Middle-Class Blacks Fleeing Detroit

As if the recession hadn’t battered Detroit enough, it must now grapple with an exodus of middle-class African-Americans, long a stable group of citizens and keepers of cultural institutions. The city, amid rising crime rates and plummeting property values, has been deteriorating in population for decades, with the 2010 census expected to show an additional loss of about 150,000 people, down 951,000 since 2000. As Detroit’s black middle class trickles out, median income in the city has fallen dramatically and vacancies have risen, further complicating the city’s efforts to restore its former prosperity. Now Mayor Dave Bing, a former pro basketball player, is attempting to “right-size” the city to fits its reduced numbers. “The first stage we want to focus on is to keep those people that are here,” he said, “and then create the right type of environment that will bring those kinds of people back.”