A city doesn't make mistakes, people do, more specifically, elected people, even more specifically, democrats.
feel the pain of those mistakes so its less likely to make them again
Pipe dream. If Detroit somehow comes out of this mess, the people will keep electing the same kind of people that got them in the first mess. To think otherwise is like I said - pipe dream.
If Detroit ever elected a conservative mayor who somehow fixed everything in 8 years, the people would just elected some liberal who would just crash it again.
Its what Liberals do.