DETROIT— For decades, Detroit has been a poster child for the economic drain of decreased manufacturing across the Midwest. The city has lost hundreds of thousands of mostly Black residents and experienced bankruptcy.
Its East Canfield neighborhood hasn’t been spared — but in a rarity, its demise has been caused by industrial growth, not decline.
When Vivian Jackson first moved to East Canfield in the 1960s, leafy oak trees lined the streets. Their branches created a cocoon, protecting the community from the bustle produced by a Chrysler — now known as Stellantis — automotive construction plant down the road.
Under the green canopy, Jackson remembers how the neighborhood’s mothers would grace their porches every evening before dinner, yelling to their friends across the way as children played in the street. She wondered if that would be her one day.
But on an August evening this year, Jackson, now in her 80s, was the only woman adorning her porch. A few kids still rode bikes along the cracked sidewalks, all from the same family. Those “magical” oak trees were gone, too, lost to a fungal disease years ago.
Over the past three decades, most of the homes have been leveled and paved over during expansion of the Stellantis plant, which produces Jeep Grand Cherokees, including plug-in hybrid models. An entire neighborhood block — St. Jean Street — is now on plant property.
“It was really our own world, a community where everybody knew and was concerned with everybody. It was peaceful,” Jackson said. “Now, it’s Stellantis’ world.”
The company has operated in East Canfield since 1953, expanding in the 1970s, 1990s, and again in 2019. That most recent expansion — a $1.6 billion investment — came with the promise of 5,000 new jobs. The city and…
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