Quote Originally Posted by Crumbled_pavement View Post
You obviously have not been in Detroit recently. I've seen whole neighborhoods that were populated 5 - 6 years ago burned to the ground. There are lots of neighborhoods in Detroit that are just decimated, from being abandoned, scrapped, burned up, whatever. It is very believable that we lost 50k in the last two years. If we didn't, I'd love to know where they're living now. Almost every neighborhood in the city has at least one burnt, abandoned, or stripped home. Many blocks are littered with these type of residences. Personally, I'd say Detroit probably has 700k+ residents.
At Detroit's estimated 2009 population density of 6,370 people per square mile, losing 50,000 residents would have clear out nearly 8 square miles in just two years. Again, very hard to believe that 6% of the city's land area was abandoned in just two years [[albeit not impossible).

ETA: This should be pretty easily verifiable through any data published by moving truck rental companies...