In my line of work I frequently use different techniques to find [[and hopefully eliminate) the root cause of a problem. Typically we tend to try to fix symptoms rather than the root cause. In doing so the problem will resurface and also, eliminating the root cause will often take away several symptoms.

Following the discussions on this forum from far, and not really in touch with Detroit any more, I got curious about the root causes [[there's probably more than one) of the problems you face and the reason why the city is in the shape it is. There are plenty of reasons to choose from, but they are often related, so which is the hen and which is the egg? Trick is to keep asking “Why is that?” until you have no more answers. You either found a root cause or – worse – a vicious cycle or re-enforcing loop.

Don’t have any answers and not really looking for a simple solution, but it would be interesting to hear some ideas. Just to name a few I found in various topics in this forum, in no particular order: crime, drugs, incompetent politicians, racism, the economy, poverty, unemployment, attitude, ….

Cheers!