Over the last few weeks, the city of Detroit has become America’s favorite urban cautionary tale. The largest U.S. city ever to go bankrupt has been called everything from a failure of self-government to a glimpse into the future for America’s cities.
But when you step back and look at the numbers, it becomes clear that Detroit is different. The mix of depopulation, economic shifts and racial problems that hit Detroit combined to create an unmatched set of trials – or at least unmatched for a city of its size and scale. [cont.]
Dante Chinni, Wall Street Journal