Detroit, the case of the shrinking city

A case in point, DETROIT

All sorts of things are happening in Detroit that don’t seem to be happening in many, if any, other places.

The best-known of those is the city’s depopulation trend. That’s been happening for a while now, but over the first decade of the 21st century, just as we started to read stories about how Detroit had turned a corner after 40 years or so and was finally ready for a comeback, the bottom fell out. 

• In 1950, it had nearly 1.9 million people and was the fifth-largest city in the US. 
  • In 2000, the city had just under a million residents and was the tenth-largest city in the US by population. 
  • By 2010, Detroit’s population cratered to 713,777 – a 25% decline in a single decade.
  
  One thing about this data that catches my eye is that the population of the larger Detroit region doesn’t change that much between 1970 (about 4.5 million) and 2010 (about 4.3 million). 
  I don’t really see how a city can lose 25% of its population and be healthy. It’s possible that Detroit is now at its optimal size, but I’m going to wait for some concrete results before I’ll believe that the city has finally risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes.

REACTIONS. Defend them

The Telegraph visits the abandoned skyscrapers of Detroit, USA, 

 Alastair Good meets the residents who are searching for solutions.

•  Everyone has left the city, and the government remains. Has it ever occurred to anyone that the problem is government? 
• I have been telling the people that I have the solution for Detroit: Lease Detroit  to the chinese for 99 years. They would transform it into an emporium of manufacturing, financial mecca and a mega distribution neural center.
• That GM, Ford and all of the other companies that used to reside here are now gone because of rules, regulations and policies implemented by government? 
• I wonder what would happen if the Detroit government relocated somewhere? 
• I can only imagine the industriousness that would return, once all of the barriers to entry were dismantled and free enterprise/free reign on ideas was allowed to flourish. 
• Liberals wince and foam at the mouth at a notion like that. However, that is what this nation was founded upon. 
• Maybe we could create a 'private property/free enterprise zone' within Detroit.....ONLY Detroit.....and watch and wait to see what happens. If it fails, the city would be no worse off than it is now. If it succeeded, Michigan could slowly extend this zone out to encompass larger and larger areas and become a powerhouse.