VOA标准英语2011--Struggling Detroit Seeks Economic Boost

Struggling Detroit Seeks Economic Boost

 

Detroit, the heart of America's car industry, was once one of the richest cities in the United States. But car manufacturers have downsized their work force, and, in recent decades, more than half of Detroit's population has left. Today, the city is one of the nation's poorest.

Music, apparel and more

Division Street Boutique in Detroit sells locally made clothes inspired by the city.

Musician Tyler Baldwin started the shop a few years ago with two of his friends. He says Detroit is a good place to get a business idea off the ground.

“There’s a lot of opportunity to be the only one doing something. My music, I’m the only person that makes music like that. Our T-shirts are the only T-shirts that are the way they are. It’s just a completely original opportunity to be unique," he said. "And express yourself because there’s not a lot of people doing it.”

And, he says, the poverty of Detroit helps his creativity. “There’s just an aspect of complete desolation and isolation¹ that makes you search within and become more intuitive and basically just get inspired to create something because there’s nothing here,” Baldwin noted².

Baldwin is not the only one using inspiration to stimulate³ Detroit's economy.

Entrepreneur training

Downtown Detroit

Bizdom U trains and funds entrepreneurs to help them start their businesses.

CEO Ross Sanders says new businesses are changing the city's economy.

“It’s important for that shift to happen because, for a long time, the city of Detroit has relied on the auto⁴ companies. They have had kind of an employee mentality⁵, and what we are really trying to do is create an entrepreneurial mentality. It’s great to be an employee, everybody needs to have good employees, but entrepreneurs don’t just fill a job, they create jobs,” he said.

John Mogk of Wayne State University says progress is taking place in downtown Detroit.

"There is no question that there is a new energy, there is new investment, there is expanded population. Step by step, there are significant improvements being made at the center of Detroit," he explained.

He says new shops and busy offices downtown signal a rejuvenated⁶ economic core.

Economic struggles still plague the city

But outside downtown Detroit, he says, the city tells another story.

Mogk says poverty and dilapidation⁷ are the norm across a 210-square-kilometer area.

Downtown Detroit, he says, is alone in turning a page. “The page that has not been turned is in the parts of the city with which Detroit’s problems are associated: dysfunctional families, poverty, low income, abandonment, poor schools, drug addiction," he said. "That doesn’t exist to any major degree in the core area, that exists in the other 130 square miles [210 square kilometers].”

But he says the growth of Detroit’s economic core may, in time, drive the wider economy forward with it.

1 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

2 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

3 stimulate   

vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋

参考例句：

• Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
• Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。

4 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

5 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

6 rejuvenated   

更生的

参考例句：

• He was rejuvenated by new hope. 新的希望又使他充满了活力。
• She looked rejuvenated after plastic surgery. 她做完整形手术后显得年轻了。

7 dilapidation   

n.倒塌；毁坏

参考例句：

• Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation.特别破落的样子倒也找不出。
• The farmhouse had fallen into a state of dilapidation.农舍落到了破败的境地。