john who said axel foley so from beverly hills cop and then we have francis ford copola. he was born in detroit. best export, >> yeah. we had madonna from detroit and also tons of votes for kid rock. i mean music is a huge, huge part of detroit. and, of course, that's it for "way too early." "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ >> good morning, everyone. welcome to a special edition of "morning joe." it's thursday, august 29th. we're going to have a great time here in detroit. we're live from the ford flat rock assembly line. just outside of detroit in flat rock, michigan. and this is an active assembly line, about to get busier as the morning progresses.

>> unbelievable news today, ford is actually returning the production of the ford fusion to this plant. >> big news. >> from mexico. it's a $555 million commitment and what does that mean? that means more jobs for americans. >> about 1400. >> great news. >> we're going to speak with ford ceo alan mullally and coo mark fields about this important investment in u.s. manufacturing and what it will mean for the overall economy. >> and we're here to tell the story of detroit as well as the city's bankruptcy, it's been in the news, it's been dominating the headlines, but what is the blueprint for resurrecting the storied and vital american city that's played such a critical role not only in helping grow the great american century, but also in winning world war ii. and you know what, detroit's challen challenges, they're the same as a lot of the challenges facing america as a whole. >> so, all this morning, we're

going to be joined by the people who are critical to the city's russ ser recollection including kevyn orr, the appointed emergency manager for detroit, the founder of quicken loans, dan gilbert, become a critical champion of real estate in detroit and cy young award winning pitcher for the tigers justin verlander join us on this special edition of "morning joe." joining us inside the plant as what went by what was that? that's beautiful. former treasury official and economic analyst steve ratner. makes sense this morning you're here even though you slept in your clothes. the obama administration's car czar during the bailout. >> look at him. you should see it. it's wrinkled. he's the author of the book "overhaul, an insider's account of the obama administration's emergency rescue of the auto industry." actually steve stayed at a very nice hotel called the holedy inn express. it's cool. i like it nearby here. >> he doesn't know anything

about saving the economy. >> it's close. >> he stayed at a holiday inn express. with us msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele, msnbc contributor mike barnicle and host of "way too early," brian shactman. steve ratner, obviously we come inside the plant, it's so exciting to see all of these cars coming in. we're bringing jobs back to america from mexico. you talk about going in the right direction. you know, gm needed the government's help, a lot of other companies needed the government's help. you were critical in making that happen. my god, ford and the people in ford, they've been making the right calls and decisions for years now. >> it's interesting because you had two companies that were almost identical, general motors, ford, same footprint, same issues with the japanese competition, with oil prices, and yet, gm went into

bankruptcy, ford escaped bankruptcy. one of the things we should talk about is how ford did that and they did it by being really smart and ahead of the curve. >> mike barnicle, you look at the city we're in right now, the city we were in last night, looking around, detroit's an extraordinary city, has an unbelievably important place in american history. i love the henry ford quote we talk about all the time when somebody told an older henry ford you don't understand the modern age and he said, son, i invented the modern age. that modern age was invented at ford and now look. we've got some good news. >> oh -- >> ford bringing jobs back. we may be figuring out a way to do this right, right here, and that can be transferred across the country. >> that's it. the history of detroit is in part the history of america. huge part of the history of america. the democracy you alluded to in world war ii and detroit today, over the last ten years, the state of michigan has lost over

40% of its manufacturing jobs, except the good news is, that we are here today in a plant that really typifies and is symbolic of the american strength. the american strength to rebuild and come back. what we have here behind us is a real tribute to america and especially to ford and to michigan. >> how did detroit lose its luster? i mean that's one of the big stories we're covering. you wanted to jump in? >> i just want to say the cost of labor in america got very expensive and part of the globalization, you have cars in every part of the world and make them in other parts of the world. there was the perception at the peak that the workers in the auto industry here were complacement, maybe entitled and there's resentment with that. being at this plant a couple days now, there is an absolute appreciation for the jobs they have and wait until you hear them talk about ford, but also, they never felt entitled. just because the union got the benefits they had and people blame them for taking the auto industry down because they got

so much, they work hard and they want people to know that they don't feel entitled, they have pride in their jobs. >> oh, my god. >> but there is a perception out there that's different than reality. >> all you need to do -- and mike, you've read this book, we talked about it before, "the reckoning" by david hall ber sham, one of my favorite books in the 1980s, talking about the collapse of the auto industry, it wasn't the workers who got caught sleeping by japan. it was the ceos that kept their feet in seement and that's one of the exciting things about the people who are running this plant and who are working at this plant. >> look, in fairness, it was a combination. >> right. >> a lot of blame to go around for what happened to the auto industry. >> exactly. >> what happened to detroit. the management was asleep. they missed at lot of innovation that was going on in the companies. but the uaw, which is a constructive force in many ways, nonetheless, had contracts that made it pretty tough for these

guys to turn reasonable profits. >> right. >> this was under the umbrella of a city racked by corruption, racked by bad fiscal management, racked by the flight of people out of the city that set itself up for what we're seeing happening now. >> there's going to be a big press conference coming up at 10:00 to make an important announcement here and i love the podium. it has ford symbol, michael steele, it has uaw symbol and you know what, you get a feeling coming in here and looking at this plant that both sides know that both sides have made mistakes in the past and if we're going to be not only competitive, but if we're going to be number one across the world again, the way to do it is coming together and figuring out how to shave off the excesses on both sides. >> look at it this way, labor and management have figured it out. they've decided that the best interest is the american marketplace of jobs and economic opportunity. that's going to be the cornerstone of rebuilding detroit, if you will. the politicians, as much as management and labor played a role in the decline and the loss

of jobs over the last 60 years, particularly in the city like detroit, politicians played an enormously important role in accelerating that loss as well. hopefully in watching what happens in a plant like ford, the politicians will understand what their proper role and function is. it is to enable and create opportunities, not stand in the way of it, and that's what you see i think coming out of here today. >> the backdrop of the story we're covering today, of course, is detroit's bankruptcy. before detroit went bankrupt, it was one of the most vibrant cities in the world. take a look. >> it is a story of a city seeking new horizons and a resolute contest with great challenges. that city is detroit. >> reporter: in 1965 detroit was the fifth biggest city in the country and a finalist for the olympic games. >> detroit is the center of a great sports community and may all of you have the wisdom to ascribe to the olympian god at arriving at your very difficult

decision. >> reporter: in the half century before, detroit was a mecca of progress. at the forefront of industry, architecture, sports, and culture. >> the mid-1910, 1915, detroit had 125 automobile manufacturers. even that early in the automotive history, detroit had already established itself as the motor city. >> reporter: henry ford's model t and assembly lines revolutionized efficiency and $5 a day pay lured poor whites and blacks from the south even if the jobs were boring, representative and hard to get. >> teach your job in ten minutes and you could do that job for the rest of your life. to get $5 a day you had to do some things for the company. you had to maintain the health of your home, go to church. it was not only a way to encourage employees, but a way, a social experiment. >> i didn't like the job. it was sort of meaningless. i got all kinds of grind in my

skin. but i enjoyed my check. >> reporter: the city's population quadrupled and then came world war ii. >> we must be the great arsenal of democracy. >> reporter: fdr turned detroit into the country's furnace of war. >> there was also an efficiency that was unheard of literally in world history. there was a bomber plant in san diego turning out one bomber a day. henry ford looked at that and said, guys, you can't be serious. he redid his willow run plant. they were turning at one point one bomber an hour. >> reporter: riding an economic tidal wave, the city limits ballooned to 140 square miles, movie theaters ran 24 hours a day, to accommodate all the shifts. detroit had the best public school system in the country. but even at its height there were serious tensions. >> they hold up for days on end and finally won many of the benefits they demand. >> reporter: union organizations

sometimes descended into violence. while the black population doubled the first black family on the block often had it tough. >> a race riot in 1943 that took the same -- almost the same amount of lives as it did in 1967. and i might point out, that in 1943, detroit was still on the uptick in terms of attracting population. please also remember, riots did not start in the city of detroit. go back and see what happened in other cities around the united states. >> but it wasn't mississippi and it wasn't alabama and you can see that even today, certainly there were racial and ethnic tensions but they were not so universal that interracial cooperation was rendered impossible. >> the belief is fading that answers can be found and we're losing the will to search for it. >> reporter: the war effort ended, the car business slowed. factories left for the suburbs

and other states. sprawling neighborhoods began to empty. it was to the long before the hundreds of to you sands of people who transformed this city were suddenly nowhere to be found. >> so where do we go from here? how did we get here? we're going to look at that but also as we were driving in yesterday, noticed all the blithed buildings, so much work to be done in this city, but also so many positive things happening and so many beautiful aspects of this city's legacy that we're going to be talking about this morning straight ahead. >> mike, this has been happening slowly. you know, you can see it when you came here in the '70s. remember 1980 i think it was, they had the super bowl here. my god, that was 30 something years ago. >> and the convention. >> and the convention. and -- but people were already talking about a city in decline in 1980. i think, though, they've got some real leaders in place here, especially -- >> hopefully. >> and the private sector that

are really starting to do some extraordinary things. >> hopefully. but as steve indicated, the politics of the city of detroit have been filled with corruption or incompetence over the last 15 or 20 years. that's part of the problem of detroit. the other part of the problem with detroit and it's more than just detroit, it's an american city, it's the geography of jobs. as plants are built, they've built in the suburbs. the difficulty of getting to a suburban job from an inner city public transportation when there isn't any, it leads to a lot of unemployment in cities. >> a lot of unemployment. >> steve ratner, though, if you look at global trends, and you see that outsourcing was all the rage ten years ago, that was the answer, we are actually starting to see some ceos -- we've seen jeff immelt say, you know what, maybe we went too far on outsourcing, maybe we need to build the plants here and that allows us actually to be on the cutting edge a lot more by having it here in america, that

actually looks like that may be the trend moving forward. so all these jobs that have gone overseas, could start coming back, not as high paying as they were when they left, but at least more american jobs. >> so a couple points. first, vis-a-vis the video, one of the things worth mentioning, detroit was the silicon valley of 100 years ago. >> isn't that amazing. >> hundreds of innovative auto companies starting out in people's garages, coming up with the latest, greatest idea, and then leaving for the domination this city had and the decline that you saw. in terms of the future, yes, jobs are coming back. we're going to talk about that, i think, in a little bit. but as you indicated joe, we have to recognize those jobs are coming back at lower wages unfortunately and that's a problem. that's not the american dream. we want people's wages to go up. but it is very hard for detroit to compete paying the kind of wages they were paying. >> and, in fact, as we speak right now, there's a strike or protest going on of fast food workers and we'll cover that in

the next hour as well. they are demanding higher wages. other news in here, we're going to be talking about detroit throughout the show but we will not leave out the other headlines of the day, including syria. the white house is forging ahead with preparations to attack syria and believes the assad regime is behind the chemical weapons attack. during an interview with pbs, president obama made these strong statements blasting the syrian government for its role in last week's attack. >> we have looked at all the evidence and we do not believe the opposition possessed nuclear weaponsp or chemical weapons of that sort, we do not believe that given the delivery systems using rockets, that the opposition could have carried out these attacks, we have concluded that the syrian government, in fact, carried these out, and if that's so there need to be international consequences. >> the president also said it was important to make sure that syria's chemical weapons were

never used against the united states. >> their control over chemical weaponsp may erode. where they're allied to known terrorist organizations that in the past have targeted the united states, then there is a prospect, a possibility, in which chemical weapons they can have devastating effects, could be directed at us, and we want to make sure that doesnthat doe happen. >> the obama administration rejected a syrian request to extend chemical weapons inspections. you know, steve ratner, the president called that a delay tactic, but we're getting not a delay tactic, but certainly a delay from one of our best allies here. >> well, yes. britain has now said they want to go to parlment and have a parliamentary vote to be part of this effort. you have to put that in the context of british politics.

