Start of Detroit's downturn

[313WX]

You can speculate about whether is was the riot of '67, S.T.R.E.S.S., Roman Gribbs, etc. etc. But in my opinion this was the beginning of the down turn of Detroit.

I disagree.

If anything, I would say moving the capital to Lansing, moving U of M to Ann Arbor and Michigan's Home Rule Cities Act sealed Detroit's fate.

Those things were done PURPOSELY to choke off Detroit's growth, even before the days of Coleman Young.

Long story short, it was silly idea that every nook and cranny in this state had to be a major city like Detroit that led us to where we are now.

[Hermod]

If anything, I would say moving the capital to Lansing, moving U of M to Ann Arbor and Michigan's Home Rule Cities Act sealed Detroit's fate.

I guess that the schools no longer require kids to memorize all of the states of the union and the capitols of each state. If you did, you would notice that the capitol of a state is very, very rarely the largest or most important city in the state.

New York-Albany, Massachusetts-Springfield, Florida-Tallahassee, Pennsylvania-Harrisburg, California-Sacramento, Texas-Austin, Louisiana-Baton Rouge.

In a similar manner, states have, for the most part, located the major state university in some bucolic little college town that only grew as the university itself grew.