There has been a string of media stories about how Detroit, the collapsed former center of the global car industry, has improved. The Detroit Lions advanced to the NFL playoffs for the first time in decades. Downtown has a great deal of new construction, led by Rocket Mortgage, Quickloan, and billionaire city booster Dan Gilbert. Ford Motor has rebuilt the aged Michigan Central Station building, which had been shuttered for 36 years. However, Detroit is still the fastest shrinking city in America and among its poorest. It is also perceived as a dangerous place to visit.
Gallup’s “Safest Cities” poll was first conducted in 1990. The most recent edition’s results are based on data gathered last July. Gallup titled the 2023 study Americans Rate Dallas and Boston Safest of 16 U.S. Cities. Detroit was in last place. Seventy-three percent of people who responded said the city was “unsafe.” While the views of safety in some cities in the survey have changed since 2006, Detroit’s number stayed the same. These are America’s best cities to live in.
Detroit suffers from several disadvantages. While the downtown area near the Detroit River and the Ambassador Bridge to Canada has been rebuilt, much of Detroit’s 142 square miles remain blighted. The city has about 50,000 abandoned houses.
Detroit has lost much of its population in the last few decades. The city’s population in 1950 was 1,849,568. In 2022, the figure was 620,376. Detroit’s poverty rate, according to the Census, is a staggering 31.5%.
If Detroit does become America’s most significant metro revival, it will not happen for some time.
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