Detroit's Problem is a Lack of Job, Not Too Much Gentrification

[JBMcB]

Part of the problem is that these "low wage jobs" tend to be dead-end.

I know a half dozen people who started out in "dead end" low wage jobs. If you show up to work on time and do what you're told, you get promoted fairly rapidly, as you are ahead of a lot of others in the labor pool. If you show some initiative and interest in your job, you get promoted faster. You might not be making enough to support a family, at first at least, but you'll make enough to live on.

This is what entry level "dead end" jobs are for. Nobody is going to hire you at $20/hour if they don't already know you are going to be a decent worker. You prove that by holding down a crappy job at $10/hour for a couple of years.