david cameron has a coalition government, not the strongest government, where many of the british people, as do many of the american people, feel they were sold a bill of goods in going into iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction that turned out not to be there. >> right. >> so the british people seemed to be headed toward a scenario where they want conclusive proof from u.n. inspectors there are chemical weapons there before they're going to do something. it looks like instead of today, tomorrow, saturday exercise, it looks like this has been pushed off a few days at best. >> michael steele, john mccain, lot of other republicans, very critical of the president, wanting him to move faster, but it seems like more in the party want the president to stay out. >> they do. and i think that there's a growing concern and a growing split among republicans as to do we do as we did in the bush years and just line up behind the president and blindly go in and not ask the appropriate questions, bring it to the congress, get a vote in the house to really reassure the

american people that the government is united in this and the american people who are as steve noted, as in britain, the people are not behind another engagement, i think that's some serious questions for a lot of republicans right now, and it's going to be a part of the slowing of this process. they need to bring it to congress. they need to stand in the well of the country and say look, this is why this is important, this is why we need to do it and go forward from there with the people behind them. >> coming up on "morning joe," this very special edition here in detroit. u.s. representative john dingell from michigan became the longest-serving member of congress in history in june, but he never could have done it without his wife and michigan powerhouse debbie dingell and detroit city council president saunteel jenkins. in the 1930s, perhaps no bigger name in detroit pan pack card. how a once great company came to represent the city's economic decli

decline. first to dylan dreyer with a check on the forecast. >> mika, it is still hot in parts of detroit and areas like minneapolis where it is going to be near 90 degrees. that feels like temperature up around 100 when you factor in the humidity. heat warnings and advisories are still in effect out that way. we also have pretty heavy rain coming into north dakota. heavy downpours and thunderstorms with this. so we are going to see this track to the east and eventually just north of minneapolis. we will see the threat of very strong storms later on this morning into early this afternoon. the biggest threat would be for gusty winds and also for isolated large hail. temperatures still well up into the 90s in the midwest and into the plain states. in boston, 69 degrees. that's it with some clouds and a couple showers. then as we go into tomorrow, we are looking for temps to get back up to 77 in boston, 80 new york city, 91 in chicago, but still up around 100 degrees in kansas city. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. any last requests mr. baldwin?

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♪ 22 past the hour. back in the day, packard cars were the most popular luxury car in america. big, expensive and equipped with a massive v-12 engine. >> i need a v-12 engine. everybody needs a v-12 engine. >> you have your own v-12 engine. >> in the car. i need it in the car. >> though the company closed half a century ago, packard has not disappeared from detroit. for better or worse, willie geist has that report. >> look to packard for built-in quality and true performance. >> reporter: in the early 20th century the packard was the car

synonymous with class, driven by babe ruth, clark gable and outsold the cadillac. >> a car with a special invitation to the people of taste. >> reporter: the gleaming detroit automobile plant where packard was built was among the world's largest at 3.5 million square feet. >> packard stood out as the premier automobile brand in the united states. they were the first to come out with air conditioning. they were the first to come out with a lot of those wonderful luxury things, packard came out with all kinds of those. >> reporter: packard built the plane engines that helped win world war ii, 54,000 of them altogether, but the company failed to adapt over the years and folded in 1958. this is what's left today of that once majestic plant. a tangle of fallen beams and broken windows picked over for scrap. at its peak, more than 30,000 people came to work here every day. >> it's building after building after ruin after ruin.

at this point, there's water, squatters, graffiti that people come from all over the world to see. there's truly nothing like it anywhere i think on earth. >> reporter: the packards and super 8's of detroit's classic era live on in movies from "benjamin button" to "the godfather". >> leave the gun. >> reporter: in the garages of like detroit businessman dick cohn. >> i started out with a 1940 packard that belonged to jim cagney. once you get started you're on a hunt. >> reporter: he has a passion for the classic. a successful detroit real estate developer he saved the lionel train company in the 1980s by buying it. he and his wife linda have preserved hundreds of cars in their four garages. >> you come around here. >> reporter: today dick is driving a red dlux convertible fully loaded with two windshields but no power

steering. >> the engines were superb. the styling was even better. packard's tag line for their advertising was "ask a man who owns one". >> you own a couple? >> yeah is. >> reporter: the plant itself is being put to some use. one of the factory's massive old doors has found a new home in a local art house. using relics from all over the city, artists are breathing new life into a neighborhood that's been hollowed out over some long, painful years in detroit. >> you can find the resources, find the space and within your means as a regular working-class person. >> it is the last packard ever to come off the line and the original owner was gene austry. >> reporter: the last packard rolled off the line half a century ago but the american love affair with the detroit classic remains. >> truly built like a packard means built to last.

>> a developer from the chicago area is trying to transform the property, but there is widespread doubt that packard plant will ever be more than it is now. what an incredible, incredible story. here with us now, democratic strategist, president of d 2 strategies, debbie dingell and detroit city council president saunteel jenkins. really good to have you both with us. >> you've been saying for years -- >> come to detroit. >> we're here. >> we've always come to detroit, but we haven't brought like cameras and crew and everybody. >> great to have you here not bashing detroit but understand the good things that are happening. >> what a wonderful excuse to come today. >> it's exciting. >> we wehere we're importing joo detroit from mexico. $550 million commitment by ford. what's it mean? >> we are excited in this

neighborhood because it means jobs, not only jobs for the workers in these plants but means jobs for the communities that we're in and the suppliers and local restaurants that will feed people. detroit is coming back. detroit being a larger word, metropolitan detroit the region, we've made tough changes and this is an exciting day showing what happens when everybody works together. >> debbie, these jobs have come at some cost in the sense that the workers are being hired today, are being paid less than the workers they're replacing. but i guess in the modern world, a job is a job and even if it's paying a good bit less -- >> that's one of the challenges we have to talk about, steve, when you talk about is a job a job. the disparity is growing. >> exactly. >> the income disparity is getting bigger and something we all need to worry about. the fact of the matter is the uaw came to the table and did make concessions because they did want to see the companies succeed. out in the streets you are seeing the workers at mcdonald's and wendy's -- who are barely

making a living. >> it's ridiculous. they're not making a living. it's not sugar coat it. >> these are people that want to work. >> saunteel your' obviously on the ground here and let's not sugar coat anything. what are the challenges you face? >> well, the challenges, is we need more jobs like the jobs coming back from mexico. it's wonderful for business but also our tax base. the city can't provide services without taxes. >> you do have -- >> jobs -- >> you have companies making investments and it's exciting. they're big announcements and shouldn't be made anything less of, but what are some of the other things that need to fall into place for the community to make the impact actually happen. >> blythe removal. the packard plant is a huge example of what's going on in smaller places all over the city. we have abandoned homes and buildings and working towards removing that blight. we launched a $52 million effort

to tear down homes all over the city this week. we need to improve our public safety and our police chief is working really hard on that. getting more police officers on the streets so people feel safe in their homes. our educational system, we're working towards improving that so families, not only young people moving here wihich they are, once they start raising their families we need them to stay here. a part of that is having a good educational system. we're moving towards those things. >> what's the number of investment? we were in mackinaw. somebody told me billions were being invested in downtown detroit. is that right? >> there are a lot of people investing in downtown detroit. we have a tremendous philanthropic community, tremendous business community, and business government, labor, philanthropic community have to work together to bring detroit back. i'll tell you one of the things that bothers me. this isn't -- detroit's filed for bankruptcy right now. do not think that the urban cities across the country aren't

in the same shape that detroit is. >> they are. and that's what we said off the top of the show. we're here in detroit for a lot of reasons. one, you've been bugging me for years to bring the show to detroit right here. >> really. >> that's reason number one. reason number two is, because the challenges of detroit faces are the challenge that america faces. >> that's right. >> that's correct. >> just came to detroit first. it's going to come to the rest of us. detroit, we believe, is going to be a role model for other cities about how to get out of the crisis that they're in. >> that's right. >> the question detroit faces is whether it has the resources to get out by itself, given the magnitude of the liabilities, given the years of frankly mismanagement, given the debts that have piled up, the abandoned buildings. you talk about blight removal. the amount of blight is vastly greater than what they've been able to allocate to do it. the question is, can detroit do this on self-help, which is what the program is now, or does it need help from lancing and washington in order to get this done.

>> it needs help, yeah. >> it's not -- nobody is asking for bailout. that's where, you know, everybody immediately goes. when new york city had problems everybody wanted to rush to help it. we need to work together. what are the existing programs that are there that can help the city. >> yeah. and i agree. i think we absolutely need help, but again, it's not a bailout. and all of the other -- when d.c. went through receivership, when new york went through this, they all got help. >> right. >> nobody saw that as a handout or bailout. detroit is a major city in america and we have a major role to play in the economy of america. >> debbie dingell and city council president saunteel jenkins thank you very much. >> thank you. >> we appreciate it and thank you. >> thank you for being in detroit. >> coming up next on "morning joe." >> on many occasions i met with people and they told me they don't have much money but the money they have is spent on their family and the lions. >> the lions open up about

playing for the city of detroit, that's next in sports. still ahead, he left his job as one of washington's top bankruptcy lawyers to manage detroit's finances. detroit emergency manager kevyn orr will join us right here. "morning joe" live from the motor city, we'll be right back. hi, i'm karissa. hi, i'm sherri. and i'm going to show sherri how collecting box tops for education earns cash for our school by shopping at walmart. come on. sherri, look at all these products that you can buy for your family with box tops. and look, four box tops in one box. that's awesome! more cash for our school. only at walmart you get 4 box tops on over 100 items. karissa i got it and you only had to tell me four times. find 4 box tops on your family favorites like general mills cereals and nature valley granola bars backed by our low price guarantee. i tthan probablycare moreanyone else.and we've had this farm for 30 years.

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you are optimistic that a football team can make a difference. tell me why. >> because i've seen it happen before. the most recent one ta stathat stands out in my mind was new orleans and what they did when they won a super bowl. katrina hit that city so hard and football became a way for people to escape reality. >> after hurricane katrina we were able to kind of lift the city up, so to speak, you know, in the way we play football and winning the games and winning the super bowl obviously made a big difference, but also just being involved in the community. >> on many occasions i've met with people and they told me that, you know, they don't have muchp money, but the money they have is spent, one, on their family and two on the lions. as long as i can give people something to smile about on game day, especially here in michigan, that means it's all worth it. >> really good.

>> take a live look at comerica park where the detroit tigers play. they actually got smoked by the a's last night. mr. barnicle was in attendance. >> you went? >> i went, yeah. >> of course he went. >> for four innings. >> sports doesn't necessarily create a lot of jobs but it can lift a city's spirits as we did see with the saints and detroit is a four sport town. sports are a big deal in the culture. >> mike is a huge deal in the detroit sports culture owner of the red wings and tigers. it's amazing, joe, how people take so much pride in their teams here and how the teams themselves play into the spirit, play too the city. >> isn't it great. >> yeah. >> i've always loved the tigers because they are such an integral part of this city. you know what else is important, mika. >> what's important? >> for cities and sports, integrity. >> yes. >> you have to have integrity and if there are rules you have to live by them. >> play by the rules. >> and if you break those rules. >> you don't break the rules.

