Census Bureau has good news for Detroit: Population loss is slowing

**Carey** · June-28-12, 08:51 AM

I'm looking for more details. This is on Deadline Detroit:
http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/artic...ationwide_boom

**iheartthed** · June-28-12, 08:57 AM

I was just about to post the full article. Here is the relevant quote:

—The city of Chicago added nearly 9,000 people last year compared to annual losses of roughly 20,000 in the last decade, having benefited as fewer moved to the outlying exurban areas of Will and Kendall counties. Detroit saw much smaller losses last year, a sign that its 25 percent decline over the past decade has bottomed out.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47992439.../#.T-xihhdDuSs

**Hermod** · June-28-12, 09:25 AM

"Detroit Population Loss Slows as Cities Nationwide Boom"

Do we understand the disconnect between a "slowing loss" for Detroit and cities nationwide "boom"?

**Scottathew** · June-28-12, 09:28 AM

Detroit is running out of people, that's why the loss is slowing!

Slowly as poor people lift themselves out of poverty they are moving out to the suburbs. With the economy starting to pick up again look for the migration to pick up.

**rex** · December-15-14, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

Detroit is running out of people, that's why the loss is slowing!

Slowly as poor people lift themselves out of poverty they are moving out to the suburbs. With the economy starting to pick up again look for the migration to pick up.

The poor are moving out of poverty? If anything residents with the money to leave have and those left behind cant afford to go anywhere.

**illwill** · June-28-12, 09:29 AM

So it's safe to say we've just about bottomed out at 700,000 people?

**Crumbled_pavement** · June-28-12, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by illwill

So it's safe to say we've just about bottomed out at 700,000 people?

NO! I live in the city and the outmigration hardly seems like it has slowed down. In fact, it seems to have picked up steam.

Trust me, unless something radically different happens in the next 8 years, Detroit will not post a population above [[or even at) 500K in 2020.

**313WX** · June-28-12, 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by Crumbled_pavement

NO! I live in the city and the outmigration hardly seems like it has slowed down. In fact, it seems to have picked up steam.

Trust me, unless something radically different happens in the next 8 years, Detroit will not post a population above [[or even at) 500K in 2020.

Agreed.

They were blocks that were still intact even in 2010 that have bombed out now.

Not to get into conspiracy theories, but given Hermod's response and now that Detroit is no longer considered by most a "big city", I wonder if the last fifty years was in fact a social experiment to force Detroit into becoming an even smaller portion of Michigan, that way it wouldn't out-represent other towns in the state. The hate for the city does go back even into the 1800s. I say this because all of a sudden, after all of the damage has been done, everyone decides to show an interest in the city again.

**Meddle** · June-28-12, 09:33 AM

Simply put, the ones that could afford to leave have left. The rest are stuck and couldn't leave if they wanted to.

**Hermod** · June-28-12, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Simply put, the ones that could afford to leave have left. The rest are stuck and couldn't leave if they wanted to.

Eventually the crooks [[both government and free lance) will run out of stuff to steal in the city and will move out as well.

**thecarl** · June-30-12, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Simply put, the ones that could afford to leave have left. The rest are stuck and couldn't leave if they wanted to.

It's important to consider the folks that cannot [[or won't) move because of their age, health, or lifetime attachment to their home - and these people typically have family members that stay in the city for the sole purpose of making sure their loved ones are cared for. As the older generation fades, their caretakers will leave the city too.

**313WX** · June-28-12, 10:08 AM

48091 and Meddle are absolutely correct.

Take that article with a very tiny grain of salt.

**Gistok** · June-28-12, 10:22 AM

Interestingly enough I was just looking at some pics of Frankfurt Germany... it has just 695,000 people, about Detroit's size. But that's where the similarities end.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt

**Det_ard** · June-28-12, 11:22 AM

"We're #18! We're #18!"

18th largest city in the US. But El Paso and Memphis are rising so we'll be #20 soon.

There's little new housing being built in metro Detroit so if metro Detroit's population stabilizes then Detroit's population stabilizes by default -- there are few "openings" in the suburbs for Detroiters to move to.

**iheartthed** · June-28-12, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by Det_ard

"We're #18! We're #18!"

