OK, born and raised a Detroiter. Over 60, and here's my take on what happened.

[Warpy]

4. I spent much of that time in Boston

and one thing the mayor in the late 60s, Kevin White, did right was cancel a huge Federal highway project that would have cut the city in half, leaving the nightmares of highway engineering in place and encouraging thru traffic to use the stupid beltways, both of them. In retrospect, it was one of the wisest urban decisions ever made. The demolished right of way for that highway became a redone subway line that got rid of a noisy, antiquated and unsightly el that ran right through the majority black area's downtown and allowed that area to revitalize.

Because of that decision, when the Big Dig finally happened and put elevated highways under ground, it was done right, with thought given to neighborhoods and pedestrians and how the city actually functioned.

In the process, they did away with the single scariest driving experience in North America, the Central Artery, but I digress.

I don't think the damage highways do when they go through inner cities can be exaggerated. Urban renewal is bad enough, but those highways can kill whole areas stone dead. Exhibit #1 for me is the Cross Bronx Expressway. It wasn't long after that bastard was completed that the Bronx on either side looked like it had been through months of conventional bombing, partial skeletons of burned out buildings on either side. I don't know if the area has ever truly recovered. I don't see how it can with that noisy, filthy superhighway running right through it.