Detroit's population falls to lowest level since 1920

MLive.com ^ | February 8, 2005 | The Associated Press

[t_skoz]

The Ruins Of Detroit

Detroit, home of both American Industrial Revolutions... this'll bring a tear to your eye...

[hubbubhubbub]

I was working in the Detroit area about 7 years ago. Even at that time there were a reported 40000 abandoned properties within the city limits.

[Red Badger]

Unions are still too strong to make it affordable to do business there, compared to the non-union sunbelt.

DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!

We have a winnah! Right-to-work-laws really WORK! and allow us to also!....

[CharacterCounts]

Have they all already ran away to Kanada?

Not that far.

The Detroit metropolitan area is relatively well off with some of the richest areas in the country. The metro area has 5.5 million residents. The city of Detroit, once the hub of urban activity, has become the hole in the middle of the doughnut.

[KarlInOhio]

But it is still big enough to pay $24,995 to lease a Lincoln Navigator for the mayor's wife. Why $24,995? Because $25,000 would have required city council's approval.

[leprechaun9]

Newark, NJ had a peak population of ~480,000 in the 1940s. In the 2000 census, that total had dropped to ~220,000.

One of the factors in this reduction is the final demolishing of the high rise ghetto voting centers. I believe these overpopulated areas were done by the politicians to create large concentrated voting blocks. Also that is why Government spending is concentrated in those areas.

My dad used to say that land development with these high density population centers were similar to the farmer who overplants his land, kills the soil and the land has to lay dormant until it can be replanted. My dad also said that only after the high rise ghetto centers of the cities are demolished and replaced with housing density that can maintain a decent quality of life, will the city be restored.

In the United States, ~75% of the pople live on ~10% of the land (most in the Socialist Northeast). For example, (the last time I did this was about 10 years ago) the population distribution for the four time zones was:

East = 50%
Central = 35%
Mountain = 5%
Western = (10%)

This distribution and the high population urban cities are factors in the push to get rid of the ELECTORAL COLLEGE!

[whershey]

Another problem with Detroit other then the idiot gangster mayor, corrupted police department, and decaying neighborhoods. There's a total lack of decent public transportation from outlying areas, a lack of decent inexpensive parking and the roads leading into the city leave a lot to be desired. I've lived here for 6 years and have only been to downtown Detroit once, and that was when I got lost going to the bridge to Canada. Other then the casinos there's no real incentive to go there. (Well I wouldn't mind going down and watching the Indians when they're in town but it's easier just to drive back to Cleveland for that :)).

[oldironsides]

You could be talking about Philadelphia. It seems they are losing
people. The school system was taken over by the state and the taxes drive business and wage earners out.

[decimon]

This is what happens when a city is run by a bunch of corrupt gangster thugs.

I think there's a bigger issue of changing times. Cities like Detroit grew because the Great Lakes were the best transportation route from East to West. Those days are gone.

[elli1]

Detroit's population peaked at about 2 million in the early 1950's...

And the city of Detroit started levying a personal city income tax in 1962.

[PilloryHillary]

Thanks for posting the link. Detroit has so many beautiful old buildings,neighborhoods & homes. Too bad everything is so decayed. With the current mayor and city council, we can expect more of the same.

[Fudd]

Uh.. why not just raise taxes, that'll bring 'them' flocking back.

Cleveland's mayor has decided that taxes alone just aren't enough. She wants to install red-light cameras to raise an extra $6M/yr for the city. Yes, she said it like that.

[FITZ]

5.5 millions seems like more than enough. I can't see why a small drop would be any concern. No one ever worries about drops in rural population or large loss of farming areas.

[IamConservative]

I simply can't imagine how promiscuous sex, STD's, abortion, rampant drug use and gang violence in a city with a very large welfare class could lead to a decline in population. This is the "great society" is it not? Everyone living on the government, no personal responsibility, no ownership society. What could have gone wrong?

[TXBSAFH]

What we are seeing here is Atlas Shrugged live. If Detroit does not lower taxes and make it attractive to live there again in 100 year the entire city will be a national park. Come see the ruins of a abandoned 20th century industrial city.

[elli1]

I've lived here for 6 years and have only been to downtown Detroit once, and that was when I got lost going to the bridge to Canada...

We have a friend who used to live in Royal Oak. The last time this friend's father was in Detroit city was when he stepped off the bus when he got home from WWII. Although he lived in the 'burbs all his life, he never set foot in Detroit again from then until the day he died.

[TXBSAFH]

What was the NFL drinking when the picked Detroit? And were do I get a case?

[TXBSAFH]

A friend of my wife live in the Detroit suburbs. She is getting married this year. Her and her fiance are buying a house in the burbs. They had a realtor who tried to talk them into some low cost (IE abandoned) fixer uppers in Detroit. They changed realtors. They would not move into Detroit on a bet.

[American Vet Repairman]

Not all of them. You can't go on highway 19 in Florida without running into a couple of hundred of them. Everytime I go down there it seems like I hear one them say "Well in Detroit we did it this way." Who gives a rip!! Obviously they didn't like Detroit all that much.

[international american]

ROTF......