Detroit Really, Really Sucks, Vol. 1

The slow death of Detroit added another sad chapter as the Rust Belt city continues to reel from the economic downturn. The Detroit Silverdome, which has played host to a FIFA World Cup, an NBA All-Star Game, and even a Super Bowl, sold for the depressing sum of $583,000. So basically, if you can afford a one-bedroom flat with a park view in Manhattan, you can probably afford at least two giant mega-stadiums in this rotting husk of a great American metropolis.

Housing prices in Detroit are currently around $11,000, and the more discerning buyer can buy a complete home in several "lost" neighborhoods for somewhere around $400. The abandonment and demolition of vast grids of residential real estate have created swaths of street wilderness that urban researchers say has not been seen since the worst days of the Great Depression. And now the increasing plains of desolate industrial yards and empty structures give a vivid picture of a city seemingly without a future or a purpose in the new American century. Even Steel Belt landmarks like the Packard Plant and Ford's Piquette Plant, where the first Model-T rolled off the assembly line, stand abandoned and decrepit.

The pathetic sale price the Silverdome suggest that there is practically no confidence in the commercial market potential of greater Detroit. The upkeep of the damn place cost more than three times the total sale price annually. But this is just one further, if grandiose, illustration of the downfall of what used to be a shining beacon of the American industrial machine. This didn't begin with the economic collapse last year. It's been a symptom of a changing American landscape and the demise of our nation's industrial backbone. The banking disaster just twisted the knife. Unlike the rest of the the country urban centers, which show signs of either recovering from the downturn or at least stabilizing within the boundaries of the new 21st century sphere, Detroit looks more and more like a city that may very well be lost for good. It's happened many times throughout human history, but there doesn't really exist such a large example in our nation's own past. Great American cities have grown and shrank, risen to dominance and settled back into less prominent niches. But never have we seen a Great American city die, and that may be what we're seeing happen before our very eyes in the rusty sprawls of urban Michigan.