A sad decline: My mother’s birthplace and childhood home

Detroit holds a special place in my heart. It is where my grandmother, mother and I were born and my dad arrived as a teenager to work 16-hour days on the assembly line and drive a taxi. Once a blue-collar haven of two million people with leafy neighborhoods and a world renowned zoo and arts institute, it earned the nickname “city of homes” because it didn’t have the crowded high-rise tenements of the northeast.

Today, however, the bustling metropolis is a crumbling, crime-ridden shell of its former greatness: In 1950, it proudly claimed America’s highest per-capita income; today it grips the lowest. For that, we can thank 60 years of misguided liberal policies.  read more »