This kind of comment is informative and contributes a whole lot because it is easy to find one or two major reasons for the city's decline and leave it at that. If people dismiss Detroit outside the pale, it
may have to do with quick judgement and so the idea of abandonment seems worthwhile. Many posters here have repeated that Detroit's demise is due to a wide set of variables and they are right. I wondered how it is that the city's decline wasnt curbed by investments in more varied industry etc...
I am more pondered in my opinions on Detroit. Detroit has had a complicated set of issues to deal with as it mushroomed into this massive builder of the vehicular lifestyle.Your comment on the transitory is a common thread in american life, not just from inner-city to suburbs but from state to state in search of...
So I look at Google street view again and again and find visuospatial clues that help me render judgement on a few issues. I find Detroit suburban roads and lots both residential and industrial
too wide and too spread out. I find this use of space tends to flatten everything and doesnt draw people in. It is a lot like sitting in a fast food joint and being coerced into leaving by an ingeniously engineered uncomfortable seat. This is present in a lot of Detroit proper also. The sidewalk is like a moat, oftentimes a vast expanse or grass is set forward on the city line in front of properties. I am amazed that the city has to mow so much prairie in 2010 as a security measure over and above aesthetic considerations and foresake parkland. If Detroit can make better more concentrated use of land, it will be a benefit both in ecological and social terms.
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