Things in Detroit...

...may be even worse than you thought.

In 1950, Detroit was the fourth-largest city in America, with almost 2 million people. As recently as 1970, the Motor City still claimed 1.5 million souls. According to the latest census, however, Detroit is only the 18th-largest city, with a little over 700,000 residents, less than half its peak.

From a front-page story in the Times today:

Detroit's population has plunged by 25 percent in the last decade alone.
___

[A] major factor ... has been the exodus of black residents to the suburbs, which followed the white flight that started in the 1960s. Detroit lost 185,393 black residents in the last decade.
___ 

At one point, the city was 83 percent black.
___ 

With more than 20 percent of the lots in the 139-square-mile city vacant, the mayor is in the midst of a program to demolish 10,000 empty residential buildings. But for many, the city already seems hollowed out.