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I know exactly the neighborhood you're talking about. I attended the University of Detroit Mercy. My family's history in Detroit goes back to the 1920s when my grandfather, an immigrant from Lebanon, owned a grocery store near 10th street. My father was a professor and later dean of the business school at UDM. All of my siblings attended UDM. My nephew attended Sacred Heart. I was baptised at old St. Maron's Church. I love Detroit's history. But I'm disgusted at what it's become. I think it needs to be leveled before it can ever heal. They should put all of their resources into demolition of urban blight. That's the promise that that criminal thug mayor ran on, but apparently the money which could have been used for that was instead used on his legal defense and the lawsuit the city had to pay for his criminal acts.

Detroit died in 1967 after the riots and has never risen again. Ironically, before those riots Detroit was considered "the City on the Go" -- national media outlets considered it a model city for urban renewal and race relations. And then that summer saw the worst race riot in the nation's history. Eventually the Los Angeles riots topped Detroit as the most destructive. But LA bounced back. Detroit never did.

Detroit died in 1967 after the riots and has never risen again.

Yes, Detroit used to be one of the most beautiful and livable cities in the U.S. It was once called the "City of Churches," wasn't it? You can still see that beauty amid the blight. In most cities, you have pockets of blight with surrounding areas of prosperity. In Detroit, you a have sea of devestation with pockets of prosperity. I remember every Friday after classes I'd drive from the seminary out to Royal Oak or Dearborn just to find a coffee shop and remember what civilization liked like.

The city never seems to hit bottom either. There's never any moment of "clarity," as alcohalics put it. Detroit has got to be the most reactionary liberal city in the U.S. Although certain improvements have been made in recent years, living there is like being stuck in the '70's. No matter how bad it gets, they never seem to turn things around. Doubly sad, because it was once such a beautiful, civilized place.

Ironically, before those riots Detroit was considered "the City on the Go" -- national media outlets considered it a model city for urban renewal and race relations.

And Mayor Jerome Kavanaugh was being touted as the "next John Kennedy." A raid on a blind pig at 5AM changed his life (and that of Detroit) forever.