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Originally Posted by DCReid
Interesting comparison of Detroit with Sunbelt cities, and sprawl. I perceive that another similarity with the Sunbelt is that Detroit did not seem to have a strong or semi-dominant downtown like Chicago given it has been the second largest metro in the Midwest. Its downtown seems more like that of Dallas or Phoenix than even a city like Cincy, Pittsburgh, or Milwaukee and definitely not like Chicago. But I don't know the history of Detroit's downtown that much so maybe I am wrong about this.
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In its heyday, downtown Detroit was way ahead of Dallas or Phoenix. In 1950s America, there wouldn't have been maybe 2 or 3 downtowns in America that were stronger than Detroit: NYC, Chicago, and arguably Philadelphia. That this is not apparent today says more about the scale of the loss of urbanity in Detroit than anything else.