Understand that Detroit is over 300 years old. It is an old ass city. That said, it is cheaper to build anew than to restore. A number of those business owners who once had businesses within the city limits understood that they would save a lot of money by simply relocating their operations outside the city where there was plenty of land and no taxes. Take AAA and KMart for example. Rather than build a new building in downtown for their headquarters both decided to build suburban fortresses. This was done over and over by many more businesses as they fled Detroit.
What about the people? Well the people wanted new development and it appears that Detroit was skipped over for place like Novi and Northville and Chesterfield Township and Washington Township. New homes, new malls were being built every day yet in Detroit entire neighborhoods disappeared only to return to nature. If Whites and suburban living Blacks wanted to live in Detroit proper, the development would have happened. It would have been demanded but the people wanted to live that sprawl lifestyle that Brooks talks about all the time.
So the question is why did they leave? Can't really say why they left. I suppose a number of things came into play which brought about the decline of Detroit.
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