>> but if you break those rules. >> you don't. >> you have to be punished. i can tell you what punishment is and i can tell you what punishment is to thnot. >> i'll go with the is not. punishment is not, brian shactman. >> one half against rice. >> being kept out of the game for one half against the rice owls. come on! what a joke. at least for three quarters on -- what whatever came on september 14th. >> which would be alabama. >> looks like my parents -- >> first half of a&m seasoner against rice this saturday. >> against rice, seriously. >> listen, they're a division 1 a football team. the ncaa released a statement saying the suspension is because manziel did not take the proper steps to ensure someone doesn't profit off his name. investigators say there is no evidence that manziel was paid for autographs. >> they got it on tape. >> why do anything?

>> they got it on tape. >> why are you yelling at me? >> why not. >> seems like the thing to do. the lead is, there's a bigger joke organization in the country than the ncaa. we don't know what it is. >> seriously, mike, you punish or don't punish them. >> absolutely. >> this is like syria -- >> don't just lob missiles over there just to make a statement. >> it's not, joe. that's creepy. >> stop sending me off the segments when you punish me. >> ask anybody in the white house. >> johnny manziel, talking about sports, uplifting ace justin verlander using $1 million of his own money. >> yes. >> to launch a charitable venture called the wins and warriors initiative. will support the mental health and emotional well being of veterans from iraq. >> what a guy. >> incredible. >> for people in detroit, richmond and norfolk. verlander grew up in richmond, went to college at old dominion in norfolk and plays with the detroit tigers. >> good guy. >> and it's -- he's going to be talking to us. >> still ahead on our special

edition of "morning joe," live from detroit, we'll be joined by tigers' pitcher justin verlander later in the show. also ahead, detroit isn't only known for its cars. we visited the motown museum to get a taste of the city's music history. up next, he calls himself a businessman with a badge and he's running for mayor of detroit. sheriff benny napoleon joins us next on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] this is jim,

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sheriff of wayne county, michigan, democratic mayor for detroit, benny napoleon. very good to have you on the show. >> good morning. >> nice to see you this morning, sir. >> sheriff, great to see you. >> businessman with a badge. >> we got an ongoing problem here in detroit where, you know, a lot of people have been talking about jobs being exported overseas, a lot of people are talking about outsourcing, a lot of people talking about ceo mistakes on and on. but detroit's had a lot of self-inflicted wounds from government corruption. how is that going to change? >> well certainly i've been in law enforcement for my entire career. corruption is something that i know is unacceptable in government and certainly as mayor of the city of detroit, i will make sure that everyone understands that we're going to have a clean and open and transparent city government. so we just have to set the tone from the top. sn> >>. >> mr. napoleon, you go around

detroit and talk to people and it seems in addition to the restoration of services that are badly needed in the city, education, police, fire, things like that, the basics, that what a lot of people seem to need is a cheerleader and pep talk and someone that can instill the spirit detroit is not dead, that it is coming back and can come back. what's your message of inspiration, if any, that you have for the voters of detroit? >> well, we have an opportunity to unlock a new future for the city of detroit at this point. we need an achievement-driven culture here in this community. the city of detroit is not dead by any stretch of the imagination. these bones shall rise, i assure you of that. we need to make sure where we have been is not where we're going. we need to document and lay out that future with a vision that people understand. people in this city are very determined, they're very resilient and we believe and we know that city will come back. >> steve ratner?

>> so when i look at the numbers as a finance guy, i see a lot of what you're talking about and a lot of the hopeful signs, but i also see a difficult financial picture and a real question as to whether detroit has the resources, the sheer financial resources, to rebuild. look at the houses that need to be torn down. we saw the packard plant before. we need investment in new businesses. where's that money going to come from? it doesn't seem to be in the city's means to do a lot of what everybody knows has to be done. >> well, certainly we believe that we have the resources to do it. we just have to take a strategic review of our city budget and make sure we focus on doing those things that are important to the public health, safety and well fare. getting rid of blight is essential to the public safety and welfare. we have to focus on things that must be done, some things we need to get help and some things as a community we have to

recognize we won't be able to do them. i am confident we have the resolve to get this done in the city of detroit and will rebound from where we are. >> mr. napoleon, you were born and raised in detroit and you're familiar with the neighborhoods and the families that live here. as mayor and you begin this process of justification, how do you go about putting in policies that protect the families that have stuck with you so they're not forced out as the city grows. >> one of the things i have is a neighborhood focused campaign. i am standing here in the middle of downtown detroit and when i was a young beat cop 19, 38 years ago, you could have a fired a cannon in downtown detroit then. now it's a thriving economic hemisphere that is fantastic. i haven't seen it like this since i can remember as a young child. but that has been part of the problem. we can't do the things that have led us to this point. we need to focus on our

neighborhoods because that's where the issue remain. the high crime rate is in the neighborhoods. the poor education for our children is in the neighborhoods. the blight and devastation it is in the neighborhoods. we need to focus all our efforts on making the city of detroit neighborhood friendly, livable, walkable and sustainable and that begins with every single neighborhood in this community. >> yep. >> all right. sheriff benny napoleon, thank you very much. best of luck to you. >> coming up, the future of ford, how 3d printing is revolutionizing the way cars are made. we got a firsthand look at the process. up next, it's one of the most popular tourist spots in the city. we'll get a slice of detroit culture at the motown museum. right back with a special edition of "morning joe." rebecca: whe renewal notice. by about $110 a month. roll the dice. care act was passed, company to go down by about $60 a month. little guy rebecca: the law works.

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you know, we've been talking about detroit and its export to the world and obviously detroit's export to the world, the business community, has always been cars, but culturally, no city has had a greater impact on the development of music than detroit, the motown sound is

synonymous with the motor city. we wanted to check out the evolution of one of the greatest exports that this city has had and we wanted to get the best music expert known. >> well. >> to america to do that. >> now you're exaggerating. we hasn't available. casey case m couldn't do it. asked my younger son -- >> we asked someone on the street. >> saw a guy on the street last night. >> on a bicycle. >> looked kind of sad. i thought he could use, you know -- >> he didn't want to do it. >> he couldn't do it. so that left us with lewis bergdorf. >> it's the next best thing. >> right. >> not really. >> the next and next. >> i wanted to go to one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city. i went to studio a in hitsville usa, home of the motown sound. take a look. >> reporter: manufacturing may be the heart of detroit, but motown is its soul.

producer berry gordy with $800 and a dream created an empire that changed music forever. the jackson five. ♪ oh, baby give me one more chance ♪ >> reporter: the supremes. ♪ stop in the name of love >> reporter: the miracles. and stevie wonder. all among the legendary acts responsible for the motown sound. i went back to where it all began. >> i'm alan and you're here at the motown museum in studio a at hitsville usa. >> reporter: unchanged since the 1950s, studio a is guaranteed to transport you to a historic moment in time. >> every place you lay your eyes it's part of history. ♪ you knew before two of a kind ♪ >> wherever a detroiter goes, they still talk about motown.

we all feel a sense of pride about what we've accomplished here. ♪ i heard it through the grape vine ♪ ♪ calling out around the world >> when i came in this door, i felt some magic and i knew that this is a place i wanted to be. you could see where in the studio a, where the tile is off the floor from the musicians and the producers keeping that steady beat. it's a heartbeat. it's like the sound of young america. that's what berry gordy referred to it as. this is where it was created. i've got a lot of sweat and blood and tears in this building. standing at these microphones. the pulse has been very, very strong for the love of music right here in this building, in this studio a motown. my town. my home. >> wow. >> that museum was unchanged

since the 1950s. it was an incredible experience, joe and mika. i highly recommend going there. and when you're in a shelby convertible you got to crank motown tunes. just necessary. >> you know, he actually -- >> look at that shot. >> he looks -- actually looks less motown and more "saturday night fever". >> agree to disagree. >> okay. travolta, thanks so much. >> that was great, lewis. thanks so much. >> look at him in that car. >> that is an extraordinary story and you had told me that studio a is just -- it's not that big, you know, but the history that came out of there, unbelievable. >> it is unbelievable. thank you. >> t.j. won't go back to the shot because he doesn't trust lewis. >> it's so annoying. >> never know what i might do. >> coming up next how ford is using new technology to change the way it makes cars. brian gets a firsthand look at 3d printing. billionaire entrepreneur owner of the cleveland cavs and

detroit native dan gilbert with us. first how ford is using innovation to bring jobs back to detroit. we'll talk to executive vice president mark fields next on a special edition of "morning joe." we're here at the university of colorado with master griller and pro-tailgater, matt connor who's secretly serving steaks from walmart. it's a steak over! dude, it's so good. it's juicy. it's nice and tender. only one in five steaks is good enough to be called walmart choice premium steak. all these steaks are from walmart.

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unlimited talk and text on smart phones. now, everyone's in the spirit of sharing. hey, can i borrow your boat this weekend? no. [ male announcer ] share more. save more. at&t mobile share for business. ♪ detroit has fallen on such hard times, the city is filing for bankruptcy, become the largest u.s. city to do so. >> it was a thriving city. obviously the auto industry was

running the world in the '50s after the second world war when there was no competition, so they got used to. >> owing more than 18 billion in debt porter city filed for bankruptcy. >> once the heart of the nation's industrial revolution it has fall noon financial ruin after a long, slow decline. the city filed for chapter 9. >> no city as big as detroit that's filed for bankruptcy. what happened here. >> this is a very emotional for not just detroit but for the country. >>. >> how exciting is that s. >> welcome back to "morning joe" from the ford assembly plant just outside of detroit. michael barnicle, steve ratner and michael steele with us, and joi joing us now is mark fields. >> welcome. >> ford is bringing production back to detroit adding 1400 jobs for the cars that you see going down the assembly line behind us. the ford fusion. that's a big story of the day.

