The trend of the shrinking city is a one of the US's top planning issues and Detroit is the American icon of this dismaying phenomenon.  Since the collapse of the US’s major automakers, Detroit’s population has shrunk by more than half and one-third of the city is in ruin, with 4000 abandoned buildings and tens of thousands of vacant homes (with an average median home-sale price of $5,737).

Detroit’s image as the Motor City brought upon its own destruction by allowing the automobile to entirely triumph over public transportation – in 1955, for example, General Motors tore up the city’s tramlines (shrinkingcities.com).  While the auto industry led to growth during the thirties, the car has since then led to Detroit’s suburbanization and sprawl.  The Motor City created such a dependence on not just the auto industry, but the automobile itself, that the city today is left both economically ruined and transit-less.  Some experts see shrinking cities as an opportunity to “right-size” our cities and reverse the urban sprawl that led to their initial demise.  And rather than waiting for repopulation, planners suggest re-centralizing the city with dense, transit-friendly development and using newly open space for open space, parks, and even urban farming.  Within Detroit, leaders are hoping such projects, particularly new commuter and light rail, will reverse Detroit’s fate as a car-bound city.  "We're still going to be the Motor City," says Robert Ficano, the executive of Wayne County. "But at the same time public transportation is going to be one of the most-used means to get around the Motor City".