“Detroit and Houston: two cities in global perspective”

This chapter aims to compare the process of urban restructuring in two major US cities, Detroit and Houston. Detroit and Houston became urban archetypes in the United States in the 1970s. Detroit was the snowbelt city in decline; Houston, the booming sunbelt metropolis. Detroit grew with the automobile industry. The Motor City’s “Big Three”—General Motors, Ford and Chrysler—came to number among the world’s largest corporations. Viewed along the dimensions of time and space, the trajectory of economic development in metropolitan Detroit can usefully be divided into three periods: the era of city building, 1910–49; the era of suburbanization, 1950–78; and the era of regional competition, 1979 onwards. Houston has become the center of a world oil and petrochemical production system: 34 of the nation’s 35 largest oil companies have located major administrative, research and production facilities in the metropolitan area. Houston’s developers have been pioneers in multiple-use developments.