I think it's also clear that Detroit is not a growth model you'd want to emulate. With the benefit of hindsight, it's clear that Detroit ended up with way too much low-productivity infrastructure that the current residents of the area can't afford to maintain.
Detroit's infrastructure was fine. Detroit's problem is suburbanization. The population of the Detroit metro area is up 1 million people since 1950 and the population of Detroit itself is down 1.2 million people since 1950. Most of the people and nearly all of the people with money left the city and moved to the surrounding suburbs.
