Detroit at top of economic agony list

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Detroit needs to completely overhaul its budget.  Prioritize spending and put many less important projects on a waiting list.

Put police coverage first... Detroit needs to vastly increase its police presence to fight crime.  It is simply one place that you cannot do more with less.

The school district needs somebody that can get in there and fight.  Close unneeded schools (I'm sure there are tons of them) and institute a hiring freeze in the schools.  You're going to piss off a lot of people by closing neighborhood schools, but decide which buildings need the least maintenance, and close the others.  If you can't sell the closed properties, donate them to neighborhoods and have the neighborhoods pool together to turn them into community centers.

It is good that Detroit has revitalized their downtown.. but they need to place a lot more emphasis on neighborhoods.  People want to help turn the city around.. if they can get down to the neighborhood level with some taxing power while allowing the city to provide other services and resources... things will improve.

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Detroit is un-fixable. Just let it die already.

The problem is that this is simply not true.

Many American cities have been on the brink of collapse and have come back.  New York City is a shining example.

The New York  of today is completely different than the New York of 1977.

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They need to spend every penny on revitalizing from the core out.  Work out from downtown (which is still lackluster) to the slums on making it more appealing to all kinds of people.  The more they spend on that, the more tax income they can gather to spend on less important, but appealing things.  Police and schools should also be high on the priority list.  I actually think they have a great opportunity to completely reinvent the city.  With a little (or a lot) of help from the state, it can definitely be salvaged.

Agreed.. and you're not going to turn the slums into paradise overnight... but like a deep cut wound... you have to stop the bleeding.  Stopping the bleeding is a good first step towards recovery.

If people have a sense of "okay.. things aren't great, but they're getting better", they won't leave.

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The police force is very important to a vibrant city.  I know that sounds like an oxymoron... but I'm not talking about a military style police force armed with machine guns ready to mow down anyone who dares cross their path...

I believe in having strong police presence in combination with neighborhood councils would improve Detroit greatly. 

Detroit needs to try and attract a more diverse array of business.  Reducing crime and improving the schools will be the beginning of that process.

When the milling industry collapsed in Minneapolis beginning in the '20s, the city diversified.  Since, it has kept a diverse array of manufacturing, banking, retail, and high tech computer and medical fields that have helped the region weather many economic downturns.

Only by spreading out over all industries with a concentration in innovation will major cities in the U.S. keep growing.