are detroiters making a come back? ♪ all about detroit.e are focusing on the real challenge tonight. >> the future, and who is doing to benefit. our community always has opinions and also activity is already happening in detroit. how, there's a group that says wake up man. determines have been in charge for 50 years. and ten there's j.p. that says to get detroit back on its feet, we have to give money back. let's try that out. our community and you are the third host of the show, and we mean it. we read recall your tweets and facebook messages. they drive the discussion. so tonight, use of the #and join the conversation. he means it. many ways to be a part of our community. don't forget facebook, like us, send your ideas for stories that you think we should be covering. detroit hustles harder that's what residents are saying as they flip the city's negative narrative of bankruptcy crime and pose closures. juxtapose against the standard story of ruin, businesses are investing big in downtown detroit. but it might be the do-it-yourselfers th

just a detroit but it is a detroit city it is detroit city. you had to explain that to people. >> i don't know how to explain it. people always remark, detroit. >> how did you come up with that? >> from a tech agent. to spell motor city madhouse was appropriate for this moment, we talked during the talk, detroit's weird trendiness, opposed recession seems to have become the place to be for all sorts of reasons, people wanting to fix it, people wanting to come up with her and realignment plans, people wanting to take pictures of the ruins. for whatever reason it seems like a special moment. it felt right. >> thanks a lot. >> thank you. [applause] >> for more information visit the author's website mark binelli.com. >> you are watching booktv on c-span2. here is our prime time lineup for tonight. starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern -- visit booktv.org for more on this weekend's television schedule. >> he creates debate is an american bar association book that looks at dick of legal arguments on national security law. a co-editor of the book and four co

bring detroit back because people invested detroit. the book to try to explain this to people. it's titled belle isle, the detroit gamehanger. thnew rk times, i'm not surprised to must near you. the writer said that the book has the hero landing onthe rooftop helipad of the 57 story hotel. it makes the entire scheme vy easy to mock as objective is to fan fiction. objective is referringo eyeing rand. you are a fan of hers. >> i am. john: you talk of having a billion dollars, trying to buy this from the city. within this city would gym but that. politicians often surprise me. detroit city council members don't want to give up much of anything when michigan's governor offered to have the state takver belle island park since detroit can't even afford to maintain it, local politicians screamed. >> you may not take over bell isla. it belongs to the people. john: it belongs to the people, not to you. >> this would create a lot of jobs and opportu. rit now there's no hope for the future. this would create that held. john: this could save detro

detroit. she talks about how detroit is the sort of place where people are doing things every day that you're not expected to do anywhere else. people come home from work and patrolling neighborhoods because their site every claiming the think that lots and turning them into gardens are concert venues. they're bored and i it houses. bible chapter in the book and i feel like that surprised me i guess, that the extent of that and how real and kind of inspirational that can be. >> some of the characters in your book are familiar characters. characters we see written up all the time in reference to detroit. one of them is by rick akin, someone who lives not too far from me and where i grew up. i've read i don't know how many different things about tyree who i've met several times and talked to. this treatment was very different than anything else i have seen and i wanted to read just a couple drafts of how you captured him and talk more about it. at the end of this section it says guyton said he b

so let me talk about my hometown of detroit where about 95% of white children in the metro detroit area live in very low poverty neighborhoods. these are neighborhoods with, for the most part, highly functioning schools, good jobs for their parents, places to buy, fresh fruits and vegetables, capital to start a business. in contrast, only about 40% of black and latino kids in metro detroit live in those kinds of neighborhoods. now, you might say, well, that's to be expected given differences in wealth, income and education. but let's control for that. in detroit poor white children, about three out of every four live in neighborhoods with very low levels of poverty. in contrast, there are similarly poor -- their similarly poor black and latino peers very overrepresented in high poverty neighborhoods. so these are the issues that are at the root of our conversation. so i invite our panelists, how do we tackle these challenges? how do we begin to understand the sorting that has happened as a result of a variety of historic and contemporary factors and tackle those challenges so that, ulti