>> mark, i've told you the story, we won't get into the specifics. you come on "morning joe," back when ford is at one. >> yes. >> mika hears what's happening at ford -- >> let's stop now. >> she doesn't buy a lot of stock but said i'm going to invest in my kids' education because she believed, of course, the stock is just so many times since then and great things happening for the company too. this is amazing. $550 million investment and as an american, how exciting. we are importing jobs from mexico to detroit. that's big. >> congratulations. >> it's all part of our plan. i think this is another example of our plan delivering growth not only for our company but to be able to provide jobs, 1400 employees. >> how do you do it? >> simply, we decided to focus on ford, decided to focus on the customer, give them compelling

products and confront the realities of our business. we're prospering, we're serving more customers, and we're seeing 1400 folks and their families smiling this morning. >> what ares the realties of the business you guys had to face down that other companies didn't face down in time some. >> at the sometime, we htime we of brand haand focus on ford. clearly we had overcapacity. we needed to deal with that. >> when you say focus on ford, for people that don't follow the company, you had some offshoots of ford and decided -- >> we had a number of brands and so we had to focus a lot of time not only on ford but the other brands. we decided just to sell off those brands to appropriate buyers and we focused on ford and lincoln and every day the folks that walk through the doors of ford are focusing on those two brands. all with making sure the cars

were the best quality and fuel efficient. >> there are realities to making this a success and questions along the way about how you did it. what concessions has everybody had to make to make this work? >> as you stand today, a lot of -- ford is prospering, our people are prospering, but clearly as we went through looking at the business, we did have to say good-bye to a lot of people in the ford family. we wanted to treat people with respect as we did that. we had to size the business appropriately. and we had to focus on developing great world-class products and to do that we had to focus and make the size of the business right and work with our dealers and other partners. >> you had to weather a real re-set in the company? >> well, i think what we really did as a company, again, we focused on what was important for success going forward. we confronted the reality. we didn't shy away from it. as we did that, we treated everybody with respect with a lot of transparency of looking

at the data and the reality and then dealing with that in a positive way and coming together and working on the problem and not denying it. >> steve ratner? >> you guys, obviously, did an extraordinary job. you avoided bankruptcy which some of your others didn't through at love things we're talking about. talk about all the things you had to do, one piece, of course, was reaching a better arrangement with the uaw and workers both on work practices and also on entry-level pay for your so-called tier 2 workers. so talk about how you see those tier 2 workers eventually getting to a more of a middle-class wage from the kind of starting wage that they're at now? >> well, clearly the agreements we came with through the uaw, we shared open book with our uaw colleagues, what the status of the company was. and it wasn't because we just did it at the time that we had some issues. we've had an open book approach with them every day. we just don't talk with our uaw colleagues when we have issue.

that transparency allowed us to focus on the issues. they've worked with us. we agreed with the last contract for entry-level wage workers which is a good wage. it allows some workers to grow in over time. the bottom line from our standpoint and the uaw standpoint, we've added jobs and this year alone we paid record-breaking profit sharing checks to all of our workers, whether they're entry-level wage or folks that have been here before. and so working together, we've shown that we can be successful as an enterprise and reward people and reward all of our stakeholders. >> brian shactman, you have a little hands on experience when it comes to how ford is improving their manufacturing process by using new technologies, brian? >> that's right, mika. 3d printing everyone wants to know what relevance does it have to our world? well ford can literally take a part made through a 3d printer, put in a real engine on a car, and drive it right off as if it was the actual part. i got an exclusive firsthand

look at the actual process. ♪ >> in this process, we're able to supply an engineer with parts he can do real-world testing on and do that in a compressed time. >> you feel confident this makes ford more competitive or innovative? >> it helps us with the innovation side and it helps us with the quality and. >> this is good because it cuts down the time you can get a real part the way it would be in a manufacturing process in to test. >> we can get a casting that's a production representative casting without any tooling investment. doing it in as little as a week. >> what would it be if you didn't have this? >> 16 weeks. >> 16 weeks in a traditional process and one week in this process and that's 15 weeks you can be working on other stuff. give me gloves, doctor. this is a printout made by the machine in sand.

>> you're not going to hurt it. >> just like sand. >> you literally get an e-mail and you can convert that into a real product that works? >> right. the engineer will design this part, send it to us in an e-mail. this machine will spread a thin layer of nylon powder, bring it below melting, laser will come in and melt the part together layer by layer by layer. >> whatever is going to be made from this nylon powder will work? >> go under your hood, bolt it right on, run it down the road. >> how long does the process take for the part we're looking at now? >> about a 10 hour bill. >> months down to ten hours? >> right. >> todd? let's do it. ♪ >> let's see how this 3d printer

part really works. >> geez. i think it works. i got some skid marks. that's awesome. i never realized how conservative a driver i am until i sit in that car. the compression of time, i want to explain why it's so important if they're in research and development and developing a new product they can try it out without having to wait so long. historically they need to send that part out, get it made somewhere and test it. they can shrink that time and a concept car we seen an auto show that looks cool, instead of five years off maybe now two years off and can get more products in their portfolio quicker. >> there you go. >> brian shactman, thank you very much. >> thank you, brian. >> that is incredible. >> that's fascinating watching that. obviously cars are not built the way we think of in the past off the assembly line. what role in terms of retaining workers or retraining workers in terms of technology, how do you do it?

>> well, first off, as it comes to innovation and technology, we're a company these days that always ask the question why. how can we do things better, faster, more efficiently? and then as we get those answers as you saw there with our 3d printing and ability to have those prototype parts quickly we work with our work es and put them through a rigorous and disciplined set of training to give them the skills so that they can be productive not only on the line, but also for them to develop and have great careers at ford on the line here and continuously learn. >> mark, you're bringing jobs back to detroit. you're bringing innovation to the field. how do you see ford positioning itself to stay the leader, stay out in front, push the rest of the industry quite frankly to catch up and to be as innovative and creative and get the idea that it's good to invest in america this way. >> well, first off, the way we're driving the company forward. first we're always looking at the business environment and looking at consumers and asking, what do consumers want, what's

going on in the business environment and always something going on. so it's a wonderful reminder for us that we have to keep the pedal to the medal in terms of bringing the business forward and not relaxing and saying we can take a break. that's not the case in this business. the way we run the business today is so different than we have in the past in looking at that business environment around the world every day. and here in detroit, it's just all about delivering compelling products, working with our uaw colleagues. we could have expanded our plant in mexico where we currently make the fusion, but we worked with our uaw colleagues about being competitive and here we are today, added 1400 jobs. it's great for the community and we'll be able to serve more customers. >> exciting. >> mark fields, thank you very much. >> joe wants to know if he can ride on that thing. >> we've been asking. we're going to let you ride off the assembly line at the end of the show. >> taking one of those green vests. >> i need one of those. >> still ahead -- thank you,

mark. great to see you. >> still ahead, ford president and ceo alan mullally will be here with us at the ford factory outside detroit, michigan. tigers ace justin verlander will join us. first, the man with perhaps the toughest job in detroit, city emergency manager kevyn orr will be here to give us the latest on the bankruptcy situation. we'll also be joined by our business round table of detroit business leaders. you're watching "morning joe" live from the motor city. we'll be right back. ♪ nascar is ab.out excitement but tracking all the action and hearing everything from our marketing partners, the media and millions of fans on social media can be a challenge. that's why we partnered with hp to build the new nascar fan and media engagement center. hp's technology helps us turn millions of tweets, posts and stories into real-time business insights

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jooz here with us now from detroit, detroit emergency manager kevyn orr. good to have you on board this morning for this important day in detroit. >> you've said something that i think is fascinating. you say your biggest challenge

isn't the bankruptcy, how to get out of it. your biggest challenge is actually changing people's mindset, they've gotten used to the abnormal, they've gotten used to the city like this that you have to change the way a lot of residents here think. tell us about that. >> joe, it's not so much changing the way the residents think. i think most residents are positive and ready for change, for the city to move forward. what we're saying is the way the city operates in terms of forward lean and we have restructuring, city operations and legacy issues, that is our strategy, and what we want to do when we leave the city some 13, 14 months from now, leave them with better operations that are functional so the city can thrive and grow. >> and how do you grow the businesses and the suburbs where 95% of the residents live? >> well you know, we have

700,000 residents in the city, and we're in the heart of downtown. if you went up woodward you would see a number of new developments, loft housing, office buildings, other developments, the new arena, so the city center, the central business district, is really coming back hard. the issue that we have is how do we move some of this development and progress out to the neighborhoods and we're trying do that with, for instance, detroit future cities plan and an effort that mayor bing sheparded during the early part of his administration to build on that, so the rank and file if you will in the city, see some of the progress and development as well. >> steve ratner? >> kevyn, i don't think any of us that watched you have any doubt to your commitment to what you're doing, the enthusiasm among a group of people around you for what you're doing and a desire on the part of detroit to come back. my question really is whether you have the tools you need to come back? when you look at the city and the drop in population over the last 50 years, down to that

700,000 figure you talk about, when you look at the persistent city deficits, look the at $18 billion of liabilities that have to be dealt with, and, of course, in this bankruptcy where everybody has their hand out saying i don't want to be the one to sacrifice, it isn't completely obvious to those of us who love detroit and want it to succeed that you have all the financial resources you need to make this work. >> steve, thanks so much for that question. in fact, i've been watching some of your commentary on some additional help we can get and we do, i'll tell you why. right now downtown, we're about 97% leased. if you wanted to live in downtown detroit you'll have to work -- wait until some of the development is finished here. but what we're also looking at specifically to your question is, you know, detroit gets about $300 million which is about a third of our billion dollar budget a year in federal grants, through 71 programs. what we want to do with those programs is try to make sure they're operating, try to make sure the technical assistance is

consistent so they can do better and solicit and apply for more federal programs and help so the city can continue to meet its obligations and we can grow. part of our proposal we put out on june 14th is to spend $1.25 billion over the next ten years, about $125 million a year, which is quite frankly somewhat modest but necessary to have reinvestment, have light remediation, have public safety and health that is for police and fire upgrades, so that the city becomes more attractive for people to live in and to move back in. we're seeing that particularly with some of the younger people. >> but to be able to spend that billion or $125 million a year, you have to get your restructuring plan done and everybody -- >> yes. >> not surprisingly who you've asked to sacrifice and has i don't think i'm the one that should be sacrificing, the other guy should be sacrificing. to what i've written about,

don't you think detroit needs significant, meaningful, direct financial help from the state of michigan and from washington to make this work? >> well, we've designed our plan without the expectation that we're going to get any help from either the state or federal government because we've been told detroit dug this hole and just as a matter of policy and good practices, we need to dig our way out of it. make no mistake about it. we'll take whatever help we can get, and, in fact, we've met with several representatives here on behalf of the city that have pointed us in the right direction, but we can't build our plan on the expectation or hope we're going to get some direct aid from any other source. we created this problem, we've got to work our way out of it. we have a plan to do that. we recognize that the philosophy, not in my backyard philosophy of some of our stakeholders and partners still exist and that's why we're having this discussion in the restructuring policy, now a bankruptcy, whereby we can hear their voice, we can address

their concerns, but we have to tell them look, there's just simply not enough of the pie to go around. everyone is going to have to make some sort of sacrifice. the real question is, what level and how is it divided? we propose a plan to do it. some people in opposition to it? >> kevyn orr, thank you so much. we wish you the best of luck in everything that you're trying to do. thanks for being on the show. >> thank you, kevyn. >> steve before we go to our business round table, i take it you might have a slightly different opinion about government help and state help? the expectation is they're going to try to do this themselves. what do you think? >> i think kinch framed it right. in the absence of any government help you have to try to do it on your own. my problem is when i read his very thoughtful restructuring plan and what he wants to do and then you also line that up with the fact that everybody being asked to make a sacrifice has basically said not me, i'm not sure the resources are there any more than i've used this example before, it's not a perfect

example, but when hurricane sandy devastated parts of the shores, we didn't expect these people to rebuild on their own. detroit has been devastated over 50 years. >> the blight here is -- >> a lot is self-inflicted but nonetheless the hole is very deep and i have doubts they can dig out on their own. >> amazing. joining us now for a business round table, president and ceo of detroit regional chamber of commerce, sandy -- the ceo of young based company, and executive and vice president and coo car heart linda hubbard. an exclusive club of american companies who are 100 years old and good to have you all on board this morning. >> thank you so much for being with us. what do we do? what's detroit's next step? we heard about all the problems, but where do we go from here? >> the first point of solving a pr problem is to solve the problem. we are huge fans of what kevyn orr is doing and to sieve's point, we need to eastern any

