Quote:
Originally Posted by dc_denizen
As I said in the other thread, it would not require a huge capital investment from the US to rebuild parts of Detroit along the lines of the Stapleton airport redevelopment in Denver, with rowhouses, small apartments and single family homes. The end result could even look something like the 1940s pics. We just lack the will and creativity as a society to pursue it.
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The problem isn't really "will and creativity", it's market reality. There isn't much of a housing market in Detroit, and the problem has nothing to do with housing quality. The housing in Detroit is often better than that in the suburbs.
Detroit was a rich city, and still has very above-average housing stock. The West Side is mostly solidly built, often sizable, brick homes.
The problem is that, for the most part, people don't want to live there, and you can't force them to live there.
Also, people tend to forget that Metro Detroit is doing relatively ok. The economy is pretty good, the population is stable, and suburban Oakland County is one of the wealthiest counties in the U.S. Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham are as nice as the fanciest suburbs of other major cities, and in Birmingham, you don't get anything decent (single family home) for less than 600-700k, which is damn high in the Midwest. Somthing nice will be in the millions.
In some ways, it's more accurate to say that Detroit "relocated", instead of declined. The city basically picked up and moved north and west.