The real Detroit? Hey from the UK :)

[rb336]

Right, it wasn't the crime, incompetent government, dwindling City services, bad schools, or any of the other factors that drove people away, it was the freeways!

The decline of Detroit started in the 50s. I-75 opened in 1959. M-10, in some form, has existed since the 1960s. White flight started well before the issues you raise

[Honky Tonk]

The decline of Detroit started in the 50s. I-75 opened in 1959. M-10, in some form, has existed since the 1960s. White flight started well before the issues you raise

The issues I raised started well before the '67 riots. Those were merely the cherry on the sundae. People didn't start taking off because the City was a warm and fuzzy place to be.

[rb336]

The issues I raised started well before the '67 riots. Those were merely the cherry on the sundae. People didn't start taking off because the City was a warm and fuzzy place to be.

and white flight started FIRST. Here is some data for you:

homicide rate:
1950 - 6.1%
1960 - 10.3%
1970 - 32.7%

robberies per 100,000 residents:
1950 - 125
1960 - 239
1970 - 1537

% of population that is white
1950 - 83.6
1960 - 70.8
1970 - 56.0

deeper demographics indicate those who left earliest were the wealthiest - professional-class whites - lawyers, doctors, small-business owners who built homes on lakefronts in OC - where they could essentially live like the landed gentry of England. they left, largely, in the 40s. in the late 40s, early 50s GI Bill vets got educations, joined the professional classes and also left, followed, in the late 50s and 60s, by higher-paid union workers who filled up the inner-ring burbs. The increasing dominance of low-wage workers resulted in soaring crime rates, and that created a nasty feed-back loop that exploded in 1967. that, accompanied by changes in housing laws due to the civil rights laws, resulted in more and more affluent African Americans fleeing the city, all of which led directly to the Detroit we have today