detroit? >> it will turn around the city of detroit. >> the motor city. this is will we do. john: what's up with detroit? can this happen to your town? that's our showonight. ♪ >> and now john stossel. ♪ john detroit was once the richest city in america. i was three years old and. that was the 1950's. now it's the biggest u.s. city ever to declare bankruptcy. so what happened? our guests tonight have some clues. first, fox news reporter works in detroit and jt wrote, detroit, an american autopsy. an autopsy, one examines the dead body and tries to find out what killed him. detroit isn't that exactly. what killed the trust? >> wld kill the charge, racial conflict of detroit. slav kill detroit. corruption children. it seems like that is what has become the american way because detroit is notlone. what is baltimore going to do, atlanta, l.a. john: detroit is and worse shape. rse politicians, more unions. the automaker collapsed. it was in the politicians' fault. it was just the big three crashed.

detroit? >> it will turn around the city of detroit. >> the motor city. this is will we do. john: what's up with detroit? can this happen to your town? that's our show tonight. ♪ >> and now john stossel. ♪ john: detroit was once the richest city in america. i was three years old and. that was the 1950's. now it's the biggest u.s. city ever to declare bankruptcy. so what happened? our guests tonight have some clues. first, fox news reporter works in detroit and just wrote, detroit, an american autopsy. an autopsy, one examines the dead body and tries to find out what killed him. detroit isn't that exactly. what killed the trust? >> would kill the charge, racial conflict of detroit. slav kill detroit. corruption children. it seems like that is what has become the american way because detroit is not alone. what is baltimore going to do, atlanta, l.a. john: detroit is and worse shape. worse politicians, more unions. the automaker collapsed. it was in the politicians' fault. it was just the big thr

detroit some part of its essential detroitness." three or four people who i gave the book to read, came back and asked me about that specific last line, and they are curious whether what you're saying is that our dysfunction is such a part of us that we can't afford to let it go -- [laughter] that we can't afford to lose it. [laughter] a couple people were mad. >> yeah. >> when they asked me about that, and i said, well, you know, i don't know. i'm asking you. >> yeah, i don't mean dysfunction, but i do think there's -- i don't know. i don't want to say i worry about this because i think any, you know, positive development, detroit people welcome that, period, but i think about, you know, what new positive developments -- especially in, you know, you see stuff coming up in downtown, like, what will that mean exactly? is bulldozing a bunch of those old buildings and putting up new mall-like structures, like, some people cheer that. >> right. >> a lot of people cheer that, and in way, you know, why not? you drive past the same rotted

that's the problem in detroit.y're supposed to have the backing of employees and residents-- >> and they don't. that's all the time we have. thank you, we appreciate the conversation. until next time we'll see you online. . >> welcome to al jazeera and this they were news hour. tonight our top story is syria. will the united states use military force against that country and when? >> president obama is speaking out about syria. he said he's considering a military attack when he called a shot across syria. he wants to deter the use of chemical weapons. offer in his interview he also said he has not made a final decision. >> i have

left in detroit. the answer to poverty and unemployment is not another government stimulus. it's simply leaving more money in the hands of those who earned it. today i'm here to introduce something i call economic freedom zones. this is a bill that will be introduced next week in washington. these freedom zones will dramatically reduce taxes and red tape so detroit businesses can grow and thrive. freedom zones are similar to an idea jack kemp introduced a couple decades ago. kemp loved figuring out ways to empower people, real people, regardless of race or family background. he called his plan a conservative war on poverty. it's time we revisit some of these ideas of jack kemp and expand upon them. i told somebody recently, this is jack kemp's enterprise zones on steroids. the bill that i will introduce will introduce these and empower and begin these economic freedom zones. this bill will lower perm and corporate income taxes in detroit to 5%. my bill will also lower the payroll tax 2% for the employ

