  Both within the United States and worldwide, the city of Detroit has become
synonymous with economic decline, depopulation, and crime. Is Detroit's
situation unique, or can similar neighborhoods be found elsewhere? This study
examines Census block group data, as well as local crime statistics for 2014,
for a set of five Midwestern cities. Roughly three percent of Chicago's and
Milwaukee's block groups--all of which are in majority nonwhite areas--exceed
Detroit's median values for certain crimes, vacancies, and a poverty measure.
This figure rises to 11 percent for St. Louis, while Minneapolis has only a
single "Detroit-like" block group. Detroit's selected areas are more likely to
be similar to the entire city itself, both spatially and statistically, while
these types of neighborhoods for highly concentrated "pockets" of poverty
elsewhere. Development programs that are targeted in one city, therefore, must
take these differences into account and should be targeted to appropriate
neighborhoods.
