[thephyber]

My perception (never been) is that Detroit used to have 1million+ more residents 50 years ago, but when the core industry (automotive industry) was wooed to the South and Canada/Mexico, those who could afford to left the region.

There is some recovery happening. A few select neighborhoods are thriving with creatives and strong local community.

But city services are slow and expensive because they were built out for 2x the population/infra but have been starved of funding as houses went condemned and utilities bills/property taxes went unpaid.

[jareds]

This is my experience as well pre Covid. I switched jobs in 2021 and have not been back down town so who knows how much of this still applys. I worked in down town Detroit for ten years but lived in the suburbs. Once Rocket Mortgage and associated Dan Gilbert businesses moved down town there was a lot more activity and stuff going on in a couple square mile area. There's still a lot of run down area's surrounding the fairly nice down town area. If I had started working five years later I would have probably lived down town instead of the suburbs.