It's actually more political the more and more I think about it. Currently, Detroit is nearing bankruptcy and obviously that wouldn't be good for any of the city services. Detroit hasn't been able to find any new revenue sources save for an outside entity to come in and help improve the quality of life. Crime falls under that QOL index, I know, but Detroit hasn't really been able to get a handle on keeping it down.
Just the other day, they announced they were closing
50 city parks due to lack of money. Some parks are kept up by volunteers and such, but as a resident of a city, I don't think it's expected that you should cut the grass at the local park. That has a far bigger impact on land values in addition to high crime rates so.... it's just all downhill for Detroit. Turned off streetlights, broken down and crowded buses, dirty parks and general surroundings... no one wants to live in a city like that even if the crime rate
was going down. It completely baffles me that the city has not tried harder to get outside help to support the things the city can no longer manage with a smaller tax base. At this point, depopulation is a self-inflicted shot in the foot that is almost irrelevant to what's been going on prior to 2008.
And I fear that it'll hurt the downtown area and eventually reverse the revival that's currently going on there. I hope that's just my personal pessimism and not an accurate assessment of what's to come.
