Inept scavengers pulled down a substantial part of a pedestrian bridge at the defunct Packard Plant (a mile-long complex that stopped making cars in 1957) in an effort to retrieve its steel support beams. A few years ago, The Onion ran a headline “Detroit Sold for Scrap.” Funny because it’s true: One of the city’s few growth industries is scrapping. Once-grand factories are gutted and crumbling. Today, more than 40 of the city’s 139 square miles are empty at least 90,000 houses stand abandoned and neighborhood shopping districts are scarce. Between 20 alone, Detroit lost a remarkable 25 percent of its population, as massive long-term disinvestment, the collapse of the public infrastructure, and the near-death of the American auto industry devastated the city. Detroit has lost a lot of people-about 1.3 million-since its population peak of nearly two million in the early 1950s. No one lives there anymore.” I have heard those five words uttered again and again over the last four decades since my parents joined the great Boer Trek from city to suburb. Detroit City Is the Place to Be By Mark Binelli
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