[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by hudkina

You do realize that much of the outer neighborhoods looks like this:


Greenwich Park, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr


Norham, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr


037 by hudkina, on Flickr


Mexicantown, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr


Condon, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr


How exactly do you expect those neighborhoods to turn to cornfields?

Yes, there will be dozens of often contiguous square miles of mostly empty land, but to say that all 130 sq. mi. outside of the core will return to "cornfields" shows you just how little you actually understand the city. Detroit certainly has urban problems on a scale few cities have ever had, but it really wouldn't be that difficult to affect real change that will make these neighborhoods desirable to a certain number of people. Obviously middle-class white families will never return to these neighborhoods in our lifetimes, but others will. Southwest Detroit is a good example of this. The area is home to tens of thousands of hispanics who come to the city, despite the problems. There are other areas (such as the borderlands with Hamtramck and Dearborn) that also attract a certain number of immigrants. You can't possibly write off the entire city's future based on the economic collapse of the last five years.

I did some work for non-profits studying these outer areas mostly around NE Detroit. For the most part they are or were pretty stable at the time as you show. Neatly cut lawns, and many streets had low vacancy. But what we were discovering is that vacancy was picking up at an alarming rate. Essentially we were tasked with providing an emergency plan. Have a housing condition survey and template that would either categorize houses for "save" or demolish. We also provided a plan to help protect houses that had become vacant. All the home in good condition are very valuable assets. Well built and will stand for another century so as long as people don't break in and trash them. The issue is there's so little resources to maintain vacant buildings and residents nearby have their own problems to deal with, let alone maintaining a vacant home next door.

But yeah, I don't think many people realize there's plenty of intact neighborhoods in the city. I think it's because so much of the neighborhoods around the core have emptied out and that's all people see.