What is wrong with Detroit?

A lot of people in Chicago, it seems, come from Michigan. Usually, if you ask someone where they're from, they'll say, "Detroit. Well, actually the suburbs." I've met one person who grew up in the actual city of Detroit, and it was a bad neighborhood. I guess anyone who cares about raising their kids in a decent area would never live in the city, so the suburbs have expanded.

Are there any normal neighborhoods in the city of Detroit? I'm sure there are a few--even in the 1970's, after the normal people left Chicago by the late 1960's, there were still a few neighborhoods that were decent, but anyone who cared about their kids would do anything to avoid raising them there. Now there are several quite decent neighborhoods, though the city of Chicago still has problems (of course).

I found an article via Black Informant about some of the wonderful people in Detroit:

The most vocal self-styled spokespersons have all but turned a blind eye to reality. Detroiters are increasingly poor, undereducated, unproductive and dependent under their watch. The unemployment rate in the city, unchanged even in good economic times, is more than twice the national average. Economic vitality is an alien concept. The city that I dearly love lags far behind other cities in the region in business opportunity and prosperity. Which leads me to the painful conclusion that the so-called strategy of demagogues who disparage and vilify job creators is fatally flawed and destructive...

...Cash-strapped Detroiters are forced to live with development inertia as common sense and common interests take a back seat to personal agendas.

Any challenges to the conventional wisdom are met with a stern rebuke. One recent example is when business and corporate leaders were accused of trying to dictate educational policy by advocating a continuation of school reforms. Community leaders launched a vicious assault against their intervention. Comparing them to the Klan was the least of the insults and admonitions.

I’m still dumbfounded over the treatment of Robert Thompson, the white philanthropist from Plymouth who wanted to contribute $200 million to new school construction. Thompson was rudely told by protectors of the status quo to essentially “go to hell.”

...Hostility and intolerance toward private-sector voices deprives Detroiters of the opportunity to explore and expand business formation, which is perhaps the single most critically important element needed for the creation of a truly revitalized city. This mindless, ill-informed approach — which is somehow being confused with the concept of black pride — is not in our collective interest and will ultimately be our undoing unless we wake up and smell the stench of the reality that surrounds us.

If I had to live in Detroit, I would live in the city--I love cities, (thus the word "Metro" in front of "lingua"), but I can't imagine a bunch of hysterical people not wanting improvement or work.