detroit. that's because it's sending the dollar up against canada's currency. that matters for detroit which sits on the detroit river between the united states and canada. detroit is an international trade hub linking both countries with the rest of the world and canadian's decline against the u.s. dollar has negative implication force american businesses for detroit and beyond. americans and canadians regularly cross the international border to visit each other and to shop. >> believe me, the timing between the two is generous on both sides. they come here and we go there. >> visit tours detroit has been bolstered by a strong canadian dollar. >> we do get a lot of canadian traffic that come here and spend the day here, which is great. they make it an outing. >> but that could change. the canadian dollar is weakened some 10% in the last year against the u.s. dollar with many predicting that it will weaken further in 2014. in border cities across the u.s.-canada boundary think seattle or buffa

detroit to canada. traveling across the abbasid or bridge is nearly 10,000 cars a day plus another 2000 semitruck's. the main transport for semi trucks leaving america and going into canada through michigan. we see everything on those trucks. from gerber baby food through kellogg's cereal made in michigan. anything and everything that has to be traded. as the two biggest international trading partners in the world you can imagine the depth and scope of what is traveling the bridge. in 1929, when the detroit windsor ambassador bridge opens and again in 1930 when the heraldedens, they are as engineering marvels. great engineering feats of the world and put detroit on the map not only architecturally but through heralded as engineering prosperity, beine to bring in the tobacco that makes our cigar manufacturing flourish at the turn-of-the-century, bringing in stovew iron to make our industry and later automotive industry flourish. when the bridge opens in 1930 we are at the height of prohibition. it quickl

which separates east detroit from west detroit. anybody i -- everybody identifies themselves as east detroit or west detroit. go down a mile and there is motown. this row, series of houses that is now a museum. i did most of the research. going there, interview, doing a lot of archival research. all my books i say they have four legs to a table. one leg is the observation of being there, understanding the cultural geography of a place. archivald leg is the research, find a contemporaneous documents. the third leg is the interviews. and i found as many of the people that i could from that era. i had to travel other places as well. barry gordy is in a mansion in bel air in los angeles. i went to see him and a lot of other people around the country. the fourth leg is looking for what is not there. there is always a conventional wisdom about something, trying to find other ways to explore the reality. >> interesting interview that you had to you mentioned very gor -- barry gordy. what did you learn? probably 80 83, four by now. he was

>> we are not fix today the detroit show, but there is only one detroit. we'll also do over areas. >> very interesting. you will have to keep us posted. this is a clever idea that you have. >> we appreciate your involvement. it's going to be a great evening. >> i appreciate your time. >> and please meet john neale from bonn ton who is here at the gallery -- why? >> well who can recyst? >> resist? >> coming in the dead of winter to detroit, what motivates you? >> i have automotive genes. you could be skiing, but you wouldn't see the cars. >> you are a car guy. >> i am. when you come to detroit in winter, you are a car guy. >> what is going on here as opposed to the big show itself? >> this is where it's all happening. these are the cars you aspire to. these are the cars -- you can take just about anyone of them and see a happier person. >> what do you have in your heart? what are you fond of in this room here? >> i have a real estate business in boston. i need a bac backseat. i look at the as ton martin and i have to say, i could probably get by with that a

i under the detroit but michigan stayed out. it.troit is michigan's responsibility as much as the governor might like to pretend otherwise. >> but do you have to do it for print, saginaw and others. >> i think you're going to see that story, i would be worried working with the cities. >> detroit is so big, how does it change the game going forward? >> well, i think certainly you have to treat detroit as it's own entity. dean mentioned that each city is different, and that's a point i would stress. many states have programs to intervene with distress before going to bankruptcy. it is an end game that no one wants to find themselves playing because it means that it's run--the city has run out of options and it really needs to renege on many of its promises. >> knowing what you do, do you think detroit could have avoided getting here? >> detroit could have avoided getting here if they had intervened earlier. no one was surprised when detroit filed for bankruptcy. the sad trust about detroit is that it's been on a long steady decline an