additional government helps. we need to take these steps on our own and tell the world detroit is open for business. the region is doing exceptionally well. businesses, you have been to michigan, businesses are doing incredibly well here. >> right. >> so linda, how do we move forward? how does detroit move forward to make a lot of changes that quite frankly they needed to make a long time ago, especially in terms of the government, policies and structure? >> joe, i think one of the things that i guess one of the qualities that we like to describe carhart products and some of our consumers say it's rugged, resilient and hard working and i think we want to subscribe those same qualities to the people of detroit and the city of detroit and really understand that those people are the ones that are going to reinvent the city. carhart is over 100 years old, 125 years next year, celebrating our anniversary, and a company doesn't last 125 years, a city

doesn't last centuries, without continuously reinventing itself. and i think that's the challenge for us. >> your company is focused on manufacturing, given what you produce. >> yes. >> so you want it to flourish, but detroit itself, how do you make it? how is a business component in this city, a make it a place that can flourish. >> we showed a chart, detroit is number one in manufacturing growth in 2012. >> i get that. but then you walk around detroit and you see blighted buildings everywhere, you see the many people have left, how does the business community help address that? >> well, i think one of the things that we're doing at carhart is supporting those organizations that are trying to rebuild the city. we actually give -- there's a lot of hard work, physical hard work, being done to rebuild the city, to tear down those blighted buildings. we actually give product to those organizations. we give financial support. we volunteer our associates volunteer their time to help blight busters tear down

buildings, help reclaim and make reusable land to help the empowerment project, attend to homeless people and offer them opportunities. so all of those are things that businesses can do to really give back to the community. >> excellent. >> and heath, obviously government policies, that have been shortsighted in the past, you got to move past that, right? >> we've got to have leaders that understand what it takes to grow this economy and not penalize success. >> yeah. i think that, you know, for us, the focus is on absolutely the future. you know, hope is not a strategy. but putting a strategy in place to increase that tax base, i think at shinola we're doing everything we can. today we have 75 full-time employees. those are 75 additional jobs in the city of detroit and it helps create a tax base. >> and why is the company based here? do we have detroit natives? michigan natives ? >> for us it was about manufacturing in the united

states and trying to find a city that had heritage and would welcome manufacturing. we came to detroit over two years ago. fell in love with the business community that's here. >> yeah. >> the business community fell in love with our idea and we thought what better place to make watches and the movements we call the engines for watches in detroit. >> boy, that's great. sandy, let's again talk about you're exactly right when you say, detroit's got to earn the help. >> right. >> how does detroit do that? how does a government do that if i keep hammering the government because there have been some policies that have been anti-business, that have been anti-growth. what -- you know, how does a business community lean on the elected leaders to make sure they have pro growth qualities that attract the type of investment you need? >> but those policies you're talking about that were very anti-business, anti-growth, are really no longer in place. you look at the state level, michigan is now seventh in the nation in terms of tax -- a

tax-friendly business structure and that has been huge. that's been a huge progress. the city itself, if there was any silver lining to the bankruptcies of some of the auto companies anyone that thought we were one great chevy or one great chrysler away from greatness, those people are gone. we know that we need a fundamentally new detroit and that's going to be a new michigan as well too. and what we're trying to do is we're trying to help with the fundamental problem of how does a city restructure itself. bankruptcy is just a first step. bankruptcy is fixing the financial books. we need to change how we do business. so we're working on process maps, working closely with kevyn orr's office to make sure we come out of bankruptcy with a new process and frankly a new product to sell just like a lot of the other companies did. >> sandy, heath, linda, thank you so much. >> we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> coming up, the unions put up a fight, challenging the city's historic bankruptcy filing. we're going to hear from two leaders of two of the largest unions straight ahead right here

on "morning joe." still ahead here, the pride of detroit, the lions gear up for the start of the nfl season. we'll talk to president tom lewand. back much with much more "morning joe." [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, we've always been on the forefront of innovation. when the world called for speed... ♪ ...when the world called for stealth... ♪ ...intelligence... endurance... affordability... adaptability... and when the world asked for the future. staying ahead in a constantly evolving world. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. that's the value of performance. hi, hi, i'm sherri. and i'm going to show sherri

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32 past the hour. a live look at motor city, detroit, michigan. today, fast food workers from across the united states are set to strike after almost a year-long campaign to raise wages in the service sector, this isn't the first protest by workers but it is expected to be one of the largest. thousands of workers are set to stage walkouts in 35 cities around the country, including detroit. as part of a push to get chains such as mcdonald's, taco bell and wendy's to increase their pay as they should. the striking workers are demanding the right to unionize. they also want at least $15 an hour in pay. more than double the current national minimum wage of $7.25. support them fully. absolutely. not even going to ask you a

question, steve ratner. all right. up next, we're going to talk to the head of the service union, ask him questions as well as the head of the auto workers union, mary kay henry and jimmy settles join the set. more "morning joe" live from the ford plant when we come back.

our members are proud to join with working people, faith leaders, community leaders, all across this country in joining our hands in a renewed commitment to bending the arc towards justice. and continuing the struggle to achieve racial quality and economic quality for all by delivering on the promise of the affordable care act, by

insisting that we prevail in winning common sense immigration reform now, and by joining together to create good jobs by supporting workers all across this country who have the guts to stand up join together and demand a living wage from their employers. >> exactly. that was mary kay henry, president of the service employees international union at yesterday's mlk's 35050th i hav dream celebration. she joins us along with vice president of the united auto workers jimmy settles. >> we should start with jimmy, but mary kay, you were a part of history. >> you're right. >> what was it like yesterday, as an american to be standing where dr. king stood 50 years ago. >> complete inspiration. really unbelievable and the view from the memorial, was

breathtaking. >> it had to be so moving. >> yes. >> such a moving day for so many people. >> yes, it was. >> so where do we stand? workers in ford, i saw as we were coming up, there's going to be a big announcement at 10:00, and it's not just the ford logo on that podium, it's ford and uaw, next to each other. you know, arms together as partners. talk about that. >> right. it's a great, great, great day as you know this is a vehicle that is made in mexico and as mr. fields said earlier, it's been a struggle for about ten years and we wanted to make certain that we build that vehicle here. we knew that they either had to expand in mexico or get another plant. we've been negotiating for the last 11 years and i'm proud to see it come to fruition today. >> what was the key for the corporate leaders and the unions to come together to make this

happen? >> well, i think some of it goes back to negotiations. we decided that the path we were taking together was not the correct path. we started to be more collaborative, started working together more, and this is the fruits of that, of the negotiations. >> it's great news. >> mary kay, you know what i want to ask you about. >> dear lord. we're going to the hamburg. >> we have the same dream with the fast food industry we can join hands and lift wages. >> mary kay, i need you to explain to this group, and explain to us why it's so difficult to give people who work hard for a living a salary, a wage, that they can maybe even just barely live on. i don't understand why this is difficult. steve tells me it's sim pfl math. >> hundreds of workers are striking today because they agree with you. >> why is this hard? >> when multinational corporations are earning billions of dollars in record

profits they ought to be able to invest a piece of that profit back into the people on the front lines helping make that profit happen in the same way auto jobs were bad jobs in the last century, service jobs need to be good jobs in this century. >> steve? >> can i come back to autos for second a. in terms of the concessions you had to make to get these jobs here, what categories do they fall into? are these mostly tier 2 workers working in this factory, meaning they get paid a bit less than the existing workers at other factories? >> no, it's a mixture. the majority are tier 2 workers. some have transferred from other locations. about ten years ago we had a big layoff at flat rock. as a matter of fact, 2011 negotiations, we were able to work it out. so workers did return. it's a mixture. mostly tier 2 employees. >> a mixture of pay and work

rules and you gave up a lot of all these different job classifications where people could only do certain jobs, became more flexible in the kind of labor you provided? >> yes. we've become very flexible. as a matter of fact, i was here last night and i was talking to some of the workers and the adjustments we have made over the last two or three contracts, our workers are really enjoyed. they are now self-supervised. they supervise themselves. >> do you feel the days of ac cri moweny between management and this industry which hurt this industry in the past, those days are completely behind us and it's now going to be a collaborative relationship. >> yes, i think -- i know so. we just went through, as you know, a bankruptcy. we didn't go through it at ford motor company. i think historically we found out we work very good during crisis but once we come out of a crisis we usually go back to our old ways. that is not true now.

we know that competition is worldwide and we have to work together. so i think those days are over. >> michael steele, the great news is, over the past couple of years, the uaw working with the car companies have put together deals that have brought 20,000 new jobs into this city, not just at ford, but the auto -- other automakers. i mean everybody's moving in the right direction. >> and i think that's -- >> for some. >> a key part of this is that collaborative relationship. you know, you said this was an 11-year process for management and laboratory get to the table. i want to shift that concept to hamburgers and the debate that we're -- and the energy that we're now seeing by workers in the service industry. >> right. >> the protests are one thing. what are the behind the screen conversations that you're having with management, with those multibillion dollar profit makers in trying to carve out that piece that you think is so

important? what's their response to their workers walking off the line, what's their response to your demand that, you know, you hike the minimum wage -- >> double it. >> double it? >> the workers are getting responses every time they return to work. sometimes a 50 cent raise, a 25 cent raise, because they are they important to the production of the work and there's no conversations happening with us about that, but the workers are telling the nation is that low wage service work is breaking a basic promise in america that when you work hard for a living, you ought to be able to make ends meet and not live if poverty and rely on public assistance. >> how does this play itself out if management is dealing with pockets of workers here and there, how does this impact the mcdonald's in -- >> this is a movement that's been spreading. it started in new york and today, 56 cities are joining

this movement, because more and more workers are wondering why am i earning $7.25, an average of $9,000 a year in the city of detroit? >> but a classic labor movement would be to organize these workers into unions, and go on strike, and ask for higher wages. that's the american way. and have a discussion. so far it's been more demonstrations than organizing of these -- >> these are not protests or demonstrations. these are actual strikes. people are giving up wages today, which is a radical action. people don't want to do this, but they have no other choice. >> for one day. >> they're taking initiatives to try and make things better. but i would submit, steve, one day strike for a worker that's earning $9,000 a year and cannot make ends meet and is choosing between food and housing, is an incredible sacrifice and they're standing up for all of us. one in four jobs are these jobs and we're headed to 48% of our economy being these jobs. and it's wrong.

when you work hard, you ought to be able to feed your family and not live in poverty. >> work is supposed to take you out of poverty. >> exactly. >> it's pretty simple. >> exactly. >> i wish you the best of luck with this. let us know if i can help you in any way. joe's keeping me from protesting but i'm going to. i'm going to protest. >> you should. >> thank you. >> that's the american way. >> mary kay, thank you so much. >> that is the american way. >> greatly appreciate it. >> are you coming to new york? >> yes. >> congratulations. things are moving in the great direction. >> it is good. >> still ahead -- he flashed his big smile at me from over there. ford president and ceo alan mullally will stop by the plant if just a bit. standing by. detroit tigers pitcher justin verlander will join us. up next the president of the detroit lions joins us on set. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. >> on many occasions i've met with people and they told me that, you know, they don't have much money, but the money they do have is spent one on their family, and two, on the lions.

