Sad to say, the riots in ‘67 persuaded huge numbers of people to leave. White residents left in big numbers, and so did big numbers of black residents. Decent black people don’t want to live in a ghetto any more than white people do.
Did they ever do the urban homesteading thing in Detroit? Some cities have had some success with those, where you can buy distressed properties for low prices, in exchange for promises to renovate and live there.
Then again, would anything work for a place where decent people just don’t want to live???????
As anywhere else, there are small pockets of “remainders.” They should be allowed to homestead large tracts of the land to do with as they please. The place would be standing tall in a generation. The land is likely fertile, having been unplanted for a hundred years....
Ooops...got the year wrong. I think ‘68 was Watts. The Race Riots were like one long blur to me.
Whites were leaving before the riots. Both sides of my family left Old Redford for Livonia and Farmington Hills in the early 60’s. The riots really opened the floodgates and Coleman Young was the final nail.