18th largest city in the US. But El Paso and Memphis are rising so we'll be #20 soon.

There's little new housing being built in metro Detroit so if metro Detroit's population stabilizes then Detroit's population stabilizes by default -- there are few "openings" in the suburbs for Detroiters to move to.

Memphis is only growing by annexing its suburbs. The inner-city there looks a lot like Detroit... Except there are a lot more empty lots.

**dtowncitylover** · June-28-12, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Memphis is only growing by annexing its suburbs. The inner-city there looks a lot like Detroit... Except there are a lot more empty lots.

Fieger was on with Mitch Albom yesterday evening and said Detroit should start to annex suburbs like Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills so the city can have a stable tax base...

**313WX** · June-28-12, 02:26 PM

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

Fieger was on with Mitch Albom yesterday evening and said Detroit should start to annex suburbs like Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills so the city can have a stable tax base...

Sounds like a plan to me...

**dtowncitylover** · June-28-12, 02:32 PM

Originally Posted by 313WX

Sounds like a plan to me...

Oh yeah, but it will never happen.

But then if it does, could we call downtown Birmingham, "Uptown"?

**coracle** · July-01-12, 06:56 AM

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

Fieger was on with Mitch Albom yesterday evening and said Detroit should start to annex suburbs like Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills so the city can have a stable tax base...

If the idea of annexing suburbs to subsidize Detroit residents came about there would be an unending line of moving vehicles crawling south on 75 until the area was empty rather than shovel their money into a bottomless pit. Better idea is to annex Fieger's company and the like and persuade all the Lawyers to leave town - now that would be good for everybody as they don't add value to anything in city or suburbs.

**TTime** · December-14-14, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Memphis is only growing by annexing its suburbs. The inner-city there looks a lot like Detroit... Except there are a lot more empty lots.

I was just in Memphis and it does have a similar feel to Detroit but Detroit has way more empty lots than Memphis. It's not even a contest.

**iheartthed** · December-14-14, 04:07 PM

Originally Posted by TTime

I was just in Memphis and it does have a similar feel to Detroit but Detroit has way more empty lots than Memphis. It's not even a contest.

Downtown vs downtown or city vs city? I got the sense that downtown Memphis had demolished quite a lot more than downtown Detroit, but it's been a couple of years since I was last in Memphis. If you're talking about the entire city vs city then I'll cede that point to you.

I recall being sad about how much of Memphis's historic downtown had been demolished. Everything surrounding Beale Street was pretty much a giant parking lot. Walking from Beale to the Lorraine Hotel [[roughly half a mile) was mainly a stroll past gravel parking lots. I felt like a stroll of similar length in downtown Detroit would've taken you past an urban environment that was far more intact, even if largely populated by abandoned buildings.

**TTime** · December-14-14, 04:37 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Downtown vs downtown or city vs city? I got the sense that downtown Memphis had demolished quite a lot more than downtown Detroit, but it's been a couple of years since I was last in Memphis. If you're talking about the entire city vs city then I'll cede that point to you.

I recall being sad about how much of Memphis's historic downtown had been demolished. Everything surrounding Beale Street was pretty much a giant parking lot. Walking from Beale to the Lorraine Hotel [[roughly half a mile) was mainly a stroll past gravel parking lots. I felt like a stroll of similar length in downtown Detroit would've taken you past an urban environment that was far more intact, even if largely populated by abandoned buildings.

Good point about the area surrounding Beale St. It was still basically wide open parking lots but I think that is partially by design because of the big music festivals they have. The downtown area definitely had some newer looking rehabs and development that felt very similar to Detroit's. City by city, the parts of Memphis that I saw had far less abandonment.

**Cincinnati_Kid** · June-29-12, 01:07 AM

Originally Posted by Det_ard

"We're #18! We're #18!"

18th largest city in the US. But El Paso and Memphis are rising so we'll be #20 soon.

There's little new housing being built in metro Detroit so if metro Detroit's population stabilizes then Detroit's population stabilizes by default -- there are few "openings" in the suburbs for Detroiters to move to.

And to think in 1980, thirty two years ago, we were the 5th largest city in the U.S.