[karpodiem]

I live on Virginia Park St., just a couple blocks north of the Fisher building, between Second and Woodward (New Center). I grew up in Troy, MI - went to school at UofM. Hometown guy, I've seen a good portion of the metropolitan area.

You are spot-on; until it's safe to raise a family in Detroit (which, based on the lead and heavy metals residing in the soil from the torn down structures, this may never happen) I can't see myself raising a family in the city. I'll be moving to the suburbs, if I'm still living Detroit.

D3 and Loveland are doing a great job documenting the upcoming housing apocalypse - and I don't care how geneous the city gets with payment terms to the debtors, if there is no present or future income to service the debt, it's game over.

For as much building as going on in Midtown/Downtown along with the new entertainment megaplex that Illitch is constructing, there is a two factorial amount that's decaying in concrete/wood/basic raw building materials, because there is zero disposable resident income to upkeep the property.

The city will have to decompose fully to thrive. I've sometimes played with with the idea in my head to split Detroit into three or four separate cities (to help certain portions thrive), but this of course would be politically untenable.

ps - See the 'Detroit by Air' article from a few days ago.