How many "yuppies" have actually moved to Detroit the past couple of years?

[313WX]

"BTW, in the 2010 census, the downtown/midtown census tracts actually saw a sizable net loss of people."

Not true. If you look at the NY Times Census tool for downtown and midtown tracts, you see a number of tracts that saw significant percentage increases in population. You also saw some tracts lose significant population percentage-wise. It's a mixed bag but the numbers don't back up a claim of a significant population loss in those areas.

As a whole, it was a net population loss.

[animatedmartian]

As a whole, it was a net population loss.

But it wasn't yuppie lost. Don't forget that the Brewster Projects were closed in 2008. That could have been 1,000 people by itself.

However, lets assume all those 1000 BP residents made less than $10,000 a year, you'd only need 250 yuppies making $40,000 a year to make up the loss in resident incomes. So while the population numeric seem negative, economically it all probably cancels out which is usually the case in gentrification.