Detroit's problems go a ways back to the Depression and losing out on subway funds to Chicago, and to following Robert Moses' style of city building with efficient freeways and conveniently located factories that just happened to displace vibrant minority populations time after time in the 50s-60s, well on it's way to becoming a "Model City" before the riots happened, but without a Jane Jacobs successfully organizing citizens to rally around their neighborhoods. Now the racial and class divide is built up to the point that few things outside of forcing people from the exurbs back into the suburbs is hard enough, let alone the city.
And it's sad because the buildings, not just those pictured above, are simply beautiful in the city, density (...in building form) in a natural way is already built into parts of the city (both inhabited and abandoned), and the cultural centers are amazing. Unfortunately the city's and suburbs are not dense enough to actually sustain mass transit, freeways cut up the city into unsustainable neighborhoods and make walking a decent distance hard, and the stigma that blankets people from the city vs. the suburbs (especially in general conversation) is ridiculous.
Some day...
