Why can't Detroit annex neighbouring cities to regain its population?

[crawford]

Why?.

Are you serious? There was a huge drop in inner suburban property values in the 1970's following court-ordered busing. Once the busing was overturned on appeal, the property values rose again.

Can you imagine what would have happened if the ruling were upheld?

Yes, correlation does not imply causation, but it's generally agreed that [[given the fact that the only municipalities which experienced property value drops were within the proposed metropolitan school district) that what was perceived as the threat of metro-wide ghetto schools was enough to send people to other communities.

And, if not a tri-county unigovernment, why not consolidate Wayne County with Detroit to rename Wayne County the new City of Detroit like they did with Louisville, Kentucky? .

This would be even worse, because instead of forcing people to move from generally desirable areas like Oakland County, you would be inviting people to move from generally undesirable areas in Wayne County.

And it's much easier to abandon Wayne County than abandon the entire tri-county area.