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pride. >> from the off season. >> to the final whistle. >> i promise. >> to do everything i can. >> to bring honor. >> to the blue and to the silver. >> and to the community of detroit. >> through every play. >> and every game. >> my effort will never waiver. >> my attitude will remain strong. >> one team. >> one team. >> one team. >> one team. >> one detroit. >> one detroit. >> one detroit. >> one detroit. >> one team. >> one detroit. >> this season, the detroit lions renewing their commitment to the city of detroit. joining us now on set, tom lewand. >> there are some cities that are sport cities, where the city lifts up the sports teams and the sports teams do the same. philly's that way. boston. man, detroit, unbelievable history here between the red wings and the lions and -- goes

on and on. >>cy gri grew up a red wings fa. to see what our sports teams do for our city and what we can do -- what our teams can do for the city is special. especially now with the kind of tough times. there is an opportunity for us to be a catalyst in a way that i think other industries can't. especially with our ownership. obviously owned by the ford family. and the nexus that they provide between what's going on in the business community, what's going on in the sports world and what's going on in our overall community especially. >> it's kind of your turn, right? >> it's been our turn for a while. >> yeah, yeah, right, phil, you look at the detroit tigers too -- >> it's amazing, i think at a time when detroit is having such a tough time, to have something going on like with cabrera or your own calvin johnson, these national players are so big, how does that impact the city, play

here? >> i think it gives us a sense of pride. we're a hard-working community. when you see guys succeed who are hard workers. and some of our best players are also our hardest workers. i think that lifts up everybody. it also gives us a further sense of identity as a city. we're a blue collar city and have some blue collar athletes who happen to be doing some really special things. >> basically, you're saying the city inspires you, rather than the city's problems kind of feeling like a drag? >> i think you're right, steve -- >> you brought up new orleans, by the way, after katrina. >> i think there is a parallel. i don't mean to compare the tragedy of human life in katrina, but reggie bush is now our new running back. >> how's he going to do? >> really well, get him on your fantasy team. >> that whole kardashian thing -- >> it's interesting, reggie is a

blue collar guy. he came here and talked about what the saints did in new orleans during katrina and saw that parallel here. i think there is an opportunity. look, when there are tough times, one of two ways. you either lean in and fight or run away. we're fighters. we think we can do that and help the community get behind the kind of energy they need to to help us turn around. >> you're looking at this upcoming season. you've got reggie bush. you've got still some issues -- >> stafford, a great quarterback. >> smart quarterback, he's on my list. so how do you see this thing completing itself in terms of all those pieces? you've got detroit as the drama of the city behind you. you've got the opportunity to really kind of create a new brand with new players. how do you feel going into this season totally looking at the package, the city, the team, coming together as one unit? as we saw, for example, in new orleans. >> we feel great about it. we know we got a lot of work to do. there's a preseason game tonight in buffalo. they'll round out our preseason.

we open against the vikings a week from sunday. it's a lot of work. a lot of execution. as a team, all those individual players are great. if they don't function as a team, we don't have a chance. >> the truth is, windows are short in the nfl. right now, you have players in their prime. to be honest here how big is this window for you? >> the window's now. we need to take advantage of it now. there's no five-year plans in the nfl. we need to win today. and that's what the focus is. we got better in this off season. we got a lot of young players who are hitting their prime, as you said, and the chance is this year. >> my agent and your son, jackson, he's got a few lions on his fantasy team. he's a sports freak. >> it's an amazing thing. this era. if you're under 30, it's almost like you don't identify with a team, you identify with players all over the country. that's why it's so important -- it's fantasy and it's also because you have access through "sportscenter" or thenetworks,

different thing. my son wears a calvin johnson t-shirt and michael vick t-shirt. >> and a joe scarborough t-shirt. >> because he's my agent. he and ari work together very well. >> with the lions and tigers together here, the tigers having such a great season, the lions be there, cabrera -- >> the great tigers pitch was out at practice the other day. calvin johnson took batting practice with the tigers a little while back. they're right across the street from us downtown. we're huge tiger fans. >> mr. cabrera going to win the triple crown -- >> i like his chances. >> we got to shut him down. the president of the detroit lions, tom lewand, thank you. >> talk about hard work, you know, blue collar ethic, but it was harold ford's good friend at university of michigan, i'm just wondering, i don't know, those two, they go together.

harold's probably golfing somewhere right now. at michigan together? >> at michigan, yep. >> dangerous duo right there. >> i went to school with the great ford jr., now i work for a great ford jr. >> i love it. coming up, we'll talk with the owner of the cleveland cavs. he's a detroit native. he's made a huge investment in the city of detroit. unbelievably important. also, ford president and ceo alan mullaly right there with cnbc's phil lebeau. and why generations continue to send their kids to work here at the plants and why the auto industry means so much to the city of detroit. >> more "morning joe" live from the motor city, we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, we know in the cyber world, threats are always evolving. at first, we were protecting networks. then, we were protecting the transfer of data.

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if all of us are doing our part, then this restructuring, as painful as it will be in the short term, will mark not an end but a new beginning for a great american industry. an auto industry that is once more outcompeting the world. a 21st century auto industry that is creating new jobs, unleashing new prosperity and manufacturing the fuel efficient cars and trucks that will carry us towards an energy independent future. i am absolutely committed to working with congress and the auto companies to meet one goal,

the united states of america will lead the world in building the next generation of clean cars. >> welcome back to "morning joe." live this morning from the ford flat rock assembly plan in flat rock, michigan, just outside detroit, steve rattner, michael steele still with us. joining us now, the president and ceo of ford motor company, alan mulally, and cnbc's auto reporter phil lebeau. ford is bringing jobs back to detroit. with the ford fusion, it's great news, big announcement. >> it is big news. how big is this for ford, alan? >> it's really big, because clearly our plan from the start seven years ago was to have a complete family of vehicles in the fusion, absolutely delivering on the promise. also with the uaw. we made a commitment. we would make vehicles here in the united states. so the fusion now is the first time the fusion is now made in the united states.

so this is really a big deal for all of us. >> you know, you came from outside detroit. you know you read the reckoning. we always talked about the classic on detroit, "the reckoning." detroit was such an insular culture. yet ford had the vision to go outside that echo chamber and bring you in. when you came in, how much of a cultural shock was it not only for you but for the people that you were working with? >> well, i think it really was. and i was very fortunate to have a great partnership with bill ford. i'll never forget when he called me, you know, i had the honor to serve at boeing for 37 years and contribute to every boeing airplane. and then he called and said they were in trouble and asked me if i would join him. i just have never had more fun serving a american global icon. i can remember one of the press conferences. the journalist said, we're in

trouble here, and you're an airplane guy, not a car guy. he said, cars are very complicated. i remember saying, absolutely, they have around 10,000 part, the engineering, manufacturing. i might point out, 777 has 4 million parts and it stays in the air. the next day, the headlines, i think we got the right guy. >> but, phil, explain to people watching just what a radical move it was for ford to go to a boeing guy to save, really, the american institution that shaped the 20th century. >> very radical. if you go back over the history of the big three, always they were promoting from within. when they went outside of ford to bring in alan, the first thing i heard from people in detroit is, well, does he understand the auto business? as steve can attest, you not only understood the auto business but, more importantly, you understood manufacturing and could competing globally. that's the biggest strength you notice, ford is competing globally. you go back to the mid-'90s, the

"f" series dominated. but it was not competitive with the foreign automakers and that's changed. >> let's go around. you've got a ford f-150. >> 1993. >> now we're talking. >> a real man's truck. >> steve. >> have to one up here. >> two ford trucks, one ford explorer. maybe one other. i have to think about that for a second. >> you're mitt romney. >> but i don't have any cadillacs. >> you don't. what year are your trucks? >> one's about two years old and one's about six years old. >> we can help with that. >> they can help. >> so talk about how important this move is. i mean, what a radical concept. we're actually importing jobs from mexico. to detroit. that's not just really just ford. that may be a trend. i heard our good friend jeff immelt saying this whole outsourcing trend, it may not

have been the bargain we thought it was a decade ago. like this could be the future, right? >> i think it absolutely is. i go back to where we all started seven years ago. and steve was right in the middle of all this. what we really were deciding was how do we create an exciting company that was competitive with the best in the world. and everything we've done on free trade agreements and on our cost structure has allowed us now to compete with the very best companies in the world. so this is such a big point for manufacturing in the united states. manufacturing in the car business is nearly 12% of the gdp. two-thirds of all research and development is associated with manufacturing. so this is a really important day for all of us here. >> steve. >> so one of the interesting things of course is that general motors, chrysler, went into bankruptcy. you didn't. you guys were facing exactly the same set facts, same uaw, same oil price, same japanese, same credit crisis.

how did you guys avoid it, what they had to go through? >> well, you know, clearly, steve, you know this well, we decided nearly seven years ago that we needed to take very dramatic action on a different plan. we came together around henry ford's original vision of opening the hallways to all mankind. we committed that every new vehicle be the best in class in quality, fuel efficiency. we also took a small home improvement loan out. a lot of people thought we were crazy. not only did we restructure the business, but we actuallyn. everybody pulled together. and now we are creating value for everybody associated with ford. which is fantastic. >> phil and alan, stand by. we want to go to brian schachtman. more than 3,000 ford employees now work at this plant. brian, you had a chance to speak to some of them and hear their stories. >> it's funny, we all know that ford is an iconic american brand. i've spent a lot of time in this plant. a couple days now. there's a pride.

there's a pride in making the mustang here. interestingly enough, there's a renewed pride in just working in the auto industry. it's easy to see the headlines and think detroit is a city in ruin. but there are also images of this. new jobs in what once made detroit great. the auto industry. a job at a place like ford is not about being on the line or punching the clock. it's about one thing. opportunity. >> this is a career. when you come into ford, you're ga guaranteed. you've got your life set out ahead of you. i knew how hard the work was. i'm an academic and i didn't know if i could handle it but i went for it. >> vanessa, who got her degree in literature, now gets to work with her mother laura, a 24-year ford vet. they couldn't be happier. >> you support ford. it's a good thing to have and pass on to my daughter. >> just a few years ago, things

didn't feel so good. vehicle sales dropped by more than a third and the auto industry shed about 200,000 jobs. >> everybody was nervous. everybody didn't know what's going down, what's going to happen. they had three choices. you could stay, stick with it, you could go, or you can take a buyout. i took the stay. >> ford is a family affair for junior kinones. his son is getting a job here. it all starts with kinones' father, a person he worked right next to for more than two years. >> a lot people say you got a lot of friends. this is my best friend. >> now the legacy of ford is passed along to a new generation. >> he came up, dad, ford made you a better man. you have a better life. i want the same thing. >> one thing about working the field, i love, honestly, being around people, and one thing that really didn't convey, laura, when she's watching her daughter talk, literally crying watching her, because she's seen

this transformation of her daughter growing up and realizing what it actually means to have a good job. it just was -- it's compelling stuff. >> it really is compelling stuff. you know what, you love being around people. of course, i don't. we know that. i'll still moved by this plant, what's going on! the thing is, alan, it's unbelievable, mika and i walked in here three, four months ago, and immediately found two or three people, you know, and i always ask the question, i'm just always curious, where you from, how long have you lived here, when did you start working at ford? i ask that wherever i go, constantly trying to get information about the people i'm talking to. we had two or three people say, i worked here because my mom worked here. i worked here because my dad worked here. one person said three generations. i mean, it is all in the family here, man, it's unbelievable. >> well, and it's about manufacturing. it's about us competing with the best in the world. and they are so -- everybody is so proud to be making the cars

and trucks that people really do value now and being competitive worldwide. >> let's broaden out. steve, you have some charts on how the auto industry is recovering. >> this is the part where we zone out. he goes to technical charts. >> really, really important -- >> mika pays very -- >> i listen intently. >> i do my fantasy football. all right so what do we have? >> for the benefit of your millions of viewers, a little bit of a quick history on where we are and also some of the challenges, alan. if you look at the history of car sales in this country and look at our first chart, you'll see car sales were bumping along. in the 16 million to 18 million sales range, as you know, during the good years. hit as high as 21 million at one point. but very strong. then you see it literally fell off the cliff during the recession. 2008/2009/2010. then the turn up. you see the bump when we had cash for clunkers.

