Quote Originally Posted by mwilbert View Post
If you think that the problem is the "hollowing-out" of the region, then a Detroit Works-style initiative can't fix it. However, I don't think that is actually the problem. In my view, the problem is that in the process of hollowing-out, you lose most of the parts of the region that are actually urban, leaving a region that is missing a key type of living and working arrangement.

There are two fundamental ideas behind a city shrinkage plan. One is to reduce costs and/or improve services by reducing the area being served. The second is to make the urban areas denser and more viable. That is the part that is important to the region.

It doesn't matter to the region if anyone is living near City Airport.
I don't see the difference between the two interpretations, at least in regards to Detroit's situation. It's not like dense inner-city neighborhoods are being abandoned for similarly dense suburban areas. The trend -- as I have interpreted it -- has been to allow increasingly lower density developments on the urban fringe that have had the effect of destabilizing the population in the denser core areas. Detroit Works does not [[and cannot) address that. And really, only the state has the power to address that right now.