Detroit is alive and well, if you are a politician.

There are almost a million less people than there was in the 1950s. 200,000 less than 10 yers ago.
Yes the city has some fabulous areas. (How many rock stars, athletes and CEOs live in the city limits?) Even DAve Bing had to MOVE into the city to run for mayor..
But there is nothing (ok, very little) opportunity for the people who live in the city to make a living, shop at a real grocery store, or pick up a few quick items at Wally World. Because there are NO name brand franchise stores in the city. Not really sure why that is.

There was a time when Wally World offered classes at one (maybe more) Detroit high school teaching the skills needed to be a greeter or some other great position at Wally World. Problem is, there are no Wally Worlds in Detroit. So these Wally World students have to get on a D-DOT bus, take it to the city limits and either jump a SEMTA bus to the northern or southern burbs for a Wally World. They CANNOT get a bus to Livonia WAlly World because the good folks of the wonder bread capital USA voted to kick SEMTA out so that "those" people would not ride into LIviona via I-96 to shop at Meijers or Wally World.

ILlich has been allowed to use imminent domain to build his empire on Woodward which includes the FOX Theater, Comerica PArk and Hockey Town. Now he wants to force more landowners to goie up what is theirs and give it to him to relocate the hockey arena near the Illich compound.

So even the hard working folks in Detroit can lose their property to PROGRESS for pennies on the dollar--but hey--it's not like anyone else is wanting to but them, right?

And those who do live in one of the mansions that line certain areas (where are those?) pay a tax rate that amounts to extortion (but everyone pays that high rate, not everyone gets the services) for fire and police coverage. Because a house outside the covenanted mansion row will burn to the ground, or be burgled 5x faster than one on mansion row. But even a mansion has the chance to burn on a bad day.
Folks use the term GENTRIFICATION when talking about Detroit. Maybe that is an appropriate term? I see it as the powerful and influential feeding off the folks who are working themselves to death to pay taxes, get to a decent grocery store, and buy clothes so they MIGHT be able to get a ride, gas up the car and drive into the burbs to try and find employment. When that fails, well it usually ends up on the news as some hyped up lead story of how the citizens of the city have turned to self-indulgent acts to satisfy their cravings..

So is it the worse in the world? Doubtful. Have you seen any city India? Any city in Mexico? Central America? China? Detroit is far from the worse in the world.

What it is one of the worse at is allowing politicans and elected officials, from the school board to city council and all the Kilpatricks that have been and are yet to come, to run roughshod over their right to a humane existance and convincing the citizens they don't need no accountability or responsibility from their officials because "We are all in this together.' only when the city starts to stager, the officials are the first out with their war chests and the citizens are worse for the wear...