Michigan Ave.

Detroit -  Burn down facades of front stores line up parts of Michigan Ave. in Detroit, they share the street with strip clubs, Mexican grocery joints and used furniture stores. Michigan Ave. used to be one of the most commercially viable parts of the city due to a large concentration of factories that provided jobs to immigrants to the city (mainly Poles in this part of town). A large number of stores, bars and restaurants was frequented by area residents. 6-lane-wide Michigan Ave. was and still is one of the main streets in the city. Since the last factory shut down in 1990s, most residents moved out to the suburbs. Impoverished city dwellers stripped the remaining houses and businesses and many burned down due to arson or fire incidents involving crack cocaine and heroin users. At its peak in 1950, Detroit had almost 2 million residents and was the fourth-largest in the USA, but decline in manufacturing jobs, mainly in auto industry and white residents’ flight to the suburbs causes a major decline in population. Today, the city has about 800,000 residents.
Michigan Ave and Martin St. in Detroit.
Marcin Szczepanski – Migrationpapa