I was there about 10 years ago for a 'walk-down' for a big municipal project we were bidding on and got back into a number of "neighborhoods" off the main streets to look at various 'infrastructure' that needed replaced.
Some of those old streets were lined with what were once beautiful old houses --- Victorian, Craftsman style from the early 1900s, that were either boarded up or burned out. Hundreds of them -- sometimes blocks long. Weeds growing up all around. It reminds me now of that stupid show about life after people but that is what parts of Detroit look like.
In other cities, those places would have been the dream of the "This Old House" gentrification set --- they would have been rehabilitated and become a Yuppie haven.
Even the Yuppies won't venture into Detroit. That is a message.
Turning it back into pasture is probably the best option. At least the city would not need to pretend thay provide service there.
Liberalism’s fruit. Destroyed families, aborted babies, burned-out cities. And no fair questioning their premises, good intentions, or intelligence.