I live near Detroit, and have for over 40 years. It has been in bad shape my entire life. The auto industry hasn't helped it, but the real problem in Detroit is one of race and money leaving the city in the 1960's. Honestly, many white people with money got out of the city as soon as African Americans started moving into it. This was around World War 2, and the "white flight" as we call it started. We (white people) tended to migrate north and west, but not really south of the city. In fact, I live in a city that is as remote to your images of Detroit as a Siberian island is to St. Petersburg. From this exodus, things just went downhill. This is not a racist comment - the blacks just didn't have the money to keep the city up. Plus, Detroit elected Coleman Young as mayor in the 1970's and out of pride, he refused any help from white people. This didn't work. In the 1970s when the US Government was trying to develop a neutron bomb, we always said Detroit needed the opposite of this bomb: one that would destroy buildings, but keep the people alive. We also joked that the USSR would never bomb Detroit, because it was already in bad shape. There are signs of hope in Detroit - the downtown isn't all that bad. But, I know nobody I know will go down there, except for baseball and football games (we have no choice if we want to watch our pro teams). But, when Americans want a good feeling for what Berlin looked like in 1945, we just go to Detroit, if we dare.