Decline and fall: #2

The decline and fall of Detroit, a 300-year-old city, in two vignettes.

While selling a home for the amount of change most people could find between their couch cushions is unusual, some abandoned homes in Detroit sell for $100; vacant lots can be purchased for $300.

"My 14-year-old son could buy a block of Detroit property," said Ann Laciura, senior servicing specialist for the Bearing Group.

By now the statistics are as well known in London as they are in Livonia. Detroit has lost half its population since its heyday of the 1950s, and every year the city hemorrhages an estimated 5,000 people more. First it was white flight to the suburbs; then with the city's continued spiral into poverty and violence, blacks began to flee to those same suburbs. And while census figures show that whites are returning to some of the nation's largest cities, Detroit is experiencing a flight of a different kind. As the Imbrunones' second funeral demonstrates, Detroit is experiencing the flight of the dead.

Decline and fall?

Three posts from Glenn Reynolds today made me think of ancient Rome's decline.

By the way, we're back home now and online after a small tornado, downed trees and power lines in our yard, floods, trips to the emergency room, drowned basement appliances, no hot water or air conditioning, and an extended motel stay waiting for a/c and hot water. All fixed now - infrastructure is in good hands in Small Town, Illinois.