I was going to make the same basic point. I think people on the outside will look at things like this and say "dying" when things are mostly moving across 8 mil

I was going to make the same basic point. I think people on the outside will look at things like this and say "dying" when things are mostly moving across 8 mile. "Detroit" [e.g. Metro Detroit] is very spread out and this is just a trend, like you say, that has been happening since the 60s. Being spread out, there are many great places to live that happen to be outside of the city limits. It's not as if all of those people are leaving the area entirely (although that is happening to some extent, too).