And of course entrepreneurship by itself won't fix everything. Cities need functioning governments and thriving civil societies to be healthy; that's part of why, no matter how much new business investment comes to Detroit (and there is some), the city will be dysfunctional – its civil society is meager and its government is, frankly, goofy. But a city that hinges its future on groveling for outside investment is at the mercy of that investor, who could at any time do to that city what GM did to Flint. Part of the advantage of encouraging local business development by local entrepreneurs is that when local people start businesses, they tend to stick around. The point I was trying to get across, and I wish I had used these words in my original post, is that entrepreneurship seems to serve as a seed for further improvement.

I understand what you're getting at in your comment about suburban whites trying to fix the inner city, but that's not what I'm talking about at all. We ALL need to give a damn about our cities. Too many folks have been vacationing from reality in the suburbs for too long. In the not too distant future, the suburbs will become untenable, and all those people are going to need the cities and towns again. The sooner we stop wasting our development money on the suburban fantasyland, the better.

When I moved here in 2002, four of the top 50 banks in the country were based here and 99% of branches in Alabama were for Alabama-based banks. After the first hometown bank (SouthTrust) was acquired, the CEO of AmSouth came out to say this was bad for the city. He said that the banks had a responsibility to the city of Birmingham. Eventually he merged his bank with the bank across the street, Regions, in order to guarantee that at least one huge bank would remain based here. The other big Birmingham bank (Compass) sold itself to a European bank – a nice compromise. It's now the US headquarters for a top ten global company. But these CEOs felt a responsibility not just to the shareholders, but to the employees, and to the multitude of people whose livelihood depended on the banks' business. That's not typically what happens in corporate America. There was some civic responsibility, and a consideration of more than one stakeholder.

Downtown Birmingham is slowly seeing some revitalization. Lots of new condos and restaurants, mostly. I think it's driven by two things. First, there's a reversal of the white-flight which drove growth in the suburbs. Traffic in and out of Birmingham is becoming more congested so people are moving back in-town, not just down-town but other "urban" neighborhoods like Forest Park, Avondale, and Southside. Second, I think people are coming to Birmingham from other, larger, cities for a better quality of life, but they also want to retain some of the urban amenities, sidewalk culture, lifestyle, that they enjoyed elsewhere.

I've lived in Boston, Philadelphia, DC, Atlanta, Durham, and here. I think Birmingham is the best-kept secret in the South. I don't know if this is my forever place, but I'm really happy here now. But that's getting a little off subject.

In the burbs like Liverpool, North Syracuse, Cicero and the like the population is getting older and the younger people are moving away leaving many homes for sale, and the area stagnant in growth terms.

They just closed the Kennedy Square complex but it's a "so what" situation. the poverty is still there.

So, unless a young person has a steady job with a solid local company, a trade skill, or has the temperment and reliability to hold a railroad job there is little for that young person to do as the great companies like Allied Chem, GM, Carrier, GE and the like have left the area. It's sad.

I can see Youngstown's point. Many burb townships here are raising assessments at 8% a year, but the wages and bennies are not going up 8% and already talk of local tax revolts are in the air.

I think american business screwed up, and that screw up has hurt each and every one of us.