detroit was becoming the automotive epicenter. before that detroit was a major manufacturing city. they were famous for ovens and even cigars and things like that. the car company turned into whenssembly line that's people started migrating up here. musicians started to migrate up here from the and the motown people started to migrate up to detroit for jobs. you would have a number of musicians that would work at ford and then play their music at night. that became their career and so forth. pepper adams was a big name. in the jazz world many of the became the funk brothers, the sound machine for jazzn came up as musicians, james jamerson and earl van dyck. they have the southern roots as well. what happens with motown in detroit is barry gordy is a boxer, a songwriter, and he boxed on a bill we joe louis. way down on the car but nonetheless. then he felt this isn't so great. eye. getting my head beat in doing this and he already wrote songs and then report sons that jackie wilson recorded and had hits with, but he discovered that he was getting pennies on the record, and his good

imagine you have the detroit river like this. detroit on top of that. ribbon farms stretched out on either end in long, thin sections. this allowed each family and farmer to have a little bit of land near the river, near the water. this would be used for watering your plants but also critically important for transport as well. the location itself is a very attractive spot for the french. because of the detroit river, it's a very narrow river that leads from lake erie to lake huron. this is important because of commerce, getting goods from the upper region in michigan and the rest of the great lakes, but also a strategic position. at this point, it was on both sides of the river. because of this, they controlled the entire span leading up to the rest of the great lakes. important from both a strategic aspect and in terms of controlling trade. following the french and indian war, new france became british. it was all seated to the british in 1763. right now you are looking at a really great model of detroit. this is how it maybe would've looked in 1792. t

to detroit? get >> i believed in the labor market, and i learned differently by being in detroit and being married to jimmy boggs. >> tell me about jimmy boggs. wherewas born in alabama there were more pigs than people, but people in the south and theyderstanding, survive. he became a writer because people could write. he knew had to take advantage of a bad situation and turn it into a good one. how did you become partners? >> i chased after him. were you chasing jimmy? >> he would laugh and say, grace has got me. i understood there was something very fresh and very new here. i lived in new york city. i came from the big apple. i had a lot of abstract ideas, and here was somebody who was very much alive in his and to whom people .ould look for leadership it was an extraordinary experience. about theant to ask causes you have worked on in your lifetime. let me start by asking why you got involved in labor work and what do you make of the labor movement today. i was working for $10 a week in chicag

but from from detroit, the, the hype around detroit butting theme, assume that it's way around. the club post by music freaks promises on march out until finding a 2nd home in berlin. days from the us with floating in to get to cities, dogs, those chinese still the us seen, we made fun. the rooted in the on the ground navigating traction in the main stream . so why did it come up in europe? the white audience are, were the ones who like techno, a lot of black people did not like it. they did not get it. there was no wrapping in it. there was no singing. it was all one thing. it was repetitive and repetitive proved to be the key to berlin. as hans technically became the new sound track of the city. when it became berlin, then it became centralized. and then more detroit guy started coming over either to resort was that was crucial in this checking. it was undoubtedly a creation of african american communities across the atlantic. the fact that as launch the escaped public consciousness because it wasn't berlin, where techno found mainstream appeals i think it was the rightful pla

i'm supplying detroit, hiring people in detroit. detroit. >> if i were asked the same kwerks i would say i don't know. i'm doing what i do well in a place i love. i'm demonstrating that. another person believes it enough to be here. >> you're 100% right. i never thought about it until you asked that question. to me it's just obviously. >> what will the detroit of the future look like? >> whatever you may think it should look like, it will probably taste like this. >>> somewhere in this unassuming neighborhood one can sit down for an excellent meal. you won't find this on yelp. unfortunately i cannot tell you where it is exactly. why not, you ask? it's not exactly a restaurant. it's not strictly speaking legal. >> what is this place? >> like a puposa thing. >> it's something they put a ring over and come. this is about as traditional as it gets here. >> this is what's called a papusa house, literally a house. once a living room, now the main dining area. the woman running it, we can't show her face. she's been here ten years serving

