I never said anything about segregation. Segregation is going to persist regardless of a unigov. Again, this has nothing to do with "fixing" Detroit or race relations. It has to do with creating a single voice for the region, lowering taxes for most residents, and streamlining government services to make things more efficient. Under a unigov the inner-city neighborhoods aren't going to magically be cured of all their social ills.

Also, studies would obviously be done showing how much a unigov would actually save the region in tax dollars, as well as the likely benefits and drawbacks to a unigov system.

Lastly, the whole idea that people who live in Rochester Hills would instantly think their neighborhood would become a crime infested ghetto with poor schools and terrible city services is silly. The word Detroit has two connotations: a negative one associated with the actual city [[crime, abandonmnent, corruption, etc.), and a generally positive one associated with the region [[sports teams, zoo, airport, corporations, etc.) A consolidated unigov would ultimately trend more toward the positive association.

Here's something many people don't realize: The city of Houston covers nearly 600 sq. mi. If the city of Detroit somehow annexed its inner-ring suburbs so that it also covered nearly 600 sq. mi., it would have about the same murder rate as the city of Houston. Such things as crime rates, etc. are one of the biggest factors in how people from around the world picture Detroit.

Perception is everything. With its current boundaries, Detroit is one of the supposed "Most Dangerous Cities" but if nothing else except the city boundaries changed, Detroit would instantly fall to the middle of the pack. The same would be true for other social and economic statistics.

There would still be extremely high crime and poverty rates in the inner-city, but those numbers would be highly diluted by the relatively low crime and poverty rates in the rest of the Tri-County area. Ultimately, as Detroit would fall from the "bad" lists and start showing up on the "good" lists, the general perception of the region as a whole would improve.