Category: North America

The central revitalization measure in Detroit is the Campus Martius project. At the end of 2004, the first phase was completed with a seasonally open ice rink (based on the ice rink in Rockefeller Center in New York City), two entertainment stages and public space with sculptures and illuminated fountains. The headquarters of the software company Compuware can also be found there. The settlement of IT service providers indicates a possible diversification of the economy. The hope is that large companies like Compuware will become the core of corporate networks and cluster structures. Measures such as the renovation and reopening (2008) of the Book Cadillac Hotel on Washington Boulevard and the construction of an ice hockey stadium provide further impetus for the revitalization of downtown.

In 2013, the city of Detroit had to file for bankruptcy despite tough cuts and privatizations in previous years. The city’s debt at the time was $ 18 billion. The reasons to be mentioned in particular are…

1.the economic loss of importance of the automotive industry,

2.the associated decline in employment (the number of jobs in industry halved between 2000 and 2010 from 400,000 to 200,000) and

3.the departure of large numbers of people (population decline from 1.9 million in the 1950s to 689,000 in 2013) and the bankruptcy of companies; this resulted in declining tax revenues in each case.

As a result of the bankruptcy, public facilities such as schools, parks and swimming pools were closed, the garbage disposal, waterworks and electricity network were privatized and urban real estate was sold or leased.

USA – automotive industry development
The automobile construction and the supplying industry belong with 785,000 employees and 10.1 million. vehicles produced (2012) are key areas of the American economy. The US automotive industry was internationalized and globalized at an early stage, around the 1980s, when first Japanese, then German and finally Korean car manufacturers together with their suppliers set up production facilities in the USA and thereby the market share of the domestic auto industry – the so-called Big Three General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, all based in Detroit – pushed back from around 73 percent in 1996 to around 45 percent in 2013.

Japanese manufacturers had a share of 32 percent in 2013, German vehicle manufacturers 8.5 percent and Korean car brands 6 percent of the US vehicle market. In addition to production in the USA, cars are mainly imported from the NAFTA countries Canada and Mexico. Most of them come from the production facilities of the “Detroit Three”, that is to say, from own imports. For more information about the continent of North America, please check neovideogames.com.