Roaring Metropolis. Daniel Amsterdam

his first year as mayor, Couzens convened what he called a “reconstruction meeting” that brought together “250 bankers, manufacturers,” and public officials to find ways to resurrect what an advertisement for the forum called Detroit: “a civic giant flat on its back.”⁸ The city’s commissioner of public works called for $20 to $25 million in new debt spending to improve the city’s sewer system and millions more to build and improve roads, alleys, and sidewalks. Alex Dow, an executive at Detroit Edison and the city’s water commissioner, demanded millions more for new water mains. Frank W. Blair, the president of the Union Trust Company, proclaimed that the city had to spend nearly a quarter billion dollars to meet its needs. James Vernor, a local manufacturer and president of the city council, declared, “The Council is ready to go the limit as far as construction work is concerned.” The president of the Detroit Board of Commerce—Allan A. Templeton, a successful auto parts supplier—pledged his organization’s support.⁹ Soon thereafter, an editorial in the board of commerce’s weekly publication called for a cascade of spending: “Instead of a slow and deliberate program of public improvements, it is necessary to do a great number of things all at once.” “Immense bond issues must be sold.”¹⁰

      And indeed they were. In August 1920, voters approved the Department of Public Works and the Water Commissioner’s request for a windfall of bonds, $37 million in all. By the time Couzens left office at the end of 1922, the city had built 100 miles of sewer mains and another 200 miles of lateral sewers at a cost of over $30 million. It laid 170 miles of road and spent more than $18 million to improve the city’s water system.¹¹ While most of this new construction did not follow a formal city plan—Detroit would not officially adopt one until 1925—promoting residential decentralization formed a guiding principle. As Couzens attested, it is “the consensus of opinion that there is more immorality being caused by people huddled together in small rooms, who are robbed of normal home life … than from any other cause.”¹²