To me the word Detroit has become synonymous with the phrase 'anti-business'. Attitudes that destroy a city.
There are three forces that have destroyed Detroit, a city with abandoned houses, rampant crime and empty lots with weeds everywhere.
The first was a large black population that burned many parts of their neighborhood in anger in the 1960s. Black populations have done similar things to other cities ranging from DC to Watts and New Orleans.
Second there were strong unions that strangled the businesses that kept the city alive and provided employment. Unions, in nearly every situation, will prefer that a business die rather than reduce wages or layoffs workers. (Call it the ‘twinkie syndrome’) Businesses in and around Detroit died as the automobile related industries faced international competition.
Lastly, there is the Democratic Party, which is inherently union controlled and opposed to commerce. It put traditional incompetent politicians in charge of the local government and made sure any new businesses had every incentive to locate someplace other than Detroit. It also made sure that the school system would never attract middle-class hard-working people.
Nearly every urban city faces these same forces. In my humble opinion Detroit is the model for most urban governments today. The vitality that counteracts this oppressive political moral system is commerce that is inherently attracted in its retail form to dense urban populations.