car sales today almost 16 million. almost back to where they were during the good years. they're back to where they need to be so that cars get replaced as they get older and the fleet doesn't keep getting older. so that's sort of the good news picture. so let's turn to jobs. because jobs are a little bit more of a mixed picture. we've talked a lot about jobs today. as you can see on this chart, we had 3 million jobs at the peak in the auto industry back in february of 2005. and it fell off the same cliff. everybody had to do what they had to do. fell off the same cliff. got all the way down to 2.25 million jobs in june of '09. now they're back to 2.6 million jobs. we talk about your 12,000 jobs or whatever, that's all part of the several hundred thousand jobs. but one takeaway is the jobs have not come back as fast as the production has. you guys are more efficient. making more cars with fewer people. great for ford, great for gm, not necessarily perfect for the american worker. if you turn to the last slide in terms of what's happened -- >> see, alan, they just keep

going. you think it's a punch line and then -- >> steve's prepared. >> this is the punch line. we've all read a lot of stuff about how the american worker in general hasn't shared in this recovery. you can see on this chart the american worker's down about .9% in wages over the last three years adjusting for inflation. if you look at how it's happened across a bunch of industries, you see that unfortunately autos are at the bottom. because a lot of what you guys have had to do, and you've done the right thing, is you've had to bring in workers at lower wages. you've had to cut some overtime provisionings. you've had to cut costs to get back to profitability levels. >> you guys had to make some tough choices to save ford, to make ford grow. it's still, i mean this still is a company, this still is it an industry in transition right? we don't know where it ends but it looks like it's going in the right direction. >> a couple of comments, steve, to your analysis. in ford's case, the most

important thing that we did, to your point, was to size our production to the real demand. most important thing. we also restructured our business so we could operate profitably at that lower demand. clearly, we are more productive as we grow. the neat thing is, we are growing now. for the benefit of everybody. another good point on your chart is that the average age of the vehicles in the united states is almost 11 years old. because people have been hold on to them. and now with the quality and the fuel efficiency, a consumer can economically obsolete their old vehicle. and we also do it more productivically. we're going to be hiring nearly 15,000 new employees other this next few years. i think the most important thing, the best lesson learned, size your production to the real demand. continue to inprove your quality and fuel efficiency year over year. and we'll be able to benefit everybody. also the employee profit sharing

is the highest it's ever been. everybody associated with ford, the suppliers, the employees, the investors, everybody right now is benefiting. >> record breaking, profit sharing. >> can you see a point where those average wage numbers are going to start to go back up again instead of being held down -- >> i think clearly over time, all of the elements of costs need to be worked. they will continue to rise. the most important thing you know is we keep improving our quality and our productivity. i think we can have it all. we can have great jobs and great careers if we stay focused on making the best cars and trucks in the world and produce them more efficiently than the competition. >> how do you fight the complacency problem? i bring this up from this standpoint. 15 years ago when i started coming to detroit, i would hear people say, that's not the way we do it, that's not the ford way. and the company was losing billions of dollars. i would say, ways the fohat's t way? you clearly have changed. but the question is, you've had a number of years of success.

are you confident that you have changed the culture to the point that complacency will not creep back in? >> it's a good question. probably the most important thing about the way we operate ford today is we don't just look at this year but we also look at five years and ten years out. remember, our whole ford plan is about profitable growth for everybody. when we're successful this year, we also will increase our productivity for the following year. in a way, it's never over. it's a long-term journey. continuously improve the products and our productivity. and besides that, everybody knows what it's like now to be successful. they know what it is like. >> speaking of steering over a cliff -- >> what's mika looking at? >> mika's looking at the cadillac. >> mika has a 1993 ford f-150 truck. we need to bring one of these --

>> i'm thinking forest green. >> forest green? you need to buy one of these and upgrade, right? >> mika, another thing about the green is that all of our vehicles, whether it's a fiesta all the way up to f-150, have the best fuel mileage in the world. the ecoboost engines on that are fantastic. >> and look at the cup holders for the coffee. see, now i'm excited. >> you don't have that in your 1993. >> i have the thing that hangs on the window. the plastic thing you buy at 7-eleven. >> one other serious question. when are electric cars going to make money? >> exactly, and be really useful. >> well, they are today on the hybrid version. i think what we're going to see is a technology road map. we'll see more and more hybrids. then more and more plug-in hybrids with the bigger battery. later on when we make a breakthrough in the cost and size of the batteries, we'll see more all electric vehicles. we also to your point need to keep working on the electrical

grid and the infrastructure so you can charge the vehicle. >> is that challenging? >> it's very challenging. it's back to economics. that's why the hybrid electric vehicles are so popular. because you get the best value for the money. >> when do you think we will see them? real really, mainstreamed? >> if you walk into a ford store, you can get a petrol, ecoboost engine, hybrid or all electric. it's just the economics, what works for you. >> you've got about 50,000 that will be sold in the united states, electric cars this year. that's a drop in the bucket. >> but they don't make any money. >> right. >> thank you, steve, for a little balance here. i've never seen cup holders like that. alan mulally. >> you've revolutionized ford for mika with the cup holders. >> it's so sturdy, it won't spill. >> this is great. thanks, mika. >> thanks, everybody. still ahead in our special edition of "morning joe" live from the ford auto plant outside of detroit, we'll be joined by

tigers ace pitcher justin verlander. plus, we'll talk to the owner of the cleveland cavs. he's made a huge investment in detroit. dan gilbert joins us next. alert. the beach on your tv is much closer than it appears.

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22 past the hour. a live shot from the stadium there.

joining us, the owner of the cleveland cavaliers, dan gilbert. dan is working to revive detroit by investing heavily in the city's real estate and infrastructure. and perfect to have along with dan, joining us here at the table at the ford plant in flat rock, founder and chairman of detroit blight authority, bill pulte. the nonprofit organization is working with the city to clear out vacant buildings, including mass demolitions of detroit's most troubled neighborhoods. the way he does it makes a lot of sense. >> dan, let's start with you. you have made a big investment in downtown detroit. is it going to pay off for you? >> well, we believe it's going to pay off for everybody. the community, the business community, our team members and ourselves, we're here from beautiful downtown detroit in the city at campus marches park. it's hustle and bustle here.

they're getting ready for the international jazz festival that opens in a day or two. it doesn't look quite like bankruptcy down here. there's a lot of action. a lot of activity. a lot of technology jobs and companies being created down here. we're excited to be here. >> steve rattner. >> i think what you've done there is remarkable. >> steve, i think -- >> i'm sorry, i can't hear. >> we're having a mic issue right now. we'll get back to you in one second. michael steele. sure. >> you're going in and you're investing time and resources and tearing down and rebuilding. how is that process coming along? >> sure, so i think your question was about how we're making an impact. because i think your mic's out. we went into some of the worst areas in detroit. we cleared out over 25 blocks of

blight in the city. we went into one of the areas that has the most homicide in the city of detroit. and cleared it out. so we're fundamentally changing the neighborhoods. as you can see from the chart, we cleared out an area in earn market and made it so kids can walk to school safely. over 700 kids can now walk to school safely. because of what we're doing. we're taking a different model from the government. they would do sporadic demolition. we're taking the model, my family's business, largest home builder, reverse engineering the process and taking it to scale blight across the city. >> i want to go back to dan gilbert. it's mika. is my mic working, can you hear me? >> i hear you perfect. >> okay, great. so look, in terms of what you've done to bring more retail space back to detroit, my follow-up question to that would be, are the people coming? because there was such a mass exodus from detroit over the past few years. how do you try and rejuvenate on all levels? so what you brought back actually works?

>> well, you know, in downtown here we've moved almost -- not only moved but created jobs. almost 10,000 people in our family of companies are right here, basically surrounding campus marshes. they're young and energized. downtown detroit's residential occupancy is nearly 100%, so there's a huge demand. developers are sniffing around looking to build stuff and some projects are under way. the downtown area, which will be the central hub of any major city, is creating jobs. they're creating, more importantly, brain economy technology jobs. you need to have jobs in the central core for there to be people in homes that care about neighborhoods. what bill's doing, knocking down the blight, all the other things going on, detroit has bottomed and is on its way back in a big way. >> there's no doubt -- >> there's no mic. >> your mic's off too. so you've invested, dan, $1

billion, close to $1 billion in downtown detroit yourself? >> yes, you know, our business is -- we've got over $1 billion invested here. 35 buildings. again, 10,000 people. our team members care about their jobs and their businesses but i'll tell you what, you know, their mission is to help this city and participate and be part of its big comeback. you know, it's happening. you come down here and feel the energy, it's like, you know, any big city in america right now. it's happening down here. >> so what have you found, bill, as you've gone around from community to community? what have you found as you're tearing down houses? >> people are ecstatic to see us because help is on the way. we went into the bright moore community. these people heard gunshots every day. they don't hear them anymore. blight is like a cancer. what we've done is gone in, eradicated the cancer, stopped the gunshots, stopped the

homicides, stopped the prostitution. in detroit, we can change it neighborhood by neighborhood. >> you do it with an entire neighborhood. you don't just take down one house. you level an entire area. >> that's been the problem, right? >> grow grass, and make it green again. >> the community picked the area. we said where can kids walk to school safely? we found this area. sure enough, kids can now walk to school. >> how much per house? >> roughly 5,000. actually, 4,700 for our first. historical efforts have been around 8,000, maybe 10,000. >> i've seefr estimates that the cost of doing all this is hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. >> yes. >> and then of course you end up with this very large city, as we saw in that graphic, with big empty spaces around it. so i'd ask you, and dan i'm sure has a point of view on this as well, do you have really the tools you need to make a total transformation in detroit as opposed to being able to show some demonstration? >> detroit future city is a good plan for that. what i tell people is let's call it a five-step process. step one is stabilize.

right now, citizens are not safe. people are getting harassed in their neighborhoods. we first focus on eradicating the crime. step two, three and four can come, whether that's community gardens or what have you. what we're trying to do is take what dan gilbert's doing but to the neighborhoods. >> michael steele. >> dan, what's next? you've made this investment, you've got close to 10,000 people in the family. what do you see next? what's the next step? how is your relationship with the city? do you see a federal partnership coming down the pike in terms of helping to turn this thing into something bigger and better and long lasting? the state has a role to play as well. are all these other partners recognizing what you're doing and behind this type of investment in a way that you feel longer term is going to pay off? >> the state and the city have been supportive since day one of what we're doing. they really have. number one, you know, they haven't gotten in the way in any shape or form and they've been

cooperative and doing what they can. the most impressive part about what we've done in the last three years, forget the buildings and forget the businesses, this summer, we had 1,100 interns come to downtown detroit from 157 colleges and universities and 19,000 applications from around the united states. without advertising. there's something about detroit that this generation is sniffing out. they see it as sort of a mission. of coming down here. not only getting a good job in technology related business but also impacting the outcome. that sells to this generation. i'll tell you what, i'm getting e-mails from students from harvard and yale and ucla and michigan, michigan state. i mean, they are charged up. it's a big conflict or it's contrary, rather, to, you know, the big headlines of course or the bankruptcy. we all knew that was coming. when we get to the other side of that, detroit's going to be the place to be. there's companies and people from all over coming here to make this a very special place right now. >> dan gilbert.

thank you so much. bill pulte, thank you for everything you're doing. up next, we're going to be joined by justin verlander. he's got a million dollar idea that's going to change people's lives. also, mike barnicle. "morning joe" will be right back. [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, we've always been on the forefront of innovation. when the world called for speed... ♪ ...when the world called for stealth... ♪ ...intelligence... endurance... affordability... adaptability... and when the world asked for the future. staying ahead in a constantly evolving world. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. american express credit card, every purchase earns you 2% cash back, which is deposited in your fidelity account. is that it? actually...

