Why is Detroit shrinking?

[mwilbert]

L.A's riot was the wors[t] riot in American history

I would suggest the the NY draft riot in 1864 was probably worse, although there is certainly a strong argument that the 1992 LA riot was the worst US riot of the 20th century. LA is a lot bigger than Detroit though, and I think the Detroit riot had a disproportionate impact on the city. Even though there was little disturbance in my neighborhood people were acting kind of nuts.

[DetroitPlanner]

Enough with your bickering. WSU have figured this all out.

http://vimeo.com/39508782

[iheartthed]

1992 was boom times for LA allowing it to have less of an impact. Detroit in the late 1960's was already experiencing de-industrialization and flight to the suburbs. In addition LA is much more diverse than Detroit is. This led to some major changes in how the cops dealt with minorities and how minority groups dealt with other minority groups. see section regarding riots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreatown,_Los_Angeles
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/c...s-angeles.html

I don't disagree with either point. I'm just disagreeing with the idea that SWMAP put out about riots causing -- or strongly correlating to -- declining cities. L.A.'s situation pretty much kills the argument.

[iheartthed]

I would suggest the the NY draft riot in 1864 was probably worse, although there is certainly a strong argument that the 1992 LA riot was the worst US riot of the 20th century. LA is a lot bigger than Detroit though, and I think the Detroit riot had a disproportionate impact on the city. Even though there was little disturbance in my neighborhood people were acting kind of nuts.

But the premise was that riots cause decline. Clearly, L.A. proves that riots don't cause decline or else L.A. would be in decline whether by a lot or a little. Yet, L.A. hasn't even had a little bit of a population drop. And the riot is a distant memory today.

Detroit's riots did not cause it to decline. It was already in decline before the riots. It continued to decline after the riots. Blaming Detroit's decline on the riots is as silly as blaming it on the election of Dennis Archer, or the legalization of casino gambling, or the closing of the downtown Hudson's, or any other event to happen in Detroit since the time that Detroit actually went into decline [[in the mid-1950s not the late 1960s).

[Danny]

Dave Bing on Detroit's shrinking population.

"White folks left Detroit because they want coloreds next next door to them. Black folks began to leave Detroit because they don't negroes living next to them. I don't want to be last person in Detroit to turn off the lights."

[sam]

Enough with your bickering. WSU have figured this all out.

http://vimeo.com/39508782

How could they do something like that and omit the present value pension and healthcare liabilities? The stuff in that video is peanuts compared to retirement liabilities. Insurance companies that cannot match their present premiums with future claims go out of business. Cities are no different. The actuarial mismatch results from corruption and incompetence, and in that regard Detroit is pretty ordinary when looking around the country.

[DetroitPlanner]

Sam these are all fixed costs. This adresses reducing fixed costs. Remember that this is tied to DetroitWorks which is a blueprint for land use.

[daddeeo]

Dah. How old are you?

[orpearl]

Hallo! Attached is a DRAFT version of a diagram which tries to answer the question that was raised in the beginning of this conversation. I would like to hear what you think of it, but please do not be too harsh! Thank you in advance!

Diagramm.pdf