Quote Originally Posted by mwilbert View Post
The article doesn't really capture the dynamics at work in Detroit, or where we are in that process. It is obvious that improving greater downtown isn't automatically going to fix the neighborhoods, but as you say, it fails to capture the spillover effects. If we start to see more redevelopment pushing up into the area between I-75 and the Lodge north of Grand Blvd, I think it is clear those neighborhoods will be benefiting from the revival of the core. In any case, the inequality problem in Detroit isn't primarily within the city, but within the region [[and country), and making part of the city more attractive to the better-off isn't very relevant to that problem.
I personally don't think you'll see the development spread without "plugging the hole in the bathtub." You'll see the obvious development in places where it has been deliberate, like along the light rail corridor. But you won't see a natural progression of rebounding neighborhoods like you do in places on the coasts for exactly the reason they say in the article: little is being done to address the decentralization of jobs and commerce in the region from a policy level.