mainstream appeals to detroit in detroit, and it was the right for them to play the music. and the last bill of the whole d. j. culture of the job and the technology. they won't be big. pulse on dick was born in 1971 in an industrial town in the ged, off and grew up in east and then like many young germans, he fell in love with the news phone from detroit. things and professionally. it's simple, really. i play the music because i love it, but i'm a total fanatic of telephone, not because i really don't teach it because i can make any money when i tell me this might have been good. so do you come the few years later to pull from dick made his break through becoming one of the most successful the days in the world. and the money started flowing check no for the masses. use before it was very slow. that was really not real. nice line, but happy night. and when house came over as a talk and then technology was great. effect weekends with thing about 10000 people involved in move from one of the of the clock. and the rest of the story is that you came to know which way john, i j

so in the phone from detroit, the decline of industry in detroit and the doing of a new technological age in spite juan atkins and other musicians in the early eighty's to experiments with futuristic sounds. the next europe and electro music with african american don speeds i guess the arrival of the technological revolution, so to speak. it was the industrial age kind of came to a close and by detroit be one of the major industrial hurts in america. the city was kind of like just to clean it because the robots took over most of the manufacturing jobs. they experimented with new electra sounds and was celebrated as techno rebels. even just a kid and later some, some more kids just tinkering with, with this new technology. you know, a lot of this was kind of spontaneous. i mean, nobody had a blueprint or a plan. i mean, we had an idea of doings. what we wanted to do sort of like an experiment and you mix a lot of different ingredients and the result came out 10 times better than we thought it would come out in a change of location. berlin, on an old hymns finished, he produced the musi

but from from detroit, the, the hype around detroit butting themes, assume that it's way around. the club post by music freaks promises on march out until finding a 2nd home in berlin. days from the us with floating in to get to cities don's close chinese. still the us seen, we made fun. the rooted in the on the ground navigating traction in the main stream . so why did it come up in europe? the white audience are, were the ones who like techno, a lot of black people did not like it. they did not get it. there was no wrapping in it. there was no singing. it was all one thing. it was repetitive and repetitive proved to be the key to berlin. as hans technically became the new sam track of the city, when it became berlin, then it became centralized. and then more detroit guy started coming over either to resort was it was crucial in this check me. it was undoubtedly a creation of african american communities across the atlantic. the fact that as launch the escaped public consciousness because it wasn't berlin, where techno found mainstream appeals for the right for play, the music a

trading outpost on the detroit river where detroit is now.e came out of the northern in canoesontreal with a handful of men about 100 , men. when they arrived they , immediately got to work at building a settlement. this represents a ribbon farm. a ribbon farm is an agricultural method established by the french when they settled here. imagine you have the detroit river like this. detroit on top of that. written farms stretched out on either in cash ribbon farms stretched out on each end. this allowed each family and farmer to have a little bit of land near the river, near the water. this would be used for watering your plants, and also critically important, for transport as well. detroit is a very attractive spot for the french because of the detroit river. that a very narrow river leads from lake erie to lake huron. this is important not only because of commerce, getting goods on the upper region in michigan and the rest of the great lakes, but also at a strategic permission. at this point detroit was both sides of the river. the north ameri

we have a million white people in detroit and they do not want a riot. >> the big money in detroit is trying to deal with the problem of the races. this is the new detroit committee, 37 of the city's white and black leaders, including top brass. rj miller from ford, james roche of general motors, william day of bell telephone, chrysler, detroit edison, and a dozen more of the top employers. the committee was set up by the governor and mayor after last summer after what the whites call the riots. after what the negros call the rebellion. hudson jr.,is jl the owner of a leading department store. this is where the committee hopes to make its breakthrough, a breakthrough with jobs for the ghetto. in the past, if you wanted a job at ford, you had to go to the factory and ask. such was the hopelessness that many did not try. ford has come to them, sending job interviewers into neighborhood poverty centers. the company used to give each applicant a written examination but many of the people flunked so the examination has been dropped. >> you were last employed in 1966. the firm went out of b

