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Originally Posted by iheartthed
I like to use Philadelphia as a reference point for Detroit since those two cities and metros were similarly sized in 1950. The city of Philadelphia also bottomed out in the 1990s, like a few other American cities. In an alternate history where Detroit's decline had paralleled what occurred in Philly, Detroit's population would be around 1.4 million today, and it would also still be a top 10 city.
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I thought about Philadelphia as well. Around that time it looks so depressed, like on the Rocky movies or on the Philadelphia opening scenes. Now we see Philadelphia shining, looking wealth, with tons of developments on those YouTube videos praising urban living. Remaining urban alone helps Philadelphia today.
And if Detroit did worse than Philadelphia, but not becoming a city with 1/3 of the population, it would still look very different and arguably more urban. 1.2 million would put it where Dallas is today, but Dallas, of course, is more the 2x the size of Detroit.
As Detroit metro area is still wealth, about on the US average, its alternate strong core could put it on all those discussions of cities with great urban living and that alone would help it retain or even attract new dwellers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by meh
Detroit and St. Louis have areas of similar sparsity but—again based on Google satellite imagery—such areas are significantly more expansive in Detroit. In St. Louis that level of prairie is restricted to the north-side neighborhoods closest to the river, while those just to the west more resemble Cleveland's east-side 'hoods (missing teeth but not prairie).
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Yes, I meant St. Louis and even Buffalo seems worse than Cleveland in this respect. However Detroit looks much worse than those two.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
- Detroit largely missed out on the 90s immigration bonanza, relatively speaking.
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Its CSA grew over 5%. It was not that bad. Faster than Cleveland and St. Louis for instance.
For Pittsburgh and Buffalo than it was tragic: they shrank on that golden decade. And ironically, on the 2010's, the "worst" decade ever for US demographics, both grew for the first time since the 1960's.