It's not halftime in the Urban Apocalypse Super Bowl. It's late in the fourth quarter.

By Rob Janicki
I have seen the future and the future is very bleak indeed and it's already here, in all its decay, dilapidation and squalor.  The future of America is Detroit.  Yeah, I said, "Detroit" boys and girls.  You probably thought that sensational Super Bowl GM ad for its Chevy Truck Apocalypse was all done with super sophisticated animation software.  Hell no!  GM rented Detroit for the shoot because they didn't have to do any set construction and decoration.  The facades viewers saw were the real Detroit of today.  Okay, maybe the "reel" Detroit today, but damned near the "real" Detroit of today.

Remember exactly which political party has run Detroit for decades upon decades, just like the vast majority of major cities in America, which are in similar decline.  The answer for the dim witted is that Detroit has been run into the ground by Democrats.  A small tactical nuclear weapon dropped in Detroit would have to be considered an act of urban renewal. 

Terra Daily
[...]  Detroit is the "poster child" for this problem, Gasteyer said. The city has lost more than 60 percent of its population since 1950, and the water and sewer infrastructure is as much as a century old in some areas. Billions of gallons of water are lost through leaks in the aging lines every year, and the entire system has been under federal oversight since 1977 for wastewater violations. [...]

Whites, as well as upwardly mobile middle class blacks, have been leaving major urban centers, such as Detroit, as these cities fall into disrepair.  As whites and some blacks leave, so does the tax base they contributed to, leaving lower income minorities to pay the bills of band aid fixes to water and sewer infrastructure, which is a losing proposition.


[...]  "A fair proportion of Detroit's large low-income population cannot afford the burden of rate increases meant to offset infrastructure repairs, leading to tens of thousands of customers getting their water turned off every year," Gasteyer said.

Water and sewer lines are aging throughout the country. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, hundreds of billions of dollars will be needed to repair deteriorating systems over the next 20 years.

Paying for those upgrades likely will be a major issue in shrinking cities such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Birmingham, Ala., and many others, Gasteyer said.  [...]

CBS

[...]  Hammered by the auto industry's slump, Detroit saw its population plummet 25 percent over the past decade, according to census numbers released Tuesday that reflect the severity of an economic downturn in the only state where overall population declined.

The statistics show that the Motor City's population fell from 951,270 in 2000 to 713,777 last year. Although a significant drop was expected, state demographer Ken Darga said the total is "considerably lower" than the Census Bureau's estimate last year.  [...]

Will the last person leaving Detroit please take the one remaining candle with you, because the lights are already fading out as are water and sewage services.