Detroit's population crashes down 25% from 2000

This is disappointing news, but I still have a lot of hope for Detroit. The desert southwest is running out of fresh water due to climate change and over-use. Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, even Atlanta, they're all unsustainable. If they're unsustainable, eventually they have to stop.<p>Detroit, and other cities in the rust belt, generally have plentiful fresh water, not to mention natural infrastructure waiting to be re-used (harbors, rivers, etc). If I was making a 100 year bet, I wouldn't bet on Vegas, I'd bet on Detroit.

I'm also from Detroit and this is really tough to read about.<p>Detroit does have a great opportunity in all this though - there are a lot of talented people still living in and around the city. It would seem like the ideal location for some truly innovative automotive advancements and with the push for more green and eco-friendly cars, I'm surprised there aren't a few startup communities designed to engage this currently dormant group of potential hackers.

Being from Detroit this brings a tear to my eye but it presents opportunity for many people to establish new companies very cheaply.

This has been a disappointing census for a lot of cities. Nearly everyone in St. Louis expected the city to post its first population gain since the 1950s, but the city actually lost nearly 30k people (about 8%).

All I can say is "Wow". I knew Detroit was in decline but 25% in 10 years (excluding the greater area)? That's just <i>staggering</i>.<p>For almost all of human history we've only had to deal with issues of growth. There are of course exceptions to this. Some cities that were massive are either small now or have ceased to exist. Some (like London) went through centuries of virtual depopulation before being reborn (between the Roman departure and the 10th-11th century).<p>But modern city depopulation seems to create some fairly big problems. Cities with significant depopulation (eg Detroit, Baltimore) are known for crime. Some say this causes the depopulation, which may well be true, but it also exacerbates it, as drug addicts and the like move into decaying and abandoned areas.<p>Going forward, this is going to be a significant problem we'll have to deal with, I believe. The reason I believe that is that it is my opinion that there are simply too many people on this planet. Ultimately it's unsustainable. Either we'll solve this by breeding less or nature will do it for us.<p>Either way, if this comes to pass, we'll need to figure out how to shrink urban centers effectively. That's going to be painful.<p>As for Detroit, it's certainly well off its peak in the 50s and 60s. It may be cheap (and thus, arguably, attractive to investors) but it's cheap for a reason. I'm sure Chechnya is cheap too.