Actually the election of Coleman Young as Mayor killed Detroit.
It delivered a very clear signal to whites that “You are not welcome here. I am going to do everything in my power to take revenge on you.”
They began fleeing in droves. Creating a city in which blacks ultimately did not want to live either.
Eh. Everyone got the diagnosis wrong. Detroit had placed all their eggs in one basket. When the auto industry was decimated, so did the jobs. They need to do what Pittsburgh did, reinvent itself which the Steel City did successfully with a high tech medical care industry and a thriving university scene.