Quote Originally Posted by Detroitnerd View Post
The future for the exurbs is grim. Given rising fuel costs and heating costs, as well as changing tastes among the young, these areas simply will not be able to sustain themselves. Whereas cities are very durable. Detroit may look like hell now, but let's not forget that the population of Rome went from 1.5 million to about 15,000. But look at Rome today. It survives today. But suburbanization has been a 100-year experiment at a time of cheap fuel and roads. We should be intelligently retrenching and rebuilding the city, not making last-ditch efforts to preserve exurban communities.

But don't take my word for it. There are plenty of people on the forum putting forth that argument.
Cities only make sense when there is a purpose for them.

When Detroit can define a purpose, then I can imagine justifying it's existence for years afterward. As it is right now, it hasn't done so for the 21st century world. It's got to do so quick, or be consigned to the dustbin of history. Just because you wish it to be the center of the region, doesn't make it the most logical one.