I would live in Detroit if they gave me the entire city free!
The closest town to me has a population of 420 and thats plenty for my tastes.
I wouldn't go that far. If they gave me the entire city free, I might be able to line up investors and make something of the place. Though I'd keep a residence in the South i could retreat to.
The problem with Detroit is that it has nothing to offer. You can get a big house there, well-built and in good shape, for next to nothing, and maybe even in a pretty safe neighborhood -- but there are no jobs that would let you pay for it. Bottom line, if there are no jobs there is no city.
The only way to save Detroit -- and even this might not work -- is to give someone or someones large tracts and give them free rein to fix some structures and raze others. Build an industrial park and restore the houses around it. Offer tax incentives for businesses to locate there.
Create jobs, and workers will appear. That was what built Detroit in the first place. The big 3 automakers threw out the welcome mat and folks flocked to fill the jobs. Especially blacks in the South, who had few opportunities close to home, and who would use any cash they could beg, borrow or steal to get a train or bus ticket so they could work in a Ford plant.
With the bad climate (I don't like cold), bad reputation for crime, the shrinking job base as American auto manufacturing has shrunk, Detroit is at the point where civic leaders should be charging the defib paddles and yelling "clear!"
Jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs. That is what builds or rebuilds a city. Detroit can't sell an acre for a dime, because the pool of jobs is shrinking. Folks are moving out, even abandoning outright houses they cant sell. Atlanta is generating jobs, and we can't stop the influx. We could set up a picket line around Chattanooga or Kennesaw, but we tried that before and it ended badly.