Reducing problems down to "biggest" and you lose a lot of nuance into what is going on. IMO, crime and low education levels are symptoms that feed back into the

Reducing problems down to "biggest" and you lose a lot of nuance into what is going on. IMO, crime and low education levels are symptoms that feed back into the deeper social breakdown that happened. So to illustrate one facet of the social breakdown: the implosion of local street-level business. I grew up in Los Angeles during what was the worst period of time for its inner cities, around the riots and the aftermath. Lots of street businesses burned, and there was fear that there would be an investment implosion. Perhaps the business community would do what the police department did (yeah, they pulled out at the beginning of the riots). But instead, Los Angeles restored normalcy to its communities, thanks to solid leadership and general empathy. Jobs were still around, businesses continued and expanded even in the toughest parts of town. And that is why LA thrives even with its many more dangerous pockets. Detroit outside of downtown was largely abandoned by its business community and "city fathers" (seems old fashioned to put it this way but it was the 1960s). You need more than a glitzy downtown, pristine museum, and freeways to have a functional society. On the street at the crucial moments of decision, it must have been rational thinking made by store owners to not invest or to move the store elsewhere. Maybe sprinkle some racism in there too. These local business folks must have sensed the direction of the wind. The core "powers that be" were not helping, and clearly could not find a way to halt the white flight. Maybe it was unsolvable, but looking at the history it seems that the city fathers did not pull all stops on keeping Detroit's population stable. Add to that the huge loss of industrial jobs. In an economic sense, all that was left was downtown pushing big gov solutions like "convention center" and "people mover" and "casino". Not to mention the GM plant and jail that destroyed half of what was Polish-town. Highly unsubtle solutions in the Pre-Gilbert era, most of which entirely ignored the importance of small, community-level business. So problems have causes and it feeds back into the problems. Without eyes on the street by shopkeepers, you have crime. Without nearby jobs, families do not have time to help their kids through school. The fix? Complicated.