21 May 2008
 
Moving Out

The John C. Lodge Freeway Under Construction, 1950s
Photo Wayne State University
 
Thomas Friedman just wrote about the world where oil is going to cost $200 a barrel. The pipsqueaks who control the black stuff are going to be riding such an unimaginable tide of cash that, according to Congressional testimony given last week by energy expert Gal Luft, OPEC could “…buy (the) Bank of America in one month worth of production, Apple computers in a week and General Motors in just 3 days.”
 
So who is the pipsqueak?
 
The iconic town of the American automobile is Los Angeles. The Disney animators used the backdrop of the expansion of the freeways there in “Who Killed Roger Rabbit” as a hook to the destruction of Toon Town. In the sweet little “LA Story,” actor and surreal humorist Steve Martin performed the ultimate auto vignette of the dying decades of the American Century: he ran from the front door of his LA house to leap into his car and drive a few yards to visit his next door neighbor.
 
Of course, LA is still there, and the expressways are still choked. The town that brought us the modern automobile hung itself on loops of concrete and pavement.
 
It tempting to view such a monstrous perversion of public policy as some sort of conspiracy; I mean, it is so astonishingly idiotic that someone has to be responsible, right?
 
But as H. L. Menken said, you will never go broke wrong underestimating the intelligence of the American people. We all went along with it, the rise of the SUV and the idea of cheap gas even after OPEC first flexed its muscles in 1973.
 
I was going to get to the Eames chair today, but what with Teddy Kennedy being diagnosed with brain cancer and Hillary Clinton’s last gasp victory in the Kentucky primary, it is hard to motor out Woodward Avenue toward the northwest suburbs of Detroit where the art and architecture of the new global culture was being created.

I am trapped by context. The great public buildings of the great city were defined by the work of Albert Kahn, the prolific architect who partnered with the Auto Barons to re-imagine the English country style, and incorporate it into bold spires.
 
His canvas was rich. Even as the country was coming out of the Depression, Detroit was a major player on the national stage. In 1935, for example, the Tigers won the World Series; the Lions were National Football League champions; and the Red Wings won hockey's Stanley Cup. In 1937, Joe Lewis won the world's heavyweight boxing championship.
 
Economic growth during the war made Detroit the center of national manufacturing, building bombers at the Ford Willow Run plant, and jeeps and tanks. City fathers championed a massive freeway system to transportthe fruits of industry rapidly (and ruthlessly) across southeastern Michigan.
 
It really was a matter of national security. Accordingly, the neighborhoods that stood in the way had to go. There was no plan for relocation for the people of Paradise Valley, and in the process of driving the John C. Lodge Freeway downtown, 17,000 refugees were created. The city's middle-income population began to shift to more suburban locales.
 
Mom was happy to shop at the Northland Mall when it opened in the mid-fifties. It was quite a wonder, a shopping destination with all sorts of stores under one roof, all accessible by automobile.
 
The Fifties were something else. Out of the way, Chicago, you City of the Broad Shoulders! Detroit is driving through!

Copyright 2008 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com