When thinking of Detroit, think of a bulls-eye. In the red center at Jefferson and Woodward, you can find all the greatness that was/is Detroit. Red Wings Hockey, Ford Field, Good old Tiger Stadium (before they replaced it with the corporate whore Comerica Park), Fisher Theater, the Fox Theater, Greek Town, the Renaissance Center...
Then there is the first white ring on our bulls-eye. This is a ring of blight; the part of town that you do NOT want your car to break down in; The area where they filmed the movie Eight Mile. It's an area abandoned by the white flight of the 1980s and left to the downtrodden and poor.
Beyond that ring we arrive at the suburbs. Faceless, nameless houses that appear the same no matter where you drive. Flying out of Detroit Metro, one gets the impression that the goal of society in this area is to pave the whole of the earth.