A Radical Plan to Save Detroit and Restoring the Rust Belt | Rodney Lockwood
05 March 2026

A Radical Plan to Save Detroit and Restoring the Rust Belt | Rodney Lockwood

The Signal Sitdown

About
Detroit has become the poster child of American decline and for good reason: No city in what is now known as the Rust Belt experienced such soaring highs and such abysmal lows.



In the 1950s, Detroit was the wealthiest city in America. By 2014, just one year after the city declared bankruptcy, Detroit was considered the poorest city in America.



Detroit is starting to show signs of comeback by courting large investments from some of the companies who brought Detroit to its zenith, such as the Ford Motor Company, and balancing the city’s checkbook. But plenty of problems persist, and the whiplash has left policymakers and every day Americans asking what happened, and what is the way back for cities like Detroit.



Rodney Lockwood is a member of the Board of Directors of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy with a business background in real estate. Lockwood joins “The Signal Sitdown” this week to help unpack Detroit’s collapse, the beginnings of its recovery, and share his bold plan to revitalize a forgotten part of the city.



“I think Detroit is probably the most prime example,” of the Rust Belt’s collapse, Lockwood told The Daily Signal, “because other cities have not suffered as much as Detroit.”
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