Originally Posted by
Detroitnerd
Let me be clear: I do not mean to argue that Detroit was never urban. The area inside the boulevard used to have very high densities. Local businesses and high-density buildings lined every streetcar line. In front of, say, an apartment building in Cass Corridor in the 1940s, the street would be packed with kids. Densities were definitely higher than 10,000 per square mile, and likely higher than 15,000 per square mile.
Of course, these areas were all within walking distance of transit. There were open spaces that were more difficult to develop outside transit lines. The automobile is what filled them in, and they were almost uniformly low-density.
It is incorrect to say Detroit never had a dense urban inner city. It's just that much of it has just been wiped off the map.