Detroit is ground zero for the failure of US post-WW2 urban policy:

1.  Encouragement of Suburbia: check
   
2.  White Flight: check
   
3.  City government run by corporations: check
   
4.  Failure to maintain public infrastructure: check
   
5.  Idiotic "re-vitalization" schemes: check
   
6.  Low population density per acre: check
   
7.  Elimination of Public Transportation: check
   
8.  Failure to maintain Public Services: check
   
9.  Appalling educational system: check

and on & on & so forth.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

O my God! This is so scary! And how people manage to live amongst these ruins? Couldn't they find some use for them? I see a lot of them are in city centre...Unbelievable. They probably do not care any more...you know like when one is so poor and can't afford decent food he starts not to care about anything else around. Really sad and scary...

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein

Those photographs remind me of those by Camilo Jose Vergara. He is one of the great photographers of the recent (post civil rights) changes in cities like Detroit, New York and Camden, NJ with several excellent books to his name. Another place to look is the well-named site the Fabulous Ruins of Detroit.

The first time I was in Detroit, aside from transiting through the airport, I drove in from pleasant little Windsor, Ontario. Coming off the bridge, I felt like I got smacked in the face. There was the abandoned Michigan Central railway station, once the tallest train station in the world, now vacant and gaping, largely devoid of all windows, standing like a head stone over the city that never was and never will be. I was in awe.