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welcome back to "morning joe." as we look at the tigers ballpark. some great baseball being played there. here to prove that no good deed goes unpunished. we've got justin verlander. we've stuck him with mike barnicle. what's up, guys, what's going on, mike? a great story here. >> it is a great story, joe. this say great guy here. not only because of what he does on the hill every fifth day but justin verlander just committed $1 million to help wounded warrior projects. his is win for warriors. justin, the other day at the white house, the president of the united states awarded sergeant ty carter with the medal of honor. apart from the incredible heroism in afghanistan that sergeant carter displayed, one of the elements that the president mentioned was carter's

willingness to talk about the stigma often associated with ptsd, which comes right into what you did yesterday and have done for a long time. the million dollars, tell me about the commitment. >> absolutely, it's -- the program is called wins for warriors. i'm really excited about it. like you said, it goes to ptsd. these men and women that serve for us overseas, when they come hope, they're taught to be big and strong and they come home and they need our help sometimes, but they're not going to be the first person to say, hey, i need it. so this program is just a way to reach out and show our support. this is my small way to give back. i'm very fortunate to be here in this situation and playing the game that i love and i strongly believe that i wouldn't be here if it weren't for these men and women. this is just one way i can give back. >> how's the program going to work? it's going to affect -- it's going to be implemented in three cities. >> yep, richmond, detroit, and norfolk, virginia. those are my home bases.

and, you know, it's just -- i went to school at old dominion university in norfolk. that's a huge military naval area. obviously here in detroit in richmond where i grew up. so just trying to make an impact and be involved and, you know, i'm really excited about this program. >> you read the sports pages and the sadness of baseball. we're all familiar with it. the steroid. who's a juicer, who's not. something must have triggered something in you to want to do this and to do it. $1 million of your own money. what triggered it? >> you know, i can't say anything in particular. i mean, honestly, i just want to help. i want to give back. i started verlander's victory for veterans years ago. the feedback i got not just here in detroit but just nationally, just walking down the street. and veterans coming up to me and saying, hey, i want to say thank you, i appreciate what you're doing. this was such a small program. i didn't realize it made such a

big impact. but the feedback i got from that and it just started growing. you know, it felt really good to help. this is a cause that i'm very passionate about. i decided to take a big step forward. >> now, you're feeling pretty good. you're in first place. the team's in first place. there's another element to playing for the tigers or the lyons or the pistons or the red wings. you're playing for a city that's been battered a bit by history and chicks over the past 15, 20 years. do you feel that when you put that uniform on? >> you do. you know, the old english "d" is special. it's been around for a long time and represents detroit. to be a part this culture and part of this city. i was fortunate enough to start my career here and hopefully i finishsigned a long-term deal because i love the people here, i love the citizenship here, and i have a blast. >> joe. >> justin, it's actually brian schachtman here.

there's one thing that's fascinating, what winning can do to uplift a city. we've talked a lot about it. whether the lions can do it or you can do it or the pistons or the red wings. what you're doing is amazing. how come more athletes don't do more? >> do what? >> do more. >> why don't they do more of what you're doing? >> that's a question for those athletes. >> i'm not going to call anybody out, but in your opinion, in the culture of pro sports where there are multimillion-dollar athletes and a great distance between you and the fan, and a lot of that is because you make so much money, you have to protect yourselves. in your opinion, humble opinion, why is it that there isn't more of that? >> i don't know. that's a good question. you know, maybe this will jump start something, i don't know. but, you know, i can only answer for myself. i don't know why some athletes don't do more. i can't answer for them. i know i want to get back and help so that's what i'm doing. >> in addition to this great news and this great guy here

alongside me, one of the better pieces of news he gave me is that next week the tigers are going to fenway park to play the red sox and verlander is not taking the hill against the red sox. >> thank god, man, that is very good news for us. we get to avoid him at least until late in the fall. hey, justin, thank you so much. you know what, nothing you've done on the mound means half as much as what you're doing right now to help or men and women. our american heroes that have given so much for us. we really, really do appreciate the leadership you're showing. in this really important area. >> thank you very much. for the fans and people out there, go to justinverlander.com. you can get involved, donate. >> for more information, again, on justin wins for warriors initiative, visit

winsforwarriors.org. we'll also have information up on our "morning joe" website. please go there and see how you can help our wounded warriors, our men and women that have given so much for us. coming up next, we've got business before the bell and we'll be going live to cnbc headquarters for the latest job numbers. still ahead, detroit's leading the way in urban gardening. how do they do it? we'll explain when "morning joe" returns. ♪

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ugly when alabama crimson tide takes on the hokies. but, oh, my lord. >> well, you know, you won't be wearing that saturday night i don't think. >> what do job numbers look like? >> job numbers came in in line. 331,000 weekly unemployment claims. right in line with expectations, joe. the better news out is that second quarter gdp came in a little better than expected, 2.5%. >> that's great news. >> that is. bp, the overall output of the entire economy of course. i'm so glad you're there in detroit, calling attention to the good stuff ford is doing. so congrats on that. fantastic coverage. the one thing you have to watch is the price of oil, right, because the ford f-150 is a huge part of ford's business. the price of oil keeps going up. oil at an 18-month high. the issue is, if we see continued higher oil prices and

they trickle through to higher gas prices, could impact sales of the trucks which are so important to the profitability, the jobs, the health, of not only ford but also gm. we've got toyota tundras. jeeps made in toledo, ohio. anything with a big engine. so oil is going to be the focus going forward. >> anything with a big engine. the mighty machine that drives the crimson tide to another national championship this year is going to take more oil. >> the line is -- you ready to put a little wager on this or what? >> no. you know what, i just want to win. that's all i want to do. >> you will, you probably will. hokies. >> one foot in front of the other. go hokies, roll tide. brian, thank you. >> up next, detroit is leading the way in urban gardening. what's their secret to success? the answer when "morning joe" returns. [ male announcer ] this is jim,

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you can't just stand on that thing. >> i want to, it's fine. >> alex, will you tell her? she wants to stand on the assembly line. you can't do it.

>> are you telling me people don't do that? >> no, they don't do that. you know how many osha standards you're breaking doing that? more than 30,000 acres of abandoned lots and homes in detroit. there's a group of people actually doing something good about it. >> and they're helping the city turn green in the process. >> detroit has really become the center of the urban agriculture movement. we estimate there are between 1,500 and 2,000 gardens in the city of detroit. some of them are little postage stamp gardens in someone's backyard. some of them are full-scale urban farms that are growing produce for sale, serving as someone's primary living. >> it's food elderly people on the block, any other youth, they come down and help, they take food home. we sell a little bit at the market. and then i feed myself and my family. >> the dedirability of living in that neighborhood, on that block, goes way up, when you transform a vacant lot or burned

out building into a space like this. i mean this is beautiful. this is a place people want to be. >> people are just doing it. because they see the results that it brings and how it turns neighborhoods around. >> it's empowering. it makes you feel good. it gives you a sense of independence. >> urban agriculture isn't a silver bullet for detroit's vacant land opportunities but it certainly is one part of a beautiful tappestry of vacant land uses that create the detroit that is healthier and greener. >> my aunty is 84 years old and has never seen a zucchini until last year. she loves the swiss chard. she loves the kale. excuse me, i'm kind of passionate. >> okay, all right. coming up -- >> that's nice. >> what if anything did we learn today? mika is sure she's going to ride this thing. she wants to sit on the hood of the car. no, they're selling the car. >> you say no to everything. >> coming up next, we'll see if

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♪ there ain't no mountain high enough ♪ you are optimistic that a football team can make a difference. tell me why. >> because i seen it happen before. the most recent one that stands out in my mind was new orleans and what they did when they won the super bowl, you know, when katrina hit that city so hard,

and football became a way for people to escape reality. after katrina, we were able to kind of lift the city up so to speak, you know, with the way we played football and winning the games, winning the super bowl. but also just being involved in the community. on many occasions, i met with people and they told me they don't have much money but the money they do have is spent, one, on their family and two, on their lions. as long as i can give people something to smile about here on game day, especially here in michigan, it's all worth it. >> hey, welcome back to "morning joe." it's time to talk about what we learned today. we got mika in the background. look at this. >> i'm going in. it's a mustang. i'm going to ride off into the sunset with jerry. he's worked here for 27 years. >> jerry, 27 years. if you ride off in the sunset with her, you will have wasted every day at ford here. it will be the worst day of your career. but you do what you want to do. nag, nag, nag, nag.

you'll end up in grand rapids. so you guys have been working here a long time. how long, gary? >> 27 years, when this place opened. >> this is a great day, isn't it? >> yes, it's a beautiful day. >> and even longer? >> 36 years. >> 36 years. you're a clocker. i don't know how you got here. how long you been working here? >> 4 days. >> 4 days! how did you get in here? >> 35 years. >> 26 years. >> 26 years. >> thank you, guys, for all the hard work, huh. what great news. we're importing jobs from mexico back home to detroit. it's great news, man. great news. we're bringing it home. what have you learned today, brian? >> i don't know if this translates but the people have real pride here in what they did. >> it's unbelievable. >> it's part a transformation. it's real. it's a family. >> there are a lot of people

taking to heart the story of detroit. it begins right here in the ford plant. >> glad to be part of the team. >> it's great to be here. >> we also heard from a lot of people not at ford who are really excited about detroit, who think they can bring detroit back and that was great. >> all right, fantastic. listen, we've had a great time here. mika, mika, get out of there. what are you doing? >> i'm directing traffic. >> no, no, no, that's very bad. all right. american recovery. all right. listen, if it's way too early, it's morning joe. thanks for watching us. stick around. we got chuck todd straight ahead. ♪ ride sally ride a shot across the bow. president obama lays out his thoughts on the justification for striking syria. while house speaker john boehner and more than 100 members of congress call for congress to

have a bigger say in this decision. meanwhile, prime minister cameron and the uk parliament will convene to debate their role in this crisis. that debate could have an echo effect here at home. in the middle a debate over military action, three generations of presidents led thousands in commemorating the anniversary of martin luther king's dream. good morning, it's thursday, august 29, 2013. i'm chuck todd. my first reads of the morning. we begin is syria and that drumbeat apparently for war is a bit slower today. according to the administration, a strike could come as early as today. the president says he hasn't made a final decision and more than 100 lawmakers from both parties say if he opts for an attack, he should get congressional approval first. with that in mind, the white house will hold a conference call today with the