It's not just Detroit. My parents grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, a couple hours north of Detroit. We went back for a funeral last year and drove around the city. My mom's house was ok, but my Dad's neighborhood was derelict.<p>Half the houses were literally gone, nothing but empty lots. Apparently there's a crack house epidemic going on where houses go vacant, drug dealers set them up as crack houses and rig them for quick incineration when they get raided, Lots of people die and the houses burn to the ground before anything can be done.<p>Most of the remaining houses in the neighborhood were vacant, with broken windows and empty driveways. My dad's old house was one of the few still occupied, although the front porch had partially caved in and two houses to the left had disappeared. We'd been planning on knocking on the door and doing the nostalgia thing but we were scared to get out of the car.