son are leading a life they never thought possible in their old neighborhood.

Tyree Guyton has achieved international acclaim for his unique brand of urban public art. By recycling the detritus of a decaying city, Tyree transforms abandoned buildings into stunning works of art. We originally filmed Tyree in ROAD SCHOLAR over 25 years ago, shortly after the city of Detroit bulldozed his childhood home on Heidelberg Street. In response, he turned the blighted lot and adjoining abandoned houses into brightly colored art objects. His creation is now known as the Heidelberg Project and has attracted visitors from all over the world. Decades later, Tyree talks with us again about the meaning of his art and the flourishing urban art scene that he helped nurture.

For the 700,000 residents in the inner city of Detroit, fresh nutritious food is almost entirely out of reach. Franciscan Brother Jerry Smith addresses this problem by reclaiming the city’s abandoned lots and converting them into urban gardens. He is able to supply his soup kitchens with fresh produce while providing crucial hands-on learning to young people in his community.

In 1932, the Detroit Institute of Art, with funding provided by Henry Ford’s son Edsel Ford, commissioned world-renowned Mexican painter Diego Rivera to capture the marvels of industrial production at the Ford River Rouge factory. Rivera’s murals depict not only the feats of technological progress, but also the dehumanization of industrialized labor. We spoke with Annmarie Erickson, the museum’s Chief Operating Officer, about how the murals represent a burgeoning middle class of blue-collar workers who today no longer benefit from factory labor as they once had, thanks to automation and outsourcing.

We visited the Ford River Rouge factory in Dearborn, Michigan, where, at its peak in the 1940s, Henry Ford employed 120,000 workers. River Rouge was the largest factory in the world at the time, where all components for Ford cars were manufactured in a mile-and-a-half-long complex. Today, the factory has only 6,000 employees who work under a two-tier wage system that makes it harder for new workers to climb the economic ladder. We spoke with Ford Chairman Bill Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford, who still believes in the social mission of the Ford factory and the power of manufacturing in the American economy. He has been a champion for the company’s social responsibility efforts, especially environmental sustainability. In 2000, Ford published its first corporate citizenship report and transformed the Ford River Rouge complex into a model of environmentally sensitive manufacturing.

From NBA Hall of Fame basketball player to the founder of Bing Steel to the Mayor of Detroit, David Bing has had a full and diverse career in the public eye. During his tenure as mayor Detroit became the largest city ever to declare bankruptcy. Bing describes the struggles the city has faced for decades as well as his hopes for its future.

Fast Facts about Urban Deindustrialization and Economic Revitalization:

• Detroit is the most impoverished large city in the U.S., with 39% living in poverty and an unemployment rate of 24.8%.^[i] In the summer of 2013, Detroit became the largest city to file for bankruptcy in the U.S., due to a combination of unemployment, debt, and a fleeing tax base.^[ii]
• The population of Niagara Falls continues to decline, while its poverty rate continues to rise. As of 2015, the population was 48,916, less than half its peak in 1960, and now over 25% of the residents live in poverty.^[iii]
• In the late 1970s, abnormally high rates of miscarriages, birth defects, epilepsy, nephrosis, and other illnesses in the working-class neighborhood of Love Canal near Niagara Falls led to the discovery of a toxic waste dump created by the Hooker Chemical Company. The disaster led to the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, known as the Superfund, which mandated corporate responsibility for toxic waste cleanup. Love Canal became a rallying cry for the environmental justice movement to demand further investigation into the disproportionate effect of pollution and toxic waste on minority communities and working-class neighborhoods.^[iv]
• On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 hurricane, struck the Gulf Coast of the U.S., flooding 80% of the city of New Orleans, killing at least 1,836, and destroying 182,000 buildings. Many speculated the slow emergency response from the federal government was racially motivated, and Kanye West famously asserted that “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.”^[v] Many of the poor who fled the city were never able to return, and as the city rebuilds and gentrifies, the poverty rate among Blacks is higher now than in 2005.^[vi]
• On April 20, 2010, the BP Oil Spill (also known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill) released millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, devastating marine ecology and the fishing industry.^[vii]

 

Discussion Questions about Urban Deindustrialization and Economic Revitalization:

 

1. Many believe that race and class played a significant role in the government’s response to the Love Canal environmental disaster and Hurricane Katrina. Filmmaker Michael Moore, along with many activists and journalists, claim that the current state of emergency over lead content in the Flint, Michigan, water supply is “a racial crime.”^[viii] How can the public increase corporate and government accountability to poor disenfranchised communities that hold no lobbying power?
2. How can cities that once relied heavily upon one industry diversify their economies to ensure more stable economic growth in the future? Do you agree with the approach taken by Mayor Dyster to attract more young people to the city of Niagara Falls with subsidies? Why is preventing brain drain important for areas facing massive deindustrialization and depopulation?
3. The authorities in Detroit demolished Tyree Guyton’s first works of art, claiming “art belongs in an institution.” What does Tyree mean when he says that art that is only available inside the walls of an institution is “part of the problem”? What impact can community art have?
4. Brother Smith shares his belief that Americans sometimes ask the government to do for us what we can do for ourselves as neighbors, but he also supports government social service programs. How can we encourage local and collective community projects without absolving the state and federal government of their responsibilities to serve the public?
5. Annmarie Erickson says the Diego Rivera murals show that, despite their struggles, “Americans are creative and irrepressible and have an amazing strength of spirit.” Where do we see displays of that spirit today? What kind of murals might Rivera paint today?

^[i] http://www.bls.gov/lau/lacilg10.htm

^[ii] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/20/chart-of-the-week-how-detroit-went-bust/

^[iii] http://www.census.gov/search-results.html?q=Niagara+Falls+city,+NY&page=1&stateGeo=none&searchtype=web

^[iv] https://www.geneseo.edu/history/love_canal_history

^[v] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kanye-west-george-bush-black people_us_55d67c12e4b020c386de2f5e

^[vi] https://ourfuture.org/20150827/ten-years-after-katrina-poor-and-black-people-still-left-behind. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/new-orleans-katrina-pain_b_7831870.html

^[vii] http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Reports/2011/8/29-new-orleans-index/08neworleansindex.pdf?la=en

^[viii] http://time.com/4188323/michael-moore-flint-racial-crime/