It's fun to write miracle comeback stories, but the epic of Detroit's resurgence has been exaggerated, according to an article in The Conversation.
Since Detroit's 2013 bankruptcy, many around the Midwest and the country were eager to see how the city would respond. The resolution of the bankruptcy and the restoration of many downtown buildings has led some to trumpet a turnaround. That news may be premature, the city is still shrinking. Laura A. Reese and Gary Sands look into the state of today's Detroit, and their conclusions aren't rosy.
"First, by a number of measures Detroit continues to decline, and even when positive change has occurred, growth has been much less robust than many narratives would suggest. Second, within the city recovery has been highly uneven, resulting in increasing inequality," Laura A. Reese and Gary Sands write for The Conversation. Among other growing problems the authors point out, real estate values in the city remain flat, even as prices increase in cities all around the Midwest and Detroit's income and wealth inequality continue to grow.
FULL STORY: Detroit’s recovery: The glass is half-full at most
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Journal of the American Planning Association