Quote Originally Posted by Detroitnerd View Post
It's dynamite to talk about "shrinking" our cities.

What we're really trying to discuss, I think, is "retrenchment." Our development patterns have far outstripped what they needed to be. What we should be doing is furnishing a smaller footprint with services, amenities, and infrastructure, and letting much of the overexuberant development revert to agriculture, open space, and recreational land.

Imagine a metro region in, say, 2111, that is centered along main spoke thoroughfares, reaching out like the fingers of a hand with farms, parks, and natural beauty in between; that's something we could realistically achieve in a century.

But it won't happen while developers -- and their cronies in the legislature and our various, 100-plus city halls -- are in the driver's seat when it comes to regional planning.
IAWTC

Metro Detroit has been underperforming in population growth for quite a while, but much of the decay in Detroit and inner ring suburbs is due to bad [[or non-existent) land use and infrastructure policies. There isn't really much reason for Metro Detroit to cover the land area it does, since a significant amount of it was built after the region reached its population plateau in 1970.