of the people of detroit.his is the story behind these men, and the organization that produces them. perhaps the most important part of the story is the selection of the men who are chosen to become members of the department and the methods by which they are trained. take joe, for example. he came, as many of the recruits do, from a small town in michigan. he was looking for a life that would give him the feeling of being worthwhile, both to himself and the community to which he worked. here, joe and other applicants were tested for physical fitness and mental ability for an officer must be alert both physically and mentally. his body and mind must be a coordinated team. the police department investigated his background, his school record, his home environment, his personal habits. every effort is made to select the finest man. joe, along with other recruits was accepted and assigned to the cadet academy for six weeks or more for study and lectures on department rules and regulations, criminal law, rules of ar

in detroit d.j. john collins has been famous on the world's techno scene for decades but here in his hometown he can't party like he does in other cities following city law and dance floors in detroit have to shut down at 2 am. techno fans in detroit want nightlife to go on for longer and bring more business to poorer areas of the city they've been looking at transforming abandoned buildings into clubs and arts centers. feel that a nighttime economy will now only extend the entertainment. aspects of nighttime but also bring jobs jobs to the short words there could be clubs there could be restaurants there could be galleries that could actually employ people oh it's a brilliant techno legend to me to be here the man fell in love with detroit techno and exported it to berlin 30 years ago using music he wants to create a successful night time economy similar to berlin's hagerman collins and others from the detroit berlin connection to help make it happen. i think the music especially with not just talki

>> detroit, under municipal bankruptcy detroit cannotting forced to sell off assets. i think the wall street creditors, the bond companies have concerns about their treatment relative to other creditors who have similar claim to being repaid. that's a lot of what the wrangling going on in court is about. >> maybe forced was a bad word, but they look at the pile of assets detroit owns and they say hey there is money in those assets, and you say you can't afford to pay us. >> onus. >> yes, there is this wall street-main street narrative used to characterize the bankruptcy controversy, but the wall street creditors are not saying take money away from pensioners and give it to us, they're saying you have not done enough. are you sure you can't raise taxes a little bit, and that art, it might be a good idea to sell off some of the art and pay us and give us a higher rate of recovery. it's not something that i think myself would lead to a better future for detroit, but this is a problem with bankruptcy. there are certain legal requirements that have to be wit with respected

the governor has arranged for it. , pleaseircumstances send the troops into detroit.l >> you will call later when he has more to say. sounds]ter >> governor. premature to is predict at this time with the night will bring but we hope peace and security will be restored and things can get back to normal. siren] >> get out of the way. >> my grandmother's house at the projects, i was coming down the sidewalk and there was a burst of fire. i was hit in the leg. but ities, he got hit was not too bad. >> what was your reaction? pavement.to the >> are you bewildered or angry? it is rightthink for my people to be acting the way they are. there is fighting over here, we need to get together over there so people will not be fighting a yards.their back [sirens] [sirens] >> everybody get out. [indiscernible conversation] [no audio] [indiscernible conversation] >> we're going to use -- [traffic noise, corn -- horns honking] curtise waiting here for -- >> did you see him? >> i don't know, behind this track? >> hold on a second -- [gunshots] >> see the sign in the window that their?

so we have the finances of bankruptcy that you saw detroit go through. i have four communities in my district. they're either going through or coming out of being in a financial manager. in addition to that i have a largest number of middle east population in my district and in the neighboring district in the middle east. so i have issues that are aying out in baghdad and lebanon in yemen. all of these are my constituents. so where some congress members may not be dealing with what's happening in yemen, these are my constituents and their families. and so that has been an issue and a responsibility for me when it comes to my casework when i comes to my being sensitive. i have a very large jewish population. so issues with israel is very important they represent them. social justice issues. my constituents -- my constituents that are african-americans they want me to fight for me. what is happening when i comments to -- when it comes to policing in america. itle one, it breaks my heart affects them. there are so many challenges. this is an opportunity whe