Bring Back the Downriver We Grew Up In
Good jobs. Safe streets. Strong schools. A community where one paycheck can raise a family again.
The auto industry built the American middle class, and moving to Downriver meant you'd made it. A good job, a home of your own, and one paycheck that could raise a whole family. That's the promise Ron Kokinda is running to bring back.
Downriver Families Have Lost a Third of Their Buying Power Since 1990
In 1990, a family in Allen Park earned about $72,000 in today's dollars. Today it's closer to $48,000. In Melvindale, it fell from $50,000 to $35,000.
This wasn't a natural disaster. It was a choice. NAFTA shipped our factories to Mexico. The 2008 Wall Street crash knocked us down again - and the people responsible got bailed out while our families didn't. Green mandates made our energy less reliable and more expensive, chasing away the employers we need.
Every problem we face Downriver - struggling schools, the drug crisis, unaffordable homes, crushing taxes, collapsing infrastructure, high prices - flows from one thing: a gutted economic foundation. Rebuild the foundation, and everything else becomes possible. That’s the answer to the “affordability” crisis.
The Collapse of Downriver's Economy
Thirty Years of Decline: How Free Trade and Green Policies Gutted Our Communities
The numbers tell a story that every family Downriver already knows in their bones. Since 1990, median household income and purchasing power in our communities have collapsed, not by a little, but by one-quarter to one-third.
THE TIMELINE
1990 — The Baseline
Allen Park families earned roughly $72,000 (in 1990 dollars). Lincoln Park and Melvindale families earned about $50,000. Michigan’s education system was in the top 10 nationally. Our communities were solid, working-class, and proud.
1994 — NAFTA
The North American Free Trade Agreement opened the floodgates. Manufacturing jobs — the backbone of Downriver — began moving to Mexico and overseas. By 2000, Allen Park family income had dropped to roughly $52,000. Melvindale fell to about $37,500. The decline was swift and devastating.
2008 — The Financial Crisis
Wall Street’s reckless speculation crashed the economy. Any partial recovery our communities had managed was wiped out. The financial institutions responsible were bailed out. Our families were not.
Today
Allen Park: ~$48,000 (down from $72,000 — a loss of roughly one-third)
Melvindale: ~$35,000 (down from $50,000 — a loss of 30%)
Lincoln Park: ~$42,000 (down from $50,000 — a partial recovery, but still well below 1990)
Meanwhile, “green” energy mandates have made Michigan’s electricity less reliable and more expensive — exactly the wrong policy for a state that needs to attract and retain manufacturing.
THE BOTTOM LINE
This is not a natural disaster. This is the result of policy choices — free-trade agreements that sacrificed American workers, green mandates that punished industry, and a financial system that rewards speculation over production. Every issue we face Downriver — failing schools, the drug epidemic, unaffordable housing, crushing taxes — is downstream of this economic collapse.
The solution is reindustrialization. Cheap, abundant energy. A tax base built on production, not paper. Jobs where you can raise a family on a single income. And leaders who will fight for it.