Posted on 02/08/2005 5:00:55 AM PST by wmichgrad
DETROIT (AP) The number of Detroit residents has fallen below 900,000 for the first time since 1920, according to estimates released by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments.
The agency said Monday that its estimate of the city's population, as of Feb. 1, is 899,387. That's a 5.5-percent drop or 51,883 people since the 2000 U.S. Census, which showed the city had dropped below 1 million.
Detroit's population peaked at about 2 million in the early 1950s. Since 2000, when it had 951,270 residents, Detroit has lost the most people of any U.S. city with 100,000 or more residents.
"Clearly, that's sobering news," Howard Hughey, a spokesman for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, said of the SEMCOG estimate.
"A lot of this decline is economic flight and we're aggressively addressing the root of that flight," Hughey told the Detroit Free Press. "We will continue to add strategies to grow Detroit neighborhood by neighborhood."
Annual population estimates compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau usually count about 10,000 fewer residents than does SEMCOG. The annual Census Bureau estimates will be available in July.
On the Net:
Southeast Michigan Council of Governments: http://www.semcog.org/
U.S. Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/
I was working in the Detroit area about 7 years ago. Even at that time there were a reported 40000 abandoned properties within the city limits.
DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!
We have a winnah! Right-to-work-laws really WORK! and allow us to also!....
Not that far.
The Detroit metropolitan area is relatively well off with some of the richest areas in the country. The metro area has 5.5 million residents. The city of Detroit, once the hub of urban activity, has become the hole in the middle of the doughnut.
But it is still big enough to pay $24,995 to lease a Lincoln Navigator for the mayor's wife. Why $24,995? Because $25,000 would have required city council's approval.
Another problem with Detroit other then the idiot gangster mayor, corrupted police department, and decaying neighborhoods. There's a total lack of decent public transportation from outlying areas, a lack of decent inexpensive parking and the roads leading into the city leave a lot to be desired. I've lived here for 6 years and have only been to downtown Detroit once, and that was when I got lost going to the bridge to Canada. Other then the casinos there's no real incentive to go there. (Well I wouldn't mind going down and watching the Indians when they're in town but it's easier just to drive back to Cleveland for that :)).
You could be talking about Philadelphia. It seems they are losing
people. The school system was taken over by the state and the taxes drive business and wage earners out.
I think there's a bigger issue of changing times. Cities like Detroit grew because the Great Lakes were the best transportation route from East to West. Those days are gone.
Detroit's population peaked at about 2 million in the early 1950's...
And the city of Detroit started levying a personal city income tax in 1962.
Thanks for posting the link. Detroit has so many beautiful old buildings,neighborhoods & homes. Too bad everything is so decayed. With the current mayor and city council, we can expect more of the same.
Cleveland's mayor has decided that taxes alone just aren't enough. She wants to install red-light cameras to raise an extra $6M/yr for the city. Yes, she said it like that.
5.5 millions seems like more than enough. I can't see why a small drop would be any concern. No one ever worries about drops in rural population or large loss of farming areas.
What we are seeing here is Atlas Shrugged live. If Detroit does not lower taxes and make it attractive to live there again in 100 year the entire city will be a national park. Come see the ruins of a abandoned 20th century industrial city.
I've lived here for 6 years and have only been to downtown Detroit once, and that was when I got lost going to the bridge to Canada...
We have a friend who used to live in Royal Oak. The last time this friend's father was in Detroit city was when he stepped off the bus when he got home from WWII. Although he lived in the 'burbs all his life, he never set foot in Detroit again from then until the day he died.
What was the NFL drinking when the picked Detroit? And were do I get a case?
A friend of my wife live in the Detroit suburbs. She is getting married this year. Her and her fiance are buying a house in the burbs. They had a realtor who tried to talk them into some low cost (IE abandoned) fixer uppers in Detroit. They changed realtors. They would not move into Detroit on a bet.
Not all of them. You can't go on highway 19 in Florida without running into a couple of hundred of them. Everytime I go down there it seems like I hear one them say "Well in Detroit we did it this way." Who gives a rip!! Obviously they didn't like Detroit all that much.
ROTF......
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