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I had no idea about this. It's strange because in most big cities, there are ethnic enclaves for very small minority groups, and remnants of enclaves or otherwise assimilated peoples like Italians, Albanians, and Polish. But I've never heard of a "Native American town" in any city. I wonder...

Native Americans have gotten an incredibly raw deal from the United States, and were systematically pushed from their native lands onto non-arable and undesirable lands where oftentimes there isn't clean running water, electricity, heat, or jobs. What could make a Native American version of the...

Here is an image of the tri-county area that contains 90% of the metro Detroit area's population. The three counties are Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties.

100% this. Speaking as a former Metro Detroit resident, half the reason why the region has stagnated imo is because cities can't coordinate their efforts together, especially with regard to comprehensive transportation. That, and Detroit has had some particularly awful mayors and city council...

I think you're being unnecessarily pessimistic about a realistic ATL Detroit, given than the metro Detroit area has had almost comically bad and divisive politics for decades now. Detroit had its population above 1 million by 1920 until 1990, so I think it's fair to say that a Detroit with...

I hadn't heard about a 1957 recession. Can you explain what happened and what its effects were for Detroit, especially in light of this thread? Surely other cities have successfully diversified and recovered from plagues and recessions before?

SEMTA got very close to getting a subway system, it just failed because by the time Southeast Michigan had a realistic subway proposal, the Feds withdrew the $600 million needed to start the project. So the POD is that the first plan that SEMTA presents to the Feds ends up being accepted by...

I wonder what the industry of a rebounded Detroit would look like? In the OP I figured that a way for Detroit to economically diversify itself without being ASB is for it to just start doing for other industries what it did for the Big Three. That is, product design, R&D, prototype labs...

Okay, let's see if I can do this right. Crowned Knight: A fantasy/Middle Ages sub-genre that features a lowly knight eventually winning the admiration and/or respect of his peers and leverages his social power to eventually overthrow the current rulers and become king. Can be remixed to...

What if Detroit in the 1970s manages to turn things around and increases its population from 1.2 million to 2.5 million by 2020 (fueled by rapid growth in the 1980s and 90s)? What are the effects for the Midwest/Great Lakes region, and the United States as a whole? For some context, let's say...

The Ford administration offered $600 million to the metro Detroit region to build a subway system, but due to internal city vs suburbs politics, an overambitious subway system plan, and the eventual emergence of the Reagan administration in 1980, the subway system was never built. What would...

The only reason why the Xhosa decided to kill their cattle was because they were desperate to stop the Boer people's northern advance and military conflicts between the two groups were almost always very lopsided in favor of the Boers. It reminds me of the Ghost Dance movement, though the...

I think one of our Presidents, one of the Roosevelts IIRC, believed that the Mississippi delta could support China-level populations given enough time and the right conditions. There's fertile soil and year-round growing conditions so the opportunity is there. It also depends on what quality...

Highly unlikely. Cash crops grow in hot humid climates which Europeans would have little experience growing in those conditions and they had very short lives in the Caribbean sugar plantations compared to African slaves due to the brutal work, heat, and disease. African or Native American...

Please don't condescend or bait with this whole "you seem upset" thing. As the infrastructure ages, it will need to be repaired or replaced on top of the original infrastructure in the older city and suburbs. Keep in mind that the population of these metro areas haven't grown during this time...

I read a good article from the Cato Institute that talked about how building grade separated light rail is dumb because you're combining the expense of heavy rail with the low capacity of light rail. Rail's biggest advantage is grade separated fast moving lines that make you immune to traffic...

African societies might be a good case study to determine the trajectory of a civ without beasts of burden besides humans.

In terms of mass "importation" of black Africans into South America and sparking a Columbian Exchange between the two continents? Yes, but the context is completely different. Instead of Africans being brought to the New World as slaves and free African communities living under the threat of...

I can see an African colonization of Brazil being a disaster for the Native Americans, perhaps more so than European colonization. Malaria and yellow fever will spread throughout the forests and Amazon basin, resulting in millions of deaths, a Columbian exchange between Africa and South America...

Can horses survive in the highveld? Get the Zulus horses from the Portuguese or Dutch from when they first arrived in Southern Africa and they have a few centuries to really become horsemen before the Boers start pushing north. Organized horse riding Zulus could easily become a terror to Boer...