Remaking Michigan

Morning Edition, April 22 - 24

No matter how the auto industry emerges from its current crisis, it will certainly be smaller and employ far fewer. People in Detroit and throughout Michigan know they have to reset themselves economically. According to Governor Granholm, the state has lost 400,000 jobs since 2000, and will likely shed tens of thousands more in coming months. Michigan "leads the nation in recession!" as one official bitterly joked. But because of this dubious distinction, this region may be able to teach the nation a thing or two about how to redefine an economic identity in hard times and how to adapt - even if slowly - to the demands of a new era.

How can Detroit, in particular, recover the amazing economic diversity that attracted the auto industry in the first place? Automakers got established in Detroit because everything they needed could be made there, and in the early years of the last century there were many competing automakers. Consolidation changed everything, making Detroit more efficient but less adaptable, crushing innovation. So who's trying to bring it back? What does Detroit have to sell the world, and who is out there selling it - whether it's cheap property, high technology, green technology, or a grand vision for the future? Who, in effect, is betting on Detroit?

In a series of reports from Morning Edition’s Steve Inskeep and Michigan station reporters, NPR will tell stories about Detroiters and Michiganders who are adapting to change rather than complaining about it; people imagining a city and state that might emerge from this economic crisis stronger and smarter.

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