[dandanisaur]

These articles always crack me up. This sounds great on paper, but the city is still messed up (and probably irreparable in my lifetime).

The article is talking about Downtown Detroit (as in 3-4 square miles). Detroit itself is a MUCH larger city... 130+ square miles. Not to mention... you only have 600k residents living in those 130 square miles. Focusing on 1% of the area (for the white and rich) is not going to help the rest catch up.

[karpodiem]

At some point you have to cut your losses and tell those people to relocate or pay for services outside the footprint the city is able to serve. Or let those residents incorporate into a new city and break Detroit up into 6 or 7 new city municipalities and have the State reboot it.

It hasn't come to that yet since the bankruptcy case has closed, but without the state of Michigan serving as a financial backstop, I am generally skeptical that Detroit City Council can manage a pool of money without going bankrupt. By the way, keep an eye on the pension funding levels for city employees, that is the next shoe to drop.

Downtown has to thrive and be a destination so Detroit can be a place for companies to relocate so that it can compete with other cities throughout the country for talent.